Easy

I have to blog early today, because my parents are taking me out to dinner tonight, and they'll be upset if I haven't blogged by the time they leave work. They are driving all the way up here to feed me! And bring me clean clothes!

Today was surprisingly easy. I say surprisingly, because I didn't know what to expect. Today through Thursday is "online testing" for 8th grade. They want to get a gauge on the 8th graders' science content knowledge in advance of the CMT, so they give them an electronic test twice during the year, once at the beginning and once at the end.

This is great for me for a couple of reasons. First, I don't have to make it or grade it. All done electronically. Second, it gives me a report on what students know what information that will be on the CMT. The only silly part is that because of scheduling complications, the test will be given now and in February. Not a whole lot of time to fill in gaps in knowledge in that time, which kind of defeats the purpose of the two testing dates.

Still, the testing was easy for me (kids knew what to do already from the English and math testing they did last week) and it gave me a chance to focus my energy on only two classes (the 7th graders aren't testing this year), without all the craziness that we get on half days or other times when I only have two classes in a day. And both the classes went well because I worked hard. Especially Red, even though they sucked out all my energy. It took everything I had, but I got through a lesson without letting ANYTHING slide. It was beautiful. And I discussed the idea of a mascot with Orange, so now they're called Team Swag. Red, Team Swag, Yellow, Green, and Blue.

I've been pretty good about not complaining about some of the messy TFA logistical stuff, but I have a little complaint to make. We had an assignment due yesterday (which I noticed was not completed by several of my peers). I understand why they would make us tidy up our lesson plans, and I even understand why they make us organize and rename a series of files. What really bothered me, though, was that I had to upload 21 files INDIVIDUALLY. There was no way to upload multiple files at once. There are better ways to spend 10 minutes of my life.

Ok, done now.

Today will be my stay late day. I have a ton of grading to do, and I might even get a chance to start planning for the last two weeks before Christmas Break!