Times up, please put down your pencils

I had to proctor the Math TAKs on Thursday, followed by a Science benchmark on Friday. As a student, I was indifferent towards testing days. There was always the anxiety and the pressure of knowing that you had a big test coming up, but once I actually started taking the test, all that pressure just went away. I'd finish the test and read a book while I waited for everyone else in the room to finish, and then maybe read some more until time was called and we'd go to the next class.

Things are different with the TAKs. These students have ALL DAY to test if they need it. From 8 AM until 2:15, students were testing solely for math. There's not really an obscene amount of problems either (less than 100). I think Texas really just wants to make sure test anxiety is not an issue for their students and that they can "truly" gauge a student's learning. I appreciate the thought, and I'm sure the kids enjoy the extra time as well. But geez... if they finish early and double check their answers and still have 4 hours to go... that's a LONG day. I feel for the kids, and I know exactly what they're going through, because I had to actively monitor the rooms (walk around and stand, no sitting) for the entire testing period. I thankfully got a half-hour lunch in which the school provided sandwiches and snacks, but I usually get 45 minutes to eat and two planning periods during the day. I'm not complaining about the amount of planning time that I lost, because it's a test and those things happen. I was just dying on test day because I'm not talking, I can't read, draw, or really do anything other than look at the kids and make sure they aren't cheating. I felt like a prison guard. Did I mention I also got to monitor on Friday as well for the Science Benchmark? At least that one was only until 11:30

Migrants
Since the TAKs test is all done and there are only 4 weeks of school left, a lot of my migrant kids are starting to head out for the summer to work. It's really sad because I'm losing a lot of the kids that I've grown attached to and had really seen improvement with over the year. I had a few leave on Friday after the tests were done, and most of those didn't tell me they were leaving until that day. I think that they've gotten used to telling their teachers that they are leaving early and have had too many teachers give them a disappointed look or just get plain emotional on them. I'll be honest - I got a little emotional too. It's just going to get worse as the month goes on. Too bad they're leaving right as we're getting into our Media Unit that I've been looking forward to teaching.

Short Week, Easy Street

This week was absolutely amazing. Well, actually the last two weeks weren't too bad. Two weeks ago we had our second round of 6 weeks testing so aside from having to grade 135 papers all in one night and get my gradebook all set up and ready to go, the week was low stress and very little actual lesson planning/teaching. Proctoring tests is about as close as you can get to being paid for doing next to nothing. I spend the entire time walking around the room making sure the kids don't cheat and that they stay on task. I answer questions without giving hints at answers, and the kids are almost deathly quiet except for the sound of pencils digging into scantron bubbles and erasers rubbing back and forth every now and then.

I have a lot to be thankful for this week, but I'm mostly thankful that I finally got a chance to recharge physically, emotionally, and mentally. I was able to show the kids parts of the movie versions of their books (Of Mice and Men and The Outsiders) on Tuesday and gave a quick enrichment lesson on Friday to the few classes I did have since it was a half day. Geez, I still can't believe that I actually had 4 and a half days off. I do have to say though, I'm surprised that we had school on Wednesday. I don't ever remember having school the day before Thanksgiving, but I guess now adays students come in as much as they can. Unfortunately for the high school students, a benchmark exam was scheduled for the Thanksgiving week even though they just took the 6 weeks exam the week before. Two weeks of straight testing, school the day before Thanksgiving... no real breaks. Luckily our students didn't have their benchmark test because my department requested it be rescheduled for December. It just makes more sense to space out tests so that the kids don't get burned out.

Well, I think this about does it for this week's post. While I may be slightly recharged, I'm still not 100%. The last few days let me fix up a LOT of things at home so that I feel like my life is more or less in some type of order, but my car is not fixed, and I still have things to get ready for tomorrow. With that being said, goodnight all, and have a great week.