Whoo Hooo...We Are in the New GoNoodle Brain Break & Conferences are Finished!

So exciting!!!  We turned on GoNoodle in the cafeteria, went to the Zumba folder, and saw this:

They have added the 1st ever kid lead Brain Break, so we couldn't wait to see if we were shown in the video. We only had to wait 8 seconds...

The only bummer was that our county, not our city, was listed.  I posted on the GoNoodle Facebook page and they are going to switch it :)

The kids have all been saying, "We're famous!"  We were all really excited! :D {click on the GoNoodle logo to check out their site!}

This week {ALL day Tuesday, and afternoon today...LONG days!} we have had parent conferences & I had been more stressed for these conferences than I have been in a VERY long time.  This year we went to Common Core and we have a new math adoption.  We do not have new materials in language arts.  For language arts we are using the 'Progression Towards Mastery' model & math is 'Teach Test'.  On Monday I went over with my class the changes on the report cards and this was my board:

Moving from a 5 point scale to a 4 point scale is a big difference.  In the past 1st trimester I would usually have lots of 4s, a few 5s, quite a few 3s, some 2s and rarely any ones.  As I did the report cards I mainly wrote 2s & 1s.  I knew parents would be frustrated seeing lower numbers on their children's report cards so at the beginning of every conference I went over what was on the board, talked about the changes and how even though it is 'Teach Test' in math the way we are teaching and assessing is new to the students.  Then I showed them how the grade level did on the assessments before I ever handed the child's report card to the parent.  Fifteen minutes was too short for all of this information and the children's individual information as well...I felt like I was speed talking!  With 30 conferences a few minutes long per conference really adds up!! This is how our 1st Trimester Language Arts Benchmark looked!

I feel really blessed that no children were going to be grounded for life for the report card and I didn't get tarred and feathered!!  Monday we made acrostic poems with the word improve.  I had them up behind me as I did the conferences.  Here some of them are:

I am feeling incredibly relieved that they are over!! We have a 1/2 day tomorrow, then Friday....then a WHOLE WEEK OFF for Thanksgiving...that definitely puts me in a Thankful mood!!! {first time ever for our district}

Have a blessed day!