Thursday, April 29, 2010

April 25: CRT Week

This week students will be taking their science CRT (Criterion Referenced Test). This is a state test written by a committee of teachers to test how well students have grasped the state core curriculum.

We reviewed like crazy, and I'm very hopeful that they did great on the test! We probably won't get scores back until summer time.

For the first few days post CRT we will wind down with a movie about the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone. It's a made-for-TV movie and does have some dramatic scenes in it involving people in a pretty stressful situation, which is why I needed parent permission to have the students watch it. It is a "documentary type" show that depicts what it would be like if the supervolcano under Yellowstone were to erupt (it's shot as though it is a current event - although it has not yet happened). It fits well with our plate tectonics unit and should be a good reward for having worked so hard for CRTs. Hopefully it doesn't scare them too much... just a little... enough to help them respect Earth's ability to make human life more than a little chaotic.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day (yesterday) to everyone!



We looked at these cool photos of the Iceland volcano as a reminder that the Earth is pretty powerful, but still needs protection: Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano.

Monday, April 19, 2010

April 19: CRT Review

We've come to the end!!! It's time to take that big end of year, state required test - the CRT. We will be taking our test during class time on April 28th and 29th (the 30th is the make-up day). Please do everything that you can to ensure that your student is at school for those days.

In order to help the students do their absolute best on this exam we will be review this week. Reviewing an entire year's worth of information is a daunting task, but I'm already impressed with how much they remember. We'll be playing review games, working on a few worksheets, and taking some practice tests.

Please stress to them how important these CRT tests are because their scores will be on their permenant records and will help determine where they go from here.