The FCAT Writes is next week. I hope you are all ready! When the scores are reported you will see only the Essay scores that range from 1 – 6 this year. The Writing + is not slated to return until 2012. My 8th grade son was very happy about that!

Since I am an old math teacher I wanted to share this article. The NCTM released an article about using alternative assessments. It has some great tips that not only apply to mathematics, but other areas as well. Please take time to look over these tips for implementing alternative assessments. It is great for us to be able to assess our students in various ways. They get so tired of taking tests this time of year!

The FCAT Writing test is right around the corner. You are probably all gearing up and making sure that your curriculum has provided your students opportunities to experience a wide variety of topics. If you have time here at the end to allow students to do some independent research and read about various topics of interest, the website http://www.free.ed.gov/ is a great place to send them. This site has links to many topics and is sponsored by the Library of Congress. If you teach history or science this is a great place to find articles that will help you with reading in the content areas discussion and practice.

Remember, students are more successful at writing when they have a vast background of experiences with the real world. If you haven’t had the opportunity for field trips you can always take a virtual field trip on the Internet!

This week I am at FETC in Orlando. There are many educators here that are ready to learn about the latest technologies. From what I have seen today, nothing compares to Student Performance SnapShot when it comes to student achievement analysis. You are in good hands with SnapShot!

Everyone is also buzzing this week over the change of President. Check out this link to a USA Today article about funding. You will note that one of the requirements to receive your portion of this new windfall of funding is having “Longitudinal data systems that let schools track long-term progress.” That means that you are a third of the way there as a SnapShot customer!

Welcome to the SnapShot blog! I hope that this will be a forum for:

Keeping data savvy administrators and teachers informed
Provide you with data analysis suggestions on SnapShot
Inform you of coming changes to SnapShot

For those that have never met me, I am Michelle Gainer. I began using SnapShot in my school in 2003. We were able to take our school from a C to an A in one year through best practices and the use of data analysis. I train SnapShot users all over Florida and love it! You are all so important to so many children and it humbles me to hear your stories of struggle and success.