Testing Mrs. H

Normally I don't let our end of grade testing stress me out, but for some reason it really began to get to me last week. It was very important for me that my students not see or feel by stress and that I didn't begin to take it out on them. It's not their fault that this test was for the first time in seven years stressing their teacher out. I spoke to my CF about it and felt better. I also began to constantly pray. I knew that I had to truly let go and let God. Every year He brings me through a successful testing period. I survive and my students survive.

Knowing that my students tend to stress, I tried to find creative ways to review. I took a different approach to preparing this year and only time will tell. The last two days I took time to do purposeful read alouds. If you are a testing grade teacher you need to read these books to your students. Not only do they deal with testing and test anxiety of teachers and students, they also lend themselves to meaningful discussions concerning their plots, mood, tone, and theme.

Finally, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I had the Student Leadership Team create and deliver the following to our teachers this afternoon. It was so awesome watching them get excited about delivering their gifts.