Thursday, April 6th took me back to Marshalltown for my 4th visit in two years. I felt like I was returning home! I love seeing familiar faces and reconnecting with members I've met before! My first stop of the day was at Anson Elementary where I met up with Marshalltown EA president, Frank Ocasio (High School Language Arts instructor). Frank was able to take an association day to accompany me on my school visits.
Joining us at Anson Elementary was Sally Hansen (at far left), Mid-Iowa UniServ Unit representative on the ISEA Executive Board. Sally spent her teaching career at Anson Elementary and at the end of the 2004-2005 school year retired. Sally returns often to Anson to substitute teach and reconnect with friends. President-elect of the MEA is Meg Sponseller, pictured with Sally, is a Special Education teacher at Anson Elementary. Sally treated us to lunch with subway sandwiches.
One of the concerns brought forward by many of the educators that were able to join us at Anson over lunch was the new "ELDA" testing: English Language Development Assessment. Educators described the four areas of testing, 3 areas in which the students may be tested in "large" groups (taking 30-90 minutes per test); then a 4th test administered individually taking a minimum of 30 minutes per student. Anson has 192 ELL students, which takes the 2 1/2 ELL teachers several months to test all ELL students. All of that testing time, as we know, takes away from the direct instruction time ELL instructors are able to work with students.
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