A Farewell to TAKS

Ah, the final year of TAKS. Next year, we will have the new, the improved, the probably-not-that-different STAAR. (The extra A is for Anyone's Guess)

Tomorrow and Wednesday are the 3rd grade math and reading TAKS, respectively. Today, I tried to relax and encourage the kids and to instill in them the belief that they could all pass. My morning class was their usual zombie selves.

Me: "Are we going to pass tomorrow?"
One student mumbles, "Yes," while nobody else says a word. OK then, thanks for coming everyone, turn off the lights on your way out.

In both classes, I told the kids I would buy them all pizza IF everyone in the class scored an 80 or better on both tests. I told them I would buy them all pizza and ice cream if everyone in the class scored a 90 or better on both tests. I told them I would buy them all pizza and ice cream AND everyone would get two orange tickets (gold) if everyone in the class scored a 100.

To this, one girl replied, "Awww, I was hoping you'd get us all lasagna."

Thank you, Garfield.

Now I can just hope and pray that my kids take their time, use their brains, and do what we've practiced all year. Oh, and I can be thankful that I don't work in a state where tomorrow will count for 50% of my yearly evaluation.

I need galoshes

For anyone outside of the greater Dallas area this morning, we received roughly 3 feet of rain between 7:15 and 7:45. This was the time that Anonymous Joe and I were out doing our morning crosswalk duty. We both had rain slickers on, but they didn't do much other than get wet, then soaked, then permeable.

I didn't take an umbrella outside because there was also a whole lot of thunder and lightning, and I didn't want to be holding my giant electricity rod up as a target. As a side note, I walked out with Ed U Cater at the end of the day, and he suggested that perhaps electrocution would have been a better alternative to the school day. I'm thinking Ed didn't have a very good day...

Anyway, as you might have guessed, I entered the school building looking and feeling as though I had jumped into a swimming pool. Pants, shirt sleeves, and hair dry quickly enough, but what was really bad was that my shoes and socks were drenched. My feet were not making pleasant sounds on the way down to my classroom.

As soon as I had the kids started on an exercise, I took off my shoes and socks and very hopefully placed them on my A/C vent. Where was all that oppressive heat from 2 months ago now that I actually needed it?? Alas, it was just cold air coming out, and that unfortunately doesn't dry things nearly as well.

So I walked around my room barefooted for the first hour. Then it occurred to me that kids go to the clinic for new socks and pants all the time! So I sent a student down to ask if they had any socks that I could have. Sure enough, they did! Nice, warm, dry socks.

Nothing much I could do about my shoes, so I put them back on. They were still wet, but at least with dry socks, I didn't feel like my toes were going to rot off.

Oh, and did I mention that I stopped a baby possum from entering the school this morning? When it was quickly apparent that I would get soaked outside, I ran back in to put my phone in the office. When I went back out through the main doors, something was scurrying towards me, and it wasn't a student!

I thought it was a mouse at first, but it had that weird, white triangular head and grey body, and it was running right at the door. I bravely wielded my STOP sign to hold it off. And I don't mean that I held it up and commanded it to stop. I whacked the darn thing once and then knocked it several feet away. It ran down into the flower bed and disappeared from sight. No idea what happened to it afterwards.


Today was the last review day before TAKS. We didn't do a whole lot other than go over homework, practice Volume one more time, and take it easy. I figure, if they don't know everything by now, they're not going to learn it today.

At the end of each class session, I told the kids that I was rooting for them and wanted them to do their very best, and that I would give them a high five like I normally do, or a hug, if they wanted one. As I said the word "hug," it was funny to watch some of their eyes grow huge.

In my morning class, the one that usually "gets it" more, it was probably a 70/30 split, with the majority going for high fives. In my afternoon (lower) class, it was 100% hugs.

Hopefully, I imparted some wisdom through osmosis. We'll find out tomorrow.