Floored!

Yesterday I found out, to my surprise, that 8th graders really do know more about science than they let on. After receiving the questions and answers for the TEKS check, I decided that my kids would never pass because out of 25 questions they knew about 5... that we had learned this year. Some of the questions were review from 7th grade but it seems like that was an awfully long time ago for them.... so I gave them a review.

Another teacher told my I shouldn't talk about doing that because its wrong, but I don't feel wrong about it. I didn't give any answers and I didn't even ask the questions on the test. However, I held the test in my hand and went over the different concepts that it covered. Perhaps this is wrong, but I don't think so.

It was amazing how much my kids knew about things we haven't covered yet this year. I would start out each thing by saying, "Tell me what you know about (earthquakes, hurricanes, food chains, etc.)." And then I would guide them to tell me more specifics.

In particular, some things I was surprised at:
*They were able to draw and label the rock cycle, which we had been going over, but never in a graphic form before.
*They knew that hurricanes were stronger over water because the warm ocean water would evaporate and give the hurricane more energy.
*They understood concepts like predation, habitat loss and generation cycles.
*They knew that rain water is filtered by soil and having cement on the ground makes pollutants run into the river.
*They could tell me about faults and mountains as well as how weathering and erosion could affect those things.

Let me tell you, I was so happy yesterday. I wish we could have days like that all the time. Each class was fully engaged and ready to answer the next question... no popsicle sticks needed! Now, as I type, my 3rd period class is working hard on this TEKS check, and I just hope they were able to retain some of that knowledge they shared with me yesterday.

I feel so prepared because I have all their semester exam reviews waiting for them to take. Tomorrow we are doing a mineral ID lab which should be pretty fun. Monday I won't be here and because of the crazy exam schedule next Tuesday, I will have different classes doing different things, but hopefully it will all work out. At the beginning of this week I was on a down. Seriously, I lost my keys for five hours and I thought I was having a mental breakdown, basketball was stressing me out and I felt like the whole world was against me. Today I am doing a whole lot better. We have basketball game tonight and even though we won't blow them away, I am pretty sure that my team has a bit of a clue now, so we should be ok. Yes, and I can't wait to start our new unit and be finished with all this talk about rocks!