Rollercoster.

This past week was...okay. I'm cautiously putting that 'down on paper' because I'm really worried about jinxing it. It's been pretty up and down lately, but I think that the okayness of the past week was really a mentality thing. I've decided that I need to stop being so down on my job and the realities of it. Being optimistic has made the days better. And I can tell through my assessments that my students are learning, so that is also helping.

As for that math test I gave last week, the lowest grade was a 72 :) :) The higest was an 88, but that's pretty darn amazing. My average reading level is just at 3rd grade (that's decoding only - ability to actually read the words - not comprehension or fluency/speed). That's growth of over 2 years. It might be that my students were really out of it when they took this particular reading test the first time, but even so...they're still doing so well. When we get back in January I'm going to be way more organized about comprehension instruction so that I can make sure they are leaving first grade comprehending as well as decoding.

My other big push for the second semester is going to be writing. Now that I know I can teach them math, I need to focus on language arts because I'm not impressed with the writing growth some of my students have made. I need to keep reminding myself, though, that in the beginning of the year most of them were barely writing sentences independently and now the majority can write on grade level.

Only 4 more school days until vacation!