Nice Break!

Our district was closed this past Thursday and Friday for AEA days. So I have had a 4 day weekend. It was great and I got an early start (early for me) on my Christmas shopping. However, I am ready for Thanksgiving break. This semester seemed to fly by and now I am wondering if I have covered everything that should have been covered in the first semester. With my seniors, I feel pretty confident in all they have learned the first semester. But I am still struggling with my juniors. Somedays, I feel like I don't get any teaching done because this class of eleventh graders are so rude and disruptive. I have to constantly keep on them to stay quiet and keep on task that most days, I feel like I have just finished a day of babysitting. Other days, they are very good at participating and I think they are really grasping the content. I have so many different people coming into my classroom all the time that I don't know what they want or why they are there. We have a consultant from Elbow to Elbow that comes into my class one day every two weeks to help the students with open responses and writing prompts. It is in the middle of the week, so I have to start them on something on Monday and Tuesday and then we pick it back up on Thursday and Friday. It gets confusing! Also, these chunk tests are crazy! They test the students once every 4-6 weeks and then we have to spend a day going over the results with our students. I think it will help them know what to expect on the state test but it is very hard not to get discouraged. The state department does not want us teaching to the test but what else is there? From August to March, the test is all my juniors know! AARGH!