Today there were only three MAP tests. Yesterday I thought there
were four but I was misreading the assembly this morning as a test.
I still started my morning with a test, though. The third grader who
didn't finish yesterday. She got a few questions answered and then
it was time for the assembly. Five minutes after the assembly the
first whole class came in to test, along with a few other kids who
needed to finish up.
I had a little bit of time before lunch so I got a start on my vowel
card slider project for one of the resource teachers. I started by
making a physical template so I could figure out the dimensions and
then I moved onto Publisher, drawing text boxes that were the right
dimensions and adding borders to show cut lines. The font alignment
of my text boxes kept messing up so that was annoying but I think I
eventually got it all sorted out. Tomorrow or sometime in the future
I'll need to make the strips that have the vowels on them.
This afternoon there were two MAP tests. During the fourth grade
test the teacher showed me one of the assignments she was grading.
The last question on the worksheet gave an example of someone being
let down or disappointed by someone else and then asked for a time
the student had disappointed someone or let them down. One kid
responded “I let my sister down when I was born. I stole the
glory.” Hilarious.
The last test of the day was first grade and they did slightly better
than they did the first time they came in. Only one kid started the
test before he was told and almost everyone remembered how to advance
to the next question. Several kids made me question the point of
administering the MAP test to first graders, at least at the
beginning of the year. These were the kids who were finishing their
test in eight minutes or less. For first and second grade most of
the questions and answers are being read to them and these kids were
obviously not even waiting for the reading to finish before they had
clicked an answer and went on. I watched one kid immediately answer
several questions in a row where it was obvious he was just seeing
how quickly he could go. I told him to actually wait for the
question to be read to him and managed to slow him down to ten
minutes. Another kid set the school record for the number of times
he had to take a test. I think if a kid finishes one of the parts in
under six minutes a score isn't given and they have to take it again.
This kid had to take it three times before he got a score. I told
him to slow down in various ways each time and he would nod his head
and say 'ok' but then rush on through. There is no way a lot of
these kids are getting valid results. If you sat down with them
one-on-one they could probably answer most if not all of the
questions they aren't getting right on these computerized tests, and
that is frustrating.
Right after work I stopped by where my friend works, right down the
street, to drop off a couple books about Sherman because she is
thinking about writing a leadership paper about him. I also gave her
the coasters I made her awhile ago. We talked briefly and then I
headed home.
Yesterday when I was backing into the garage I bumped the sharp
concrete ledge with my rear tire. It left a rubber mark on the
concrete but I didn't think much of it at the time. When I came out
to my car after work I noticed my tire looked a little weird. When I
got home I got down and checked and there was a small gash in my
tire. I was concerned about that and even more so because I'm
supposed to drive down for my class tomorrow. I didn't feel
comfortable driving on small, winding highways for an hour and a half
on a tire with a gash in it. I took a couple pictures and sent them
to my dad to get his opinion. The pictures couldn't really do it
justice though so he asked me to drive over so he could take a look.
His opinion was also not favorable.
At this point the plan is for me to stop by the mechanic in the
morning before school. If I get really lucky they will have a tire
in stock or be able to get one quickly and my car will be good to go
sometime before I get off work. If I don't get lucky, the plan will
be to swap cars with my mom and take hers down for my class.
Hopefully it doesn't come to that. I need to leave town fairly soon
after work if I want to get down there in time for class, which I
definitely want to do, so I won't have very much time to mess around.
When I got home again I finished reading the chapter for the class I
have this weekend. My goal was to finish that chapter and read the
chapter for my research class so I could write my discussion post for
that class tonight and not have to worry about it over the weekend.
The tire thing kind of threw a wrench in that plan so I will have to
read the chapter maybe Saturday night when I get home and write my
post that night.
After finishing the chapter I came over to the old house to book my
hotel. I went with Best Western because it was cheap but it ended up
not really being that cheap. I guess the cheaper rate was for
booking farther in advance so I ended up paying about fifteen dollars
more, plus taxes and all that so instead of around seventy dollars I
ended up paying almost a hundred dollars. Just for a room that I
will be sleeping in for one night. I think class on Friday goes
until ten o'clock maybe (I could be wrong) and then starts early on
Saturday, so I will just be there to sleep. Crazy. I need to figure
out a cheaper solution for next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment