04 February, 2014

a tool against the BEAST

a lot of us have this wonderful STATE TESTING BEAST thing coming
and coming FAST...
like... it is no longer around the corner
it is on MY STREET...
it is closing in on me and my KIDDOS...
you can feel it approaching...
and soon it is going to be on my doorstep and
before it gets inside and breathes down our necks...
I need to have my kiddos prepped and ready
READY TO TACKLE THE BEAST!!!

FEAR TAKES OVER...
we have been doing a ton of practices, benchmarks, CBAs, old released tests, and this and that and more
most of this is a result of the fear...
fear that you haven't done enough
fear that the BEAST has morphed
fear from you
fear from parents
fear from your boss
fear from your district...
and worst of all FEAR from your kids...
everyone FEARS this BEAST...
our lives as teachers are summed up by the BEAST
if our kids beat the BEAST we know it...
and if our poor babies do NOT defeat the BEAST...
it follows them around for the rest of their education careers...
like a badge of BEAST FAILURE....

and this
this FEAR....can overwhelm you
and your classroom
heck my fear sets in UMMMM right about now...
can you tell???

even those kiddos who always do well might miss a question and cry
and then you have the ones that try and try and try
and try some more... and do their BESTEST... and are ALMOST there...
they are sad too...
and pretty soon everyone wants to cry....
even me

it is the BEAST
I am not a fan of the BEAST
to tell you the truth I would love to have the BEAST BANISHED....
but since people that have never taught run our education system the BEAST will live on...
RAWWWWRRRRRR

did I scare ya...

so I saw my FOURTHIES getting a little bogged...
especially when it came to the writing test....
ummmm scary
and I keep telling them... the more we write the better we get....
and that only gets them so far.....
and then I showed them this...




is this not the perfect movie to show???
I consider it a tool of sorts ...
to be used in my favor against the BEAST...

my kiddos and I talked about how they stumbled in their writing
and when the year first started they were those little babies
(some did WHINE about writing... some still do)
and now they are on the path to being GOLD MEDAL WINNERS
we have been practicing to get them a MEDAL...
A medal of concurring the BEAST

MY KIDS LOVED THIS...
they even WROTE about how this movie connects to their writing journey...
I was in one of those teaching moments where I was like
AHHHHHHHHHH unicorns and rainbows and glitter moments...
I mean all I needed was like a WALK THROUGH.... and this would have been PERFECT....
how come they never see a spontanious unicorn rainbow glitter moment...
anyways...
this is a GREAT WEAPON to use against the BEAST...
with hard work and determination
we all show improvements
and with improvements comes the possibilities of
BEATING THE BEAST

I hope you can use this tool in your arsenal
GOOD LUCK in your Battle with the BEAST!!!