Testing...testing...1,2,3.

This week is testing week. Since we are on a block schedule, with four classes per day, two classes will have an exam each day. It's supposed to be less stressful and more manageable for the students. Also the teachers, I think.

Today we also had PSAT testing. This was taken in our homeroom classes, where we, the teachers, had to be the proctors. And if you know anything about standardized testing, you know that it's a whole barrel of fun. ...Not.

I treated myself to a Grande Chai Tea Latte before work (usually, if I get something on the way to work, I get the Tall, which is smaller, but I knew I'd need an extra kick of caffeine and deliciousness today). When I got to work, I had to go to the guidance office to retrieve my PSAT booklets and answer sheets, as well as about 11 pencils and 7 calculators. I have 25 students in my homeroom class.

School starts at 8am and testing was to end at 11:20, although it ran late, so we got out at 11:41. I read the bolded lines in my PSAT script and Teacher Glared at any students chatting. After bubbling in about 8,000 bubbles for their names and addresses, they set to work. Section by section, 25 minutes by 25 minutes. It was intense. Standardized testing is SO strict and rigid in the test-taking. If a student wanted to go to the bathroom, he/she had to be escorted by a hall monitor to the bathroom. They had a total of two stretching breaks in the 3.5 hours of testing, which totaled six minutes (5 minutes and 1 minute--honestly, what's the point of a one minute break?!). And I got to stand there and watch them for 3.5 hours.

At first, it's not too bad. You start thinking about the personalities of the students and watching their Deep Concentration faces. You try not to laugh at their visual struggles of staying awake. You picture what they will look like as old men/women. You imagine what type of job they will have when they're older. But mostly it's just awfully boring. I have a stack of papers about as tall as me that I need to grade. I have lessons that need to be planned. And planned lessons that probably should be replanned. Or really almost anything besides just standing there for 3.5 hours.

If you're thinking it'd be nice to have a do-nothing break, you are wrong. I'd rather clean my apartment twice. Or do all of my laundry and refold all of my clothes (worst chore ever.) Or take the PSAT myself. Does that tell you how boring it is? It is not fun to do literally nothing for 3.5 hours. It's not the fun do-nothing Saturdays where you lay around being lazy while watching too much TV and sleeping too much. That's at least doing something.

So then my kids were monkeys for the rest of the day. It was weird mix of braindead tired and elated that the test was over.
Funniest/weirdest thing to happen all day:

One very sweet girl suggested I buy dry erase markers on Ebay, and I thought she called me a D-bag, to which the whole class erupted in laughter and my face turned tomato red.

Oops. I guess I'm braindead too.