We shall be free..

..of the TAKS test in 2011 or something.

In the mean time, salvete!

Tomorrow is the school's "TAKS Blitz." This is a day when we all come together (kicking and screaming, mind you) in order to play motivational music and practice for the TAKS test. For the day of the actual test, I have been "randomly selected" as a proctor. Translation: I have to stay in a room for seven hours with children I most likely do not know, read predetermiend, approved responses, and ensure that I do not sit down for the entire time. Also, we must not spill food on the tests, because getting the test booklets dirty would be considered an "irregularity," and such things are not okay.

I knew TAKS was going to happen at some point, but I hoped it would be something that would happen to someone else. There are alternate proctors, but these characters will be popping in and out, making sure the main proctor (me) doesn't need any restroom breaks or the like. To make an already horrible situation worse (we can read, we can't sit, we can't play on the computer, etc), there are no windows in my proctoring classroom. This will lead to a depression which will, no doubt, lead to me hurting one of the more obnoxious students.

There is at least one positive in the TAKS Blitz tomorrow. If a child is unruly in any way, we are encouraged to kick them out without warning. This means no extra credit for attending, no free lunch, and (most distressingly to the student, no doubt) no TAKS tutorials. It also does not, in any way, resemble what normal class is actually like.

I'm tired, and disillusioned (for tonight).

Valete,
Magistra