Exhaustion has set in

There is no time of the year like report card time.

I pushed a math test back until the very last possible moment to give my students extra review time.  I get that it was best for my students, and that's how I strive to operate my classroom (with their best interests in mind), but that meant I was at work for several extra hours on Friday grading and finalizing their report cards.  I didn't get home until almost eight at night.  It didn't help that we have a new system and I had a new school's expectations to figure out.  

However, there were some true gems while grading!

In one student's essay, he referred to his younger sister's meddling as: "She was all up in my business."  Well then, that's some nice voice there!

One of my new students, who is having a bit of a rough time adjusting to my high classroom expectations, simply wrote this on a math question:

Points for creativity? 

We've modeled our math test after some of the SBAC questions online to prepare them for their upcoming standardized tests.  More importantly, we've made most of the problems real world application problems. 

One for example is this:

Ms. Vice is buying pencils for the grade level.  She needs 168 pencils.  They come in packs of 12.  Each pack is $4.95.  How much will she spend, before tax?

It's a multistep problem that they have to reason through.  

There was some grumbling about how long it took the students and if it was appropriate, but I'm trying to block out the background noise.  I think it's a solid question. It combines division and multiplication in a real world setting.  Would a teacher need that many pens? Yes.  Would someone need that many say, oranges? No.

However, I shall rejoice in the fact that my school year is officially half over and my report card comments are done!  I will do some prep work on Monday, but no work for the next 48 hours!  

Even more exciting? All of next week's math plans are done.  When I say done, I mean that the smart notebook is made, the copies are sorted, and the manipulatives are prepared.  I'm ready...at least for the 70 minutes a day I teach math :)