Yes it's been a while. I have been very busy, as teachers always are. They are implementing "data driven assessment" in my school. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's using test scores to direct and focus instruction. At least that's how they're using it in my school. So, all the classes are taking exams to see where they are in Language Arts and Mathematics. What they hope to do is concentrate instruction on the problem areas. If the students are struggling with vocabulary, then the tests will reveal that, so we can work on their vocabulary. I think it sounds like a good idea. We got the idea from another charter school (I think it's called Northstar), and it's working well for them.
Anyway, so that was another load of work for us at my school. Because we had to administer and grade the exams. And it was time consuming. But what annoyed me the most was that they emailed us to tell us that "it should take you no longer than 20-30 minutes to grade." Well it took me 2 hours. And it came in a week where 2 hours was a big deal for me. Also, I had to fly to Puerto Rico for a funeral. I missed 3 school days, I was there for 5 days. By the way, just in case you didn't know, Ponce, Puerto Rico is hot in October.As far as our class goes, while in Puerto Rico, I joined a group for our the WebQuest project. Everything is going well. The ladies got it started, and it looks like my role for this particular project will be more on the technical and visual areas. We're using a site called www.Zunal.com, and it's a pretty good webquest site. They have the format set out for you so a lot of the work is already done.
I would recommend it for anybody in class who still may be looking for a site to host their webquest. Ours centers around getting our students to create a canoe tour for the Mississippi River. It's due this coming week, so you'll get a chance to see it. If for some reason anybody is interested. On a similar, somewhat funny note, my web quest work has been making me think of Deliverance . . .
