34/24

Whew! Today was the last day of S.T.A.R. Testing! Yayyyy! 6 days of high stress testing is just a little too much for my (or any) group of 7-8 year olds. They were giddy while we finished the last few questions. It was pretty awful while administering the test though, especially the 3 math sections. I was required to read every single question to them and they did not have the questions printed in their books. I could only read the question twice so if they zoned out and I didn't notice, they were forced to just pick an answer. As tough as my class is, they are pretty good readers and if the questions were in the booklet they could have at least had a fighting chance. The reason the math questions are not printed is because the students are being tested on math not reading, but to not print the questions AT ALL just seems unfair. I don't think I could sit and listen to someone drone on for an hour, question after question after question, and not zone out. I am certainly not an auditory learner and most second graders aren't either which made some of the questions especially brutal. There were a couple of questions where even I was confused about what they were supposed to do. Some questions had a set up that was so long that by the time I finished reading the word problem about Mr. Grant and his gerbils they were totally lost. I felt bad for them. Some of the kids actually seemed in pain during this last section. To make matters worse, the principal sent out an e-mail today informing all teachers to continue to stuff every minute with academics. No coloring pages, no dittos, etc. Standards, standards, standards! Honestly, my kids are/will be fried for the rest of the year. I had more crying meltdowns, temper tantrums, owies/boo-boos, and fights today and yesterday than in the past two months combined, so my apologies if I throw a word search or two at my kids to kill some time.
*sigh*
34 more days until the last day of school/24 of which are teaching days