Test Prep Tuesday

As you read this you are probably thinking one of three things.  Number 1 ahhhh test prep I am finished and do not have to worry about that till next year.  Number 2 mmm test prep I could use this right about now, or Number 3 I am so glad I am not in a testing grade!  Regardless of what your situation here is some information that can be helpful to everyone.

I like to think that I prepare my students for the test without teaching to the test.  There is a HUGE difference!  I have been in classrooms where the entire year was essentially test prep.  Everything was multiple choice bubbles and pay attention this is going to be on the test.  Not only is this selling out the students education for a test score it also adds a great amount of stress on the students, which is not helpful.  I spend the whole year preparing my students for the test, without them even knowing it, and here are some ways that I do it......

I sprinkle in traditional test prep throughout the year and just increase it closer to test time instead of cramming it in at the end.  This is the only time that I might actually say something like, "you might see something similar on your end of the year test."  This comes in the form a few questions for morning work, a review before a lesson, or a summary at the end of a lesson.  It is always just a few questions that we go over together and is presented to the students in a NBD type of way.  This way they are more than familiar with question types, decoding the language, choosing the best answer, etc. It practiced all year and reduces rather than induces stress.

Once you have taught how to decode the questions the rest of the test is just skills.  So what better to practice than the skills themselves.  A great stress free way to practice skills is with games.  These can include whole class games in powerpoint and on interactive boards, or small group games with cards, board games, folders, and computers.  If you are using small group games they can include a rotation with a test prep with teacher group.  The students always get so excited about "games."  They see it as playing rather than working and as long as things stay orderly it can be very productive.

As test time approaches you may feel compelled to offer some more direct practice.  A good way to accomplish this is in whole group.  I find if we just go through a sample test working problems the students tend to zone out, so instead I make it interactive for them.  I give them some time to work on the test.  Next we go over the test question by question.  I choose a student to read the question and then everyone shows the answer they choose with an answer stick, which is a Popsicle stick with a dot sticker on all four ends labled A, B, C, and D.  When they have voted I can get a visual of how much time I need to spend going over that question based on the percentage of correct answers.

Last but not least we create curriculum cards as we cover various topics throughout the year.  They made include vocabulary, math or reading strategies, illustrations, and many other things.  These make a great tool to review for a unit or end of the year test.

Hope you have enjoyed these strategies and use them with your students.  It's important to remember that even though we may stress over the test we can not pass that on to our students.  A stressed brain does not perform well.

~ Katie

Math Monday

To get myself acquainted to blogging each day will have a theme.  We will try this for a while and depending on how it goes we may keep it up.  Sometimes the ideas will come from me, sometimes I will route you to another blog.  So as the title says Mondays will be Math Mondays.  I love math.  It is my favorite subject to teach next to science.  If I could teach math and science all day I would be so happy.  I obviously have a ton of great math ideas to share.  

However since I am also an organization freak lover we can't get started with out a little organization.  For this I must refer to the queen of organization over at  http://clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com/ .  She has a wonderful blog filled with fabulous ideas to get you organized.  This is a great time of year to get started in reducing clutter, as the school year is winding down and we are preparing for a new year.  So her whole site is great, but today I would like to direct you to a specific post about math material organization, since it is Math Monday.  Just click the numbers and off you go.  

Enjoy and happy Math Monday!

~Katie

Here We Go...

So after having created this blog roughly two weeks ago I have done lots of searching as to what should be included in a first post.  It seemed so intimidating and so final that I really put it off.  Then I calmed my self by reasoning, "at this point no one is reading anyway so does it really matter?"  "Yes it matters someone might one day go back and read my first post to get ideas like I have been doing!"  After much debating back and forth I figure the only thing I can do is just to do it so here we go.....

Let's start with the blog title and my purpose for creating the blog.  Teachers connect the dots has a dual meaning to me.  First of all as I mention in my profile I believe that is important to connect all new learning to past learning.  It helps the students make sense of things and it builds a solid foundation for all of their future learning.  So the teachers are connecting the dots for the students, this happens because this, and this makes sense because of this, and you can do this because you already know that, and so on and so forth.

The second meaning is that teachers connect the dots with each other.  Unlike some other very competitive professions teachers, for the most part, support each other.  Don't get me wrong I have seen some very fierce competition for best hallway display or best behaved students.  However teachers do love to network, share resources, ideas, and all around just reach out and support one another.  So this blog will focus on these things. At this point I know I am a little late to the party as there are already a "gazillion", of course it's a word, blogs out there that focus on these same things, but no harm in adding one more.... right?

I have spent time in a variety of educational settings.  Along the way I have seen so many creative ideas, and thought "note to self I will need that one day."  Some I have documented, some I have not, which of course leads to forgetting.  But enough for now I promise great posts and creative ideas and less babble from now on.  So Here We Go.........