minggu enam belas (week 16)

            Monday was a very interesting day. MAP testing has been going last week, this week, and next week and it was during our library time so we couldn't go to that. Since it was Earth day Mrs. Z. had this whole school wide Earth day curriculum planned out and since she planned everything I pretty much just let her teach it. She did everything for the entire school so I figured I would let her do her thing. She passed out an Earth day math activity which was pretty much just higher level thinking questions that were all problem solving and the students again just didn't understand. They are smart enough, know the material, and are plenty capable of doing the work it just felt like they didn't really want to. So she did some reading comprehension with them and we decided we would come back to the math the next day.

            Tuesday we started the day with our MAP test. We had reading comprehension and our kids showed so much growth it was unbelievable. Normally with gifted students you don’t see that much growth because they are already at such a high level but these kids raised their scores so much. Mrs. Zientek couldn’t believe it, the principal couldn’t believe it, the other teachers couldn’t believe it, it was crazy. Tuesday for our Earth day activity we did another math activity where they have to read an essay about volunteering and then answer some questions about it. Then finally got to the last thing in math I wanted to teach for that unit and that was the end of the day.

           

            Wednesday we started out by doing a math activity where they had to answer the math questions then cut and paste the pictures to form a picture about recycling as part of the Earth week unit. Then gym, bathroom break, kept working on their math, they came back from lunch and we finished up their math, then wrote an essay about whether or not it’s a good thing to volunteer that tied into their article they read the day before, and finished off the day with a nature scavenger hunt outside.

           

            Thursday we started by doing some science that worked really well connecting the Earth week unit and the unit we had previously been working on so I had them write an essay connecting the 2. We had a fact scavenger hunt where they had to go through the classroom and find the fact cards and write the corresponding answers to the Earth week questions, it was a really cool activity that they also got to learn random facts about the Earth. Then after all our specials and those two things I reviewed with them for the math test and that was the day.

           

            Friday since it was my last day of full time teaching Zientek wanted it to just be a really relaxed day (more so because they did so well on the MAP test she wanted to reward them). So we started out with their spelling test and math test to get them out of the way. That brought us up to gym, bathroom break, lunch. Then after lunch we did a combination of a couple different things. We started with writing letters to the classmate that moved to Texas and then played Bingo. They could also do a couple different Earth day activities that were going to be hung up around the school and that concluded my last week of teaching full time. It’s so weird to be at this point. I feel really hesitant about handing the reigns back over because I’ve been in charge for so long.