Another Day, Another Test

Today was better. It wasn't perfect, but it was better.

It was the long test today. We had delays, of course, which didn't help anything. We had kids not doing what they should have done when they were finished with their ISTEP tests. An hour and fifteen minutes is a long time to sit there for kids who are used to having Minecraft, Instagram, and the internet to keep them from ever having to actually contemplate about anything.

Still, at the end of the day, I left feeling good. I told them that tomorrow they are going to have to have a great day in order to have an all-fun movie day on Friday. They earned a movie day, and the end of ISTEP week is the perfect time for it.

Plus, the rain held off!

The Drama of Fifth Grade

Wow, we had drama to spare at the end of the day today. My hope is that everyone can just go home and forget about it without any residual drama creeping back in tomorrow.

5-1 just needs to take a deep, cleansing breath tonight and come back tomorrow ready for ISTEP.

Ask your kids for the details, because I'll be darned if I could make any sense out of it. I told them that if any of it continues on tomorrow, we are going to schedule an appointment with the counselor. 

Quadratic Thoughts

Boy howdy, was today ever a doozy in terms of the ISTEP testing. I found the following problems with it:

• There was some confusion with how students should present fractions on the test. Plus, it was the same way they were expected to present division problems. Now, you and I both know that every fraction is a division problem, but most fifth graders don't. I tried my best to guide them through it individually, but not all of the buttons reacted the way they should have. 
• ISTEP was clearly not written by current classroom teachers. It was obviously written by "professional" and "fairly" paid individuals who "understand" how kids think and what their experiences "are". 

In addition to ISTEP's innate faults, my class endured a class making tons of noise from across the hall, hearing every word of the video being shown next door, and hearing a ton of blocks being spilled from the room caddy-cornered from our testing room.

Plus, our schedule is weird. We have recess in the afternoon after lunch (a welcome change), and I have to say that my class did incredibly well today.

I hope everyone has had a great Monday. As far as I'm concerned, I'm over and out. 

Taiylor

Happy Birthday to Taiylor! 

Taiylor is a wonderful girl who is very quiet in class, but she is a deep thinker. And the former is a very welcome trait for 5-1. She makes it much easier for me to run a well-oiled classroom. 

Taiylor is quite the dancer, and she is very into ballet and hip hop. She also is quite the softball player, so she is very well-rounded to say the least!  

She is a staunch friend and ally to all who know her best. She is always more than dependable, more than prepared and more than fair. For instance, Taiylor always obstains from playing silent ball, but she was very cool about allowing her bonus game to be played today. This despite the fact that she is seemingly always hit in the head when she is playing. If I were her, I would never have allowed anyone to play silent ball if it was my birthday. But her? She was totally cool with it.

That's the kind of person Taiylor is. She's thoughtful and generous.

Happy Birthday, Taiylor! You're one of my favorite people, and you definitely deserve it.

Pride of Lions

Look at this! Congratulations to Woodbrook's Math Bowl team, and the 5-1 members Hope and Alex. (Plus Aakash and Miruna from Math class...)

Way to go, State Top Ten Team!

More to come later, but I wanted to get this out there on the quick.

Somewhere There Is a Slope-Intercept Equation to Prove This

Happy ISTEP week, everyone. When I coached karate, we used to say, "Happy Tournament Day" whenever appropriate. Maybe we can just look at the first round as a four-day Tournament Day. Just show off what you can do.

Get plenty of sleep, too. Exhaustion won't help anyone. And if you're sick--heaven knows we've been there in and out over the last week--stay home. Taking a test while you're sick isn't going to help anyone either, after all. Certain people at the school won't like me saying that, because the kids will have to make it up at some point when they come back, but I'm going out on a limb and saying that it will be better for everyone.

One more thing: protein! Eat some peanut butter or some eggs or sausage or your protein of choice in the morning. It's good for your mental juices.

More to come later, but this is my morning blast. (I've had my protein.)

Huddled In

FYI, here is the ISTEP schedule for this coming week, round one of ISTEP for 5-1.

Monday, February 26: 10:30-11:30

Tuesday, February 27: 10:30-11:15

Wednesday, February 28: 11:00-12:15

Thursday, March 1: 8:30-9:15

I also wanted everyone to know that I am a bit behind on my grading, between being out sick last Friday, being sick over the extended weekend, and then trying to play catch-up this week while having so many meetings, but that will be remedied nicely with today's rainy day grading and college basketball marathon. I know the kids are anxious to get their social studies tests from last week back, their math quizzes, and their spelling tests from last week also. Thrown in yesterday's Caesar's English quiz, and my afternoon is full.

I will be sending out a group email regarding the end of the school year once I get everyone's emails compiled. It was sent to me by a couple of the moms in charge of the end-of-year festivities.

Have a great day and stay dry!

Wall to Wall

Bad Idea #1 today was to try to refill the beanbags at the end of Math class when the quiz was over. Let's just say that I owe Mr. Zach, the custodian, big time. 

I guess it turns out that I really only had one bad idea today. One of the better ones was having my good friend Adam Biddle come in today to read to the class. Adam is a Battalion Chief for the Noblesville Fire Department. He read the book How Georgie Radbourne Saved Baseball, which he had read to them last year also.

He always has the best stories--from firefighting to our exploits at Turkey Run. Next year, I need to make sure and book him at a time where he has a good hour to be with the class.

There's more from today, but for now, that's the update.

Next week: ISTEP!

What the World Needs Now

If you are on either Facebook or Twitter (or any of those other things like that), then you've seen this undoubtedly. But I thought I would post it here just in case anyone hasn't seen it. 

Thank you, whoever you are! This week, Carmel needed something like this. 

It reminds me of the nice little notes and pictures that are in all of 5-1's cubbies from time to time from Hope and Gaby. I can see them--and more--doing this kind of thing in a few years. They have already gotten a great start.

The Flux Capacitor at 88 Miles Per Hour

Alf wants to remind everyone that tomorrow is 80's Day!

He also asked me to remind everyone that there is a Caesar's English quiz tomorrow, so don't forget to study.

Oh, and one last thing, Alf is a huge fan of the Math Bowl Team, and he wants Alex and Hope to know that 5-1 can't wait to find out how they did, and regardless, we are all proud of them. You have people from all across the galaxy--Area 51 to Alf's planet to wherever Mork is from--cheering for you!

Wide Collars; Wide Ties

This happenin' cat wants to remind everyone that tomorrow is 70's day! Bring your quarters, you jive turkeys.

Hey Man, Don't Be a Dropout

Evidently I missed an announcement in my absence regarding the fact that today was 50's day at Woodbrook. Not sure what the deal was, but evidently everyone was supposed to bring in their nickels today and dress like they are being busted for putting too much malt in their malteds at a sock hop.

Well, we will get 5-1 back on track tomorrow, so everyone, please dress tomorrow like we are that very peaceful generation of the 1960's--JFK, the Beatles, and the space program--and please bring in your dimes! 

Apples and Oranges

This is a great intro to combining like terms. We started in on this today in math class, and the kids really did pretty well with it, I have to say. (Instead of "Chuck Norrises", we used "Mrs. Hobbses".)

Both of these may help more with tomorrow's homework than with today's, so remember to roll back to today if your child is having troubles tomorrow evening. 

The Four Days Ahead

In Math this week, we will be taking more and more baby steps into the world of algebra. It's not too hard, it's just the little things you have to memorize. I will tell the kids they need to take home their Mathcabulary books for their homework throughout the week, and I will also be posting some Khan Academy posts here throughout the week.

Also, we will have a Caesar's English quiz on Friday, and we will be taking the second portion of the practice ISTEP testing tomorrow afternoon.

I will be gone on Wednesday morning for a conference at Carmel Middle School.

I think that's about everything this week. I'll let you know as soon as I know anything more.

Until then, have a great week.

Represent

Of course I saw Black Panther over the weekend. As a white guy who lives in Hamilton County, I loved it. I cannot imagine what it meant for this boy, the son of a couple of college friends of mine.

Not only did I love this because it was an awesome super-hero movie, but also because of how the smartest characters in the movie are praised and recognized for their intellects. While watching this movie, I was reminded of the works of Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, and Benjamin Franklin. In fact, I felt like Ben Franklin, wanting to say the word "Ingenious!" whenever T'Challa's little sister showed him another invention of hers.

A Word from Mrs. Davis

Dear Parents,

As we prepare to return to school tomorrow, it is important for you to know there has been no threat made toward our school or any other Carmel Clay elementary or middle school.

I want to assure you that we have a very thorough school safety plan in place which has been developed in partnership with the Carmel Police Department.

We are doing everything we can to protect our students and staff. We will conduct our school day and activities on a normal schedule and our staff will continue to be vigilant in monitoring the safety of our children.

We are committed to providing a safe learning environment and we look forward to seeing our students back in the classroom tomorrow.
Thank you,
Kelly Davis
Principal
Woodbrook Elementary

*Mr. Carter's addendum: In addition to this, your kids will have the added value of Papa Bear Sensei Carter watching after them.

Presidential Days

Happy Presidents Day, everyone!

I have spent a whole extended long weekend recuperating, and honestly, I'm still not back at 100%. Still, at least I'm no longer blowing out my lungs in fits of coughing and then trying to focus through watery eyes, so I should be back to functional tomorrow.

I still haven't been in to get the papers and tests that were done on Friday, so there will be a little bit of a delay with the kids getting those back.

This week, we will have a Caesar's English quiz on Friday.

Also, I have another meeting (sorry!) on Wednesday, but I will be back in for the last part of the day.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend, and will have a great week coming up. Talk soon.

Tagged Out

This is exactly the kind of note I love to see from a substitute. Mrs. Loeffler took a picture and sent it to me after school today. Stuff like this makes it much easier for me to rest easy and recuperate properly.

She said that he turned out to be a veteran retired teacher and then principal (30 years in Michigan), so it turns out that my "substitute" could have schooled any of the staff at Woodbrook with his hands tied behind his back. That's great to know.

I hope all of you have a very restful long weekend as well.

Typing Through the Fog

Ladies and gentlemen, I told the kids today that I would not be at school tomorrow. I have been fighting back a cough all week, and it progressed to the place where I am having to take a day off to try and recuperate.

Make sure your kiddos study for Social Studies and spelling, and make sure they take in their bookmarks tomorrow.

I hate having to take a sick day, but there is no way I would be any good for anyone tomorrow.

Take care, and I'll see you after the long weekend.

A Many-Splendored Thing

We started our day off today by doing our bus evacuation drills. This put just a little bit of a delay on the start of our day, but safety is always more than worth the time. I always like seeing my fifth graders take the lead during bus evacuation days.

We worked on our memoirs, some pronouns (which can be a little trickier than you might think), grammar; we squeezed in a little Social Studies this afternoon, and in Math, we learned about pan balance problems. Tomorrow we'll turn it into full-blown algebra. (Okay, maybe pre-full-blown-algebra.)

Valentines were doled out, and it was an overall good day today in Area 51. I hope everyone has an awesome Valentine's Day.

Fat Tuesday

Whoops Sheets have been sent home along with the math tests. Today we talked about solution sets. I can't believe we are doing this as sixth grade math students, but these are the kinds of problems where the answers are sets of solutions, such as with the equation |g| = 4, the solution set would be g = {4, -4}. They took to this much better than I thought, but then again it's been awhile since math.

We made our Valentines Bags.

We started our vocabulary journals. We did a GCL. We read Qwerty Stevens.

The kids are also going to do a Social Studies packet this afternoon while I'm in a meeting.

That's all for now. Have a terrific Fat Tuesday!

Abacus

This afternoon, we tried to get through all the parts of the ISTEP practice test, but in fact we only got through half of them. Ugh. I have scheduled us for next Tuesday afternoon as well now. It shouldn't (shouldn't) take as long to get through the rest of them as it did the first two.

We highlighted the Social Studies notes we've taken so far. I told the kids to take them home and start studying for Friday's test.

We started new chapters in Language Arts and Math today--both were chapter six, actually.

It wasn't a bad start to the week. We got through what we needed to get through--well, except for the ISTEP part.

Hope you all have a great week.

Heart Shaped Box

Here is our class list for our Valentines. Remember: make sure you include everybody!

Connor
Amanda
Alexander
Ashley
Luke
Rafael
Wyatt
Hope
Dalila
Kenzie
Carson
Ava
Taiylor
Gaby
Michelle
Evelyn
Samuel
Cole
Cooper
Kiarra
Ally
Liam
Zachary

More to come; I just wanted to make sure I got this out there before it's really really too late. 

A Visitation of the Plague

I know that so many of you are very concerned that your child not miss any school, and I am truly appreciative of that. As a teacher, attendance is extremely important to your child's learning and keeping up with what we're doing in class.

That said, if your child is sick, please keep them at home. It hasn't been a problem this flu season, but I'm just trying to be proactive before it spreads even more than it has across Woodbrook. I spent this weekend feeling like garbage, and I know that I wouldn't have been in much shape for teaching. I know that your kids wouldn't get much out of being there if they're sick.

This was exactly the same week this happened last year. The flu knows when to attack--like clockwork.

Keep them healthy, and if they are sick, then send them back when they are feeling better.

Time Will Tell

Here's a heads-up for what's coming up this week in 5-1.

Monday should be a fairly normal day. Wait, there is one exception. Tomorrow afternoon after lunch, we will go down to one of the computer labs to do our practice ISTEP test. I will also send home a hard copy of class lists for Valentines tomorrow.

Tuesday: In the afternoon, I will be gone for the last hour or so of Fat Tuesday. No, I won't be leaving to celebrate Mardi Gras. I promise it's school-related!

Wednesday: We won't have a Valentine's party, but at the end of the day, we will have the kids open up their Valentines from each other. I plan to tell the kids tomorrow that if they bring one for anyone in the class, they have to bring for everyone!

Thursday: I cannot think of anything strange about Thursday. I'm sure the strangeness will come, though. I'll just give it a few days.

Friday: We will have a Social Studies test. Tomorrow and Wednesday, we will go through the kids' notes and highlight the things I will want them to be familiar with for it.

There's the skeleton of the week. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Neglected to Mention

Excuse my absence here on the blog. I've felt pretty cruddy all weekend, and I'm hoping I will be at 100% for tomorrow morning.

Here are some pictures from Colonial Days last week.

It was so much fun--and we square danced for a long time that afternoon, too. Thanks so much to Mrs. Elshire for heading it up this year, and also to Mrs. Zimmer, Mrs. Alderman, Mrs. Douglas, and Mrs. Reasoner for helping that day. Thanks for making it possible!