Writing Assessments

I had a discussion with one of my fellow teachers about the writing assessments we do in Georgia. We have to pre-test and post-test a writing sample and then do six other writing assessments throughout the year. We were talking about rather or not Kindergarten should have to do these. As of now, they do. They have to write one sentence and then draw a picture of what they wrote. We both have mixed feelings about this. Yes, at the end of the year they should be able to do this, but at the beginning of the year they cannot even write their name. So, how can you assess a blank sheet of paper or fake writing? You will get great results, but the students in her class get very stressed out and upset about this process. Does anyone else's school district do this? If so, what do you think?

Good Morning

Do you ever wake up thirty minutes early and can not go back to sleep? I hate that! You look at the clock and get so excited you can sleep a little longer, but then lay there thinking that the alarm will go off at any moment. I really think that is the worse, and it makes me start my day off on a bad note. I have done that every day this week! I am not sure if it is stress because I have so much to do this week or bad karma! But since it happened again today, I thought I would be proactive and blog. I have a question for everyone. Do you have a fall break? We do not. Our first break is for Thanksgiving and we get one week off. In some ways I like this, because I get a lot accomplished and a lot of sleep, but then again a few days off in the middle of the first part of school to catch up on sleep and paper work would be amazing! Does anyone have any feelings on this? Which would you rather have? Or is it one of those things that could go either way. They do say, "the grass is always greener on the other side." I think I just like the idea of sleeping....especially right now. Everyone have a great day at school and Happy Thursday!

Proof-reading

After re-reading my previous post, I found it funny that I made so many mechanical mistakes! I teach writing and language arts!!!! I am always talking about how important it is to RE-READ and correct your mistakes! My students get sick of me talking about it. However, I did not follow my own advice. I did my work in a hurry and posted it without proof-reading. Let's take a moment and reflect..... how many things do you preach to your students, but do not follow. Part of our job is to be a role model, yet I would not want my students to read my last few posts.

Cyber Bulling

Cyber bullying keeps getting worse and worse. Facebook is a wonderful example of this. I am a grow woman and only have friends on facebook that are adults, but I still see cyber bullying on this site! I would think people would know better. For example, one person (who was "de-friended"), wrote very disrespectful and rude comments about a neighbor of ours (who is the mother of someone we grew up with) on her news feed. Knowing that this person, her kids, and friends would read it. She got mad because this woman asked her dad to stop cutting her grass. So she bullied her on facebook and called her horrible words! This same person, will then turn around and talk about how awful bullying is and she was bullied when she was a young girl! Do people think it is not bullying, because it is done online and not to their face? My point is, is that cyber bullying is not only something that children do, but adults as well. I do not understand this. Everyone can read what you write, does that not just make the bullier look bad? I stopped being her friend because of this, does she not think that others will do the same? Cyber bullying needs to stop and it does not look like children have great role models to look to for this!

Halloween

I spent the day buying decorations for my classroom. The school I work at goes all out and it is a lot of fun! We do a parade and a wax museum. I am going to dress up as the Statue of Liberty! I will try to post pictures, if I can figure out how to do that. Anyway, I went shopping with my dad and spent a good bit of money on decorations and treats for my students. We started talking about how sad it is that teachers can only clam $250 on school supplies. I guess they do that because if we could actually use how much we spend on them it would be 1/2 of our pay checks. It still blows my mind that teachers get paid so little, and actors get paid so much. We are the back bone of this country.... maybe I should dress up as dollar tree and see if I get donations lol.

First Year

Hello,
 I am still unsure what exactly we are supposed to blog about. But I do have something to say after my day to day. I hope that this is what we are supposed to do. This is my first year teaching and today was my first day that a student told me that they hated me. I know that they were just angry at their own actions, but it really hurt my heart. I always thought that I had a pretty tough backbone, but this really bothered me all day. You get so attached to your students, and then one of them can crush your day with those words. I hope that I can learn to not take  it personally!