Testing, Testing, Ugh, 2, 3

For this session, I thought that I would give a few references to help out with testing.

Why testing?  Well, to be honest, it becomes of importance once the search for high schools and universities begin.  The reality is that individual performance does on state-wide assessment does have impact on the opportunities your kids might or might not get.  My goal as a teacher each year is to prepare them for life.  Testing is just one of the many aspects to take into consideration.

Today I'm going to introduce a few sites that you find beneficial as you prepare your child for the next wave of testing that they will participate in, the WKCE.  I've chosen these sites because of their content, accessibility, and ease.  I encourage you to explore and experiment with these sites.  If you have any resources that I haven't mentioned, please share them, and I'll be more than happy to spread the word.

Well, here we go...

1. ThatQuiz-This is a site that I found a few weeks ago, and I've been toying with it.  I like the concepts that are available (hey, it's Math!), and I found it pretty easy to use.  Furthermore, it's rather simple to adjust the difficulties of the quizzes themselves.  If your child is a Math whiz, you can kick up the levels to really challenge them.  If your child struggles, you can decrease the level to build up their confidence.  Your children will be using this site a lot this year; I recommend that you give it a try yourself...
2. NCES-Kid's Zone-This is another site that I found, and it has some interesting parts to it.  Unfortunately, it only allows comparison testing to 4th, 8th, and 12th grade.  However, I found that a lot of the 8th grade material was taught in my class, so your children would likely be up for the challenge.  What I liked about this site was that you could compare feedback from around the world, and more importantly, you could get immediate links to resources for reteaching concepts.  
3. EduPlace-This is a website through Houghton Mifflin, and what stood out here that I liked was that it gave some test-taking strategies, along with a walk-through for using that specific strategy.  

There are tons of sites out there; this is merely a sliver of what's out there.  I encourage you to search and find resources for your child as well.  After all, the goal is their success, right?