Below are our tips for this week. Remember, we are not the end-all, be-all! We are just teachers sharing our
ideas with you. Feel free to modify strategies you receive from us to fit you and your classroom!
====================================== Survival Kit for New Teachers
======================================
Looking for a teaching job? Want to spruce up your resume? Preparing to enter the application and interview process? Wondering what you'll do once you get a
job? Need to know where to start?
Get the answers and ideas you are looking for all in one book! Survival Kit for New Teachers contains specific, hands-on advice geared
especially for Elementary teachers. Survival Kit for New Secondary Teachers contains advice especially for Junior High and High School
teachers. Written in a step-by-step, easy to read format, this is the most practical, comprehensive teacher resource available for new teachers. The Career
Bound chapter offers strategies and tips for navigating the teaching job market. Every other chapter provides strategies and tips on what to do once you get
into the classroom. Survival Kit for New Teachers Survival Kit for New Secondary Teachers
Clicking on the above links will take you to an information page about these titles available from Inspiring Teachers. View sample pages and read what others
have to say about Survival Kit for New Teachers
================================= Education World New Teachers Column
===============================
Education World
New Teacher Column
This is my column on Education World. The current featured topic is "Surviving Staff Development". I hope you enjoy it!
============= Weekly Tip
=============
Preparing Students for Test Anxiety
Test anxiety is one of those issues that is non-discriminatory. It will hit anyone from the highest ability in your classroom to the lowest. You may even be
shocked when a student who normally performs at a high level on one of your tests turns around and performs poorly on a standardized test. Of course many
factors can play into this scenario including sleepiness, a highly charged emotional event right before the test or earlier in the day, hunger, distraction,
or unease at different surroundings. For this newsletter, however, we are going to focus on test anxiety.
For students with test anxiety, all standardized tests are a form of legalized torture. The signs might include obvious nervousness, chills or shakes, a
sudden headache or stomach-ache, a desire to miss school, and a lack of focus. The student may not even realize what is happening, but will simply begin to
feel awful all over. For some students the anxiety reveals itself through an inability to answer even the easiest of questions. If you've ever experienced
test anxiety, then you know what I'm talking about. You open the test booklet, read the first question, and then draw a total blank. You might even have
difficulty concentrating on the question itself. This begins the cycle of nervousness and distraction that often brings out feelings of illness. This cycle
continues viciously until either the student overcomes their anxiety or succumbs to the temptation to simply mark any answer in order to "get it over with."
So what can we do to help our students deal with this very real issue? Below are some tips you might find useful.
First of all, talk about test anxiety openly with your students. Knowledge and understanding often shed light on dark situations and make them seem more
manageable. If a student with this problem understands what is happening and realizes that others also experience the same thing, they will be in a better
position to overcome their fear. If you have experienced test anxiety yourself, then use your own stories to help students understand they are not alone. You
might have students write about what happens to them when they take a test in a journal. What goes through their mind? What happens to their body? Let these
be personal journals and not shared as a class. A journal gives a student time to put his or her feelings into concrete words. This verbalization of the fear
can then help a student look at it from the outside rather than getting wrapped up in the experience.
Secondly, help students become familiar with the format so that when they see it, the test will not seem so overwhelming. Prepare students with test
strategies for reading and understanding questions as well as locating the "best" answer. Practice these test strategies so that they become second nature to
students. This does not mean that you must spend all day every day taking practice tests. Once a week is more than enough. Think about creating some
classroom assessments in a similar format to the standardized test your students are required to take. This helps everyone become familiar with the format
and reduces the number of papers you must grade. Instead of one practice test and one class assessment you now have one class assessment that also serves as
a practice test.
Lastly, discuss with your students the difference between the "thinking" part of the brain and the "emotions" part of the brain. Anger, Excitement, Anxiety,
and other emotions will push forward and "take over" the brain so that the "thinking" part cannot do its job. Talk with students about ways they can keep
their emotions from becoming the focal point. Recognition is the first step that will help students take control to keep the "thinking" part of their brain
active.
Provide some strategies for students to utilize before and during the test to help them remain calm. These exercises will help students keep their emotions
from taking over so that they are better able to think and retrieve the information that is in their brain. Practice breathing exercises and stretching
exercises to help get oxygen to brain cells. You might even want to do some guided visualizations of a relaxing atmosphere to help students get in the right
frame of mind. Discuss with students what they can do during a test to help them refocus and stay calm. Below are a few ideas:
If you begin to feel unfocused or distracted:
*Cross your right arm over your left arm and then your left arm over your right arm. This gets synaptic impulses jumping from one side of the brain to the
other and creates a need for the brain to "wake up" and focus.
*Close your eyes and taking 5 to 10 deep breaths. You should breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Now open your eyes and begin again.
This is like pushing the "reset" button to your brain.
With a few proactive measures as well as encouragement and understanding, we can help our students overcome their anxiety about standardized tests. This will
help use gain a true assessment of their academic ability as well as areas needing improvement. After all, that is (or should be) the ultimate purpose in
testing our students. If we cannot get an accurate assessment of their knowledge and abilities because of test anxiety, then how are we able to plan for
student learning? Whether you are someone who has experienced test anxiety or not, this issue is a real plague upon our students and can cause many
complications both for our students and for ourselves. I encourage you to take some time to talk with your students and implement some strategies that will
help them show us what they really know.
Want to respond and share some ways you deal with test anxiety? Respond to this email and we'll combine them all together in our Idea Share!
====================== Inspirational Thought
======================
It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.
~Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954)
====================== Thoughts for Reflection
======================
Have you ever felt anxiety about a test? How did it affect your performance? Did you feel that you knew more than was reflected on the test? How does that
same situation apply to your students? What can you do to help your students perform their best on a test? Why should they want to put effort into the test?
What do you feel current student attitude is towards tests? What can you do to change that attitude? What is your current attitude toward tests? What is at
the basis of that attitude? Is your attitude one that will ultimately help your students? Why or why not? What do you feel is the purpose of standardized
testing? What should it be? Do you often see students unable to perform on a standardized test? What can you do to help those students? Which strategies
listed above do you feel would work best with your students? Why? Which students in your class would you identify as having test anxiety? What are some of
the symptoms you notice in each? Which strategies do you think would work for each student?
=========== Feedback
===========
Want to respond and share some ways you deal with test anxiety? Respond to this email and we'll combine them all together in our Idea Share!
------------------------------------
These thoughts and ideas are brought to you by Emma McDonald co-author of Survival Kit for New
teachers AND the AWARD WINNING Classrooms that SPARK. Find us at
The entire contents of this e-zine are Copyrighted by Inspiring Teachers and Emma McDonald. If you would like
to reprint all or parts of this e-zine, please contact Inspiring Teachers at 972-496-7633 or toll-free at 1-877-496-7633 or via email to
info@inspiringteachers.com