This week at school was the mid-year district writing assessment. It is a mandatory writing test that all students 6-12 must take. They are given two days to write a story. The first day is a first draft day, followed by a the final draft day. Each day students are given 60-90 minutes to write their stories. As you might imagine, it’s not very well liked by students. Our students don’t love to write. For whatever reason, it’s a real challenge for them. This year, I gave my exam to middle school students. The students in my class took it pretty well, only a few complainers. However, students who miss either days have to make it up the following days. So, in reality, our two day assessment was really four days. During the makeup days my room was used for students who completed their writing assessment in the time allotted. This meant that I had some students for two periods straight, and some students not at all. It was stressful trying to figure out was to do in class. I tried to hold class as normal (or at least somewhat normal) and teach with both classes present. We’re learning about the history of the Hebrews in my Ancient World History class, so we were making foldables with facts about the various Hebrew leaders with construction paper. This worked for a while, but kids will be kids and their attention span only lasted so long. Luckily, they all have computers and were ecstatic to have some “free” time to play games. I was just happy for peace and quite! :)


This week I start up classes for my Spring 2013 semester at Boise State University Masters program. I am taking two classes that are a little nerdier than last semester. I’m taking Intro to Network Administration and Managing Technology Integration in Schools. Both are classes that are in an area that I am not super familiar. At the end of the semester, however, I will be certified in Network Administration, which will be helpful when I apply for jobs.
