CST coming soon...blah, blah, blah

Oh man, will I be happy when the bubble-in-try-to-show-what-you-can-memorize- test goes away in 2015! I've been implementing Common Core this year and LOVE the fact the they will focus on the thinking PROCESS, not just the a b c or d PRODUCT. Until then...here are some testing resources. Please leave a comment below if you know of other helpful sites.
1) http://www.flocabulary.com/test-taking-vocabulary/
or if you just want fun entertaining, history ones (which you can also use to review for the 8th grade CST in Social Studies): http://www.flocabulary.com/topics/world-history/
2) I like this test taking tips web page for all types of testing situations
http://www.testtakingtips.com/
3) Keeping a positive attitude is always helpful!
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/study-skills/teaching-methods/6390.html

I always had test anxiety growing up. I would know it all (or of course, THINK I knew it all), but when the test came out, I started sweating.

Miss Scott's best testing advice:

Lots of sleep the night before
Eat a protein packed healthy breakfast
Take deep breaths when your brain starts to short circuit.
READ the questions FIRST!
Circle, underline, put a box around any of the clue words that will help you find the answer.
Go back into the text and search for those clue words, heck, even underline where you found the answer so you can PROVE IT!
Eliminate obvious answers as you go. Test makers always try to bait you with 2 right answers but 1 is always "more right" than the other. Watch out for that!

Take it from me, when you rush, you make silly little mistakes and you want to kick yourself for it later.
Breathe. You can do it! Oh and don't worry, LIFE will present you with much harder tests than any State Test ever will!

Super Cool Writing Web Sources

     I am really excited about a class I went to yesterday that turned me on to some helpful tools to use for writing...so of course, I will share them with you. The best part is they are all available online and right now, they are all FREE!! I <3 Free Ninety Nine!
     Maybe because I was born and raised in California or maybe because my school system failed me, I have always sucked at grammar. (It was the only class I failed in college!) This is a grammar checker that allows you to copy and paste text and it will grammar and spell check it for you!
http://www.grammarcheck.net/
     Then I found a helpful tool to practice convention skills like punctuation. It asks students what they like, then creates sentences for you to fix, based on pop culture, sports or whatever YOU like. 
http://noredink.com/
Last but not least is another hard skill to master, citing sources. This free website allows you to choose MLA or APA format, copy your source in, and it spits out the correct formatted citation. High school and most colleges use MLA style so I would stick to that! Try it out and get your bibliography correct this time!
http://www.citefast.com/
Flocabulary is another fun link that uses rap to explain things...check out some. Here's an example using test taking vocabulary words in bold.
http://www.flocabulary.com/test-taking-vocabulary/