Finals

Finals have come to an end and the lack of student understanding of deadlines still amazes me. This year's kids really seem to lack work ethics and most feel as those they can simply sit in class, talk, text, sleep and/or do NO work and I the teacher am suppose to pass them. I mean am I crazy for thinking that a little work should have been accomplished before a passing grade is assigned? Finals were done by Thursday at 11:30am so explain to me why I have 10 assignments in my email this morning (Saturday) from various students? Sorry guys, I just needed to vent for a bit. Hope you guys had a good close of the semester. Anyone have an really cool ideas for next semester? We are covering oceanography, atmosphere, meteorology, and astronomy.

Learning Plans

I'm glad that's over with. I have never been so frustrated in my life! Sometimes I feel like it is impossible to communicate my thoughts electronically. I am afraid I might come across a little bit b-wordy.

Crunch Time

It's getting close to midterms... now we are starting to feel the time crunch, reevaluating our pacing, trying to get as much as we can out of each block. These nine weeks tests are a reality check for us. We think we're doing a good job, but will this be reflected in our students' scores? Will the extra effort we have been putting forth, especially with regard to reading comprehension strategies, translate to these standardized tests? At the end of the last nine weeks, we noticed that test scores had improved. I expect to see a similar change in the data for the midtem exams.
I just finished grading a batch of quizzes, homeworks, classworks, etc. and took a look at my students' grades... overall they are doing much better than the first few months of school. A lot of my students who were "on the fence" last marking period (with an average in the "high" F range) have pulled their grades up to a C. These are also the same students who are "on the fence" at the end of the year when we take our SOLs, so these are the students that we really have to focus on.
Time to get back to planning the rest of the semester... cross your fingers for some good news after midterms!

Reading Comprehension!

Today my students read part of their textbook (the section on igneous rocks) and created a Venn diagram for extrusive vs. intrusive, and basaltic vs. granitic. I was surprised that they were able to complete the assignment as quickly as they did (especially with the holiday laziness "hangover"). My students can get on my nerves some days, but I see a big improvement with certain skills such as this one. Not only did they stay on task, but when we went over it as a class (and as I walked around the room), I felt that almost everyone "got it". They actually comprehend what they are reading! Hooray!