Don't let the winter blues drag you down.
Spring will be here before you know it and with that the ELA assessments.
Remember that the Superintendent is looking for our students to make 70% 3's and 4's on the ELAs this year.
I know that with sound instruction centered around the literacy initiative and by differentiating instruction based upon student data (using the SRI, DIBELS, RPI, Formative Assessment) that our students can meet and exceed this mark.

Should our students be familiar with the format of the test? Yes, absolutely. But it shouldn't be the center of instruction. Our students should be exposed to rich literature and appropriate vocabulary found in our text book adoption and reading list trade books. They should be reading and writing every day and asked to think and answer questions at the higher level of Bloom's or Costa's levels of questioning. They should be completing projects and papers that embed some of the questioning techniques tested in the ELA, but should not be practicing one test after another. Lessons and instruction should be interesting, engaging and rigorous.
Learning should be full of inquiry and students should love school.
And you should love what you do.

Enjoy the longer days of sunshine, continue to plan well, and enjoy what you do.