Movie Assessment (Follow-Up)

Here's a follow-up to my previous post - I present...the assessment!

It's far from perfect, but I think it will work (especially at this point of the school year)...

Three report card standards from one movie - woo hoo! This make me think it's okay to spend a week of class time on one film & its related assessment. (Not only is it a great movie, but the assessment will provide a substantial amount of scores for the students' report cards...)

Score!

A Bit of a Mixer-Upper

At this point of the year (with or without consideration of the unending snow/cold), the kiddos are a bit...hmm...Shall we say...no...How can I put this nicely?...Well, let's just face the facts - they're bonkers with no real outlet for all that energy.

What's a poor teacher to do?

Carrying on as usual is certainly not an option. (Not if you want to keep your sanity.)

It's been time to dig deep and get those creative juices flowing - what's going to be relevant to these kids? What's going to make them want to put in the time and effort?

You know you're in for it when your announcement to the class that they will be doing independent projects meets with a choruses of "oh man"s and "another assessment?"s. (Sometimes they don't even let you finish your sentence. Sheesh.) But then I kept going - the students were going to do a bulletin board design contest that features the three pillars of Lent. (As I told them, anyone who comes into our room should be able to tell from your bulletin board what Lent is really all about - and I should also be able to tell .)

One of the students piped up, "Wait? That's our project? I LOVE you," and then proceeded to lead the class in a short cheer/clap. (Later, I found out she was very proud of her cheer.)

Maybe she saw the relevance? Or maybe she liked the idea of some creative freedom?

Who knows...

What I do know is that, for the most part, all 19 (one was absent) students were focused and were working the whole time. I haven't scored the projects yet, so I don't know how well they applied their knowledge, but I'm crossing my fingers that they made this assessment count. Only time will tell.

And then, it will be on to the voting for and making of the best bulletin board design. (I love it when the kids do all the work...the only downside is we won't have the bulletin board up for conferences. Should have timed that better - oops...)

We're Tuesday People...

Saturday was not a very productive day. After I went to the gym, I did manage to do 2 loads of laundry, but then I spent over 3 hours of my time watching the rest of Downton Abbey Season 4. (Don't worry, I won't put any spoilers here. I'll just say that it was really good.)

I believe it was time well-spent...it just didn't really fulfill any purpose except pure entertainment.

Later on (but before the trivia fundraiser event for my sister's school), I previewed the made-for-tv movie, Tuesdays with Morrie, in preparation for using it in my 6th grade class later this week to discuss some topics of aging, death, and dying. Though the book is definitely better, I think the movie will do just fine.

So, this morning I had a mission - to design a mini reflection assessment (to accompany the movie) based on our report card standards (SBRC). I hope it will provide the students with an opportunity to take what they've seen and what we've discussed and reflect on, ultimately, the meaning of life (and what we can learn from those who have gone before us).

Actually, I got quite a lot done today - went to the gym, developed two assessments, & read the rest of the Pope Benedict book for Thursday's group meeting. The only thing I absolutely have to do later is go to Mass, but there are still a few work-ahead things I could do to stay on the ball (and keep my sanity) for school.