What a wonderful, wonderful day it was! We began state testing on this beautiful Wednesday, and I couldn't not have had a more relaxing experience. For the first time in the five years I have taught at my school, the administration finally got it right.
In years past, the testing was spread out over a week and a half, with the students testing for two hours, and then going through their class schedule for the rest of the school day. The periods were shorter (they are 41 minutes on a regular day!), and since they had already tested, I couldn't give a quiz or test on anything I taught during that week and a half. The students were also quite ill-behaved during these abbreviated classes, both because they knew there was no quiz on the horizon, and because they were burned out from the whole testing schedule in the first place.
But this year... ahhhh, Heaven! We test Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. The teachers administer the tests to their first period classes from 9am to 1:10pm, with a 10 minute break at 11:30. The students eat lunch from 1:10 to 1:40, and then they GO HOME! I have been beating my head against the wall at staff meetings for the last five years suggesting that this is what should be done during state testing, and they have finally taken my advice. Well, I'm sure they don't remember that it's me who has been yelling from the rooftops, but my desires became policy just the same!
So tomorrow, I shall go to work, hand out the test booklets and bubbly answer sheets, and then enjoy the silence.
Good Day to You, Sir
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson
3 comments:
Congratulations! I envy you. We, at our school, have begged, pleaded, exhorted, cried, and implored to have minimum days during standardized testing. The only response is, "No, we can't do that." Of course, "they" are not on the front lines. "They" do not have to herd the students during the remainder of the day. "They" only remind us that for the testing week we must continue to offer a rigorous educational program, but we cannot assign homework! Kafka would love it!
We're just finishing up 2 weeks of testing. Ugh.
Your kids test for four straight hours with only a ten minute break - and they don't get ansty? How does that work!?
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