It's April vacation! I generally go away to my grandmother's place in Florida over April break, but this year I'm looking forward to just hanging and relaxing around here. With ELA MCAS the week we get back, we spent the week prior to break working on the different types of text-based writing. Oftentimes kids become under the impression that this testing marks the conclusion of school work--that I need to squeeze in all I need to teach them prior to MCAS. That's not the case! We still have multiple units left and lots to cover. I more so want to do all that I can to make sure the kids feel prepared and confident on those two days. I don't want them to come across questions that surprise them or prompts they don't know how to approach. We had a good discussion about this the day before break, and they let me know how I could structure the few days that lead up to MCAS so that they're feeling ready and positive.

Our Bucket Fillers of the week were Emily and Cecilia. Both ladies are such sweethearts. They are kind to their classmates and don't cause any trouble in class. Emily is always participating and eager to learn. She never complains and is quick to lend a helping hand to anyone and everyone around her. Cecilia has blown me away with how much effort she's put into the writing we've done lately. It's fun to see her fervently scribbling down her ideas when it's time to plan our writing, so much so that her paper is filled from top to bottom with ideas. Nice job, girls!