What does NWEA stand for?

Happy Hump Day! I can't believe this week is already half over! The first two weeks were supposed to be "easy" and I feel like I have been doing little in the classroom but I wouldn't describe this experience as exactly "easy". Maybe to see it as an adjustment phase would be a better description. I have normally been working 24-60 hours a week so I'm used to being away, but Teresa was a much less demanding audience I suppose. Well, most of the time at least.

We started our NWEA testing today. We have three different tests that the students must take. This one was reading and it was 43 questions. We had maybe half the class finish the test with the other half having to return another day to finish it. There was a good amount of "summer loss" but the kids did well overall and were completely spent academically when they were finished. I really think we could have had a naptime and most of them would have fallen asleep! We were in the library/technology room for over an hour walking around making sure the students were keeping on task and my feet were KILLING me by the time we were done. Oy- not the right day to choose to wear heels!
There are several "room changes" at our school this year. The state mandated that schools make kindergarten the full day in order for schools to receive full funding for those kindergarteners so Keystone went to full day kindergarten. Well, this is a problem because there was a need for two additional classes to accomodate those kindergarteners. The result is that the technology room was switched to a kindergarten room and technology merged with the library. Since NWEA testing used to happen in the technology room and the library (and those were now in the same place) they had to find another room to do testing in. The art room was the chosen room. I don't know why it was the art room, but it makes sense given it's located right next to the library/technology room and the the testing could be contained to one basic location in the building. Of course this means that the art teacher would be out of her classroom for three weeks (four times a year!) So starting this week, Mrs. Ball is the lovely Traveling Art Teacher with Art on a Cart!

Though I'm sure it isn't the easiest thing for her to do, she does it with a smile and is continuing on with her curriculum and teaching the kids like they are in the art room. Today our clas had art and she was teaching them how to do realistic drawing. She had them drawing faces and was teaching them about how to include pupils and how pupils dialate. The kids were loving her lesson and paying total attention even though they were in the classroom.

Today for the Daily Five we worked on building stamina and continued working on Read to Self. Tomorrow we will address the I-chart and get that going.

After school I met with RM and went over what I am going to do tomorrow for the lesson I am planning to teach about number sentences. I'm a little nervous about it but I suppose something would be wrong if I wasn't. Of course we have a visitor in the classroom at the time I am teaching so that will be an added stressor. She isn't there to observe me- she is there to observe the class-- but still! Hopefully my site supervisor doesn't decide to pop in at that time too--- that might just be too much pressure at once!