Well, what an action packed final week this is turning out to be. I hope you have had a good chance to look over your child’s report card and IOWA test results. This was the first year that our daughter Hannah took part in the IOWA test and Simon and I were full of lots of advice like ‘just do your best’, ‘relax and enjoy it’ etc. Australians don’t tend to take test results so seriously, or so we thought…and then the results came home!
The conversation went something like this…

“Hey Han, how did you feel about the capitalization section of your IOWA test?”
“What?”
“On the IOWA’s, the capitals part, did you find it hard?”
“What?”
“Hannah, turn the t.v. off and come here please. Did you find the capitalization part of your test hard?”
“What? What capitalizationizationthingy, what? What are you guys talking about?”
“Remember the IOWA tests?
“Yes”
“Well, do you remember the part on capitalization? Was it hard? Did you finish it?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Try harder Hannah, you must remember, surely you didn’t finish it, your score was really low, I thought you knew capitals, you know capitals, I know you know capitals. Hannah, what happened? Why was your score so bad?”
“What? You said scores didn’t matter?
“Yes, we said that, and that is true, we are just wondering if there is anything you remember about the capitalization section that you could tell us about so we would understand your low score?”
“Nope, ‘coz you said, tests don’t always show the real score anyway, you said just do your best remember?”
“Yes, yes we remember, o.k., back to the t.v., don’t worry, well done on the other sections, yes, yes, good job Hannah, no problem, there’s always next year…….”

Ahhhh, the joys of being a teacher and a parent!

We have been spoiled this week with interaction from other classes. 5KP have had visits from 7th graders to discuss health and nutrition and we were also lucky to see Middle School Drama presentations yesterday that the class really enjoyed. This morning we had a great session with our reading buddies in kindergarten, making decorations and cards. As I write this I am in awe of the collective intelligence of the class (the kind you can’t measure on an IOWA test) as 5KP students engage with 9th graders who have come to talk about Stalin and his relationship to the setting of the novel ‘I am David’ I am so proud of these children.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

We are sad to have to say goodbye to two of our students, Rosa and Whitney. Sadly we only just found out Rosa was leaving after we had our party for Whitney…so we will have to share Rosa’s farewell with our Secret Santa party that we have postponed ’til tomorrow. Tomorrow will therefore be a busy day as we have P.E. to get the blood pumping in the morning, then the Unit 5 Math test to slow it down again! After that we will finish watching I am David which I hope to start after lunch today. Then it is time to celebrate our free choice writing, farewell Rosa, open our Secret Santa gifts and a few little things I have for the students.

When Friday comes we will all be ready for a holiday I think!

Please enjoy yours, keep safe, try play some games and read with your children, studies show that they are never too old to enjoy a good book read by or with a parent. Here are some great suggestions from Amazon if you get time for some shopping or happen to see these books on your travels. I just ordered this one for our classroom library.