Saturday, September 6, 2008

How Your Kids Can Relax and Learn to Love the Bomb (or this case, the test)

Yesterday we had a special guest with us all day, Mr. Shriver, a high school guy who teaches karate with me at Adamson's. He wants to be an elementary school teacher, asked if he could come in and shadow with me occasionally, and I said sure. I'd love to see him become a teacher, and so I'm going to encourage that one any way I can. He really enjoyed his day with us, and I told him next time he came we could do some karate with the students. And don't worry, no contact!

This week it's back to normal...well, kind of. We will have a Caesar's English quiz and a Spelling test at the end of the week, and there's a States and Capitals quiz on Tuesday, this is all true. However, ISTEP is looming large over our heads for next week. Some kids look forward to this because of no homework, etc. Some students loathe the bitter taste of standardized testing and the way it affects their future. It's such a fine balance between trying to get them to relax a little bit so that, for some fo them, they can do their best, while still putting the fire under some of them in order to get them to do their best. Whichever your child needs, make sure you place it into them at home, because there's no real way I can do both en masse at school.

To help the kids relax a little before the test, we always celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day right before the ISTEPs. This is an actual holiday (okay, not actual actual, but kind of actual). The kids are encouraged to dress like pirates for the day, and we'll have all kinds of activities and stuff like that during the day.

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