#projectchangemd

We officially have a little over a week left in the school year and instruction is winding down.  My 8th Graders are mentally checked out ready for summer and the excitement of High School that lies beyond.

The energy in the classroom is weird and wired. The students are all a bit squirrelly and ready for summer to officially be here.  And so it seems are most of the adults as well.

I’ve been oddly tired all this week, mentally dragging as the last few days seem to drag on.  And yet even through that fog of fatigue I cannot help but feel that sense of excitement that seems to be ever-present bubbling just beneath the surface.  We’ve just about made it to the end of another school year.

With everything going on in the larger world, this week has felt very disjointed.  On the one hand, I a glad our little school community for the most part seems to be isolated and feeling safe despite the troubling events unfolding on the world stage around Ukraine presently.

This has prompted the possible versus probable discussion. As students see everything going on in the larger world start to see all the possibilities for how things can go during what could be a modern war and then share what they are seeing and fearing with me.  One thing I have found productive and helpful is to break down with them the probability of those possibilities.

It in an odd way provides a way to help the students connect history and things that happened in the past that may seem very far away and distant to the present.  And it also helps by putting all these worrying things in perspective.  Which I believe benefits my-self as much as it does my students.

We made a push this week to remind the students that we are starting a fresh new marking period. And that they can make choices to keep or start doing things to help them be more successful.

We even used this idea with my 6th Graders to introduce the MyScore tool. And the results of that first MyScore check-in have been both informative and intriguing.

This has definitely been a week full of assessments. The end of the Quater tends to be that way of course. But it sure felt as if every class I am a part of had some kind of major Test or Assessment this week.

The 8th Graders’ test was on Monday. And then they had Tuesday and Wednesday to finish up those under-the-wire last-minute assignments. Tuesday was the day for the 6th Grade’s test since they needed to do their review on Monday. Thursday we had off. And Friday, while I was at training, kicked off the start of a brand new marking period.

The end is in sight and it’s clear the students can see it. We’ve been making that last push to encourage all assignments to get turned in so that they can be graded before the end of the Marking Period. Most students seem to at least on a surface level be responding well to this.

Of course, there are always a few individuals who seem to want to make completing any work into a fight or an argument. But I am making the choice to not focus on their desire to be negative as I try to redirect them to channel their energies into positive outcomes and choices.

This, of course, is not always easy. So far I have managed to keep my own frustration in check when working with the students. But there have definitely been a few moments with individuals that tested my resolve.

I keep repeating song lyrics to myself as a sort of mantra:

It’s been an interesting week on several levels.

While last week was the real rush to get things done for the end of the Quater this week is feeling more like the calm before something. Students are working, and grades are getting put in. It’s not quite the last week of the Quarter and not yet the start of something new.

I’ve also started working on the assignments for my Professional Development Course. Including having the kick-off Zoom Meeting which again felt like something in the calm before sort of space.

This week the students were working on some larger graded assignments. My 8th Graders were delving into primary and secondary source documents to make a conclusion about a historic event, the Boston Massacre, so that they would be ready to write an essay about that same event. And my 6th Graders got to start learning about Ancient Mesopotamia, real history, something they had been waiting weeks to get started on.

So for me, this week was a lot of reassuring, answering questions about 18th Century English Usage, helping with pronunciations of Ancient City State names, and the other nuts and bolts of hardcore learning taking place. It was wonderful seeing the students knowing they could come to me with their questions, confusion, and for assistance.

I also ended up taking on some meat and potatoes work of my own. I’m developing some extension videos driven by my 8th graders questions that I am super excited about. And I’ve signed up for a few Professional Development Courses as well.

We shepparded the students through a week-long session of state-mandated testing this week. It was a bit grueling and trying, yes. But I was determined to have a positive attitude about the process.

Whether adult or student, testing has a way of leaving you to feel drained. The students have to sit near-silent and still attempting to concentrate on their testing devices, their Chromebooks, for long stretches of time with minimal breaks while dealing with their anxieties about the test materials and their answers. We, teachers, monitor the room unable to provide the advice and guidance the students look to us for.

And then after all that, we are expected to go through a normal slate of classes on a shortened schedule. It’s no wonder that testing can put everyone on edge even under the best of circumstances. Of course with Testing that uses technology, there were glitches and issues, so it was not exactly the best of circumstances.