Red Sox Season and MCAS Practice Sites!

It's springtime in New England and we all know that that means the arrival of BASEBALL season! The Red Sox have been practicing for a couple of months now getting ready for Opening Day and the 2010 season. If you're a Sox fan you've probably been following Spring Training and have seen how all the ball players put in a lot of time and effort working out and practicing the skills that will be key to helping them do well on the baseball field.

Just like the Red Sox have their big season ahead of them, the MCAS Testing season is also upon us.

Teachers at Walsh, like the Coach of the Red Sox, Terri Francona, have been preparing us all year for these testing sessions. Different subject lessons and projects that our teachers have us work on throughout the year are all efforts to help us learn; learn how to problem solve; develop new ways to think; and get familiar with the content and format of the MCAS tests. Along with learning some good test-taking strategies all grades are now practiced in answering not only multiple-choice questions, but also how to write a good essay response to the "Open Response" questions.

Think about learning how to throw a baseball - do you think Josh Beckett always pitched that hard and fast?! Or, learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time - nobody just jumps on a bike the first time and rides away without some practice! In the same way  it helps to practice, practice, practice and study some of the possible questions that may come up on your grade level MCAS test.

The Boston Public Library has put together a good practice site that you may find helpful to go to to review some of the MCAS questions from past years. This is not to add more to your school workload, but just like before your Little League baseball season, you might want to get yourself ready for the MCAS season by warming up just a little more.

So, practice up. We're sure it will help ease any anxiety you might have, and it may even help you learn a little thing or two!

*Parents may like to try some of these questions too, see how you well you do!

http://www.bpl.org/teens/mcas/index.htm


One more thing - let's hope the Red Sox have practiced well and give us another great season!

Go SOX!