So it’s that time of year. Testing season. I’ve got one word for that- yuck. While my firsties don’t take a state test like the STAAR test, that doesn’t mean we let them off free. Nope. We give them the ITBS- Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Unfortunately for my kiddos, it will last until Thursday and we started yesterday. We have several sections to get through. It’s tough work on these kiddos but it’s something we’ve gotta do. Sorry babies! So due to all this, here’s what my classroom looks like for this week:
Thank you panorama feature on the iPhone! I didn’t cover my calendar wall until Monday because I use old bed sheets as that’s easier to cover what I’ve got as well as remove if I have a chance to do my calendar routine. Here’s what it looked like covered:
Not a very pretty view is it? End of the week. Then I put my room back to normal.
Interesting thought though…After testing Monday, I was talking with other teammates and we got onto the subject of how many times we circled our room and we jokingly wondered how far we walked just during the testing period. Since we have to actively monitor the kids, this means we’re on our feet the whole time moving around the room. So I decided to pull out my trusty pedometer and see just how much distance I covered. So I clipped it on this morning before leaving the house and away we went. Here’s a shot of its reading when I went to close my door with my testing sign out to officially start my testing time:
Here is what it read when I went to open my door to take my sign down, officially marking the end of my testing time:
(Sorry for the fuzzy pictures- weird angle.) The difference- 295 steps, which equals (all according to my pedometer so this is all approximate) 0.093 miles, which equals 10.7 calories burned. I shared this with my doormate and we agreed that we burned way more than that Monday because we tested for a lot longer time. So I’ve decided to continue logging my steps throughout this testing week to see just how much I move in that room. I always suspected that I burned more calories than I thought in a work day as I hardly get to sit down. And even when I do sit down I’m working so I don’t even get to enjoy it consciously. So I’ll keep you posted on my steps taken each day.
But rather than do a blog post each day for that, you could just check in with me on… Facebook! Yep! Mrs. Landry’s Land of Learning has a page! I’m excited about this and would love to have some likes! Go here to see the page and join up!
I’ve gotten new math stations going and I got pictures together on them so I’ll be posting about those as well. My reading stations need some help though. I’ll be working on those big time during this testing week as we’re not teaching a formal reading lesson due to time constraints. By Monday I hope to be back on track with all that and ready to roll.
After this week the end of year testing continues for me as we will be starting TPRI (Texas Primary Reading Inventory) and then DIBELS, ending with AimsWeb Math assessment. I can’t believe we have less than 2 months to go…Time flies!
Happy Teaching!
Mrs. Landry's Land of Learning 