I gave math tests that that few students could effectively read at the start and end of the day. I explained and translated problems, went over vocabulary and finally cut them loose. I hope to be happily surprised by results tomorrow, when I have time to grade this thing, but I would not put a dime on the odds of that happy surprise. I went over another math test during tutoring after giving a standardized test’s (AIMSWEB) computation section today, a mere 10 minutes of student time, not including about 5 minutes of set-up. AIMSWEB administration takes little time. If we did not have to grade all the papers from it, AIMSWEB would be easy.

My meeting ran about the prescribed 40 minutes and involved generalized planning and discussion for daily classes plus a dose of testing details. Then I went to help a nervous colleague who was worried about getting ready for the MAP test that starts in a couple of days. We spent some time trying to figure out the instructions. That left about 20 minutes planning time. I made copies.

Science involved independent work with easily understood worksheets on moon phases and a more general crossword covering recent science vocabulary. That gave me time to work on the latest vocabulary project, my 500 sight words that all my students must read to me so that I can put them in a spreadsheet tracking this reading time.

Eduhonesty: Total time devoted to standardized tests today, including discussion, planning and actual testing, ran about 35 minutes, a very manageable time loss as we leapt out of the testing gate.