Gearing up for Testing Season

What's a four letter word that (sometimes) makes students and staff cringe?  T-E-S-T!  Especially when we're talking about end of the year state testing which drives up everyone's anxiety levels.  Each year I try to do a lesson/activity and staff treat to ease some testing worries on both ends.  This year is no different. Here's what we're doing at my school:

-For Students:

• For my 3rd graders (1st timers taking a state test) we did our Testing Survival Kit lesson which is always a hit.
• For our EOG school pep rally there were 3 different team events.  During these events students in grades 3-5 are chosen to participate in the event prior to the pep rally.  Students chosen are super excited when chosen, it's like they won the jackpot!  Here are the 3 events we did:

-Dizzy Bat Scramble:  Teams of 5 have to each jump 10 times with a jump rope, go over and under the "obstacles", spin with the bat 6 times and when all of the team has finished put together a puzzle.

Dizzy Bat relay

-Watermelon Relay:  Teams of 5 have to eat as much watermelon (without using their hands).

Watermelon fun, I loved how another student held another student's hair while she ate the watermelon!

-Water Toss: Teams of 4 each have water buckets, the first person dips their bucket in the water then "tosses" the water to the next person to "catch".  The last person on the team pours the water into a larger team bucket.  The team that fills their team bucket first is the winner.

A common theme that we reiterated about each of the games is that you have to take your time, concentrate and do your best...just like on the test!  To close out the pep rally the younger students in grades K-2 each do a cheer to pump up the students taking the test.  It's quite creative to see what they come up with.

 I even got mentioned by my principal via twitter, whoot whoot (I have on my comfy clothes because not only did we have a pep rally, but earlier that day was field day so wearing a skirt wasn't the best choice, yoga pants are pretty awesome too).

-For staff

• As in previous years, there will be a daily testing treat with a fun saying on it.  Click here to see my previous post about this.
• I saw this "it's Crunch Time" sign with Crunch candy bars on Pinterest.  I put this in the staff mail room.
• To relieve some testing stress, I asked some parents at our school that teach yoga if they could come in a do a class for staff after school.  I really enjoy yoga and feel so relaxed after each class.  

Don't we look so relaxed after our yoga class?  It was so awesome!

The madness of testing can be tamed to some degree and I appreciate other school counselors sharing cool and fun ways to pump up staff and students for state testing.

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Ease Testing Worries for Students & Staff

It's everyone's "favorite" time of year...state testing!  Well not really, but it does bring us one step closer to the end of the school year and summer break.  State testing can cause stress, worries and anxiety for BOTH students and staff.  So I decided to do a little something to pump up everyone for state testing.  To see how we did staff pick me ups during testing, click here.

-I had a banner made from Vistaprint (ordered during a sale for just 99 cents) that says "Students do you best on the EOG test".  EOG stands for End Of Grade, that's what we call it here in NC.

Banner from Vistaprint

-Carol from The Middle School Counselor Blog (a fabulous blog by the way) shared this awesome idea of using sidewalk chalk to write positive testing messages at the school entrance.  I shared this idea with the fantastic art teacher at my school and he and several students will be decorating both the front and back entrances of the school.

From The Middle School Counselor Blog (thanks for sharing Carol)

-The AIG teacher gave me a ton of pencils which I tied ribbon with a nice note to give to all the students in 3rd-5th grades (these are the grades who test).

Pencils

Note I attached to the pencils

Finished product!  I used red ribbon to tie the note onto the pencils. 

-I did a lesson with 3rd graders on relaxation and relieving testing anxiety (same as last year).  To see my post on my lesson for testing worries, click here, but I read a different book The Big Test by Julie Danneberg.



This year I decided to add a testing survival kit activity.  Can you guess where I got this idea from ...you guessed right Pinterest!

-I started out by giving each student a plastic bag and testing survival kit card to complete. 

-I created a testing survival kit card for the students to complete as a part of the lesson (we go over the tips during the lesson).  It's a fill in the blank activity, since students are more likely to remember what they write down, versus me just talking.  I used an Avery postcard paper template so that I could fit 4 on one page.  I also copied on colored paper for a little flare.

Testing survival kit cards (copied on colored paper).  

Copy of slide to complete with test taking survival kit activity 

-As we completed our survival kit card, I passed out the item that went along with the saying.  I got all my survival kit items from Walmart.  Here are the pictures of the items needed and sayings to go along with it for the survival kit.

Starbursts:  You're a star so aim high

Toothpick:  Carefully pick your answers

Gum:  Stick to it and do your best!

Red Balloon:  You are totally REaDy for the test!

Student completing his test taking survival kit, with his kit nearby.  

The students LOVED this lesson and activity and it certainly didn't hurt that everyone got a parting gift.  I hope that this helped to relieve some of their testing worries.

What do you do to help calm testing worries?




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Testing Coordinator Tips for School Counselors

As a school counselor, being test coordinator had to be my absolute least favorite responsibility.  I am VERY fortunate and THANKFUL that I no longer have that responsibility!  However, I know that there are many school counselors that take on this very demanding and at times very stressful role.  I've been in your shoes and have some tips that helped me to stay organized and prepared during statewide testing.

-Ask your school to purchase plastic bins (with tops) which makes it easier to pack class testing materials in.  I tried to pre-pack scrap paper, pencils, highlighters already in each bin well before testing (one less thing to do once the crunch starts).

Testing bin (with lid and label)

-Make labels:  I used labels for everything!  I used them to label the teacher/test administrator bins, to label student booklets & to label the bags with answer sheets.  I used both mailing labels and large packing labels.

-Keep track of student answer sheets, test booklet info, special codes.  I used spreadsheet to create this (when you print, use legal sized paper so it will fit on one page).  I copied/pasted most of the student info from our online student information management system.  As I sorted booklets, I wrote test info (like test booklet color, form letter/number) on the sheet.  I use this just in case something doesn't match later on in the testing madness.  The special codes (in NC it's their current performance level), I gave the printed sheet to the homeroom teacher prior to testing to fill out, which they returned back to me.  On the bubble day with the teachers, I handed out these completed sheets, which saved tons of time for the teachers, they already had the info completed.  If you'd like a copy of this spreadsheet (which you can change to your liking), click here.

Student info spreadsheet (don't forget to print on legal sized paper_)

-Recruit parent or community volunteers to proctor early.  I know parents hated to see me coming, during testing time (they knew what I was going to ask)!  I even stood in the carpool line to recruit...it worked!  Another suggestion that I would give now is to use Google Docs to create an online sign up.  Create a spreadsheet with test dates, times, etc on it where parent volunteers can sign up.  Send your sign up link to teachers to forward to their class list and if your school's PTA has a yahoo or gmail group, by all means use that too.  Having too many volunteers is a good thing!

Example of volunteer sign up (this is from JYJ Gives back)

-Offer an incentive to get students to come to school on-time each day of testing.  I offered ice cream to every student that had "perfect attendance" during testing (my principal paid for it).  This worked, during the 3 years that I did testing, I had fewer than 10 students absent from testing (total) which means less make-ups to have to deal with.

-Have snacks for teachers & proctors:  testing can be a long and draining ordeal for staff too.  I had water and snack items for teachers to pick up once they turned in their testing materials each day.  Last year I shared how we had staff pick me ups during state testing (stay tuned, I'll have more to share closer to our testing dates in May).

-Borrow an apron, I never seemed to have enough pocket room to carry lists, pencils, pens, etc. so wearing an apron was a must.  I could carry tons of stuff with me in the pockets as I moved around the building hands free.  People always knew that I was in "testing mode" they'd said "oh, she's got on that apron".  Ok, the apron thing may just be a me thing, I like aprons!

What testing tips work for you?

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Great way to pump up the staff & students for testing

Test taking time is here! We started our End of Grade Tests (EOG's) today.   Something that the 3rd grade team at my school did to take a little edge off testing worries and such was to have a daily treat for our staff.  I'm thinking that a smaller scaled version of this could be done for students too.  Each day a little note with a goodie was put in our mailbox.  This may be something that your school's PTA could do or you could do with a test anxiety group.  The pictures are below: 

What a great way to get us pumped up for testing!  Did your school do something special to pump up the staff for state testing?

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Testing lesson for 1st time testers

Testing time is fast approaching which made an easy choice for our monthly counselor classroom visits.   We've been focusing on test taking tips, calming anxiety & doing your best.  Third graders at my school will experience state end of grade testing (EOG's) for the 1st time.  I can only imagine the pressure that these poor students are enduring.  Many moons ago when I was their age we took the California Achievement Test (CAT).  All my teacher (who was fantastic by the way) talked about was this CAT test and for a while I thought that the test was about actual cats!  The test was so talked up that pretty much every one in the class was a nervous wreck.  We certainly don't want our students to feel this way going into the test. 

I got ideas from counselor blogs from Danielle, Tabitha & Pinterest on test taking tips and did a combo on all three.  We started our lesson by reading the book Testing Miss Malarkey which I found a free e-book copy online.  Click here to download.  We used the iPad to show the book on the Promethan board  (using iPad VGA adapter) while we read the story (we also had students to volunteer to read, which they really liked).  After the story, we discussed test taking tips and strategies (most of the tips the teachers have been saying all year).  We then began to discuss ways to relax when taking the test and not letting the test get the best of them.  From here we had the students write one worry they had about taking the EOG's for the 1st time (we told them not to write their names on the index cards) and put all the cards in a box.  The box was called the EOG's worry box (thanks Tabitha for sharing your idea).  The idea was to allow students to see their worries about the test "go away".   We pulled some of the cards from the worry box and helped by offering suggestions on how to deal with the worry (in a general way).   After the relaxation and worry box activity, we handed out "parting gifts" which included us saying that they were smartie pants and handed out smarties candy and we gave out book marks with test taking strategies.  To download the book marks (free) click here (you will have to create an account but it takes no time. 

To make my worry box, I used an empty cereal box and covered it using wrapping paper.

Cereal box & wrapping paper

 I typed the words "EOG worry box" in Word using Chalkduster font, size 72 with a green font text color.  I used a ruler to measure what to trim while cutting.

Printed copy of Worry Box labels.  I used a ruler to measure what to trim.

Worry box labels cut out

I then printed and glued the words onto the box using mod podge.  I also painted a layer of the mod podge over the entire box.  Total cost for the project = $0, I already had all of the items!  Here's the finished product!

Here are some of the worries from the worry box

Let the testing season begin.  What ideas or lessons do you use when sharing testing tips/strategies with your students?

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