First Benchmark Day
Tuesday. As I begin the day with the students, I warn them that it will be a short morning because we must begin the Benchmark tests. Before they can groan, I remind them about “no complaining.” We just “do it.” In my own mind, I backtime from lunch, having learned that the Reading section of the test we are going to take will require 70 minutes; and since this is our first session, it will require at least 30 minutes to rearrange bodies in the classroom (no 4th, 5th, or 6th graders sitting together!), get adequate pencils, go to the bathroom and talk about testing etiquette. Accordingly, at 10:15 I ring the bell, which means in our classroom: Stop Work, Clean Up, Put Away, Sit Down and Write in your Journal. They did that while I went to the office to pick up the testing materials.
What I found in the Assistant Principal’s office (the resident test chief) was all of our assistants sitting in a sea of papers and folders. One of the assistants who feels responsible for my class (the one who left the buildingi last night with a bag full of papers to organize) looked up apologetically and reported that she could have things ready for today’s test in about ten minutes. I made an effort to cover up my astonishment at both the mess and the last-minute preparations for a test that I had been warned about since the first day of school and returned to my class. Assistant Principal Wendy, perhaps sensing my alarm, assured me that I didn’t have to start “right away” and recommended that I take along with me the Teacher’s Guide to Scoring the Tests—to read???
Back in my classroom we went through all the necessary test preparation protocols, and as I was just running out of instructional wisdom, the assistant appeared with the three grade level folders of booklets and answer sheets, etc., so the first Benchmark test in Reading began only 20 minutes late, which made lunch 15 minutes late, which cut recess short by 15 minutes, so I extended their Tuesday after-lunch games period and we finally were back to academics at 2:00 pm
TOTAL C & I time for the day: 2.5 hours
Postscript to the Day: Fifteen minutes at the end of the day devoted to announcements regarding upcoming parent events and distribution of late Homework Folders. After bus pick-up, I returned to the office to learn that next Monday will be “Picture Day,” for which I signed away a half hour, and another sign-up for a day soon when students’ Vision/Hearing screening will take place, probably throughout an afternoon.
