Today was the day!  All of our 7th and 8th grade students at McDowell took the Ohio Reading Achievement Assessment, the OAA.  For any visitors who are not familiar with the OAA, it is our state-wide, high-stakes assessment.  For 2 and 1/2 hours this morning, all students at McDowell were tested on their reading skills.  I am very proud of the hard work that our students put forth on their Reading test!  I’m sure that effort will continue when the seventh and eighth  graders take the Math OAA on Wednesday and 8th graders will take their Science OAA on Friday.   It is a tough week for students, teachers, and families!

We have learned a great deal about Jonas, the main character in The Giver.  We have also learned quite a bit about the community where Jonas lives.    Would you like to live in Jonas’s community?  Why or why not?  What are your thoughts about Jonas’s community?  His assignment?  As you have been listening to the story, what are your thoughts about the story?   Share!

Welcome to our class blog!  If you are here from the Student Blogging Challenge, we hope that you stick around for a while and make yourself at home!  Check out our posts and our student blogs to get to know a little bit about us.   Each student also has their own individual blog where they write about books they are reading or other things that interest them. You will find their blogs listed on the side blogroll.

We would also love to know a little about you, so PLEASE take a moment and comment.    Feel free to tell us where you are from, what your school is like, some of your favorite activities, or anything else that you would like to share with us.

We are looking forward to connecting with you!

Image from: http://dribbble.com/system/users/4282/screenshots/145046/welcome-sign.jpg?1309033794

Yesterday, Mr. Rod Smith, aka “Coach” said goodbye to his students for the last time.  Coach is now officially retired after 35 years of teaching for Logan Elm Schools.  He had a huge impact on many students over those years and is known for his humorous anecdotes.  He recently shared a paper with his students titled “Coach Smith’s Advice”.  I thought it would be fitting for everyone to read….

Coach Smith’s Advice

*I should note that Coach Smith is now 60.  :)

It is hard to believe that this school year is now half-way over.   For the first half of the school year, our focus has been on the standards of Reading Process, Acquisition of Vocabulary, and Reading Applications of Information, Technical and Persuasive Text.    We are now focusing on Reading Applications of Literary Text and will continue with Acquisition of Vocabulary. 

We will also now begin the process of gaining momentum in preparing for the OAA that will be administered in late April. We will be focusing a lot on reading strategies, test-taking strategies, and impressing “Martha”.  Thanks to Mrs. Stevenson at Laurelville, “Martha” is the fictitious person who will be scoring their OAA extended response questions.  She will be a constant presence in our classroom over the next few months!

Since I created my class blog several years ago, it has been interesting to view my Clustr Map and see that we have visitors from all around the world.  Each day I list the locations of recent visitors and it has definitely been a learning experience!  I love when I see a new location and realize that “Wow, someone in that country came to my blog!”  I dont’ know how people  in countries on the other side of the world find my classroom blog, but I am certainly glad that they did and they leave a “dot” on my map!

There are several countries listed on my Clustr Map that I really don’t know a lot about.  Well, to be honest, MORE than several!  I came to the conclusion my students probably didn’t know about these countries, either.  Lately, we have been working on summarizing in Language Arts class, so I decided that the students would do a little project. 

Each student chose a different country from the Clustr Map to research.  They are going to summarize the information and present it in a powerpoint to the class.  Not only will the students learn more about several countries, but I will also!  They are going to teach me-I love it!