Rockin and Rollin in 2012

As we start our first full week of school in 2012, KES has a lot to be excited about. As of today, our 3rd - 5th Graders are only 58 more school days until the Rock the CRCT and our 5th Graders are only 38 more school days until the Georgia Writing Assessment. While these tests don't define who we are as students or a school, they are extremely important in giving us feedback about how successful we have been and the potential that we have within us. These results also get publicized as they are THE MAJOR indicator in determining our school's AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) scores. As always, our teachers do an amazing job of preparing all of our students for their academic needs but as these tests come closer, we also add some additional support to assist with this preparation.


This year we will once again utilize http://www.georgiaoas.org/ as a resource to familiarize our students with the format of the questions they will be asked on the CRCT. We encourage each student to take at least one of these tests (there are 50 available for 3rd-5th graders and 30 available for 1st & 2nd Graders) each night until they have passed all 50 with at least a 70% accuracy rate (preferably 85%). These tests take around 10-20 minutes each and are extremely effective at getting students used to the format of the test.


Another resource that we will have available is http://www.studyisland.com/ . This is another online resource that is designed to give additional support for all Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) in a fun interactive way. This site provides lessons, tests, and games that reinforce, remediate, and challenge students on each standard. This site is available to ALL KES students in grades Kindergarten through 5th.


We have an additional resource for our Kindergarten through 2nd Graders as well. This resource is http://www.readingeggs.com/. This online resource is extremely successful in preparing our younger students to become more successful readers. It works on phonics, spelling, reading fluency, and comprehension. This is another fun and interactive website that our students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade can use to continue to grow as strong and effective readers.


We will be using these resources at school and encourage all students to be using them at home as well. Usage of these resources will be our basis for incentives as we get our theme of Rockin' the CRCT! The last week in January will start our drive to really make sure that we are ready to ROCK The CRCT! Each class will get earn guitars on their chart for completion with accuracy using these resources. The class with the most guitars each week will get the "Rockin' the CRCT" Golden Guitar to hold for the week, and students with the highest accuracy will get a chance to perform an air guitar concert on the morning announcements. This will continue for the 9 weeks leading up to the CRCT pep rally on April the 3rd.


Then the next day, April 4th will be when we really perform and Rock the CRCT!!!