Week 33 Update and Schedule

I hope you enjoyed Easter break and that everyone is ready to launch back into school and prepare for the CRT test.  The CRT test is vitally important and I want students to go into our end-of-level testing with a great attitude and a desire to succeed.  Please note that our CRT testing has been moved  to April 23-25th.  Parents, please make sure your student is in school on these days and have had a good breakfast and a good night's sleep.  I'm doing all I can to prepare students and get them excited about their success.  I'll be having students set a goal for themselves and I'll be covering not only subject material, but test-taking skills.  It is my goal as a teacher to prepare students so they can be positive and confident about testing.

This is the last year of the CRT test.  Next year, the state of Utah is introducing a new, more accurate end-of-level test that will be adaptive and will cater to individual students by asking them to demonstrate their knowledge.  I'm really excited about this test--watch for more information to be released in our upcoming school year. In the meantime, please do you can to help your student attend school, review subject matter and stay positive and encouraging about their test performance.

Each Wednesday, I have been running a reading group for students who need a little extra help reading.  From now until CRT testing, I'm opening up the Wednesday Reading Group to any student who may desire a little extra practice with reading fluency and reading comprehension.  The morning session goes from 7am-7:30am and the afternoon session runs from 2:00-2:30pm.  Please remind your student to let me know if they can attend.

Also, book reports are due on Wednesday, April 3rd. Students have told me which book they are doing and which book report type.  The book needs to be one they have not read, must be at least 150 pages and I've asked students to step-it-up and challenge themselves by moving beyond: "Dork Diaries", "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", "Goosebumps" series or "Captain Underpants" series.  The book report type must be one they have NOT used before and I have a lot of new, fun options for them to try.

Here is the schedule for our upcoming week; please contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.  It's been a wonderful year teaching your students and I'm looking forward to a fun week!

Monday, April 1st:  Easter Break
Tuesday, April 2nd: Calendar Week, Grammar CRT Practice, Prefix/Suffix Activity
Wednesday, April 3rd: Reading Comprehension, Library Day *AM/PM Reading Group
Thursday, April 4th: Poetry Analysis Bellwork, Commonly Confused Words Activity
Friday, April 5th: Random Student, Utah-in-the-News, Gecko Time!  (Enrichment relating to CRT Prep. or Remediation/Homework Hall for students who are struggling with the concepts or behind in their work.)

Utah-in-the-News to present Friday, April 5th
(fill out the form: it's on the blog or students can get a hard copy in class & remember to staple the news article to the back.)

1st: Chase Morgan, Jeffrey Matalolo, Julia Martinez
2nd: Jadyn Latchtowski, Ashlinn McKnight, Kaleb Nielson
3rd: Jared Martinez, Adrianna Lees, Tucker Lamoreaux 
5th: Adan Audelo, Catlyn Allen, Grace Appel
6th: Tristin Mower, Calton Millward, Clayton Martinez