Three Good Things About Testing

And believe me, there are only three!

1. The school gives us enough pencils for every kid, and they're pre-sharpened.
2. The kids get snack so they're not hungry until lunch. (Well, for the first few days, they do, until the school inevitably runs out of money for this).
3. I can lock the door and no one comes in to tell me I'm off schedule or that I have no student work up.

The tests are dragging them down now. I got a note from one girl that said, "I hate the test so munch the test make people sad and mad that's why I hate test because there are answers that are really hard and stupid."

She didn't used to feel this way about tests. All the assessments taken up until this point; reading, math, spelling, etc. were seen as fun - she liked taking them, she usually did well, and she never freaked out. Today I had one child get sent home, three more whose mothers were called, and about seven more who got in some sort of trouble, and all of it started with the test. They feel stupid, they feel like they don't measure up, and their feelings are being reinforced.

Also, it's so LONG! The third graders will take a total of 10-14 hours, more or less, of this test! And they do this every year, with some grades (I know fourth, maybe sixth also) having more. It's spread out over 6 days, but the total time is longer than the SAT, MCAT, LSAT, GRE, or almost all the adult tests I can think of. The poor things can't sit still. "Lamar" took his test standing up because we had two parts today and after one, he just couldn't sit any more. One girl fell asleep on her test, and it has drool marks on it now. A couple other cried, and I think the test has tear marks.

I did get a nice note from the girl who hates the test "so munch." She wrote, "I love you and Tiger very munch because you are very nice to me in my heart."

Thank goodness for the gecko! When he comes out to watch them during the test, everyone relaxes a little.

Comments

House Dreams said…

And MUCH longer that the CBEST!

Thank the Lord for Tiger.
Bless all the children.

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