January 25 - In Service

Today was an in-service day. I'll just type it all out and hope that my paragraphs come at the right time.

Cheryl Nash gave the teachers, grades 3 to 7, three activities:

1. Cut up sample MCA test questions and divide them into categories. For LA groups, the categories were Vocabulary, Comprehension, and Literary.
2. As a grade-area group, write out the Top 5 "Outs" for students.
3. And then do so for the Top 5 "Ins".

I could go into minute detail about each of these activities, but, that would be too tedious and not fulfill my purposes for this blog/journal. Instead, I'll reflect on some of the highlights, as they were.

First, although I am only a ST, I found that these tests were not at all thought provoking, nor were they geared toward Northern MN students. I understand we must learn about species from other countries, but what 6th grader is going to find interest in a specifically named kangaroo or burrowing owl enough to comprehend why the author decided to write about them? I was not alone in this thought. Unfortunately, it seems some teachers have just decided to "go with it" because their "head banging" was only giving them headaches.

Second, most outs for each grade and area were different and aligned with the content area. For example, 5th Grade Math had an out of students understanding how to add and subtract fractions. Oh, I should say that an "out" is what we (teachers) have as a goal for students to know when they leave our classroom. One LA out had to do with understanding all the parts that make up a fictional short story. Seems reasonable to me. Listening to the thought processes of other LA teachers was wonderful because I finally found people who think like I do!

Third, all ins for all 6th and 7th grade content areas included the ability to write complete understandable sentences. This made my heart drop! I thought students were not to leave the 3rd grade unless they had mastered this - apparently not. Another odd thing was that each group thought they were being original with this request. There is a disconnect somewhere, but I'm just not sure where that is.

Working with other 6th Grade LA teachers gave me insight to the workings of their classes and some good ideas on presenting materials. One teacher uses a lot of animated Power Points to get the information to the students. I want to try that, instead of overheads. Amy does have an electronic board that may be useful, too.

During breaks, teachers from different grades and different areas talked about our activities. I did a lot of ease dropping to learn what other teachers thought middle school students did well, and what they could improve on. Some of these discussions helped the teams get a better handle on their outs.

So, aside from the frozen temperatures and the near blizzard, it turned out to be an interesting and productive day.