Being Tested

Yesterday was one of the toughest teaching days I've had in a long time. All week long we've been benchmarking, meaning we've been giving last years TAKS test to our students to get an idea of where we stand. That gives us a better idea about who needs to have extra help and tells us specifically what areas they are struggling in. I administer the test to the dyslexic students because they receive a few special accommodations on the test (like me being able to read the questions to them).

My group yesterday only had three boys in it. The day started off great. They did everything I asked them to do without a problem. Then about halfway through the test something changed. I'm not sure what happened to cause it, probably just the fact that the test is really long and all that reading is tough on a dyslexic child. The change occurred in the attitude of one the boys taking the test, and boy oh boy did his attitude change.

This little boy is new to our district. In his previous school he had failed every single subject last year, but they'd moved him on anyway. When we called to see what was up with that we were told that he had failed because he spent almost the entire year expelled or in I.S.S. (in school suspension). So basically he had never been in class. I'm not blaming that school. I know exactly why he was kicked out of class. It was because that is what he wanted. The reason I know that is because that's what he wanted me to do with him yesterday. He wanted me to send him to the office or kick him out of my class.

He started off by saying stuff like, 'I don't care about this test. I'm not taking it anymore.' When I kept insisting that he was going to take it and he was going to do well he started making really loud noises while the other students were testing. When this didn't get him kicked out of my room he started throwing things (his test, his pencil, his sharpener....anything in reach really). He threatened, he flipped me off, he was determined to get sent out of the room and get out of doing his work. He finally came right out and said, 'why don't you just kick me out of here? That's what everyone else does.'

And there it was. I had known the reason he was acting so mean (he said some way mean things) and violent, but I had not expected him to just come right out and say it. My answer to him was that I wasn't everyone else and I knew he was smart and that he could slam dunk this test.

And it was true. I knew he could do well. It is obvious this child is very bright. There is no reason for him to be failing all his classes and throwing his life away. So what the rest of the day (several hours of it) came down to was a battle of wills...him against me. I sat across from him and pointed to each and every word saying 'read it' and then on the next word 'read it' and on the next and the next and the next. I never raised my voice. I acted like I had all the time in the world and that I was never, ever going to stop pushing him to do his best. Eventually he got sick of me pointing to each word and saying read it over and over until he read it and he started reading on his own.

Of course when he'd get to the questions he'd try to just randomly circle answers. My response to that was that apparently we needed to read the entire story again (there are six fairly long stories and about fifty questions). When I flipped back to the beginning of the story and pointed to the first word and started saying 'read it' to him, he backed down and said, 'okay, okay. I'll answer them right.'

There was so much more that happened, but you get the idea of how the day went. It wasn't fun and it was very stressful. When he finally walked out of my room with the other students it was all I could do to not cry....from stress...from relief that we'd managed to finish...from sadness that he was so hardened at such a young age...just from a lot of things.

I sucked it up and took the tests down to the boy's regular classroom teacher. She graded the tests and they all passed. Not only did they all pass, but the little boy who was so angry and mean made a perfect score. I knew he could. He was the only person in the entire grade to do that. I saw him last night walking down the street with a group of kids with hats on crooked and pants down hanging low on their hips. I pulled up and rolled down my window and said, 'Hey J, guess who made a 100 on that test.' He responded with a tough and attitude filled, 'who?' I didn't say a word. I just pointed at him. He tried to hide the smile that burst through, but I saw a quick glimpse of it before he tried to act like he didn't care. Then I said, 'guess who was the only person in the entire grade to make a 100.' He again says, 'who?' and I just slowly point at him. This time he doesn't try to hide his delight. 'No way!' he yelled and I smiled, pointed at him again and gave him a thumbs up. Then I drove away.

I love my job.