A little scared

I'm trying to not be worried by the blogger who said offensive things on her blog-but I am. I know that once something is on the internet it is there forever. Just sometimes... you forget.

I'm on a personal crusade to erase anything I ever said that should not have been said. And I am dearly hoping that no one reads this blog till I am long out of here!

Right now it's the end of the 3rd quarter. One more week left until Spring Break and only three weeks away from the start of our district testing- AIMS. I'm more than a little worried about my kids and AIMS- they're very bad test takers.

For example. I have one young man who can 9 out of 10 times get a multiple choice question right.... if he actually reads the question and goes back and rereads the passage. It makes me uneasy because he often doesn't. Today I FORCED him to go back and reread the passage at ever question and underline where he got the answer from. I said, "Keep going." or "Keep reading." or "Is that what the question is asking?" I didn't even acknowledge when he got the question right, simply moved to the next question. I know he can do it. But his test scores say that I should be referring him for interventions. Where's the line when you know a child can do it- but they don't? I won't say they won't, because I don't know that. All I know is that I have too many kids who have the absolute ability... but just.... don't.

Another child- She has some hyperactivity problems and now some recently found anxiety problems. She came into my classroom mid year. As a first year teacher I don't have supports in place to really force a child to learn (lunch intervention groups, morning groups, peer tutors, etc.) so her grades have drops to D's and F's from C's. This is a blessing because it made mom really say, "oh, yeah, I guess my child does need extra help!" So now we can start working. But what am I going to help her do when she has AIMS sitting in front of her and her anxiety overwhelms her?

I'm feeling... disillusioned right now.