crt

So, uh, I officially hate CRTs. I'm in a bleh mood today because my students began the 4 day journey of their Language Art's CRTs. With one day down and three more to go, here's what I observed:
* Approximately 4 students in each of my 6 English classes simply marked their answers on the answer sheet with out cracking open the test booklet; they completed the test that should have taken about 30 minutes to complete in a mere 10 seconds.
* Teenagers are real BRATS. I saw the highs and lows today of defiance, attitude, and refusal to cooperate. I wrote out 9 ASDs, 7 of which were also referred to the office, and 2 of which I tried to make a parent contact after school to see if they could help remedy the problem.
* I hate certain laws: by LAW, I'm not allowed to look at the 100 question test my students spend 4 days taking until next Wednesday, after all of my student's answer sheets are turned in. I wanted, oh, so badly, to do a quick preview of the test today--not so I could cheat and give students specific answers--to see if what I taught them was on the test and how the questions were answered. The only thing I was able to see as I proctored the test and made my rounds up and down the aisles was a picture of President Nixon and a very long poem that looked complicated to even me.
* Given the fact that they were all given fair warning about these tests and that it has to be taken no matter what, I still had several no shows. I don't want to put all the blame on the parents; there were probably several who were either sluffing or in all actuality, sick. But, I don't know a responsible parent who would let a little sniffle or cough hold their student back on a major testing day. It wasn't just my students with this problem; attendance at WL this week has been at a yearly low.
* I'm mean. I gave the students non friendly seating arrangements yesterday and strictly enforced those arrangements today. I heard lots of complaining and lots of, "You're mean now," or "I hate you today." Fine. Go ahead and hate me.

I also had a blow out session with 6th period before the test today because several would just not SHUT UP and one refused to put away/give me his IPod. I finally was so fuming I let the iPod issue go; no use arguing at this point when we're about 15 minutes into class and no one had started the test. The crazy thing is that I yelled at them pretty much as loud as my lungs would let me and thought I played "no more Mr. Nice Guy" with them, but surprisingly, after school today I had many in 6th period greet me in the halls with smiles and high fives. Weird.

You all are probably aware of the emigration rallies across the country yesterday. If you live in Utah and read the paper or watch news, you saw stories yesterday of students walking out. WL reported approximately 150 students that walked out yesterday. I feel strongly that everyone has certain rights, but the majority of these students who walked to the capitol yesterday really are very naive to what the real reason for the rallies were. We discussed today in the faculty room that many just walked out to get out of school.

Big news on the journalism/yearbook home front: I found out yesterday that a total of 50 students signed up for the journalism/media productions (that's the yearbook portion) class for next year. Currently (as has been for the last 5 years) they have combined the two courses in one period because they couldn't get anyone to sign up. Well, next year, I will have one class period for journalism and one class for media productions. Awesome. I am going through the process of weeding out some of the duds who signed up, but I'm ecstatic for these changes and hopefully will be able to create a unique curriculum for both.

I'm off to get my hair colored....this time by a professional. My 'hideous' hair has caused an uproar, so I assumed it's just about time for a change!! TTFN