Fire Drills, Sexual Harassment and Dibels

This has been a great week. Wednesday was the best day by far. We had our first fire drill of the year. I hated fire drills as a student and I hate them even more as an adult. I think its worse to know they're coming. I'm always so tense until the alarm actually goes off and then I'm even more tense as I try to herd kids out of the building in a somewhat orderly fashion. So much easier said than done! We practiced earlier in the day so the kids would know where to exit and line up outside. We talked about all the rules - no running, no shouting and no plugging your ears. Things went well during our practice. However, no matter how prepared they are the first one is always crazy. As soon as the alarms goes off kids start screaming, plugging their ears and trying to run out of the room. And I start yelling. Both out of frustration and just trying to be loud enough for the kids to hear me over all the chaos. We all made it out safely (while I realize there is no real "danger" during a drill there is always the chance someone is going to get hurt in the rush). This year I didn't have to pull any kids out from under the table who were confusing the fire drill with the earthquake drill. Bonus.

Wednesday was also our yearly first grade sexual harassment discussion. The big part of this discussion focuses on good and bad touch. The purpose of this discussion is to let children know that they are in charge of their bodies and if someone is touching them in any way they don't like they have the right to say stop (even if it isn't technically a "bad" touch). This discussion always makes students more aware of how often people touch them (when standing in line or walking in the hall and someone accidentally bumps any part of them) and for the next two weeks all I hear is "Johnny touched my private part." My favorite tattle (possibly ever) happened after the sexual harassment discussion a few years ago. Austin came in from recess really upset because Kathleen had been kissing him on the playground and he kept asking her to stop. He told me "She keeps giving me sexual harassment and I don't like it." Awesome. Next year I think I'll use a cake like this to help teach kids about this very sensitive subject.
(I found this cake on cakewrecks.blogspot.com Maybe you don't like to look at cakes but there are some really funny things people have decided to say with cake. Be sure to check out the "favorites" section on the side).

The final thing that made my week so great were the results of the first test given to my students this year. The Dibels benchmarking test is given to my students three times a year. All you need to know about this test is that it measures early predictors of reading success. There is a strong correlation between making "benchmark" on the Dibels test and passing the end of year reading test. These students are considered to be on level. Students are considered "strategic" if they are almost on level and have a good chance of making it with extra reading help. Students are considered "intensive" if they are significantly below level (this can be the result of many things and some of these students will reach grade level with alot of intense reading instruction). Here are my students' results (the green lines indicate benchmark students, yellow lines indicate strategic students and the red lines indicate intensive students).
Never in my teaching career have I had this many students on level at this point in the year. Never. My job just got a little easier.