The Test, Kindergarten and a Paycheck

So, I came home from California last night at, oh, say about midnight. By then I was already acclimated to west coast time, and therefore had a terrible go at actually falling asleep. And then, since I had experienced a blissful three days sans alarm clock, the Beep, Beep, Beep at six am was truly a frightening experience. I rousted myself out of bed nonetheless and managed to make my way to work, where I discovered an email inbox full of contradictory, nonsensical, incomplete and ungrammatical emails regarding the administration of the Test.

Now, I knew the Test was coming up and had already carefully constructed a schedule that would allow me to simultaneously teach and administer the test in IEP-mandated small group environments. Well, not at exactly the same time, but in such a way that the learning part of school could continue, at some degree anyway.

However, it seems that some people had other ideas about it. I didn't really feel like investigating to find out who was responsible for this, but suffice to say, I was feeling pretty cranky about the new testing schedule.

Administering a bubble test to kindergarten students is pretty amusing though. Basically we are trying to figure out if they know how to count to a hundred, write the number twenty, identify a square, etc. But in order to do this in a nationally-normed way, you must give them four choices with accompanying bubbles. The best part was that the test questions are not numbered, but instead have a key picture, such as a cat or a boat. I say, "Put your finger on the cat," and then I'm supposed to read the question, which might be as simple as the word "Triangle", which would then cue my students to shade the bubble under the three sided object. Theoretically at least. However, since they were all staring at the picture of the cat, I was hearing audible, "huh?" sounds coming from their little heads, and immediately knew, this would be a very long day.

Other favorite parts of the day included when my second graders (who have been doing bubble tests for ages and were not confused by the format, but, regardless, are still very small children and cannot sit for 60 minutes to do any sort of task with out a break) requested that we do Yoga, and then led me through a posture-perfect Sun Salutation. And later I let them color instead of going straight back to class and we had a marvelous conversation about our favorite places (For me Big Sur, CA, for them Dave and Buster's in the Waterfront).

And of course, there was not getting paid. I am in the habit of working for money, but I am also in the habit of not spending very much money, so pay day is not that big of a deal to me. However, I am still cognizant of the fact that money should be flowing into my bank account on the 15th and 30th. And there was no such flow today. I know you are screaming, "Walk away from that place, you idiot!" and any remaining pity you might have harbored for me is vanishing before my very eyes, but sometimes it just seems easier to continue doing what you are doing, even if it is really, really terrible. And I know I am not the only American in that boat.

But in general everything is ok, as I sit here spinning records (Akron/Family, Okkervil River), and Mark soaks in the tub to soothe the poison oak he got in Big Sur. But I'm gearing up for tomorrow when I will either teach with a paycheck or come home with nothing, but I sure as heck am not planning to teach (or administer bubble tests) for free.