And the year Continues

From the Star

So last Friday was the day, the day that we found out that are school was no longer going to be a multi-age school due to the new straight grade standards. For the principal this was a shock and very upsetting because for 10 years this has been the way that she has made our school so successful. For the teachers on the other hand, they are very excited because for the last two weeks we have been trying to debate how on earth we would be able to teach straight grade standards while teaching multi-age. So to make a long story short I am now a third grade teacher and I love it. My students are truly amazing and the fact that I only have 13 students is such an opportunity. Just thinking about all of the instructional I am going to be able to spend with my students makes me smile.

We just had open house and all but one of my families showed up. I was very happy with the results and the parents seemed to be really happy to hear that we had changed to straight grades, especially since I have 3rd graders. The one thing that didn't surprise me was that out of the 12 parents that showed up all 12 signed up for a conference! - even though I told them that I would not have any data on their child from the assessments until the beginning of October due to my FAIR testing date being October 5th. However, I know that I will enjoy getting to know each family and their expectations. I was happy with how the open house turned out and I feel that the parents left happy. Can't ask for much more.

The last thing that I am going to leave you with today is about all this new testing. In my opinion my poor 3rd graders are going to be tested out by the time that the FCAT gets here. Not only do they have to take the FAIR tests 3 times a year but they also now have to take the Core K-12 tests for each subject each semester. I just hope that all of these tests don't have a negative effect on how the students test on the FCAT. That brings me to my last vent. Because we made AYP this year we are still not using and following the Treasures series. We are still using the Treasures series as a resource and an intervention and we have been told that we are not to use it as a sole curriculum. However, when these students take the District Core K-12 tests in reading they go along with the skills from the Treasures. So, how do we make sure that the students are on level and on task according to the state if we do not follow the Treasures series?