EOGs

Last weekend was filled with wedding shower festivities at my Grandma's. (more to come on that) This week has been filled with remediation and painting our apartment. (more to come on that as well) So, blogging has temporarily been placed on the back burner despite the fact I have several exciting posts planned. Today is Thursday and I am wiped out from frantically reviewing for the third time with my students who did not pass the EOG and from leaving school and painting for several hours every day. So, while I sit here in my planning with plenty of planning to do, I've decided to relax with some blogging. 

Last week was a whirlwind of a week with EOG testing for three days. I didn't realize how exhausting it is to sit and walk and watch students test for 3 hours everyday. Tuesday, after the first test, I went home, crawled in my bed, and slept for an hour. And, still went to bed at 9. Wednesday I was in bed at 8:30. It was a long week for me, I can't imagine how my students felt...

Despite the exhaustion, they did great! Because of all the pressure put on the EOGs, it is three days that every student really puts forth his/her best effort. It amazed me to walk around and watch my class who has been so lazy the past few months spend so much time on their work. It proved to me that they are capable of working hard and of being quiet. :) I was really proud when I saw them showing their work and making themselves a cheat sheet as soon as I said, "You may begin." And, I was so happy to see that they have been listening to what I've been saying all year!

Seventh graders begin going to lunch on a normal day at 11:05. The last set of seventh graders go to lunch at 11:35. With testing starting at 8:00 and being three hours long and sixth graders getting to eat first, lunch was much later than normal. My poor students were SO hungry! The first day, instead of stopping testing, they waited until the whole school was done to allow students to move and begin getting people in the cafeteria to eat. With the testing schedule, seventh graders had the last rotation for lunch. And, I am the last teacher to go to lunch on a normal day with seventh grade. So, that meant I was the last class in the school on that Tuesday to take my students to lunch. We ate lunch at 1:40. I didn't even take my normal lunch group that day so I had students who were used to eating at 11:05. There was a lot of whining going on that day...I may have been doing some of the whining. The next two days the schedule ran much smoother and we got in earlier than 1:40.

The procedure for administering EOGs is intense. There are all kinds of things that can cause mis-administrations. If you have a mis-administration, your whole class has to re-take that EOG. Students have to be silent. The teacher can not communicate in anyway about the test with students. Cell phones must be silenced. Security of testing materials must be maintained at all times. You may not say anything other than what's written in the script. And, the list goes on and on. My biggest concern with this was talking. The one good thing that comes from putting so much pressure on these tests is that students realize the importance of being silent. My students did not utter a word for three and half hours. You know how crazy that is if you've ever been around one seventh grader. Multiply that by 20. It was great!

The last day was our calculator inactive EOG, which only had 28 questions and only took about an hour. However, eighth graders were taking their science EOG, which was still three hours. So, I had to keep my students silent for the other 2 hours after their test. I may have bribed them with candy to keep them quiet...it may have worked...

If you remember this post, you remember we were in the running to win a party hosted by Brian Dawson of K97.5. I am proud to announce that we won!! Not that I ever doubted we would. You can see some pictures of his EOG tour here. Carrington's pictures begin at picture 9. If you look closely, you may even be able to spot me.

Now, I'm getting geared up for re-tests next week. We should be done painting the apartment today and hopefully I'll get to begin moving in some this weekend. But, the pool opens this weekend and I'll be on the lake Saturday, which is definitely higher on the priority list than moving in right now. Bring on the tan!!

11 days and counting...