After a LONG week of testing and overall end of year business, Karen and I threw an impromptu girls-only BBQ at my house. It was great to see some faces at my house that I don't normally get to hang out with and we had some good laughs (many at my expense hmph). I was supposed to go to a teepee night afterwards but after the week I had I was just too pooped.
Saturday was supposed to be a "go for a walk, work in my classroom a little, do some chores" kind of day but I decided to head over to Marsha's first to check out what I knew would be an awesome yard sale. I ended up scoring some awesome loot, eating about 50 million hotdogs AND staying outside on her deck for the entire day, earning myself a toasty little burn. It was an awesome and beautiful day though. I got to hang out with the besties and just relax. And of course spend money on buying other people's "junk", which, if you know me, is one of my favorite things to do (card-carrying member of Goodwill right here).
I came home after a nice long day and sat down to start marking one of my many standardized tests we administered in class this year. This one was to measure the overall abilities of my students in all areas of the mathematics curriculum. We started the test at the beginning of the year at a grade level lower because at that point we needed to get a baseline and testing them at grade level would have been pointless, it would have been way too difficult. Now, at the end of the year, my students have aced the grade 1 test and I am going to test them one more time on the at-grade-level test this week. I am curious to see how successful they would be now that we have finished the year of grade 2 instruction, since they did so well on the grade 1 test. For those of you who might be a little confused as to why we are testing them at a lower grade level, the Cree School board has recognized that due to an alternative education system they had been employing until last year, the students are generally 1-3 years behind what we consider "normal" Canadian standard. Since implementing the GVC (Guaranteed Viable Curriculum) last fall, the kids and teachers have made great strides in closing the gap, but a small gap still remains. My students have had now almost 2 full years of 80% English instruction with the GVC and are very close to grade level in mathematics. So, when we do our testing, we are measuring success against a slightly lower standard. This standard however will not remain as the more "generations" of students pass through the education system with the new curriculum. I could already see a huge difference in ability by comparing my students from last year (first generation of GVC kids) to my students this year (second generation of GVC kids). I am sure the grade 3 teachers could see a difference between their first GVC class and this year's as well.
That being said, not all of the subjects are being held to a lower standard. For example, I started and finished my last round of PM Benchmarking (a reading and comprehension measurement system) and was BLOWN AWAY by the exponential progress my students have made in their reading, comprehension and retell abilities. Starting at the beginning of the year, none of my students were reading at a grade 2 level, where they should have been for the beginning of the academic year. A few were at a grade 1 level, many far below that. Now, about 80% are reading at a HIGH grade 2 level (close to grade 3), and the rest are just about there! I am so proud of the hard work my students are doing to improve their reading skills and so glad that we have worked together to create a love for reading in my classroom. I have to constantly remind myself that these kids are learning some pretty difficult concepts in a second language. I have to cut them some slack, not too much but just enough to keep their confidence and motivation high. I believe that providing plenty of opportunities for reading with lots of high-interest choices is a fantastic way to ensure success in this area. Sure my bank account may be empty (my kids ask me if I have money and I tell them that I am poor because I buy books for them to read!) but it is really worth it to hear them read their favorite stories to each other and beg me for time to read when they are finished their work. Love it!
Anyways enough about that. Today is Sunday and I have some prep work for, wait for it, ANOTHER standardized testing block I will be doing this week in class. After the few weeks of test after test we have some really fun things planned for the following week and the kids (and I) really deserve some fun! I am slowly starting to pack up my classroom because I will be moving rooms next year to teach grade 1 with Monika and Marsha. I also have to check up on our bean plants we planted last week, they are growing like crazy and the kids are ECSTATIC. We wrote little how-to books describing the steps it takes to grow a bean plant and following the instructions faithfully, we have managed to grow some pretty awesome plants. I explained to the kids that singing or nice music can help plants grow faster, so they now sing to our plants at every opportunity. It is adorable. We also Skyped with a grade 1/2 split class this week which was AWESOME. I hooked up with a fellow Brock graduate and we had some Q&A prepped for the two classes to participate in. My kids were SO excited, behaved fairly well and asked some great questions. We ended up learning a lot about each other and the other class was very interested in knowing about the northern lifestyle. We were all interested to learn that we had a lot more in common than we did in differences, so that was nice.
I also learned that I will be getting rid of the ugly blue AstroTurf carpet I currently have in my living room and bedrooms this summer! For those of you who don't know, I have a gorgeous house but the flooring leaves a lot to be desired. Not one to complain (ha ha), I am grateful for even having a house all to myself at this point, but the floors are nasty. I don't know WHO decided that blue plastic/rubber was an esthetically pleasing choice for a home but it sure makes picking out decor difficult. So anyways I will be moving all my furniture into the kitchen over the summer and coming back to something far more fabulous and neutral.
Well the countdown is on and I will be packing up and coming home on Friday June 27th (arriving June 28th late) and I can't wait to start my summer! Seeing all my friends and family, shopping, traveling and just RELAXING is on the agenda and I am ready. Ta ta for now.
EDIT: I apologize for using the word "Awesome" about 400 times.
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| Skyping with the Ontario class! |
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| Guitar Heroes! (Super Hero Day) |
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| Super Hamster! |
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