Of Tuesday and Testing

A little more about teaching:

I have to say that I am a good teacher. I am not the best, nor the worst, but my student's test scores attest to the fact that I teach and they learn what they are suppose to. I do not have time to waste. I can't get everything done as it is and a BIG problem in any school is the amount of time students are pulled from their classes to attend to other matters. There are field trips, conferences, problems, counseling sessions, plays, assemblies, and the list goes on and on. Five out of five days of the school week I have at least 3 kids missing for some reason or another (this does not include just plain absences...don't even get me started on absences!) per day per class. The loss of instructional time is astounding. So much more is going on in a school than just teaching, not to say that all of it is bad or even unneccessary. It is just annoying. Take today. During my planning period I have to give yet another state mandated test. These kids have to miss their regular class to take the test. So if the students having to take this test are juniors, they have had to endure the following state mandated testing (thereby missing instructional time):
October- State Writing test
December- state mandated end of course testin
December- finals
March- State Writing test
April- state mandated graduation test
May- state mandated end of course testing
May- English proficiency testing
May- 2nd round of English proficiency testing
May- finals


This list does not include Special Ed testing, nor gifted testing, nor junior apptitude testing, nor senior college entry testing .

This is all time out of class. Time Not spent on the curriculum. It is a lot worse in middle school and the worst is in elementary school. It makes me crazy. They tell me to do my job. I have precious little time to do it in, and then my kids are pulled from class left and right, but I still could lose my job if they don't pass the state mandated tests. More on teachers losing their jobs to come soon.