Today, I arrived when the students were telling about their weekend with the whole class. Everyone had a chance to tell about their weekend but if they did not want to share they just said "pass." This is a great activity to do because students will learn to be comfortable speaking in front of people, get to know one another, and it strengthens their story telling skills.
Once the class began, students were taking practice tests for a standardized test that they will be taking next week. He had one student hook up his computer to the projector, log onto the website for the online test and work along with him as he explained to the class what every thing on the test does. Since more 8th grade students just skip over the page where it explains where everything is and where it is all at, he went over that with the class. Mr. Ricke went over how to work the website with all the tool bars, how to move from question to question, and all the rules that are involved with the test. After that, he went through the first three questions with the class. He had the student enter the answers in the computer as someone explained to him what to enter in. After that, everyone got out their lab tops to enter themselves into the test and practice. It was chaotic for a while because everyone needed their numbers for the log in. Mr. Ricke was cutting out everyone information cards while this was going on. I might have had all those information cards cut and organized before class so everything went a little smoother. Once everyone was logged in, they worked on the questions until the end of the class period. What I learned from today is that you never know what 8th grader will come up to do. One student had tape over her computer camera and she explained it was so the government couldn't watch her if they hack into her computer.
Once the class began, students were taking practice tests for a standardized test that they will be taking next week. He had one student hook up his computer to the projector, log onto the website for the online test and work along with him as he explained to the class what every thing on the test does. Since more 8th grade students just skip over the page where it explains where everything is and where it is all at, he went over that with the class. Mr. Ricke went over how to work the website with all the tool bars, how to move from question to question, and all the rules that are involved with the test. After that, he went through the first three questions with the class. He had the student enter the answers in the computer as someone explained to him what to enter in. After that, everyone got out their lab tops to enter themselves into the test and practice. It was chaotic for a while because everyone needed their numbers for the log in. Mr. Ricke was cutting out everyone information cards while this was going on. I might have had all those information cards cut and organized before class so everything went a little smoother. Once everyone was logged in, they worked on the questions until the end of the class period. What I learned from today is that you never know what 8th grader will come up to do. One student had tape over her computer camera and she explained it was so the government couldn't watch her if they hack into her computer.