State Testing

We are currently on day two of our Reading & Math state tests - the PSSA's. I am not sure who dreads them more - the students or the teachers. I do understand why we have state tests, and I think there is some value in them. I do worry however about the costs. The loss of instructional time, the effect of students' self-esteem, the amount of paper used and destroyed... Is it all worth it?

This morning, before the day's testing began, my students and I worked on feeling poems. We discussed how anger, excitement, and fear taste, smel, and feel. As I watched my students begin day 2 of the testing I cam up with this.

State Testing

Anxiety,
Smells like freshly sharpened number 2 pencils,
Tastes like minty gum guaranteed to help you focus,
Sounds like students struggling to write quietly,
Feels like rolling the dice in the game of Life,
Feels like waiting for a judge to deliver your sentence,
Feels like spinning a wheel on the boardwalk, hoping to win the big prize,
Anxiety.