I saw my kids off to school yesterday after several days of frenetic supply shopping, arguing over summer assignment completion deadlines, and general lousy moods over the end of their freedom.
For some reason I thought this would leave me with time to, oh... I don't know, write in our blog or something. I was delusional. I have done nothing but try to repair the damage done by having three children home for two and a half months. We had no food in the house. Laundry has progressed to the point where climbing gear is required to scale the piles of clothes. I'd tell you about the Dust Bunnies, but they are so big I'm afraid they'll ambush me if they catch wind of my plan to eradicate them.
I hope that by next week I will be able to find my way over to Ethel's and make sure she is properly untied. Somehow I expect she'll have something to say over Fred Thompson announcing his presidential intentions on Jay Leno, don't you?
Thursday, September 06, 2007
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And We Thought the Insanity Would End... |
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
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Twas the Day of ELA Testing... |
I am sitting here in a dead quiet elementary school building. Every sound is hushed and whispered. Even the most rambunctious of the children are sedated... It must be ELA day.
Bright pink signs are posted everywhere screaming (non-verbally, of course) "QUIET PLEASE! TESTING IN PROGRESS!" It makes me want to run up and down the halls shouting, "NO! I will not be silenced! These tests put undue pressure on my child and are not a true measure of their knowledge! Stop this insanity!"
I want to have a day of testing for the NYS Department of Education (perhaps David Abrams, Assistant Commissioner for Standards, Assessment and Reporting and Richard P. Mills, Commissioner of Education?) and the New York State Legislation geniuses who have decided that our chidren need to be tested to death. I want them to feel the burden placed on the students. Let's see if they can define unctious or ubiquitous. Perhaps they should be required to pronounce certain words correctly... "Guttenberg" or "naive". Maybe a little quiz about the electoral college would be in order or the science of levers. I would love to read their essays just to see how many can use "its" and "it's" properly, as well as the oft misused apostrophe.
But before we test them, let's subject them to grueling week upon week of test prep, test taking strategies, and more test prep. Let's tell them that this test is so important that the grade will follow them for at least 5 more years (yes, my 4th grade son was told that this would follow him through High School).
Those Administrators and Legislators and who do not test well will have to be placed in Academic Intervention and will be required to stay after school. No excuses! It doesn't matter if they normally do very well or if they have test anxiety or if they had a headache the day of the test. Suck it up, baby. This is the NEW YORK STATE TEST.
L
