Testing...ugh

The Alabama High School Graduation Exam will be taken by thousands of students this week. And hundreds of teachers will be responsible for administering and proctoring. And for us, this week is the. most. boring. ever. During the testing, we cannot do anything. We can't flip through magazines or read a book or grade papers or even do a crossword puzzle. We can sit and watch students test. Believe me, I understand the seriousness of this exam, and I do not by any means take my role as administrator or proctor lightly, but there is nothing I (or any teacher I know) dreads more than test week.

You would think that we would look forward to test week because it would be a break from having to be "on" for our classes, but it is just the opposite. The days we have to test seem to be twice as long as a normal day. Back when I administered or proctored students needing accommodations, I would be more tired at the end of the day than I was when I taught all day long. Fortunately, I have to be involved in testing only two days this time. Tomorrow I will be the administrator for the math portion, and on Friday I will be the proctor for the biology portion.

The crummy thing about Monday and Friday is that I won't have a planning period because of the way we do our schedule. Any student who has passed doesn't have to come to school until 11:00. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we will have our 1st and 2nd block classes in the afternoon during the time we normally have our 3rd and 4th block classes. My planning is 3rd block, so I'll go straight from testing to teaching on those days. But on Tuesday and Thursday, our afternoon classes are on the normal 3rd and 4th block schedule, so I will have ALL morning, with the exception of our 9 minute advisement period, plus my planning. I plan on making copies for their research packets on those days.

After this week, we have one week left, and then we'll be out for spring break. Right now, my plans are to spend Monday and Tuesday of spring break to paint our bedroom. And my ottoman is scheduled to be delivered on that Tuesday. Yea! I hope that maybe John can take off either Thursday and Friday, or even just Friday, of spring break and that it will be warm enough for us to go to the lake. This weekend was so gorgeous, and it just made me want to be sitting in the sun looking out over the water. Those days shouldn't be too far off!

Gotta call it a night. Hope you all have a GREAT week!