Volume 3, Issue 9
A Newsletter for
April, 2018
As I write, the snow is
pouring down outside
(it’s the middle of
March) and I’m sitting at
my desk with an empty
classroom. Snow
days…..blessing or
curse? Winter is such
an uncertain time, at least here in the
mountains, and there are whole
weeks when I don’t know if I will see
my students at all. It’s very difficult to
maintain any kind of continuity with
weather like this. However, spring is
coming! Soon there will be bunnies
and butterflies and the fast approach-
ing deadlines for EOG and EOC test-
ing. As a biology teacher, I am well
aware of the pressure that EOG/EOC
testing puts on teachers. The ever-
increasing feeling that time is getting
away from me and that there’s no
way I’ll be able to cover everything.
The panicked look in my student’s
eyes as they realize that there are
several four-hour testing sessions in
their future. The equally panicked
look in my principal’s eyes as, once
again, she crosses her fingers and
hopes for the best.
Testing seems to be a necessary evil;
one that we can’t get rid of and may-
be even shouldn’t get rid of. Students
need to have some way of knowing
exactly what they accomplished over
the year in class. Teachers need
some way to measure the success of
their teaching methods and curricu-
lum materials. And, I suppose, the
folks in Raleigh need some way to
keep track of who is actually teaching
their students and who, perhaps, is
The 2018 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey window closes April 4th at 11:59
pm. Our goal is 100% participation from educators across our state, so please take every opportunity
to encourage fellow educators to take the survey at their earliest convenience! You can track your
LEA’s progress at www.ncteachingconditions.org. You are encouraged to use your social media ac-
counts to post the excitement surrounding the survey (especially when your school reaches 100%
completion) with hashtag #takethesurvey2018.
Beginning Teachers in NC
Regional Education Facilitators - NC Department of Public Instruction
www.regedfac.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/home
not. The truth of the matter is that with your students are just as important,
testing is pretty much here to stay; if not more so, than the scores they re-
like it or not. ceive on their tests.
So, with that in mind, here are a few In the end, we want our students to look
ideas about how to deal with testing back on their time with us and know that
anxiety in yourself and in your stu- we gave our all as their teachers. In
dents: twenty or thirty years we want them to
remember us as the teachers who really
Work hard. Every second of class taught them something about life, or
time is a second you could be teach- math, or science, or history, or any of
ing something. Don’t waste a mo-
the countless things we teach. I guaran-
ment of it. tee you they’ll remember that much
Formative assessments are key. longer than they’ll remember some
Low-stakes testing situations give score on an EOG/EOC.
kids practice in success. The more
times students score well on a “test”
the more confidence they build in Leslie Schoof
their knowledge and ability to do well.
2017 Western Regional
Encourage your students to self- Teacher of the Year
report. Research shows that stu-
dents who predict their grades on a
test beforehand usually tend to score
higher than their predictions. This
also builds confidence and allows
students to see that they are smarter
than they think they are.
Let your students know it’s a team
effort. Yes, they have to actually
take the test, but you’ve got a stake
in their success too. Be clear with
them about exactly how you are pre-
paring them for testing every day.
Use learning targets and essential
questions to focus their attention on
what they should have learned dur-
ing each lesson.
Put it in perspective. Preparing stu-
dents for an EOG/EOC can be nerve
wracking, but it’s important to under-
stand that the relationships you build