CRT Data

Confession:

I rarely check my work email over the summer.

I deleted the app from my phone and since I'm not in my new school's system yet, I don't see much of a point to log in daily only to delete spam and teacher coupons (looking at you Lakeshore). 

I saw my (former) principal post on Facebook that not only were CRT (Criterion Referenced Test) scores in, but she was excited about the results.  So naturally I asked to see the fifth grade data because well, I'm a numbers nerd!

I was at my new house painting so I figured I'd check the data in a few hours.  Well, my grade level beat me to the analysis part.  In a matter of minutes, I had six texts from my former grade level sharing their excitement about particular students.  

While I'm sure I'll get official reports with the break down of each class, I couldn't wait.  My insomnia got the best of me and sure enough, I was up at four am crunching numbers and making graphs.  I couldn't be more pleased with my class results and know that I didn't accomplish this feat alone.  It took our entire grade level working tirelessly, together, for ten months to achieve these results.  For those at my school who did not approve of our quasi-departmentalization experiment, I'd like to waive this data in their faces...but I won't...because I am a professional.  

I had the privilege of working alongside some of the most inspirational fellow teachers.  I will miss being able to pop into their rooms and the amazing collaborative mindset we all shared.  For various reasons, we are all starting at new schools and collectively represent third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and special education.

Math

(I didn't teach math besides our intervention block and number talks, so these scores are due in a large part to the amazing effort of my two neighboring teachers.  Well done ladies! I trusted that my students were in very capable hands each and every day.)

I'm a visual person, thus the graph.  Here is my class data for math:

1 student exceeded
22 students met standards
3 students were approaching
6 students were emerging


Science

We shared students for science and I taught the FOSS Landforms kit four times before getting my own class back for CRT prep.  When my homeroom wasn't with me, they were with my fellow teachers learning about environments, mixtures and solutions, force and motion, as well as variables.  We broke our year into four seven week rotations and started switching the third week of school.  We didn't switch right away because we wanted to set up science notebooks and go over the scientific method with our homeroom classes.  

Our rotations ended about two weeks before the science CRTs, so we used that time to incorporate Discovery Ed video streaming into our reviews.  We also practiced taking notes from multimedia presentations, a valuable skill they'll most definitely need in middle school.  However, we did this with the Magic School Bus videos and they did an amazing job.

Here is my class science data:

Numbers wise,
6 students exceeded standards
17 met standards
6 students were approaching standards
3 students were emerging on science standards

I'm quite pleased with my little scientists!


Reading

If you are new to my teaching blog, know this: I love reading.  I love discussing books with my students and watching them fall in love with literary worlds.  I love watching their excitement when they learn more about the world around them from informational text and seeing them become self-motivated to learn more by reading more is simply wonderful.  

I broke my reading data into two groups: my small groups and my whole class.

I had the higher half of the grade level for small groups, so naturally these numbers are expected to be more in the meeting category.  My job for small groups was to push these fluent readers to become more critical thinkers.  

Numbers wise,

23 students exceeded standards
28 students met standards
7 students were approaching
2 students were emerging

I'm quite pleased with my small groups!

For my whole class, which is inclusion, here are my results:

7 students exceeded standards
13 students met standards
4 students were approaching
8 students were emerging (of these 8, all were either students with IEPs or in the RTI process and still made growth over their previous scores)


I'm thrilled with my students' performances.  Did they all meet standards? No.  Did they all make growth? Yes.  

With my data analyzed, I can emotionally bid this past school year adieu.  I did my best.  I taught them strategies and how to think critically.  They learned and proved their knowledge on these tests.  It is time for a much needed, relaxing summer.

Does it make me a bad teacher if I say no?

My small groups are wrapping up now that our end of the year count down is in single digits.  I'm giving my munchkins the weekend to finish up their novels and having our reflective end of year conversations about how much they've learned.

Today I was asked something I've never been asked before.

One of my girls asked for summer homework.  

I'm not talking about a book list or packet of worksheets.  No, she wanted the rest of the Harry Potter series chunked out into assignments with homework questions, for her summer.  She also wanted me to print her copies of my teacher guides so she could quiz herself.

I think I'm flattered? 

Does it make me a bad teacher if I say no to making her homework questions?

I told her she can email me or talk to me on my teacher facebook about the books and that seemed to pacify her desires.

Facebook

I have a teacher facebook.  It's completely separate from my personal account and it's a great way to connect with families and students.  Every so often, I'll get messages like this: 

This will possibly be one of the hardest things about moving to a new school.  My old students can't just come visit me unless their parents are willing to make a twenty minute drive across town.  

At least I'll be able to keep in contact with them online!  I do love hearing about the books they're reading :)

Aww

I have a teacher facebook. I'm very careful of what I post and use this social media platform as a way to connect with my students and their families, both former and current.  It's completely separate from my personal account. There's nothing I put on my page I wouldn't share with my principal or superintendent.

When I discovered there was a third in the Al Capone... series, I took to facebook to let my students know.  Here was the almost immediate reaction:

Yes, my student responded almost immediately with giddy excitement.  These moments make my job worthwhile.  I won't have to tell the rest of the group, this student will do it for me and most likely today or tomorrow morning at recess.

These are my students.  

Awww

So I'm cleaning out/up my classroom because standardized testing is literally right around the corner...it's tomorrow morning.  

So instead of covering up the posters with more paper, I just took them down.  Instead of recycling them, I sent them home with students after CRT boot camp.

I came home to find a message on my teacher facebook from one of my students.  Attached was a picture of her bedroom wall where she'd proudly hung up those anchor charts.  Yes, that was the decor she wanted in her room.

These are my students.

Tech Support from Facebook

I have a teacher facebook.  

It's in no way linked to my personal one and I use it as an extension of my classroom.  It's a nice way to remind students and parents about what upcoming events we have happening at school.

I'm friends with current students, parents, former students and other colleagues.  My profile picture is of the sign outside my door and I think every other status is related to books or being kind.  There is truly nothing on there that I wouldn't feel comfortable showing my principal...or her boss.

I had a message from a student that she had something urgent she needed to ask me.

Immediately I went into uber-protective teacher mode and assuming the worst.  Was she being bullied?  Is there a problem at home?  

Oh no.  

Her urgent question was how to customize her Google chrome background because she was jealous of my Avengers one.

These are the urgent problems my kiddos need help fixing!

I walked her through it because well, who wouldn't want an Avengers background?!

I love that they feel comfortable asking for help and that I've created a safe space for them.  Obviously technology is important and part of my job is to turn them into digital citizens (one customized background at a time!).

On a side note, we had the impromptu mini-lesson that we DON'T WRITE IN ALL CAPS because it looks like yelling on the computer.  I'm glad they're enjoying blogging so much!  It's so great that they're internalizing that they're writers and have different audiences.

(We did have to have the conversation that LOL JK :)  does not belong in our final draft papers.)

At least they're learning and enjoying it!

Snap shots

So in our performance zone in our district, we have a facebook page (which you can follow here).  Our school is clearly overachievers when it comes to anchor charts since we've got over a hundred pictures in our album.  Of those, about eight are mine which gives me some warm and fuzzy feelings.  

Here are two snap shots that haven't been previously mentioned on my blog:

Our QR code:

I was a little hesitant at first but this was actually super easy to create.  I turned my welcome letter and info packet into a PDF, which I then uploaded into dropbox.  From dropbox, I did "share link" and emailed the link to myself.  Then, I copied the link and went to one of the numerous free QR code creators and pasted in the url.  After triple checking from various devices, I printed on pink cardstock and stapled it outside my door.

I'm not sure how many parents have downloaded the welcome letter but it's a good strategy for those with smart devices!

Phonics instruction:

We were doing a power point presentation on the 6 types of syllables (CLOVER) at the beginning of the year.  My students were still working on getting the main idea into their notebooks, so I was modeling what to write down by using the smart board markers with the power point:

Just an easy way to give explicit instruction on exactly what you want your students to put in their notebooks :)