102 Review, 2017-3-26: 7 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO THIS WEEK

SPECIAL EDITION: THINGS YOU SHOULD DO

This week students in grades 3-8 will spend 3 days taking the state ELA exam. With fewer lessons to plan for some of us, here are some things you can do instead:

1. Take a 7-question quizto see how much you know about the worst myths of learning. It’s astonishing how much bad science are fed to teachers. You Professional Learning this week is to get a perfect score.
2. Spend $100 on ShopDOE.com. Ms. Wyckoff mentioned that while at Success Academy she was able to freely purchase supplies and rewards for students. Challenge accepted. All teachers, classroom or not, may put in a ShopDOE order immediately. Ms. Fremgen will reach out should there be a need to follow up. Middle school orders are due on the 27th, 3-5 the 28th, and everyone else the 29th.
3. Upload your Operation Thank You Videos to Vimeo.com. Our OTY websiteis almost done, and the last step before we publish it to the world is to add the actual videos. Upload videos to our school Vimeo account and be sure to include a brief description of your OTY mission and the name of the recipient. Use account: wko@ps102q.org, password: emerson102.
4. Look at Photos of our FFFFF. Ridiculous showing by the Fitness 7, and thank you Ms. Green for some Pete-sque photos!
5. Email Ms. O’Donnell to participate in the June carnival. We will have a carnival meet-up next week. More info to follow.
6. Marvel at Ms. Allen’s success with using Lexia. Only 2 out of her 60 students are not meeting Lexia usage, and as a result, 37% of her students are now above grade level. In September, that number was 0%.
7. Say, “I am excited”.Look, the only thing we can do now for students taking the test Tuesday is to help them prepare mentally. Let them know that when their hands get clammy and their stomaches get twisty, they should tell their brain to say, “I am excited” instead of “I am nervous”. Both emotions generate the same physical response, and it is just a matter of hacking your brain to believe it’s excited (an emotion that IMPROVES performing in test) rather than thinking it’s anxious (anxiety kills test-taking performance). Unlike learning styles, this is real science.