The World Is Awesome And So Are Bloggers!

I am not at school today. I am training (yay!!)?? Actually, yes. The last few of these trainings have been fairly good. I am a teacher leader for the Appalachian Renaissance Initiative, a grant funded by the last round of Race to the Top Funding. So far, we're looking at 3D printing, mind-controlled devices, Java programming, and gesture-controlled technology. This is right up my alley. Then - at 11:35, we're talking about blogging. Heyyyyy. I mean I have a blog - I'm writing on it right now? Do I do it normally? Heh. No. But, I do understand the great power of blogs because I've learned so much. DruinkOK, PamJWilson, and so, so many others (the speaker is ending... I have to stop! They are going to make me move.) The speaker just talked about how "Twitter is the best PD opportunity for teachers". I know! Shoutout to #MTBOS for being amazing! I'll update later with takeaways and pictures!

Curing Test Anxiety

My AP class this year is really, really small. It has gone from 21 in AP Stats last year to 4 this year. Now, I had almost 20 want to take the class but some interesting scheduling conflicts arose, which made my enrollment dwindle. Regardless, the four kids I have are GREAT.

In other news, I am WAY behind in AP Stats. How does this happen? I have FOUR kids. Oh wait, that's right - they go on a field trip every other day. I'm not bitter. Haha... okay - maybe a little.

The great news is that these kids are mastering the content at a high level. I've never had all As and Bs in AP before.... well that was true until their last test. I had one student absolutely bomb the exam. The problem is said student KNOWS the content and just completely panicked on me. I could see it on the student's face during the test.

My question - how do I help fix the student's test anxiety? I give very similar study guides, we discuss a lot of theory in class. I feel like they are much more prepared for the content of the exams than my classes ever have been before?...

Suggestions?