Testing

 

This week begins a week of TESTING at school.  The poor kids.  Last year, Elle and her fiends were most worried about properly filling in the bubbles.  Apparently the teacher emphasized this point hard.

This year Elle is stressed out about how she’ll do.   She finally believed us when we told her the test wouldn’t affect her grade in any way.  However, that doesn’t make it any less stressful or  grueling.

It’s also Teacher Appreciation Week which ticks off Elle.  After all, they’re the ones giving the test in the first place!  I told her that maybe that’s why it’s this week—so they can focus on how great their teachers are instead of  dwelling on how miserable the students feel.

Elle and I have been reading a book written by a third grade teacher lately.  I think she likes hearing about school from the teacher’s point of view.  I read ahead just to make sure there wasn’t  anything inappropriate.

I came upon one chapter and just laughed!  It perfectly describes this week.  The book is called “32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny” by Philip Done.  The whole book is pretty funny.  You  should check it out!  Even reading the “sneak peaks” listed on Amazon is fun.

 

“Testing”

Thirty-two sharpened number two pencils and a stack of practice  tests just arrived in my box. . .

“Good morning , boys and girls,” I said. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.  I cannot read to you after lunch anymore.  We cannot have any more discussions. . .We have to get ready for the test!”. . .

“You don’t like these tests?” I asked. “You don’t want to do these tests? Don’t you realize that these scores are published in the newspaper and parents and real estate agents everywhere look at these scores?  Don’t you realize that your parent’ property values are affected if you don’t know how to find the diameter of a circle?”. . .

“Boys and girls,” I proclaimed, “you must learn to fill in all the bubbles completely.  You must learn to bubble in anything as fast as you can when the teacher shouts, ‘Ten seconds left!’ You must learn to make dark marks with your pencil so the Scantron machine can read your answer.  You must learn to erase completely if you decide to change your answer.  And you must learn to guess even if you don’t know what bubbles to fill in.”

 

Sound familiar?