Etch 'n Sketch Reflections

Well, if I thought some of my other weeks of school this year were interesting, then this one definitely takes the cake. Let's actually rewind to last Friday. Last week was my week of meetings, and it ended with an IEP meeting for one of my students during the last hour of the day. Just before the meeting began, there was an email sent out explaining that the students would be taking their Chromebooks home (they usually stay at school) as a precaution for school closings. At that time, it had not yet been determined that our school would be closed, though there were some other districts in the state that had closed school. With about 10 minutes left in the school day, one of my colleagues came into the meeting and explained our students were going to be returning from their specials early so that we could explain everything about the Chromebooks. The students were obviously in a tizzy, full of questions about what was happening and if we were going to have school this week. I could...

That is literally the best way to describe this week. I honestly can't remember the last time I had this many meetings in one week! Monday brought about a surprise meeting right away in the morning. One of my 5th-grade colleagues was sick on Monday morning and was supposed to attend a 504 meeting before school. A 504 plan, for those of you not in the education world, addresses ways that schools will support students with disabilities that aren't part of a special education program. There are any number of reasons as to why students might qualify for a 504 plan--some examples are students with ADHD or cases of anxiety. The 504 plan then lays out strategies that the students can use or accommodations that staff can put in place in order to help the student be more successful. So, one of the school counselors came into my room and explained the situation. What made things more interesting was the fact that I was currently in charge of watching about 35 students during Peaceful St...

And you know what that means...it's almost Saturday. I'm really looking forward to sleeping in. My body needs it. I can't say that it was an incredibly hectic week, but it was just a hodgepodge of a week. Getting to the bottom of some student behaviors was probably the most tiring (as it usually is). The one really nice thing about the week was that science was pretty consistent (in terms of what the students were working on) for the whole week. The first 3 days were pretty much research and preparation for constellation presentations to be given today and tomorrow. That meant lesson planning for the week was easy. Most of my week during science was spent checking in with students and the progress of their projects. The only frustrating part of it was some students not taking advantage of using the recommended resources that I had shared with them. I'm not really sure how many times I repeated the phrase, "Well, if you go to THIS website that I have included in the...