Report Cards and a new Increment!

So report card grades were due by 4pm on Friday....meaning I spent all week thinking about needing to get my grades into the computer....and then spent Friday afternoon frantically entering the grades that I'd put off entering to get them done on time!

That's always been one of my major goals- To grade things immediately and get them entered into the computer on a daily/weekly basis, so that I'm not rushing like a crazy person on the day they are due.  I usually do really well for a few weeks, and then begin to slack off.  I need to be more organized (another goal every year that goes out the window by week 2!).  Anyone have any tips on being organized and getting grades in quickly and efficiently??

And I haven't had anything really good to post lately.  We haven't done a whole lot of fun stuff in the classroom.  We took our Mid Year Assessments (YIKES!) two weeks ago, so we were reviewing and finishing up Increments 1 and 2 and then testing.  My scores were okay- Apparently not good enough for our principal, but seriously, that guys not happy unless we are at 95% proficiency and how is that practical?  That would mean that 20 out of my 21 students had reached proficiency, and my class has some low babies.  Ah well, I had an 81% which means that 17 out of my 21 kiddos were proficient.  I'm pretty happy with that.

Here are the things my class had trouble with:
In Reading:
Rhythm - This question was CRAZY hard, it had a sentence that had a particular beat to it "My name is Frannie Frog, My friend is Sammi Snake."  And the kiddos had to pick out of 3 sentences which one had the same rhythm.  Ouch!

There were two Poetry/Prose standards that my kiddos needed to work on.  I dislike poetry.  :(  It shows.  I really need to come up with a great poetry unit and really kick it into gear and teach it well.  Anyone have a great way to teach the basics of poetry/prose to your kiddos??

And last but not least Statement vs. Question.  This one was my fault.  I didn't teach the language.  We talked about telling sentences and asking sentences.  I don't think I ever used the word statement.  :(  I've fixed this, we talk about statements on a daily basis now.

In Math:
Putting Fractions in order- seriously?  Even my 5th graders last year had trouble with this!

Properties of Addition/Subtraction- this question was a find the missing number question ala 8+7=7+8, what is 10 + 9 = ____ + 10.

Fact Families- I've worked these to DEATH.  Not sure how to make this any easier for my kiddos.  :(

Measuring with non-standard units.  This question was interesting.   I think it more tested their spatial sense than their ability to measure with non-standard units.  It showed a chalk board with some apples under it (they went almost halfway across), then asked how many apples across the chalk board was.  My kiddos knew to draw in the missing apples then count, but my kiddos aren't exactly artists....so some of them had small apples, and some had GIANT apples, and lots got the wrong answer.  :(  We'll have to practice our artistry.

Anyway, this Increment should be easier, and I'm really excited.  90% of our 3rd Increment in Math is patterns.  So I get to teach almost a full quarter of just patterning.  Which in the end means I'll teach patterns for a couple of weeks and then teach all of the basics they are missing and also re-teach all of the things they weren't proficient in.

One of the results of our test scores (which as a team the first grade reached 89% proficiency, but apparently that was not good enough for our principal, go figure!), is that we now have to have not 1, but 2 team meetings each week with administration.  Seriously?!  2 days a week we have to go and lose our planning time and meet with admin!!  What a waste.

We also have to give weekly standards tests on the standards we are scheduled to teach that week.  Which means I'm now off to write a reading test on "What questions would a character in a story ask, predict, and confirm."  What does that even mean?!  Guess I'd better go do some research!