Testing blues

Hello,

I know a positive attitude is important to doing your best on a test, but I lost my positive attitude about five minutes into the morning NWEA math test.  I witnessed one student get an answer on a calculator that wasn't anywhere near any of the given multiple choice answers, but they picked one anyway and moved on.  I witnessed one student add fractions with unlike denominators in their head, incorrectly.  (Pesky scratch paper takes too much time.)  I watched as someone figured out the average of a set of single digit numbers and got a double digit number.  I wanted to pull my hair out.  I don't want to say these students weren't trying, but there is no doubt that they were not trying their best.  AAAUUUGGH!  Would I really want my salary to be based on a forty minute test?  I won't answer that. 

At the end of this very tough session (for me, anyway,)  I found out that everyone improved from their fall scores.  Double digit gains for all but two, in fact.  It takes some of the sting away, but I'm still not impressed.  I know many of them didn't do as well as they could.  It is an untimed test.  I understand not knowing answers.  But missing questions because you don't give them a second thought?  Unacceptable.  We're trying to teach life skills.  Taking a test is a life skill.  I can't pat them on the back when they scored so high in carelessness.  I'll let them all know tomorrow:  Tests are meant to inform us.  They tell us where we have strengths and where we have weaknesses.  We'll learn from what this test tells us and be better for it. 

I teach some very talented math students.  They are talented enough to still score well, despite falling into many test taking pitfalls.  The difference between being good and great is in the details.  We'll get back at it tomorrow.  I hope I get the privilege of being their math teacher for another year.  There is work to do.

Our homeroom took the testing stage this afternoon.  I was pleased with the effort.  The reading test is so difficult, many questions take me several minutes to figure out.  Long poems.  Obscure words.  Difficult analogies.  I was pleased that only seven of nineteen finished in the hour.  The rest will go back tomorrow afternoon.  I saw a lot of reading and rereading.  Many confounding passages.  But the kids weren't giving up.  I thanked them for making it a more pleasant session for me to watch from the sidelines.  (I'll let you know the basic scores when I get them.)

With all the testing, we had little instructional time.  Most of it I spent with Mrs. Smith's class, so our class was doing Maine studies.  I didn't hear what that involved today.  I worked with her class building bridges that used levers to open up for tall ships.  Our class did this challenge on Friday.  Both classes were able to come up with several successful swinging bridge and draw bridge solutions. 

Thanks for getting the looping sheets in.  I'm awaiting two responses. 

I'm off to get some antibiotics.  I've got bitten by two ticks in the last week.  Make sure to check every night.  Little buggers.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea