What We're Learning this Week (April 30 - May4, 2012)

On Monday and Tuesday we continued to prepare for testing. Monday we practiced writing short answer questions and live scored them so that we could see what good and not-so-good responses looked like.

On Wednesday we start testing! Our testing schedule for the week looks like this:

Wednesday, May 2 - Reading Part A & Reading Part B

Thursday, May 3 - Reading Part C; Math Part A

Friday, May 4 - Math Part B & Math Part C; Social Studies Part A (This day will be killer :( )

I Just HAVE to Brag! :)

So... although Ms. Deaton and I were really nervous about taking on the daunting task of being the sole teachers responsible for 85 students' Reading and Math grades, the entire grade level, when we were asked to move up to 5th grade this year, we did it anyway, because we had faith in our students. We knew we had a smart, HARD working crew this year. So before our K-PREP testing begins, I thought I should brag just a little on our kids. This week and last Ms. Deaton and I had our final Math and Reading grade level meetings concerning Spring MAP scores. And, did you know that as a grade level, 5th grade at OES is 73% PROFICIENT in Math and 73% PROFICIENT in Reading according to NWEA guidelines. Guys, this is just a little pre-testing shout-out... Ms. Deaton and I are UNBELIEVABLY proud of you and we know that you're going to kick the K-PREP's butt! Keep up the great work and make us proud! :)

What We're Learning this Week (April 23-27, 2012)

This week, we've dedicated the entire week to preparing for testing. On Monday and Tuesday we used clickers and white boards to answer random Math questions Ms. Goldy gave us. We practiced answering questions from all 6 units that we have covered this year, everything from fractions to coordinate grids to order of operations. Although test prep can often be boring, we had fun because we got to use the clickers and made it a competition among ourselves. 

What We're Learning this Week (April 16-20, 2012)

On Monday we took our weekly quiz that we missed Friday due to our BCMS orientation visit. After taking our quizzes, we trade and live score our papers so we can instantly see our results. Then, Ms. Goldy makes us close our eyes and put our heads down so we can't see anyone else's score, while she records them on the board. From here, we do our weekly data analysis, which includes finding the range, mode, median and mean. 

After we find our mean class score, we graph it so that we can not only compare our score from week-to-week, but also compare our class results to the other three 5th grade classes. 

On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we prepared for testing. On Tuesday we worked on Open Response questions, modeling how to correctly restate the question asked, give a clear answer and then use evidence (our work) and explanations to score a proficient or distinguished score. On Wednesday and Thursday we took mock KPREP Part C tests to help us prepare. Although it wasn't exactly the same, we had to answer 6 multiple choice, 1 short answer and an open response in 30 minutes, a task that proved to be difficult because of the short amount of time. On Friday, we worked with partners to review concepts we've learned all year long. Testing time is quickly approaching us and we're doing what we can to be as prepared as possible!

What We're Learning this Week (April 8-13, 2012)

Spring Break was a great mental rest for the mind. When we came back, we were ready to finish our last remaining few weeks. On Monday and Tuesday, we worked with partners on our Numerical Expressions Clock. Only using four 4's, we had to create numerical expressions to fit each hour of the clock, numbers 1-12. It was a challenging task, especially creating expressions for 10 and 11. We whined, complained, argued, said it was too hard, couldn't be done, and that it was impossible. Ms. Goldy just smiled and laughed and said "Yes it can!" We got frustrated. We got mad. But we didn't give up. The only help Ms. Goldy would give us was to remind us to use brackets, braces, and parentheses, the correct order of operations and remember our exponents and square roots. When she offered 10 bonus points to the first person to correctly solve for 10, we finally started rolling in the answers. Even though this project was hard and challenged us, it  required us to think and we LOVED it. Ms. Goldy said her favorite part was hearing all the "OH, OH, I GOT IT's!" :)

Our Proficiency Board with some of our wonderful projects.

On Friday, we began the day by walking to the Bath County Middle School for our 6th grade orientation. There we got to meet the assistant principal Ms. Back, the guidance counselor Ms. Lewis, and many of the teachers we will have next year as 6th graders. We got to tour the school, go through lunch, and rotate to get a quick overview of what it will be like at BCMS. We are super excited to be a part of BCMS next school year. 

When we returned from BCMS we finished up the kickball tournament that we started before Spring Break, as part of our MAP incentive. Ms. Goldy's class beat Ms. Joseph's class with a final score of 7-2 to win the championship! 

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View our proposal: http://www.donorschoose.org/jessica.goldy

Tips to help our project:

1. After entering a donation amount, on the review screen, click the link that says "optional 15% donation". Change the 15% to 0% and click "save", as this will allow 100% percent of what is donated to go directly to our project, as opposed to helping fund the site. 

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