Mixed Bag Today

Well, yesterday was a mixed bag. We got the Kindergarten Texas Primary Reading Inventory End of Year (TPRI EOY)scores today. The results showed a lot of growth and all at the school were much relieved. That was the good portion of the mixed bag.

Now the bad portion. Started to install a new hard drive last night. Much more difficult than you would think. Spent much time transferring data from the old drive to an external drive so that I have the files and can go through them at my leisure. Then had to try to get the old drive to boot in order to run data tools as an extra safeguard. I was planning to reinstall Windows XP as a clean install on the drive. This way I wouldn't have all the "junk" that comes with a new computer. Buttttt, I couldn't get the disk to boot on the new drive. Now I'm stumped because I've tried every combination of drive settings, etc. that I can think of.

Update tomorrow.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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It's Over, Sort of

The latest round of TAKS tests are over. YES!!!

It has been quite a week for us at school. In order to maintain a quiet, orderly environment for the older students to take their test, at our campus we did not have "specials" or recess on testing days. "Specials" are better known as Music and PE. Testing days this week were Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Rather than go to "specials" the counselor and aides kept the students in the classrooms to give the teachers a break. (At least they did it for Kindergarten.) Do you know what it is like to keep 18 5 and 6 year old's in the classroom all day with no break to run off energy or play? It's not easy but we did it. The kids made it through OK but you could tell that it was beginning to wear on them, just as it was on the teachers.

The magic time came and it was announced that all testing had been completed. HALLELUJAH!! We immediately went outside to celebrate and run, and celebrate, and play, and celebrate, and shout. We were tired of being quiet. Goodness, that is hard to do when you are 5 and 6 years old and full of energy.

With all the excitement of TAKS testing being over we do have to come back to earth. It seems that our campus has a special visit today. It is from the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES at the University of Houston). This is the group that comes to each Texas Reading First campus and collects data related to implementation of the Texas Reading First Initiative (TRFI). Just the thing we need the day after 3 days of TAKS testing. We will make it through though. We always do.Now we start the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI). It's all never ending.

© 2008 Barry T Horst

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New Season of "The Tutors" Begin

We started tutoring with the Kindergarten students last Thursday. We tutor on Tuesdays and Thursdays with different groups on alternate days. One of my students absolutely, positively did not want to stay for tutoring last Thursday. Yesterday the same student was begging to stay. It seems that he has decided that it is fun to stay. I like the way the kids think it is great to stay for tutoring because to them they get to stay longer and play more games. They also get to spend extra time with the teacher when there are fewer students to demand attention. The students still don't realize that they have to stay because they are having difficulty acquiring reading skills. It also helps that the students get snacks each day that they stay.

The students were selected for inclusion in the tutoring program based on Middle of the Year (MOY) results on the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) and the Universal Literacy Voyager program. Based on the results for my class I selected 9 students to divide across the two days of tutoring. With 4 or 5 students each afternoon it is much easier to focus on needs of the individual than it is when there are 19 at once. These tutoring sessions will help to prepare the students for a successful 1st grade experience.

© 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
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Did I Mention.......?

Teaching is great. It gives you a good feeling to know that you are imparting knowledge to the little ones who will eventually lead our country. Only problem, many of our kids don't get the supervision and rest they need.

Yesterday morning during our morning circle time we were discussing attributes of various blocks and sorting them. During this time several students were taken out for TPRI testing. I looked across the rug; one of the boys (Let's call him Hugh) was asleep. Hugh always tries to go to sleep during the morning. I woke him up and sent him for a drink of water. Then I had him stand up. We continued the lesson. I looked a few minutes later., Hugh was sitting down again sleeping. Two or three others were laying down also. I decided that we would go to the hallway and take a walk up and down the hallway. This would surely wake them up.

Back to class and begin Voyager. Nope! The same ones are down again. Wake them up and continue lesson. Finally we get to stations and groups. Yes. Now I start getting the inevitable, "I'm hungry. When is lunch?" "Pretty soon!", I say. We finish Voyager go to lunch and come back to the room for recess. Recess has been in the room this week because the older students are having 9 weeks tests and we don't want to disturb them. We work on floor puzzles. My kids love to do puzzles. They get excited when they finish one.

Yesterday was PE day. The kids came back tired. It was rest time. By the end of rest time and beginning of snack time 8 students were sleeping. No, we don't take naps in kindergarten. We rest and then have a snack; if we stay awake. Center time was next and half of us were still asleep. It's hard to wake up the little ones sometimes. By the time we started Science we were up and were learning about soil, rocks, and water.

Last week we picked up rocks from the playground. After we picked them up we weighed them, sorted them, and described them. Yesterday we added them to the Kindergarten Rock Garden. I suppose you could call it "der kindergarten felsen garten." I suppose that would be a close approximation. The kids enjoy it. They know each of their rocks, even when they look the same to us.

Did I mention the student that went to sleep sitting cross legged, leaning over with his forehead resting on the floor? No! That'll have to be another post.


© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.