As with any school building anticipating testing, you can feel the tension starting to rise.  Next week our high school credit courses Algebra I and Geometry will test, following with our other math courses during the week of the 21st.  We normally spend about two weeks (really not as long as it sounds because of an alternating A, B schedule), but this year we have found ourselves in a crunch and may not have much time for review.

We all have faith in our students and know that they will do well!!!

I did have a revelation this week!  For Virginia we have new styles of questions that will be counted towards our scores starting this week.  These questions move our students away from the traditional multiple choice and more towards more rigorous standards.  Fill in the blank, multiple responses, are just to name a few.  Unfortunately, parents come to me with "What can I do with my kid at home?" and there just isn't that many resources out there, since things are still relatively new.

So I realized that I have an option!  We use a test creation software called Examview.  It allows you the option of multiple response, numeric response, and short answer formats.  We already had our released SOL questions as a bank so I just took an old test and "plopped" it in if that is an appropriate response :).  From there I deleted old SOL that they no longer need to know, and added or tweak other questions to now be multiple response or open ended.  It was a great way to utilize a resource that might have been otherwise wasted.  Now my teachers can either print the "modified" released tests (BLAH!) or use them with smart response clickers, or with our online forum!

We shall see how things turn out!

Welcome to my brand new blog!  I realize that it is a little "late" in the world of school timing, but I just couldn't help myself!  You see, I am a math specialist in my county.  This means I provide job embedded professional development to the teachers, admin., and parents in my buildings.  I am split between an elementary and middle school, so I get to see it all.
Well it all started with looking for some resources for my elementary teachers, and came across this wonderful world of "blog stalking" as I call it.  I truly have become addicted to the wonderful things that the teachers share and do on these blogs!
However, I noticed that the realm of middle school math blogs were slim.  While I know that middle schoolers are not the same "beast" as the elementary kiddos (I spent 6 years teaching middle school math before becoming a math specialist) I feel like the crafty, fun, and exciting world of DOING needs to carry over.  So that is my goal.  I want to share, create, and have fun in my middle school classrooms and bring it all here!