Instead of blogging, I spent 2.5 hours converting a released SOL test into Schoology. It was a lot of up front work, but I hoped it would save me time on the future back end. It might have been better for students to practice on the TestNav program, but without any way to verify what they were doing....Well, I know exactly what I would (or wouldn't) have been doing at their age.
Things ended quietly for the most part. For the kids, at least. I was consumed with chasing down stragglers and grading. The SOL was supposed to be Thursday. I was supposed to proctor it in person, too, but the Superintendent put us in Stage 1 again (Virtual only).
By Friday, I had 14 kids failing out of 55. With much harassment and work over the weekend (and even the following week!), 4 more kids passed. That left me with 10 out of 55 failing.
I mostly feel good about that.
If anyone came to class consistently, they passed. Five of the failures came to class less than five times between all of them. There was no way they could have earned a passing grade at that point. The five other kids had a chance if they pulled out all the stops and made an effort. I purposely assigned bare minimum participation grades 3 out of the last 4 days to make it easier, but they made their choice.
All in all, I think the semester went well for what it was. It would have been easier to connect with and chase kids down in physical school, but the last day of class there were kids who lingered and kept their cameras on.
It's going to feel very weird next week. There won't be halls to see any of the old students in. I'll click a link and all new names will appear. The fresh start will be nice, but the connection piece will feel empty at first.
Half a year in the (virtual) books. One more semester to go!
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