Monday, May 19, 2008

IT'S TIME

IT's like the big nothing from a never-ending story.
the nothing that takes over everything,
turning the beauty of the land into blankness.
nothingness. no more joy, no more laughter, no more beauty.
it sucks the life out of anything that touches its path.

getting out of bed today felt like more torture than normal for a monday. our state testing begins this week. our school will be plastered with orange 'TESTING' signs and we will be trying desperately to keep our little ones silent in the hallway. recess will be shut down as we can't have any loud, happy cries of children interupting the testing. i'll be pulled out of my normal, happy classes to administer the tests to small groups of children.

there will be white knuckles, nail biting, anxious children, nervous teachers. we'll be doing fast last-minute reminders about the best ways to take the tests. we'll be sharpening number 2 pencils, getting our books ready, taking deep breaths and trying not to cry as we stand by in silence to watch our kiddos take these tests.

we'll be preparing the multiple tape recorders needed to record us in case the state believes we helped our children cheat. (no listening center this week~ we'll be going into every classroom we can to steal their tape records to meet state requirements) we'll be reviewing the list of testing rules and remembering to take away all scrap paper from the children, checking the bottoms of their shoes for test answers, and operating with higher security than the GRE testing centers.

ugh. this week seems lifeless. and IT will go on for the next 3-4 weeks. our county wide testing has already begun and we've been pulling kids one on one to test them for different assessments. that too will go on this week. so, those few moments when i am free to be in the classroom i will be giving tests to my own kiddos.

it's going to be a long week.

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