Skypin' with Phil the Poet (+a freebie, you know it!)

Hi there,

So, I fell off the blogging bandwagon. 

Spring break spent in Bali sent me on holiday,

Planning for the end-of-the year neared,

Then a loss of electricity hit my small city,

Finally report card writing commenced.

And boy, how my life did get tensed. 

Okay, so I am a bit of a goof-ball and definitely not a poet.  But my class did get to skype with one on Monday.  How cool, right?  His name is Phil Bolsta and he wrote 5 children’s poems that were published in the book, Kid’s Pick The Funniest Poems.  He told them his was in goof-ball mode with his daughter when he wrote the poems and suddenly I have been in goof-ball mode ever since. You can read about the book on Phil’s blog, here.  

My kids loved his poems and it was so fun for them to meet the author.  He actually had a book published this week.  However, they were very serious as they interviewed him. The best part had to be when he surprised them by reading their What Am I? Poems.  (Hear excited voices calling softly... "Oh, that's mine." and  "I wrote that!")  Then of course my students made him guess.  He did a very good job and was so good natured with the kids.  

So, I am just curious...  What gets you in goofball mode?  What takes you away from blogging?  Are you a poet? Have you used Skype in the classroom? Want to get our classes together for a Skype?  

Could it also be that report card writing is making me a little slaphappy?  Quite possibly…  So, I have a freebie for you, but I must admit – it’s terrible.  I am sure it could be better.  But, I have found that the better I conduct my assessment, the easier my job is at writing report card comments.  So, instead of waiting until I perfect this document, I thought I would share it as is in hopes that you maybe helpful to at least one person out there struggling to create a writing assessment.  I created this document in pages and then uploaded to google docs.  Let me know how it views.  

Maybe you all have it figured out and have the perfect assessment/reporting method.  If you do, I'd love to hear from you.  J 

So, without further ado, here are is an assessment sheet for you.  (Totally cheese, I know, I just can't stop.)

Cheers,

Kate

Writing Assessment 
click above