April 10, 2014

The abusive relationship between the state assessment and everyone forced to deal with it, resumed today. It was made even worse because I had shredded the tickets for two of the classes testing today. So when I got to work I had to cut those out and organize them all over again. I managed to at least get the first class cut out and separated from the other fifth grade and into sections before they came to the lab. During that test I was able to finish organizing the next two classes. Not surprisingly, the first test did not go well. Only a few kids were able to complete one part of the test but none of them were able to finish the whole test before they had two errors. I guess rather than two errors in one testing session, it is supposed to be one error in two separate testing sessions. Which is just a bigger waste of time. It worked out today though because the first two classes were the ones who put up with all the errors on Monday.

The only entertaining part of the morning was the fifth grade teacher telling me about when she went to buy doughnut holes for her kids this morning. She wanted to buy thirty but when she told this to the cashier she was told that they only sold doughnuts by the dozen and half dozen. The teacher paused for a second and then cautiously asked if she could have two and a half dozen instead. I would think it would be hard as a teacher to not explain basic math to people.

The second class testing was sixth grade and they were just as unsuccessful as the first. A few kids made it to the last section but no one was able to finish the test. One of the kids testing outside the lab was testing in their classroom and he was having a little more success so the rather than testing, the kids in the lab ended up getting to play on CoolMath for about forty-five minutes.

Afternoon testing went off with only a single problem. One kid had one question not show up. Other than that, both tests were successful. During the second test the Executive Director of Teaching and Learning came to observe the test and she blamed her presence for the test working because every time she observed the tests went well. I feel bad for her because after Monday she had an article in the paper explaining all the testing difficulties and our district's decision to stop testing. And then last night she had another article explaining why we had to resume testing. She was telling me that when she was talking to one of the higher-ups he was boasting how the testing system could handle a million users at once. Apparently our peak was 147,000 users and that made everything go to hell. They must have misplaced a zero in their estimate.

With four tests today, that was pretty much my day. There was a lot of running around this morning, between getting tickets and cutting them out and distributing them for kids testing out of the room, and going to get the principal to print missing tickets. It was exhausting. All the activity is good for me I supposed, much better than just sitting and staring at a computer, but I can definitely feel it at the end of the day.

It was Chipotle night tonight and I showed a few pictures and videos afterward. I didn't have a visit with the new volunteer kid tonight because when I called the house one of the other kids answered and said he wouldn't be home until nine o'clock. Maybe Thursday visits need to be changed to another night of the week.

Instead I spent my night watching YouTube videos, reading random articles online about childhood amnesia and another about a Polish spy (Witold Pilecki) who was intentionally captured by the SS during WWII so he could collect information and start a resistance inside Auschwitz. I also played piano and watched a show that one of the fifth grade teachers was telling me about, Impractical Jokers. It is pretty entertaining.

The sixth graders are learning a song on guitar right now and I stopped by the music room today to see if maybe tomorrow the music teacher would switch jobs with me for a day. I'll teach guitar and she can handle testing. I don't think she's going to take me up on it.