It's Friday Night & I'm Up to My Neck in Report Cards of all Things!

Hello, so here we are on the downward stretch. Can you believe it? I feel like that hamster on the wheel we saw on Tuesday night, I just can't run fast enough. I always love our class night; but this session was especially wonderful because brave people shared all the incredible things they are doing with students. Yes, these examples are certainly plagarism-proof as well as fun, engaging, & very interesting to say the least. I also appreciated what was said about being on a journey and how we the students are all along the continuim of learning. That really made me feel good. Now if I can jut work on my other "Things" I'll be ok.

What's Next?

Well I got all of those last week things done and now have to move on to 2 sets of parent surveys, IWB and MILI skill set papers, as well as 10 things for MILI, my IGP for TAP and last but not least report cards for 2 schools. The work load has been and is undaunting and overwhelming! At least I finished up my B&N Mother/Daughter book club today. We disbanded it as the girls are now 14 and just too busy; Sunday School teacher appreciation brunch, thank you gifts, and perfect attendance awards for students can also be crossed off the list. We are on the countdown now. It's rather scary; the amount of work that still needs to be done. I have a question. Do the skill set people need to make a video as well? I haven't been in lab this entire quarter due to the testing schedule at the K-8 school I'm employed with. Needless to say, it has been an extremely frustrating situation. Thx, over and out for another action packed week.

Life in the Fast Lane in MPS

Yes here we go again, another school week. First off tomorrow I have to sit in on the K-1 grade level meeting. Then I have to administer the MCA science test to the 14 -5 th graders in the building after breakfast duty and working on the student survey piece of the PDP. Then I MUST work on the MDE report that is due tomorrow, May 11th. After that I have my 6th observation of the school year. Then after one more specialist class and school is over, I jump into my little car with 150,000 mi on it and drive to the Champlin Library for an evening of assisting patrons. Home is next with work on the ALC-OCR report necessary for all students enrolled in the after school program. I sure hope I can get it all done! And that's just Monday! Have a good week all.

Mailing all the testing materials back!

Oh my gosh! What a nightmare, no wonder testing coordinators go a "little" crazy during testing time! What a big job, from counting the test booklets, assigning them to each student, administrating the test, collecting all the materials and completing all the tasks necessary to send the tests back, both reading and math. I almost forgot to mention that all of this needs to be recorded by hand on Test Security Sheets so every test booklet is accounted for. I misplaced 2-3rd grade math booklets, but did "find" them this morning (what a relief that was)! Who gets accommodations, who takes the ELL MTELL online for math, who just needs a reading booklet, what grade writes directly onto the test and answer sheet, what new students need to be "bubbled" in, and on and on. What color shipping label to put on each box to send back, how to register the pick up online before 3 p.m. for next day pick up, (I missed the first date due to trying to do this too late @ night);what goes back into which box, what needs to be destroyed, what to do with the tests for students who have moved.....The amount of work is absolutely incredible. I worked on it for 12 hours over the weekend as well as going into school early. I have always assisted with the computer lab part of the test to make sure the technology works, the scheduling, having the screens on each computer, having lots of scratch paper available and all of that. I've never had to do the pre and post paper work before. I will always be sympathetic towards the testing coordinator from now on. Here's the corker - my building is very small. I can't imagine doing this for a large school or for an entire building of ELL students such as my other building. No wonder everyone looks SO tired and exhausted. What an incredibly stressful job. Now we just have the on line Science test on Friday. I hope everyone attend school that day so I don't have to schedule make ups. This too shall pass. Then it's on to the next thing, my last TAP observation tomorrow! Wish me luck.

Things, Things & More Things

I'm desperate to work on all my things, but I just don't have the time. Now how frustrating is that? I wonder, can I get an extension on my things? I so badly want to finish them. I just need some time to be able to do them. I keep falling asleep at night, I just get too tired this time of the year.

Life in the Fast Lane

Well, I heard today on the radio while driving home from my mother-in-law's pre fishing Mother's Day lunch (so the guys don't feel guilty) that Amber Dam from Barton Open is the new 2009 MN Teacher of the Year. She sounded young and I assume w/o children at home or dying parents to care for. That's nice, Mpls teachers deserve some recognition. I also read in Saturday's Strib that Tim Cadotte has been reinstated as Principal @ Burroughs. Thank heavens for that.
From now until the end of the year it certainly is crunch time. I have my last TAP observation this Thursday with the double 46 student 7th grade class. We're going to do magnetic poetry, you know words on magnets stuck to cookie sheets. After all I can't use the lab for a month due to the test coordinator's schedule. I have another observation at the other building the following Monday. You would think that after 25 years in the district I wouldn't need 6 observations in one year! I mean it's a little much.
The good news is I have next year all settled and don't have to take all the time to participate in Interview & Select. That is a relief. I haven't even been able to blog or do efolio with my classes as we haven't been able to get into the lab this quarter! It has never been this long in previous years. I've found this to be very frustrating when I had all these plans for new student learning. Well I'd best get at my lesson plans. Until next time....