the pressure, it hurts
Starting tomorrow, for the next seven days my students will be particpating in state testing.
They will be answering questions in the subjects of Language Arts and Mathematics. According to the No Child Left Behind act, all of my students will be expected to do well on this exam, despite being officially labeled as second-language learners and economically disadvantaged. If they do not do well on this exam, despite being asked to sit for 90 minutes at a time and read many, many paragraphs of information and remember to do all of their calculations on a separate sheet of scratch paper and to not lose their place while marking an answer and keep their eyes ONLY on their own test and to go to bed early the night before and to eat a good breakfast in the morning, IF they do not do well on this exam, George W. Bush will blame me, their teacher, for not doing my job. In turn, the school will be blamed for hiring incompetent teachers, and if our API scores do not go up as a result of this year's testing, then the great state of California will come in to take over our school, as per No Child Left Behind.
I don't know if anyone is the praying type. I don't know who or what you pray to, if you do. But I'm asking for prayers for the following:
1. Please pray that my children, who live in homes or apartments with several other families, get to bed on time this week.
2. Please pray that my children, who qualify for free lunch during the school year, get something to put in their bellies before they come to school.
3. Please pray that my children, who do not regularly see doctors or dentists or any kind of medical carepeople, do not have headaches, tummyaches, earaches, coughs, colds, sore throats, or any other illness that might compromise their ability to concentrate and do well on this test.
4. Please pray that my children do not get bored or tired after half an hour and start marking any answer they want to.
5. Please pray that I don't see them marking the wrong answers for things we learned a week ago.
Most of all, please pray that my seven-and-eight-year-old children make me look good, because that's what George W. expects.
Asshole.
They will be answering questions in the subjects of Language Arts and Mathematics. According to the No Child Left Behind act, all of my students will be expected to do well on this exam, despite being officially labeled as second-language learners and economically disadvantaged. If they do not do well on this exam, despite being asked to sit for 90 minutes at a time and read many, many paragraphs of information and remember to do all of their calculations on a separate sheet of scratch paper and to not lose their place while marking an answer and keep their eyes ONLY on their own test and to go to bed early the night before and to eat a good breakfast in the morning, IF they do not do well on this exam, George W. Bush will blame me, their teacher, for not doing my job. In turn, the school will be blamed for hiring incompetent teachers, and if our API scores do not go up as a result of this year's testing, then the great state of California will come in to take over our school, as per No Child Left Behind.
I don't know if anyone is the praying type. I don't know who or what you pray to, if you do. But I'm asking for prayers for the following:
1. Please pray that my children, who live in homes or apartments with several other families, get to bed on time this week.
2. Please pray that my children, who qualify for free lunch during the school year, get something to put in their bellies before they come to school.
3. Please pray that my children, who do not regularly see doctors or dentists or any kind of medical carepeople, do not have headaches, tummyaches, earaches, coughs, colds, sore throats, or any other illness that might compromise their ability to concentrate and do well on this test.
4. Please pray that my children do not get bored or tired after half an hour and start marking any answer they want to.
5. Please pray that I don't see them marking the wrong answers for things we learned a week ago.
Most of all, please pray that my seven-and-eight-year-old children make me look good, because that's what George W. expects.
Asshole.