It’s Spring Time and teachers know what that means….. No, not Spring Break. No, not kids losing their minds, either. That is happening, but that’s not the hot topic in education right now. It’s State Testing!
You can’t walk into a school anywhere in the country right now without seeing obvious signs of standardized tests happening in copious amounts. Just check another educator’s social media account and you will see something about PARCC, peppermints, pesky tangled earbuds.
I love this time of year! It causes me to become more flexible because of the ever changing schedule, it allows me to reply to emails that have piled up in between “actively monitoring testing”, and it makes me laugh as I see the 3 biggest indicators that schools are testing….
1.) Teachers Start Inventing New Acronyms
A student asked me the other day what the point of PARCC was…. I dropped a wisdom bomb on their life and explained the importance of assessment. The next part got weird. They asked what PARCC even stood for. I paused. In that moment, I actually had no idea what it stood for. That’s not good. I should know what it stands for. Praise Jesus for the testing manual that was laying on a table nearby. Right at the top it said the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. That was close! I said it out loud confidently. Then I felt guilty. The kids should know that I had no idea. I wanted to be transparent with them. I proceeded to go over to my board and change my quote of the week. In order to bring some humor and fun to the stressful week of testing I made my own acronym on what it should actually stand for….
2.) The Tech Person Invested in 7,000 Alcohol Swabs
How is it on days when students should absolutely NOT be wearing headphones for any reason they have them? Like, there is no reason at all for you to be wearing Beats around your neck as if they are a fashion accessory. But kids do it. Then, on the one week of the year where we BEG kids to bring their own earbuds, nobody does. How does that happen? Fear not, I ordered thousands of alcohol swabs so kids could disinfect their waxy nast off the $1 faux apple ear pods that I bought in mass quantities.
3.) Treats with Clever Tags are Passed Out Daily
It wouldn’t be testing without snacks that provide an intense sugar rush when we are actually trying to get our kids to sit silently for 90 minute testing windows. But it wouldn’t be complete without some puny little Pinterest tag that the PTO parents attached. A Little Encourage”mint” Classic! And My Personal Favorite, “Go Blow This Test Out of the Water” with a bubble gum filled sucker adhered to it.
Hope your week of testing has been AWESOME.
P.S. I’m totally not going to judge you if you decide to keep your “Quiet! We Are Testing” posters on the door for the last 12 weeks of the year in hopes the hallways will stay this quite until summer!
Just saying…