Sunday, March 1, 2015

March 1, 2015 -

Great Things Noticed:

We apologize for not getting around to as many classrooms this week as we usually do.  PARCC and QSAC have been keeping us busy, but we were still able to check out some really cool stuff in your classrooms.

We had several fire/security drills lately, including one where the students from the Lakes School came to our gym.  Thank you for doing a wonderful job keeping the students in your classrooms, and being flexible with the schedule when it was thrown off a bit.  

In a math class this week a teacher conducted a snowball fight.  She had equations on white pieces of paper and then had the students crumble them up into balls.  When she said go the students had a snowball fight, when she called stop the students had to pick up some of the pieces of paper and solve the equations that were inside.  One of the students told me it was so much better than having to sit and solve problems at his seat.  

In a language arts class the teacher was meeting with a small group of students based on the skill she wanted to reinforce with these students.  She had identified an area that needed to be taught in a small group and was able to target those students directly.

QSAC came through and you all had what was asked of you on your desk and on the board as they went from room to room.  We received positive feedback on what they saw when they went from room to room, and when we get our scores we will be sure to share them with you.

We have noticed so many of you helping one another as the PARCC Test approaches.  This is everyone’s first time and we understand how stressful a new assessment like this can be.  It is great to be able to go to work everyday in a school where the staff genuinely wants to help one another.  So many of you have pitched in and helped someone else with things like understanding how to navigate the testing site, showing testing features the students will have available, and giving helpful hints about where to find information in the testing manual.  Thank you!

Upcoming Events:

March 2-6 7th & 8th Grade PARCC
March 9-13 5th & 6th Grade PARCC
March 9 Faculty Meeting
March 13 BIS Spotlight
March 16-20 PARCC Make-ups
March 18 BOE Meeting 7:00PM
March 23 Faculty Meeting
March 31 Parent Teacher Conferences

Nuts and Bolts:

Testing starts Monday, if you are testing please come to the conference room to pick up your testing materials before school begins.  You will be given your seal codes, pencils, scratch paper, and ear buds.  Please pass out the pencils, paper, and ear-buds first.  You will then pass out the student testing codes to the students and write the seal code on the board.  At the end of the testing session please collect the pencils, paper, ear-buds, and student testing codes.  You will hold on to these materials for the next day of testing.  When your class has finished it’s testing time please call the office so we are aware.  When all testing session have finished we will make an announcement to resume classes.

Those not testing please remind students to move quietly throughout the halls.

Testing Times:
Test
PBA 1
PBA 2
PBA 3
Grades 6-8 ELA
75 Monday
90 Tuesday
60 Wednesday
Grades 6-8 MATH
80 Thursday
70 Friday
*****
Algebra/Geometry
90 Thursday
75 Friday
*****

Please make sure to read through your testing manual to understand the directions you will be giving.  Remember we are starting with language arts and not math.  The directions for the ELA PBA begin on page 40.  

Student directions for logging in can be found here

Training video for how to locate your classes click here.

PARCC Testing Site click here.

When you administer the test make sure you click start session or the students will not be able to log in to your session.  Also you do not need to click end session at any time, we will handle that part.  

If you have issues before starting the test please call the office and we will be there to help as soon as we can.  

If you have issues while the students are taking the test make sure to note the time and student(s) then call the office and we will address the issues ASAP.

Tech Tips:


Have you ever tried to print out a webpage and it comes out looking like a disaster because of the advertisements, margins, headers, and footers?  Print Friendly is a way to fix all of this and can be added as a chrome extension.  Check out this video for more information.






Noteworthy:

  • What color is the dress...... I saw black and blue, can't wait to hear what you saw.
  • This kid rocks, and made me smile.

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