State Testing Week

Our state testing began on Thursday, April 12 with the students taking the ELA portion. That Monday I sent home letters to the parents asking them to write an encouraging letter to their child to open the first day of testing. On Thursday, students came in excited and eager to open their letters from their parents. Here are a few pictures I took capturing the moment! The letters were so heartfelt, and encouraging. It brought tears to my eyes when reading.

After testing was over and the all clear was announced by our assistant principal, we took a nice needed break outside each day.

Then on Thursday, April 19th my partner teacher Mrs. Wilson organized a visit from one of our local meteorologist Carl Arredondo. He spoke to the students for about an hour on what his job entails. He even told the students he wore make-up which was the one part of his job he didn't like too much. One of my students asked him if he wore make-up to look more "Macho". That night on the 6:00 news, he gave us a shout out, and even brought up the "Macho" comment made by one of my students. It was awesome!

Then to finish out our testing week, we took a field trip on Friday to the Audubon Zoo here in New Orleans. Here is a picture of my group. We had 8 chaperones total for the field trip, so the students were split up into groups of 3-4. Pictured is me on the left (yes I am as tall as the students), Mrs. Wilson (my partner teacher) in the back, Mr. Martinez (ELL teacher) and Mrs. Ahmad (student teacher).

 Here is a picture of me and an animal at the zoo who shared the same birthday on Friday, April 20. The animal turned 29 and me 33.

The best part of the day Friday was when my student teacher and my students organized a surprise
birthday party for me! Mrs. Ahmad baked about 5 dozen cupcakes for the students and me. It was so thoughtful and sweet! This was my first surprise birthday party ever, and one I will never forget.