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| courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain |
The last thing I expected when my class started taking the
End-of-Grade Reading Test was the challenge of keeping several of my students
awake while they were taking the test. I can’t say as I blame them for falling asleep. The quiet of the room and the dull nature of the passages they were reading were a combination seemingly designed to lure one to slumber.
One of the young men who couldn’t stay awake has had a long history
of falling asleep in class. Oddly enough, yesterday he was wide awake for the
Math Test. I hope he is wide awake for the Science Final tomorrow.
The second young man I had to wake up isn’t someone who usually
sleeps in class. Quite the contrary. He is usually so wide awake he can become
a distraction. But he is not a strong reader and that may have led to
his lack of concentration and tendency to nod off.
The third young man who had trouble staying awake had a good
reason. He’s recently developed allergies and is still adjusting to the
medication. I’m proud of him for coming in yesterday and today to take both
Tests.
The good news is all my students, including the three with the
penchant for snoozing, finished the test on time.
There was some chaos following my class finishing the test.
While I was in the test resource room turning in my materials, another staff
member took my class to the cafeteria for lunch. By the time I got to the
cafeteria my kids were done with lunch and on their way to the gym. We’d not
been in the gym five minutes when the call came for me to take my class back to
my classroom.
For the next two hours, we waited more or less quietly in my
room, watching history videos featuring the Time Warp Trio. The Testing Session
didn’t officially end for the school until almost two in the afternoon due to
students who received extended time as a modification. I was very pleased at
how well my students behaved during that time.
We have one more test tomorrow, the Science Final Exam. Then it
will just be a matter of making it through four days next week and two days of
the week after before the kids are done for the summer. I’m happy the school
year is nearly over but I realized today how much I am going to miss this group
of kids when they move on to 8th grade.
As always, I remain,
The Exhausted Educator
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