Third Grade with Room Nine: We are finally done testing!!!!

This school year has been a whirlwind for me as a first year teacher. I love my classroom, and room 9 is my happy place. I love these kids, and I love teaching more than anything in this world. But, the testing I have had to put these kids through this school year makes me cringe. I have spent my fair share of time complaining about the testing, and it's not a secret how I feel about it, but I really did not know truly HOW awful and bearing it was until this week. This week was when it really hit me. I have been an emotional mess all week. Waking up and coming to work knowing that my kids are going to behave terribly, that my kids won't be happy, that we will all be board, and more importantly, that no learning will take place, makes me sick, sad, and angry. Monday-Thursday this week, that's what I did. I woke up, showed up (and most days, I was even happy enough to smile until 8:45ish), and saw my happiness deteriorate in front of me. It just slipped from my fingers.

We started our year of testing in August with Pre-Assessment Galileo tests. I had no idea what the data meant, how I was supposed to use it, or what to do next. I didn't even know that I was so clueless and confused then. I didn't even know how far behind I was in data world, or what kinds of questions to ask to even figure it out. When I look back, and think about the struggles my team had and the frustrations that some of them had with me during those times, I realize that I really honestly was clueless. I pretended to know what was going on, but I truly had NO IDEA. I didn't even know that I needed to ask questions, let alone, which ones to ask.

Somehow, I made it though, to round 2 of testing. This came in October, right before fall break. Now, when I say round of testing... I mean, our whole week changes because of testing. We test all day, every day. In third grade, for most testing weeks, we only took reading, math, and writing tests, but science was added randomly throughout the school year also. This means that my kiddos sat in silence by themselves, and in isolation from each other, took tests, and then even as they finished, sat in silence for everyone in the class to finish. By the time we finished testing, it was too late to do anything productive, and they had been sitting for so long, that free time, or recess was usually my only option.
We tested again in December, and again in March. The March tests were Post-test assessments. So, week FOUR of testing was the second most important, and it was in March, after almost a whole quarter of review, and struggle, and stress, and pushing, and pressure, AND it was right before spring break. We made it though. And THEN, right after spring break, MY class was selected to take a PARCC field test. This was another test my kids had to take, and struggle through.
Then, in April came AIMS state testing. You know the one where third graders cry, puke, and panic because if they don't pass, they don't move on to 4th grade. Yeah, that one. Another week. We are up to 6 now.
Which brings us to this week. Week SEVEN of testing for my poor poor kiddos. By the time we crawled through to make it to this week, these poor kids are so burnt out, over tested, tired, and ready for summer break. They haven't had a break in 2 months, and have been pushed so hard since then. They struggled, some kids didn't even try to take this test, but refused to work any longer, and the scores are tremendously low. By the time yesterday arrived, I was beat. I was exhausted. I was frustrated. I was angry. I was sad. I was tired. I was DONE. Yesterday, was .... rough.
But, I fought through and we made it to today, Friday.
And, MY GOODNESS....
I have a classroom full of kids again!
We are talking, laughing, working enjoying, and more importantly, LEARNING again.
Thanks be to all the powers above...
I NEEDED today. I needed to know and see and feel that happy and love again.

TWO MORE WEEKS of school. Holy smokes!!
We are going to rock it out these last 2 weeks too! There's so much going on for us including, finishing our rainforest projects, displaying and presenting our trees, and schoolhouses, a mystery Skype, AND our first INTERNATIONAL mystery Google Hangout next week! We also have a field trip, pajama day, and end of the year festivities!

Here are some pictures from our week, outside of testing. We made Mother's Day gifts, made and delivered Teacher Appreciation cards to every teacher on our campus, and enjoyed some extra recess time as well. We LOVED our brain breaks with GoNoodle this week. They were a great way to keep us a little more focused and on task! :)