Fast week!

This week has gone by so fast after a holiday that seemed to drag on forever (and not really for good reason!)...

Tuesday at work was busy as usual... well... busier than usual, actually... the kids have been taking their CBA's (Curriculum Based Assesment) this week... and so it hasn't been uncommon for us to have anywhere between 5-10 kids in there that need their test orally administered... or just need extra help. What makes it stressful is that we usually have 3 different grade levels (at least) testing at once... so, it isn't uncommon to be going back and forth between 2 grade levels reading test questions and answers and then helping them make sense of what they need to do. It also doesn't help that the 4th and 5th grade teachers want the kids to justify all their answers by providing at least a sentence-long explanation of why they chose the answer they chose.

When the district Superintendent first imposed these CBA's (he's new this year... it's his first year with our district, and he SWEARS by CBA's... talking about how WONDERFULLY they worked in the district he worked with previously) they were supposed to be 5-10 questions in length. Now they're anywhere between 15-20 questions. Why did they lengthen them...???? Because the kids have to score 80% to pass them... and with only 5-10 questions, that wasn't happening. I personally think that for kiddos that are in Special Ed. they really shouldn't be taking as long of a test as other kids anyway... largely because most of them can't stay focused that long... and also because a lot of the stuff on the CBA's hasn't been covered at length... they already have the disadvantage of being behind as it is... couple that with only covering some of the items for 1 class...!

Anyhow, tomorrow is the last day, and I believe it's just a make-up testing day for any kids that were absent this week... hopefully we won't have too many kids in there testing...!!! In other news, tomorrow is FRIDAY! TGIF! This week has honestly coasted by because I've been so busy... the only part that's dragged was my lunch duty! lol Well, and Tuesday (even tho a huge chunk of the day was expended on watching the Inauguration with the kids...!) because that evening Jamey and I were going with some of my co-workers (my AP included) to the Spurs game! We had a BLAST! They played the Pacers... so of course it ended up being a blowout, and Jamey and I left early... for a 7:30 tipoff we were home by 10:05... which isn't bad!

This weekend my nephew and brother will be coming in town. We're keeping my nephew for a week because my SIL is going with her mom and sisters on a cruise. Since she stays home with my nephew, and my brother can't take a whole week off work... we'll be keeping him with us! My Mom and Dad are ECSTATIC! I'm pretty happy, too... although, I'll really only get to see him in the evenings since I'll be at work during the day. This Saturday we also have a party for my cousin to attend... it's a graduation/going away party. He just finished up his Bachelor's at Texas State Univ. and will now be going to St. Louis for about 4 years for seminary school. I will really miss him. Although he and I aren't AS close as we used to be... he's really more of a little brother to me because we grew up together until I was a Freshman in HS (my mom took care of him while my aunt/uncle worked).

A lot has happened... and a lot is yet to come... :)