Day 2 of Hell

I don't have much else to add to Wednesday's blog, except for the fact that I almost fell asleep about twenty times. I wanted to give up administering the test because I couldn't stand it anymore. It was hard to keep the kids quiet, hard to stay quiet myself and even harder to keep the kids somewhat quiet while trying to find a comfortable sleeping position in their seats. I've never seen a desk slept on so many different ways. I wish I could have taken pictures...they found comfort in the oddest ways.

In the midst of their boredom, they all tried wrapping their jackets/hoodies around their heads in order to have a pillow and darkness to sleep. I've never seen hoodies wrapped around a head so many different ways either.

While I was watching them all try to make themselves comfortable, I flashed back to when I took the TAAS test in junior high and high school. I remember in junior high I had a teacher who brought me red and pink Starbursts to keep me awake during the test. This was while I was sitting in my desk with both legs on the desk and the test in the middle. I was a mover who couldn't sit the same way for more than five minutes and had a hard time staying awake. Even in high school I remember falling asleep during the reading test because sleeping was definitely more exciting. I tried conveying my empathy for my kiddos and explain that watching them take the test was definitely worse than taking it myself. If I had been able to take it, at least I would have been able to do something.

Have any of the old men who developed these tests and regulations ever administered one? That should be a requirement before they can make a state mandated test. Seriously...how well would they hold up? I know I didn't and fell asleep at 7:30 after the second day of this extreme boredom. I'm much better off being actively engaged in teaching all day than I am walking around actively monitoring.

Day 1 of Hell

It was day one of a TAKS that doesn't really matter. Well, I'll change my wording...it matters for the state, it matters for our school, but it means nothing to whether or not the kids pass 4th grade. We've been reviewing our math strategies and operations for the past 2 weeks in hopes that all the kiddos would be prepared for today and for the most part, I feel it was helpful in one way or another.

For one particular child, it doesn't matter what we teach...she's not going to apply it to the test. The rules are very strict in regards to the administering of the test, but within the rules, I observed this child take her test. She didn't turn from the sample page for about 2 hours and when she finally did, she was flipping rapidly through every page. For those 2 hours, she sat staring at the wall, playing with her fingers on her desk, laying her head down, and looking for things to play with (that I kept taking from her). When she finally decided she wanted to do her test, she filled in bubbles on her answer document and never looked back. She didn't write a single thing down and finished her test within a matter of seconds. This is when I know that it doesn't matter what I teach...if it's not applied when needed, it's useless.

For my other kiddos who appeared to take their time on the test, they quickly became bored after finishing. Their options upon turning in their test was to read or sleep. Some chose sleep and other chose to read. Both choices didn't last for long...they became anxious within a matter of minutes. While I was "actively monitoring", a group of students began to mock me. Any movements I made, they made. Any whispering I did, they pretended to do as well. It broke the monotony of the day and gave us all a laugh, but it got close to a test "abnormality". I know exactly how those poor children felt sitting in their desks all day, not being able to talk or get up (except bathroom and lunch) and mocking me just made it more enjoyable. They did it multiple times throughout the day and it was funny to see how more kids caught on to the mockery each time. I was in the same boat as them as far as the boredom factor, although I was able to move around. It's hard knowing how much I need to do and not being able to touch a single bit of it. And I have another day of it tomorrow...can you sense the joy in my voice?

Is the rumor true?

Ever since I've gotten my newest student, I've been skeptical about the abilities shes claims to have in math and reading. Today I did a bit of investigating into her records (which are usually put in my mailbox for me to look at for a few days, but didn't happen this time). I didn't find anything of real interest, I was just a bit surprised when I saw her grades. Then I put things back into perspective realizing that she was only at her last school for less than 2 months. Her records from prior schools were not in her folder yet.

In the past couple weeks, since her arrival, I've asked her where she came from before and she always said a nearby district. I kept probing...turns out that she came from Louisiana before. Now, I've never been in a classroom in Louisiana, but I have heard many things about the lack of an educational system. I've also never had a student who grew up in the Louisiana school system...until now.

I know that there are fourth graders at other schools who are farther along in their learning, mostly because they were born with an advantage (whether it is financially or intellectually), but we do our best with the kiddos we have. We don't have much parental support and our school seems to be a place to drop kids off for the day and hope they learn something. We do the best we can, as teachers, to help these kids be successful or learn to be successful. The whole point is that...my kids are far above my new kiddo. She is far behind where she should be and often asks me for help on basic questions. I don't mind when kids ask for help (I greatly encourage it), but she NEEDS my help on EVERY question.

We are currently reviewing for the TAKS test...that's right...REVIEWING. The only problem is that for this new kiddo, it doesn't seem to be a review at all. Apparently she's never seen any of this material before. We're talking fractions, decimals, multiplication, division, reading for context clues, basic comprehension, main idea, etc. Ever since she arrived, I've been spending more time each day walking her through questions than I have with every other student in my class combined. I find it difficult to review the other kids when I'm teaching it to one particlar student.

I know this will be a problem that I'll encounter many more times throughout my teaching career, but it's becoming one of my hardest first year struggles. And...could she have come when we were learning a new topic instead of reviewing for a state test??? Come on parents! (see the blog titled "Parents Are Stupid")