Test Day. DUM DUM DUM!!!!

Today was the day of the TAKS.

YUCK.

I won't know for sure how my kids did for about 2 weeks, but I can speculate based on the reports I heard from the monitoring teachers. But we'll get to that in a bit.

First, let me share a few jokes. Since the test didn't actually begin until around 8:30, I had a bit of "dead time" to fill between when the kids entered the classroom and when the other teacher came in. Restroom break only took about 10 minutes, so afterwards, with the kids sitting there (and of course not allowed any kind of reading material -- they'd be getting enough of that later), I asked if any of the kids knew any good jokes.

They all told me no. Great. So I started racking my brain for jokes I knew which were clean AND simple to understand. I remembered a few really corny jokes:

What color is a burp? Burple

What did the rug say to the floor? "I've got you covered."

How do you catch a mouse on the computer? With an INTER-net.

These all received great big laughs.

Then I asked, "What did the fast tomato say to the slow tomato?" Catchup!

This was met with blank stares, so I spent the next 3 minutes explaining how ketchup was made out of tomatoes.

At that point, one of my goofballs said he knew a joke. "When did you find a cat named 13?"

I had no idea of course, so he told me the answer: 13.

The kids thought that was the funniest joke they had ever heard. Go figure.

Thanks for the nice comments on the story from yesterday. We read it to all of the 3rd graders at my school yesterday, and they all really seemed to enjoy it. As for how meaningful it was to them, well...

One of my classes was reportedly VERY thorough, taking their time, doing their work, and checking their answers. YAY!!

My other class, however, seemed just as knucklheady (it's a word) as ever. One of my angels even TORE OUT pieces from her test booklet so she could write notes to the girl in front of her!!! I later saw the note, and it said: "Hola!"

I'm sorry, but if you are actually going to go to the ridiculous extreme of MUTILATING the document that determines whether you go to the next grade, you had damn well better write something more than "HOLA!!" I'd better see Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, or the Gettysburg Address!!!

According to my old partner, Miss Jenn Ed, both of her sections (who are REALLY low readers) seemed to take the story to heart, or they at least spent a good long time on the test.

Strangely, the class of my colleague who printed out the million dollar bills was entirely finished by 10:30.

Anybody else have any stories to share from today?