Week of May 17- SOL Testing in Full Swing

Kudos and To Do's

Thanks to Mr. Jastrebsky, Mrs. French and Mrs. Downs for putting on a wonderful Spring Concert!  I understand they were outstanding!  Mrs. Lambusta represented Passage well at the Teacher of the Year Banquet! Kudos to our Algebra and Geometry teachers (Mrs. Watkins, Ms. Berg, Ms. Cioletti, Mrs. Rath, and Mr. McDonald) for doing such a great job with our students, I am sure they did well on their SOL tests.  Thanks to Mr. Holden and Mr. White for coaching our Basketball teams this season! Our students did a fine job under your leadership!

The end of the year is rapidly approaching! In order to reach the big payoff—summer vacation, we have to deal with the stresses that the last few weeks bring: end of the year testing, summer school lists, parents who do not understand why their children have I’s, rooms to be cleaned and items to be stored, accounts to be reconciled, and many more items that I'm sure I’ve missed. And of course… your personal life continues to move forward through all of this. Heaven forbid you get sick at this time of year!
So, how can we handle all of this stress? Unfortunately there is not one magic answer. The good news is, we can find a lot of relief by practicing a positive attitude each other, our students and towards all of the problems facing us. This makes all of the difference.

Try this strategy next week: Giving kids “hope.”
Frequently, make statements like, “I know you can do it.”
“I know you are ready for the test because you have been working hard.”

Remember, the only thing you really have the ability to improve is yourself. Amazingly when you do, everything else around you does as well. Bring on those SOL tests!

Instructional Focus

Here are some great sites to use with students to review for the SOL tests:

Interactive Quizzes by Tami Maloney- Great site
http://www.iq.poquoson.org/index.html

SOL Pass has released tests etc…
http://www.solpass.org/middleschool.htm


Different on-line tests some from Texas (they have a similar SOL type test)
http://www.virginiasol.com/test_grade8.htm

Jefferson Lab- great site
http://education.jlab.org/solquiz/index.html



A Glance Ahead- 
Monday- Faculty Meeting/ Vertical Team Meetings
Thursday - 6th Grade English SOL Test