A recovering educator

It has been a crazy, stressful week. And, after today, I will be in recovery mode. Today, 18 of my students are taking the GED exam. For those that don't know, the GED exam is really in five main subject areas: math, writing, science, social studies and reading (a.k.a. literature). Although, science, social studies, and reading are pretty straightforward, that does not mean that all the subject areas are that way. The writing portion is broken up into two parts: a 45 minute essay based off of a prompt and then a 50-question, multiple-choice part. In addition, the math area is also broken into two parts: one with a calculator and one where you are S.O.L.

I get a lot of mean looks from my students because I never let them use a calculator. I find that it's a big waste of time, especially when I have yet to meet a person who can't use a calculator for basic math (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers). So we try to spend more time sharpening their mental math skillz and the "how did i get that" information that will, hopefully, help them on their test.

Math, being the first test of the day, is always the hardest for my students. It's usually because they hate math and would rather be reading just about anything than doing anything remotely related to numbers (unless it's counting "paper" - I'll explain that another time.) Usually I get a variety of comments ranging from "that test was hard", "I didn't recognize anything on the test", and "I just guessed on all of them" to "I got the easy test", "I got at least a C on that joint" and (my personal favorite) "that test was easier than anything you ever gave us."

Now as we sink in for the "long haul" where they have already eaten lunch, they've gone to the bathroom, now they're settling down to read and answer 140 questions (pretty much) all in a row. I get to finally sit down and bask in the fact that no one is asking me for stuff. I don't have to pay attention. I can just relax.


...and finally eat my lunch!