Is it summer already? Is it already two weeks over? Seattle to Portland is in a week and a half and then the Tour de Cure is at the end of July and then August and then school …
I hope you are enjoying your summer and reading!
Add comment July 1, 2009
The rough draft for the 6th grade memoir assignment is due tomorrow, June 2nd. Last week the students began the prewriting, remembering back over this year what they did and went through and chose the memories and experiences they felt were most important or meaningful. We do not have many “instructional” days left on the calendar so there isn’t much leeway for students who do not use the time in class or at home to complete this assignment which is also our end of the year writing assignment. Finals are next Wednesday and Thursday and students will have a final to complete for both classes.
Any and all late work is due Friday, June 12th.
Add comment June 2, 2009
Day One has come and gone and I am already finished with one class. Well, it is a small class and there were 5 or so absent, but it’s still a nice thought. We are putting The Giver on hold for now, even if some students are really getting into it (sorry Julia!) but the story from the Junior Great Books, As the Night the Day, is a good one and there is actually a reason we decided to read it while we do our testing. 10 bonus points for anyone who can figure out what the tie is between these two stories.
I anticipate being done either tomorrow with the larger classes or early on Wednesday. This means that Core 2 will move on with me through As the Night the Day and then we will all keep going with The Giver when I finish on Wednesday.
2 comments May 11, 2009
Yesterday was a fun filled day while I was shuttered away scoring the 6th Grade SLMS Writing WASL. We use our own prompt and then all the 6th and 7th Core teachers spend a day or two scoring them and yesterday was the day. At least I got to play a little Guitar Hero II in order to break the monotony.
More details to come but from initial reactions I can say with some certainty that the biggest overall problem with the 6th graders is they are not writing very detailed or interesting paragraphs. We are using the results to plan what the students will do next year in 7th and we are already looking at paragraph development as a big focus.
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Awards
In addition to winning the Independent Games Festival award in 2006 during its design, Braid was selected by GameSpot for their 2008 awards in “Best Original Downloadable Console Game”, “Best Platformer”, and “Best Licensed Music”, and by Official Xbox Magazine for their 2008 awards of “XBox Live Arcade Game of the Year”, “Best Soundtrack”, and “Best Ending” and one of their “Indisputably Incredible Runners-ups to Game of the Year”. Braid was awarded the “Casual Game of the Year” at the 12th Annual Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Awards, and was nominated for five Xbox Live Arcade 2008 awards, winning one award in the category of “Best Innovation”.
Add comment May 5, 2009
Well, I added Twitter to my site and if the district didn’t block access from inside the classroom I might update it more frequently. As it is it’s a pain but I’ll see how it works. I’m mainly testing it to see how one would use Twitter as a teacher.
In other news, we are still WASL-ing with one more Reading and Writing test each to go. Part of me wishes that all my students could take their tests with me and there is some research out there that shows that if a student is going to take a test in an unfamiliar environment they have to practice in an unfamiliar environment first in order for it to be effective. However, another part of me realizes that my presence alone is not going to make that much difference and it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that you are.
Some students are also creating entries for the SLMS Writing competition and those are due May 1st by 3:00pm. I am giving them some time in class to do these or their own writing project. If they do their own project they have the choice of topic and style, meaning what they write about and how they write it. These are also due on the 1st and will be scored with the 6 Traits rubric. If a student chooses to do the contest instead of the project their grade will not suffer but I will not be grading their contest entry since that would invalidate the point of having a contest.
DIBELS testing is coming in May and you may have already received some emails from me asking for help with supervision although that is already taken care of by now as I got lots of great responses offering help.
Grades are due next Thursday for the progress report that will be sent home soon after that.
Add comment April 22, 2009
Hooray! As I type this message out the students are taking the SLMS 6th Grade Writing WASL. These persuasive writing assessments will be scored by all the core teachers next month and next week the students will have an expository prompt to write as well.
This also happens to be the last week that Jaime Skarshaug will be in the classroom as the full time teacher. Next week she goes to Auburn to do her student teaching in a special education classroom and then will go on to graduation. She has been a tremendous asset and will no doubt have no trouble getting a job for next year!
I will be contacting those of you who I have a working email address for to ask if you would like to help with supervision when we do our 3rd and final round of DIBELS testing the week of May 11-15th. If you would like to help please email me or reply to this post and I will fill you in with the specifics.
Add comment April 14, 2009
Tonight is conferences night! Today from 5-7 pm in the gym you can find all your students’ teachers and talk about the good and/or the bad. I will be there along with Jaime Skarshaug, my student teacher. We hope to see you there!
Add comment March 25, 2009
Today, on this Friday the 13th of March, the first round of AR Bookmarks are due. What that means to the students is that they are signed twice, once when they were assigned and once this week, the books they have read are filled in and the points received for taking tests are recorded. If they were not turned in they will show up as missing until they are. You can expect a call home on Monday if they were not completed over the weekend.
In other news the students are taking some time to get acclimated to the WASL as they will be taking it right after they return from Spring Break. This also gives me some very good information on what we need to review. One challenging aspect of the 6th grade test is that this is the first year the students are tested for critical thinking skills.
On Monday my student teacher, Jaime Skarshaug, will be teaching full time Monday-Friday until April 17th. She will be sending home a letter about herself next week and I’ll let her post something up here too so look for that then.
Add comment March 13, 2009
Yikes! It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here, my apologies. I need to build in to my schedule time to write more posts.
Here are some things we’ve been doing, or will be doing, in no particular order:
Add comment March 3, 2009
Mr. Stockman will be out on paternity leave at least through the 6th of February, about the next week and a half. Ms. Kim Lee, fellow Fife alum, will be substituting for me along with Ms. Jaime Skarshaug, my student teacher. Any questions during this time should be directed to them.
Our new little boy was born Tuesday, January 27th at 6:20 AM. He weighed 9 lbs. on the dot and is 21.5 inches long. He is a cute little boy but nevertheless we anticipate many sleepless nights as he gets used to his new home.
Add comment January 28, 2009
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