Tuesday, May 05, 2009

state induced torture

I am the lucky person for my high school who gets to give the SAT make up exam. I think it is my least favorite day of the year. This year I have 9 kids in a room, all of whom hate school. Most struggle with reading, all with academic based thinking. Most years they just come in and start coloring. This year's group is actually trying. Those are the hard ones to watch. "Can you help me with this one?" No, hon, I can't tell you what that word means. It goes against my very fiber as a teacher to NOT help a kid with a question. But that's why I'm here... too document how much you don't know. Good times.

It's days like these that really make me question our public education system.

3 comments:

Wendy said...

Yep. As one of the (too many) duties assigned me in my first (and only) year as a teacher, proctoring our state assessment tests was one of them. I hated that I couldn't answer their questions, because .... Well, because, that was my job, right?

Just breath, and smile ... and keep questioning, because the only way for positive change to happen is for people to start the dialogue - even if it's only inside their own brains at first :).

Unknown said...

Most of my kids didn't try. They don't care about API/AYP and school funding. They think it's sorta funny that the school and teachers get judged based on the tests, but they don't try on them at all. Some kids bubble in their initials, some bubble in giant question marks. None of the scores go on their transcripts, so they ever have to worry about anyone (a college) seeing them.

Besides that being a huge joke, we also give them four benchmark tests in each of the core subjects (English, math, science, and social studies) every year. So that's 16 tests (that mean nothing) before their state test (that means nothing to them). It's not a colossal waste of instructional time or anything.

Traveling Jones said...

Oops. "Mike" didn't say that; Hoyden did. It's tough using someone else's computer.