Classroom Happenings

(because obviously you are curious.)

I know, I know. I probably document classroom events far more than anyone is interested in hearing about. HOWEVER, this is my blog, which means it's a record of my life. Since these 27 mischevious, amazing, talented, and sweet 12-year olds are my life, I shall continue to blog.

We just finished our end-of-the-year testing... or shall I say, "celebrations." See, I had a professor in college who called every single one of his tests "celebrations." His theory behind this was that the "test" was a celebration of our knowledge and of the things that we had learned. If it was thought of as a "celebration," testing fears would hopefully be alleviated. I decided to adopt his theory into my own classroom. We had a big chat as a class about why we were calling it a celebration. My kids really jumped on the bandwagon with it, and in the end, I think it was pretty successful & I'd totally do it again next year.


(I was kind of anal & made them provide reasoning for their answers for every single question, on every single section of the test. I'll be doing that again next year because I think it really slowed them down and made them think before just clicking an answer.)

Since we were technically celebrating, we obviously needed two things: decor and snacks. I saved some of the banners from Jenna's shower for the front of the classroom and then made the signs "Celebrate Your Knowledge" to go along with it.


For every day that we tested, I gave my kids a peppermint. Hailey (one of the 6th grade teachers) and I wrote some poems up to go with our snacks. Since this was a "snack" they got each time, we put contact paper over the poem and stuck it to their desks. We laughed pretty hard every time we were typing them up. Don't judge our poetry skills! ;)


We gave fruit snacks, orange juice, pretzels, donuts, and gatorade throughout the 6 testing days. Unfortunately, I only got the two pictures below. Even though it got a little pricey, I think it added a level of "fun," or as much fun as you can have when you're taking a test. So to me, it was totally worth it.



Finally, we sneaked in some "Capture the Flag" games here and there between testing. I may have tried to play in a blazer and pencil skirt one day. Never again. I definitely learned my lesson. It's a bit difficult to juke when you're wearing a skirt. The arm of my blazer and my knees are visible proof.



Two weeks left, folks. I can honestly say that I'm sad. I love these kids. I think there's a special kind of bond you develop with your first class that just never can quite be broken.