Sailing Into Summer Blog Hop

9:00 AM Sarah Koves 3 Comments

I am getting ready to sail into summer...13 more school days for me; three short weeks.

A huge thanks to The Language Arts Classroom and Faulkner’s Fast Five (aka Lauralee Moss & Julie Faulkner) for setting this up.

My final exam tip/idea:

I am giving my seniors their exams tomorrow morning as they are done on Wednesday, so this couldn't come at a more perfect time. My tip for final exams is to create an essay that assess both student learning and their writing ability. Here is the one I use that offers choice for students too.

Three essays for any English class. They ask the students to evaluate their learning for the course or year. I used them as a final exam writing sample. They can be edited for your needs. You could use them as three separate writings or as a year or course opener.

This year I am using this choice essay, but I am adding an option for the students to evaluate their senior portfolio presentation. I have all their feedback sheets to give them from the panel. I am going to do that before the exam, and offer them the choice to write about what they learned from the experience of presenting/interviewing with this panel of community members. This is very similar to the writing I asked them to do at the end of every literature unit for the afterward in their notebooks.

Also, check out all my Exam Products to find something to add to this essay.

Classroom thing I want to do again next year:

I was very happy with how my student notebooks worked and turned out this year for both civics and AP Literature. I want to continue to do this next year in these classes as well as the others that I teach. Check out how I set these up in my post: How I Avoid Grading Stacks of Assignments.

Gift idea for coworkers/students/aids:

Here are a few of the gifts I am preparing for the end of the year.

Personalized notepad for my daughter's teacher from Shutterfly

Frixion pens from Amazon for my TA because she saw mine, tried them, and fell in love.

A new pen with a fun quote for my seniors. I still have to decide on and print the quote, but it will be something about writing their futures.

Classroom organization tip:

I try to clean and file before you go. I have in my desk a file drawer with folders for every unit. This is where the extra handouts and test go as we go through the year because I won't need them next year (I re-write my tests each year), but I may want them before June. By this time of year that drawer is very full, so I make it a point to empty it out and toss or scan everything, so I can start fall with an empty drawer.

This summer we have to empty our rooms in preparation for new paint, carpet, and furniture, so I need extra help in the organization department as I pack up EVERYTHING. I found this article yesterday from Scholastic and shared with my coworkers.