Wow things are crazy, busy right now for me! How about you? I know many of you have already wrapped up your school years and are currently enjoying your summer! Please relax a little for me too!
Right now I am in the midst of finishing up assessments with my students as we enter the last few weeks of school. I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything that is coming down the road.
Maybe some of you can help me?
New York State has a new APPR process that will begin for me starting next year. I will be learning how to write Student Learning Objectives (SLOs), which will be a part of my APPR. Do any of you out there have experience with the process? Any advice?
I will also be trained to use AIMSweb next week. This is a brand new assessment system for me and I would also love to hear your thoughts on it. Do you currently use it? Love it? Hate it?
Now for something completely unrelated,
It is used in my district, however many of my students are still starting their letters from the bottom. To help remind them where to start with their pencil, I placed stars at the starting place for each letter. I just updated this little pack to use with my students. It now includes a capital, lower case, and a mixed version for students to practice writing their letters in alphabetical order.
Click on the picture below to head to my original post:
We have a training in SLO's this August. UGH!!! I am not looking forward to these!
ReplyDeleteWe use AIMSweb. We started this year with the Reading part of it, now we are going to try the Math in the next couple weeks.
I think it gives a pretty accurate picture of the child (sometimes). It's only a minute though.
I would love to chat with you about all this.
❀Beth Ann❀
Taming My Flock of Firsties
bakteach16@gmail.com
When I taught kinder I used a little song to remind them where to start their letters. We made a HUGE deal out of the song at the beginning of the year, brainstormed hand movements to go with it, and I videotaped the class singing it and put it on my class website. They LOVED it and sang it when they were practicing their handwriting, completely unprompted! It was adorable. Here's the song:
ReplyDelete"Where do we start our letters? At the top!
Where do we start our letters? At the top!
When you want to write a letter then you better, better, better
remember to start it at the top!"
I kind of made up the tune as I went...I don't think it was similar to any of the usual tunes. Haha. Hope this is helpful!
-Lacey
Wild about Teaching!
We started using AIMSWeb as a district this past year. I like the fact that it's computerized and you can create and print a bunch of different reports to show your data. The drawbacks are that it is only a minute, and in Kinder (which is what I taught last year) you jump from just letter naming in the fall to letter naming, letter sounds, phoneme segmentation and nonsense words for your mid year, There is also an issue with little ones tracking a whole page of letters. If you have any other questions let me know I would love to share.
ReplyDelete✪ Miss W
Miss W Teaches
My district has been using Aimsweb for a few years now. It is a quick assessment and you can generate a lot of date from it. However, because it is a timed assessment, the kids that work slower than others don't always do as well. Sometimes a top reader will score on the low end because their responses are just slower. We use our data to form our RTI groups.
ReplyDeleteConnie:)
www.welcometofirstgraderoom5.blogspot.com
Hi there! We did all of the APPR this year in BC. I can fill you in on the details. It is a lot of data collection. We also received info about the SLO's. BC is also going to use AIMSweb next year. I guess we will get training over the summer.
ReplyDeleteI use Handwriting Without Tears too. I have a cd with a cute song for handwriting and starting letters at the top. If you want I can burn it for you and give it to you at the upstate meet-up. See you soon - only a few weeks left!!!
Allison
Thanks for the info ladies! Now that you mention the songs, I believe my K teachers have the cds, so I will have to see if I can also get a copy of them!
ReplyDeleteI will be trained on Monday and Tuesday on AIMSweb. Unfortunately my district does not have the money in the budget to pull us in over the summer, so they are trying to get all training in now. I am happy to hear positive things about the assessments, but know it will not be the be all and end all when it comes to assessing them.
@Allison-I would LOVE to pick your brain about SLOs!!
I draw little poles at the beginning of the lines and a little firefighter for their pencils. Firefighters can't go up the pole, they have to go down. I love the idea of the songs. It seems no matter what we do sometimes that habit is just impossible to break, even with something like the "e" that seems so awkward to me to go from the bottom up. :)
ReplyDeleteNotJustChild'sPlay
Ugh handwriting is my arch nemesis with my kinders! It just seems that it never gets better! Lol
ReplyDeleteI'm your newest follower! I hope you'll check out my new "manly" blog!
Greg
Www.kindergartensmorgasboard.blogspot.com
Welcome to blogging Greg! I will definitely check out your blog!
DeleteDoes anyone have a SLO written for third grade using AIMSweb as the pre-assessment and the 3rd grade ELA assesment for the summative assessment? lragonese71@gmail.com
ReplyDelete