I am a substitute teacher, and this year has been one of the toughest yet. A few kids (although, it seems to be more than last year) are completely disrespectful and downright nasty. So, while a few things about the end of the first semester are melancholy, I'm glad that this year is about half over. In our state, we have what they call regents exams. Not having grown up here, I never had to take these tests as a kid. And with the passing of no child left behind, a lot of these tests have been dumbed down, so an overwhelming number of kids can pass them, provided they put in the effort needed to study and learn the material. That being said, these tests are torture, both for the kids and for the teachers. They are 3 hours long, and our district times them such that the kids have to sit for the entire 3 hours. The state has a "last entry" time, and since we start about 3 hours before then, we get to sit for the 3 hours. In my several years of proctoring these exams, I think I've seen about a dozen kids use the entire time. Most are done with at least a half hour to spare. It doesn't seem like long, but when you have to sit there, no other reading materials, no phones or iPods, it's torture. Although, I've seen some interesting art work on the back of test booklets -- what else is there to do.
So, today marks the first day of January regents. The tests are offered in January, mainly for those who failed them before, and the kids have to pass 5 of them to graduate.
OTOH my daughters thought that the regents were too easy. And they were among those done in an hour, and then had to sit there for 2 hours doing pretty much nothing. #2 would usually draw something on the booklet or scratch paper. I'm not sure what #1 did, since it's been a while since she's taken a regents exam.
Time to make my lunch and see which test I get to proctor. At least there are limited numbers of kids in the building, and while I generally have to run from point A to point B, it's an easy week.
Toodles
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