Missing a Test? Problem or Opportunity? Part 2

Now there are other weird cases of missing tests. Here are a few, and what I've seen as solutions.

Case 1. The student has lost the test.
I've met students who couldn't keep their shirt on frontwards. It happens. The tests are collected. I cound the tests. John's test is missing. I ask him about it. He fumbles around in his over stuffed backpack. He starts disassembling his desk, heavily strewn with various books, papers from last year and today's lunch. In this case, I look into his bespectacled, foggy eyes and gently say, "Let's schedule a retake. Tomorrow.".

Case 2. The student has possibly deliberately lost the test.
This student is struggling in my class. She offers the chance to make up the test, "tomorrow". I pull out an extra test. I hand it to her. I say, "Today. I know you've been studying all weekend. I don't want to put you under more stress." I direct her to the library, with a note to the librarian that this student must turn in their test to her, and that this student already has lost a test in my classroom.

Case 3. The student has taken the test home. On accident.
I didn't count all my tests back. Perhaps the bell has rung and everyone is anxious to leave. He returns the next school day with the test, a bit sheep-faced, "Here is my test." I graciously accept the test and quietly explain, under the circumstances, the test is marked a "zero". I offer an opportunity to take an alternate, make-up test the very next day. In some cases, as in a quiz - because I usually have a large number of quizzes upon which the grade is based - , I do not offer the make up quiz but console myself it's a lesson learned for both of us.

Caes 4. The student has taken the test home. On purpose?
It's hard to say if it was on purpose or not, even if the student is struggling. In the case of the "in the classroom", it's slightly more plausible to believe that the student may be hiding their test somewhere. Unless of course your classroom has a test vortex, and students sometimes trip over it on their way to turn in their test. However, whether or not the student is trustwortthy cannot be taken into account when the test goes home because, I think, it's hard to attribute forgetfulness or sneakiness in an instance where you, the teacher, aren't in control of the environment. It could have gone out the door, been lost on the playyard, the bus, the park, at home, at a neighbor's, at a parent's.... too many options. Yes, it could have been lost.
In the classrom, between their desk and my desk? No way.
In this case, I offer a make up as if it was case 1.

My mother in law (a retired educator) has advised me to grade the students at least once a week. If you are doing that, you give yourself sufficient flexibility to drop or excuse a missing test or quiz once in awhile without greatly affecting a student's grade. More validation for the Friday test day!

Happy teaching.

Missing a Test? Problem or Opportunity? Part 1

This is a continuation of my missing test pain. I've misplaced tests before. I've also had students show up on Monday with their test, they've accidentally taken home over the weekend. Both are miserable situations.


Based on experience, I've developed several options. I'll list them for you, and the reasons I made certain decisions in case you might need a bit of a insight or inglorious sympathy.


Scenario 1.:
I've misplaced the test. I've searched high and low and it's nowhere to be found. I've made a serious effort to find it; I've turned over filing cabinets. After being sufficiently exhausted, I have come to reflect on what do I do now?


Choice A: Have the student retake the test. This appears to be fair after explaining to the student that for some unearthly reason his or her test is not in the collected pile. This is excruciating to the dedicated student who had spent hours preparing for the test. This is a mild surprise for most others. Be sensitive to the difference.


The key here I think is to rapidly offer the choice: not wait for a week or more. The material studied is slipping from their mind, and they won't be on top of the tested items as before. This is especially true if you have moved onto another subject.


I also think it's appropriate to offer a choice of retake dates. This permits the student time to review their notes and to work around other possible tests. I always assume the student cares about doing well. In the opposite case, if I slam them through an immediate re-take, I am setting them up for a stressful fail. Is that really fair? When you've misplaced the test, that you now put them in a perilous position? Also look at it from a parent's point of view: "You lost the test. Now you're freaking out over my son retaking this test with no prep time?".


Choice B: Have the student take an alternate test. Careful with this one. It appears to be an easy solution, but how appropriate is it? For example, offering an essay response when the class has prepared for a multiple choice test. Does the alternate test cover all the same material which the class has studied? You have to review the test. If you have a good series of textbooks, sometimes this isn't a problem but you must be diligent about testing this student on the same playing field as his classmates.


Choice C: If a lot of time has passed, say a week or more, you have the choice of excusing the test. This may work as a one time option. You might have a few tests coming up. You might have several quizzes on the same material already done. The missing test may not affect this student's grades very much at all. It depends.

Overall, I want to also state that the class still needs to review the test. In the past, I've held onto a test review "until everyone has taken the test". But you know what? That's silly. The material needs to be reviewed when it is fresh in the mind of the class. Now, when a student has to retake a test (for an absence, for example), I send them out of my classroom to another classroom or the library and I review the test with the class. The student who is making up the test will not have the review day, unless I personally sit down with them and review it with them. Sometimes it has worked where the student actually takes the test while at the library, when I am reviewing the test with the class. If the student isn't taking the test, I keep everyone honest and to avoid temptation, I collect the tests back after being reviewed, until all students have finished taking the test.
...To be continued

Things that make you go... oh.

You've been there: I know.

I was working on this series of lessons on crystal formation with the class for about two weeks. It'd taken me about twice as long to actually plan the lessons out, so I was mentally engaged for about six weeks.

We studied crystals in Science, and then unsuccessfully made sugar and salt solutions for crystals. Two weeks later, I still do not have the crystals. I think my proportions may have been wrong, but I'm giving them more time over Christmas break to form. At least that's my hope. They may end up being more green with mold than sparkly when we return. I'm tempted to run out and buy rock candy... but I am resisting. I want to have an authentic learning experience for them.

Thank goodness for Twenty Mule Team Borax. We made SUPER crystals out of that and hot water in an overnight soak. You ought google it and try it out with your classes.

Anyway, so my hidden little 'secret' was that I was going to give the class 'snowflake' ornaments for a Christmas gift. I had gotten them on clearance last year and I just wanted it to be a cute, fun surprise. I had shared giggles about this with a parent and two teachers and felt confident it was going to go over BIG. Really HUGE.

The last week of school I gave a firm, serious lecture on the formation of crystals from Isopropyl Alcohol (to sound fancy and I knew the three drops would dry up quickly) and a special iridescent glitter. Oooo. We were excited. We liked the success of the Borax and we were looking forward to creating more crystals (unlike the weak sugar or salt solutions). I had thought I had made it 'obvious' enough because part of my recipe's instructions were to blow into a plastic bag and wish for "peace" during the holiday season. In fact, when students questioned me, I replied, hey I tried it without the word "peace" over the weekend, and it didn't work so "peace" was required. (Snort.)

The following morning, with the help of three angelic parents who were in on the secret, their plastic bags were stuffed with the ornaments. The rubbing alcohol had dried up, the ornaments had glitter on them, so my additonal glitter was NOT a big deal. In fact, I thought, it made a nice little sparkle-puff when the bag was opened.

The students opened their bags... and there... was... a big... nothing. Blink. Blink.

"It didn't work".

"Yes, it did."

The students looked at each other.

One student chuckled. "It's made in China. We made crystals all the way from China!" Her little giggle permitted others to smile.

"It didn't work Mrs. Austin". One other student, Disappointed, insisted and frowned slightly.
"Yes, it did."
"But ..." She pulled out her ornament and showed me the packaging. "It has cardboard."
I paused for a moment, staring deeply into her liquid, doe-eyes. Helloooo? I mentally said to her. Aloud, I repeated. "It worked. It did." I leaned forward. "Even the cardboard grew out of the solution. " I paused for effect. Then I whispered, "You have to believe."
"Oh." A light glimmered across her face. "Oh." She smiled.

All that work. Six weeks. I get an "Oh".

Oh... oh, well.

Teaching During Christmas Season

Oh, I'm so done with Christmas! I realize it's next week, but it's been Christmas since December 4th here. The students are just adrift, plodding giggles of zombies. It's a bit mortifying since I am in a Catholic private school, and I should be a bit more... respectful.

I also find myself, four years into this now, a bit more tolerant of their silliness. I mean, I've come to believe they sincerely cannot help themselves. It's as adults when we learn how to tone down our enthusiasm and exhuberance for the sake of maturity and a trade off for say, that promotion. Right now, these are glum adults in training, and they haven't worked off their energy yet. However, they also need to learn the ageless skill of appropriate behavior, so between warnings and the occasional consequence, the students and I are dancing the careful dance of holiday madness. How to enjoy the season without actually enjoying it ... too much, where I'm forced to go into correction-mode. I mean, it's no picnic calling parents and scheduling conferences. The goal is to shape and guide energy, not snuff it.

I've said this before and as usual, I've not listened to my own wisdom. I need to plan less tests and more projects during this time of cheer. It is an opportunity to do a different type of assessment, appeal to a student's artistic or other skills, rather than drill and kill. But it's also a blend of two needs: a professional neccesity of a wide range of assessment styles, to capture all sides of a student's abilities, and a logical approach to heighten student engagement when their attention is being pulled away by so much tinsel and fake snow.

My best Plan B approach right now is to slow down, teach a concept very, very well; and reward my students' good behavior with a bit of movie or craft time. Switching up the subject is useful, too, for capturing their attention. For example, in math, a natural leap is geometry. Children find geometry interesting when it is explained well, and especially if they have a chance to use their hands, as in tangrams or blocks or drawings. For Social Studies, creating the art of ancient civilzations is an exciting change. Science is always a big draw, and if you have the opportunity, experiments and labs which do cool things, like crystals, give you an excuse to pull out the old lab coat.

I've started and probably over this coming break fulfill my promise to myself to organize my idea cabinet. From my catering management days, I've used a calendar drawer system, where events were filed according to date. I've a plan to set up one file drawer in a similar way so that when December rolls around next year, I'll be better prepared with my ideas. I also can tuck new ideas away by holiday.

My flex plan right now is to teach very, very well; and then pop in a movie like "It's a Wonderful Life" when the lesson is over. That is a no-plan which works.. Over a week's time, the children are enjoying the excuse to watch a movie which has an excellent message, and I can utilize the first half of the class for a good lesson on protractors.

Merry Christmas... Break!

Test Anxiety of the Teacher Kind

Okay, now I've done it for the millionth time and I am writing to help you avoid the same pitfall: please count your tests.

This the scenario: the week has been busy, perhaps a holiday week with plenty of school activities to boggle your mind, and your students are taking their test. It's most likely the only test you can get out of them during December, because it's all "vacation mind set" from here on out. You note two absent students. No problem. You've noted this because you've marked their name on the two remaining tests you have. Making copies in the exact number (plus one - for teacher or key) that you need is absolutely essential to identifying quickly any missing students. Ahhh. You breathe easily. You tuck away the collected tests, determined to grade them over the weekend.

Sunday night: you are poring over their tests, making little notes, feeling quite the teacher when suddenly, you feel odd... a little prickly feeling. You mentally swat it away. Later in the evening, when inputting, you gasp: you're missing FOUR students. What happened to the two additional tests?

No matter what: count your tests when they come back in. Plan on this time by cutting off the test time by ten minutes before the end of the period. This allows for collecting and counting. Most of the time, I've noticed, this cut off of ten minutes does not dramatically affect the outcome of my A B C or D or other students. But it helps prevent **groan** retakes and re-grades and the occasional sobbing student who is convinced that some other student stole (!) her test.

In these instances, I've chosen to re-test (if an alternate test form is available) or to give the student the option of a pure essay or a pure mutiple choice test. My goal is to ensure they've been tested according to the standards and they don't feel penalized in the rare... but entirely possible.. situation where the teacher has lost their test between work and home. BLEH.

Just count your tests. Thanks.

Homework... is it really necessary?

Over the last three years, I've come to reconsider homework as a tool for reinforcement. Wow, what a revelation you say? Well, not for all of us. I've made many mistakes and observed mistakes made by other teachers.

Homework is sometimes assigned by teachers because the "lesson wasn't finished". This is an okay assignment, but the extreme is when the lesson hasn't been reviewed or practiced at all in class, with the teacher hoping the students will basically "learn it on their own". For example, "Read Chapter 13 and answer the questions on page 100". There is no purpose in this other than collecting more mind stuff, stuff for the students to recall or remember on a test. I suppose you could argue that is what school is about, learning "stuff" for the test, but I'd like emphasize that school can and should be about learning how to "think" versus collecting mental notes.

Homework is sometimes assigned to teach a skill. For example, writing a good paragraph. However, you can't teach skills at home. Skills must be taught first in the classroom. Then reviewed by peers or the teacher.

Homework is assigned to give the students ... homework. Well, I've seen that a lot and homework for the sake of "having something to take home" is the worst treatment of the homework opportunity that you can have.

I gained the insight that homework isn't necessary for students to learn something. You can lead a lesson, gather participation, ask for reflection, review answers, all in class, without giving them a worksheet to go home. This is a welcome relief for both students and teachers (and parents!), during this current storm of "learn the standards, choke them down, spit them out" approach in education.

A teacher has to decide what her or his purpose for homework in the first place before deciding to assign it.

In math, homework is nearly everyday to practice skills taught in class or to review skills previously taught. In science, I assign only homework if the work "isn't finished in class", and I make that an achievable goal. Since I check science homework only once a week, the students who actually have homework are those who "decide they love it". (This is a joke: most students, after seeing their friends have no science homework, get it done more quickly and in class.) I assign one or two questions from Social Studies. For both Science and Social Studies, my homework is for reinforcement.

I've recently required outlining the chapter in Social Studies. We read the chapter in class and students can either outline in class or at home. The outlines are modeled in class, and I've checked them for completion. Eventually I will, I think, not check them at all, because the purpose for outlining has been establised by the students themselves. After a test, I get affirmation from the class that the outlines "were a great help in preparing for the test". Students who aren't doing it start to make an effort to outline. The beauty of the outline assignment is that I'm not perusing for details, just "done" or "not done". I stamp their notebooks while they work out of the book, at the beginning of class. Easy peesy. I feel very good about this because this is a cross curricular skill.

Another approach I have for Science and Social Studies is, once in awhile, instead of "traditional homework", I've planned out "projects", which represent what they've gained out of a Chapter or possibly two chapters. I write up a rubric for the project and then they turn it in. It provides variety for them and for me. I think this is best about progress report time, because report cards at my school take up a lot of effort and is very timeconsuming. I've not yet done the same for math, but I hope to do so in the future.

The broadest support for homework is that it is a assessment of work habits. When homework is pertinent, doable, and essentially, light (two - very important - questions, 20 math problems, written paragraph response to a textbook experiment)... then the actual skill being taught and being assessed is the skill of responsibility.

And that, my friends, is what school and homework is really about.

I need help, and I've got sixty opportunities

Well, in class of 30 children, that is, I've sixty helping hands. Originally I thought it was somehow unethical to "use" my students to do "my work". But over time I've come to realize that there is a lot that needs to be done, and which don't cross privacy lines. For example, many children love to help. They like to feel needed, which in turn, makes their self esteem go up. Combine that with minor items around the classroom (sweeping, straightening books, keeping doors closed or open, lights on or off) is a win-win situation for teacher and student. The trick is managing their energy so that their focus is still on learning, and not being eager to help. There is still that mythology around the ten year old mind that the teacher who likes you, will pass you.

First, establish your basic system. For me, this is the hardest. Being in a non-self contained classroom, I don't have the luxury of keeping my children with me for most of the day. I have them for forty minutes and so I can only deal with immediate things. I've resolved this by assigning jobs to 'chairs', not students. For example, the chair nearest the phone answers the phone (this may not be appropriate in your school... please check with your administration). The two chairs nearest the front and center aisle are my paper collectors. The chair nearest the lights handles the lights, etc. The second nearest is the "back up" in case of an absence. Therefore when the class shifts from sixth grade math to seventh grade math, I am not reassigning jobs. I know, and the students know, who does what. Of course, this now makes seating charts and a regular system of changing seats more important, but more on that at another time.

Paper passing, and paper collecting are favorites of teachers, but I encourage to 'kick it up a notch' by a) assigning each of your students a number and b) having a student sort papers by number after being collected. You may assume that requesting alphabetizing by your student is enough, but trust me, for most children, even though they may be in sixth grade, sorting by number is FAR easier than determining between Zymowski and Zymewkowich. This tiny effort greatly speeds up my inputting of my grades.

If you can have a mailbox system for returning papers, all the best to you. A student who is in charge of filing will enjoy this job more if your boxes are numbered according to student number, and the sorted papers (which you've already inputted) are paper clipped and in order for sorting.
Another minor job students like to do is marking a big yellow highlighter X on papers. I do this when I am done inputting papers, so I know I've seen them and they are ready to be returned.

A regular basket for office mail is essential, as we know. Establish someone near the basket to ensure that it's empty ALL the time. I've gotten in trouble before for not rushing up required payments to the office fast enough or I've waited a day before noticing a note that was urgent to the office in the basket. If you're feeling risky, you can inform your office chair that they can leave ANYTIME, if they request permission from you first. This freedom of leaving (after informing you) is exciting and considered a treat. They must inform you! They cannot leave the classroom without the teacher in charge being aware of their whereabouts. This is a safety issue.

Other random jobs which may not be suited to any particular place in the classroom are:
a) Chair monitor (reminds students to push in their chairs). Their "reward" could be they are the first to leave the class at the end.
b) Room Sweeper
c) Agenda/Homework : they ensure the board's homework is accurate and that everyone has seen the homework. Careful: they are not the "homework god". The wrong person could make this task seem like they are supposed to demand compliance from their classmates. It's simply to ensure everyone sees the homework schedule.

Items not to assign to students (in case you weren't sure) is anything to do with confidential or private material, grading or computer work (you aren't in control of what they can do on your computer). There may be other things: you must exercise thought and caution. As the saying goes, if you are not sure, don't do it.

The times for these jobs to happen are usually near the beginning or at the end of class, say the last ten minutes. Some students work through a morning warm up exercise very quickly and need the extra thing as "something to do". I think it's important to make it clear these are choices, and not requirements. If your selected students don't feel well or don't feel inclined to do a good job, or prefer to do their homework, that's quite okay. Ask someone else, and don't make it a big deal. After all, it's still technically all your work, and they are helping you out.