Lesson Learned: School is out next week! :oP

OK-I survived STAR testing! You will not believe how it's set up. The manual comes with a complicated set of instructions on how to pack up the stuff. It has to be in a special order, and if it's wrong, you get called in to redo it. Luckily, they didn't call me in!

Hmmmm.....what else? Well, we're basically gearing up for Summer. The kids go through promotions next week, and they're finally getting excited about it and the end of the year. (As teachers, we've felt "the end is near" since spring break.) Historically, the district has not held anyone back, so everyone graduates, but in order to go through all the pomp and circumstance you have to have enough credits and have some level of behavior. Tomorrow the principal wants our "F" lists. Some of these kids won't be walking the line next week, and a few have now realized that nothing they can do can change that. Tomorrow is also the day set for "8th grade Fun Day" where they hang out, listen to music, and have a chance to win prizes for a couple of hours. I've agreed to be the detention room. Since these kids will have no motivation to do any work, I thought I'd try to expose them to a little culture. In other words, these kids will be trapped in a room and forced to watch A&E's "Pride and Prejudice." Hahaha! I'll love it, they'll squirm and hate it, but maybe it'll do some good. At least, it'll make me feel good.

On the other hand, I have seen some kids work very hard these last couple of weeks on their final projects. They are researching an astronomy topic of their choosing. Not only that, they had to create the questions and find the answers. They have all worked so hard. My team wishes that we had given them more time for this assignment. And, it would have been nice if they had done more essays during the year.