I was really worried about what was going to happen on test
day. So far Elaine and I had done
nearly all the teaching and we improvised as we went along. I looked for ideas on the internet in the
evening, and we would try it out the next day. So it had been extremely haphazard. I didn’t want to give a test to these children. It smacked too much of real school and we
weren’t a school. We couldn’t force the children to come. We needed them to want to come. And I didn’t
want any of them to think they had failed.
They all tried so hard. If we
provided the children with a vision of a different life, of something to dream
for, then I thought we had achieved something. We didn’t need tests.
For the first time I went to school with a feeling of
dread. The children were waiting for us
as usual, but so many children! There
were children everywhere. Children we
had never seen before.
What Tracy hadn’t know was that she had chosen the worst possible day to hold the test, a school holiday! It was going to be worse than even I had imagined. Tracy selected which children would do the test in the morning and who would sit the test in the afternoon. All those children not included in the test would remain outside. Easier said than done as all the children outside wanted to see what was happening inside. It was really unfortunate that we hadn’t known about the holiday. A wasted opportunity when we could have made our classroom look inviting and fun to those children who hadn’t been before. Instead we locked them out and chased them away!
What Tracy hadn’t know was that she had chosen the worst possible day to hold the test, a school holiday! It was going to be worse than even I had imagined. Tracy selected which children would do the test in the morning and who would sit the test in the afternoon. All those children not included in the test would remain outside. Easier said than done as all the children outside wanted to see what was happening inside. It was really unfortunate that we hadn’t known about the holiday. A wasted opportunity when we could have made our classroom look inviting and fun to those children who hadn’t been before. Instead we locked them out and chased them away!
Tracy had originally decided that only those children with full
marks were going to get a prize. There
were children who had tried really hard, but whose learning
wasn’t at the same
level as others. They just didn’t know
enough to get full marks but had made an enormous effort. Tracy quickly realised that her plan could
backfire, so she gave out prizes for effort as well as achievement. But
that meant there weren’t any prizes left for the afternoon test!
Lunch-time was spent improvising and trying to make more
prizes. It was at this stage that I
discovered many hidden treasures in the classroom boxes! If only I’d known earlier!
Everyone went out that night to celebrate Ravy’s birthday and to farewell Sally who was off to India the
next day, with the sleepy friend who had emerged about 3 times in total from
her bed! A few wines took the edge off
an exhausting day.
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