MAPs are our Friends

Got paid to attend a seminar at school yesterday. It was on interpreting and implementing the data we get from our MAPs testing, which we do with freshmen through juniors every spring and fall. Sounds like fun, huh?

MAPs (I know I should remember, but I forgot what the acronym stands for) are tests which students take on the computer, which zero in on their skills and aptitudes in Math, English and Science. When the student answers a question correctly, the questions get progressively harder.

In the past, we have recorded the scores and done nothing with them. This seminar has provided us with some resources to help us evaluate the data critically so we can see the possible gaps in students' learning so we can fill in the missing pieces of their education by creating "learning ladders." I did like how the program gave a suggested reading list in the student's lexile range. More reading---makes sense to me.

The whole thing sounds great in theory. Finding the time to do this, not too realisitic.

"Maps are our friends" is the mantra of our geography teacher. I doubt he was talking about MAPs, the test.

Weird: I've noticed when a group of teachers get together to take a class, we become our students. Though we may get disgusted with the chronicly late student, the one who asks all the questions, the talkative ones, the clown, and the ones who don't quite get the directions the first time, we become a class of those exact students. OK, maybe not the one who throws a wad of paper across the room only to miss the wastebasket, but we certainly are not the model students that we say we want in our classroom. And, I notice by the end of the day, we become our last hour class, watching the clock and trying to get out of the last fifteen minutes of work.

We did refrain from bunching by the door like a herd of mooing cows, waiting to be let out of the barn. Just barely, though.

Here's to New Beginnings

I'm back! I must have needed a break.

Can't wait for this week! It's 1st semester exam week! Yippee!

Should I tally how many students approach me about what they can do to raise their grade? (I'll resist telling them to time travel back 18 weeks---and this time try doing their work.)

Shall I count how many students come to me five minutes after taking their final exam to see what they got and what their final grade is? (I'll resist telling them to ---well, let's just leave it that I'll resist.)

Yes, exam time. Students cram. Teachers grade 'til their eyeballs crack from dry air and not blinking. And, everybody is a bit---sometimes a lot---testy. (pun intended)

But, the good thing is students get half an hour between each exam and an open campus lunch. That can make even an Algebra II test worth taking.

Teachers look forward to a new semester and a fresh start hoping that the students who didn't do their work the first semester will have learned. And, even more hopeful we are that the students who DID do their work have learned.

Hope. The thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings. Thank you Emily D.