Never would have guessed this....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     You know....this time of year I will take good news anywhere or anytime.  The end of the year is particularly  difficult.  Closing things up, transitions, grades, exams, grades, people complaining about grades....you get the idea.

     Two things happened.  First, just by accident, I compared two classes exam grades from this year to almost the two same classes and exam from last year.  I happened to have found the spreadsheet where I put the old scores in so I could take a look at standard deviation and averages.  What I saw was a bit shocking.  The scores from this year were significantly higher than last year.  If you had asked me, I never would have guessed that.  This year I felt like we had a million more snow days,lost days to testing, interruptions, etc......Also, the kids were fantastic but I felt that last year I had a harder time connecting with them.  Far more blank stares and looking into their cell phones.  So what do I think was the difference? The second thing that happened which has to do with the above picture.  One of my students made a ceramic model of a salt crystal (you guessed it....the particulate nature of matter).  This year I made a more concerted effort to discuss not just the macro scale and symbolic but the particulate as well.  I never did a huge big project or assessment.  I just mentioned within the context of every unit and tried to show examples.  Maybe someone was listening...