Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Phoning It In.

I heart test days. We have a short week because of MEA (Statewide professional development convention......I have never been. Our district doesn't require it, so I have never really been motivated on my own to go.) and today was the last day of the week.

It is usually the day where I give a big world map test re-take and then the kids don't have homework over the long weekend. I always hated the teachers that would assign a huge project or paper over a long weekend. I try not to be "that" teacher too often.

Some kids have already tested out and passed the test, so they had a study hall. The ones that were taking the test, were a little stressed. A few were "sick" and a few were not accounted for. In addition, many of the students that passed the first one, were taking the PSATs today, so it was nice that they were not missing anything crucial by being gone.

Every block--the whole block, 90 minutes, was used by at least one student. Blessed quiet. Blessed productive-ish work. The majority of the kids did better, some much better, on the second test. Some did not.

From a teaching stand point, there was a whole lot of not much direct teaching going on today. AND......I was able to get them all corrected before I left, so I ALSO do not have homework. Not true. The end of the quarter is in two and a half weeks, I will be teaching a new class (Western Civilization) next quarter and I have read exactly one section of the first chapter. Yikes. It takes a lot to plan and prep for an entirely new class. So. That is what I will be doing over much of my long weekend.

That is really, truly one of my least favorite parts of being a teacher. I get extremely jealous of those folks that can leave their jobs at their job. When they metaphorically punch the clock, they are done.

Eh. I won't have the alarm going off at 5:30 tomorrow morning. I will probably still friggin' wake up at 5:30, but I don't have to get up then. Yay.

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