Being at the school all week last week was really interesting. I am in a 3rd grade classroom and we have benchmark testing Monday and Tuesday. I had never been there before benchmark testing and I was shocked by how high pressure it was (and it wasn't even the CRCT) The students were talking about how nervous they were before the test. This was weird because in the days before the test my teacher had barely mentioned the benchmark so I was surprised by how much pressure these students felt to preform well on the test.
On Monday they took the math test. I thought it went pretty well. The students took around an hour and 1/2 to complete it and no one seemed bothered by the test. On Tuesday this changed. That was the day the kids were taking the reading benchmark. They were all a little nervous as the test was being passed out, but they seemed to calm down and get into a groove with the test after a few minutes. Except for one student Mike. I watched him roll through the first reading passage and I could see him thinking "this isn't so bad" but then he flipped the page and saw the next reading passage. Mike slumped a little lower in his seat. By the last reading passage he was all the way slumped down and so tired. I felt so bad for him.
I commented to my teacher about how intense I thought this testing was and she replied "this is nothing. wait until CRCT. They make us take everything off the walls, there is no recess. The school is basically on lockdown." I'm so sad that this is what teaching comes to at the end of the year.
