finals.

finals. a word i never thought i'd have to dread again. how wrong i was...

i continue to "get" to take finals 2x's/year, due to working at a high school.  normally, this situation would warrant that i GIVE the finals, but in our classroom, kids come from other classes with their tests - either they prefer a quieter, more familiar and comfortable environment, or they are allowed modifications and accommodations.  sometimes this means a simple read-aloud, but much more often this means sitting with the student(s) side-by-side and working through questions with them, prompting initial steps or giving hints...sometimes, it feels like i'm the one doing the work and taking the test as compared to the student, which i know isn't right and not what the experience is all about.

finals week at kayhi is 3 days long; 2 periods per day, broken into a 40-min. study period and 2-hr long testing period.  some students elect to start their tests during the study period, which means the test can go for 3 hrs. or longer, as is frequently the case...they don't finish in time and come back at a later point to finish their tests.  that happend with several students this year, who had multiple tests to finish by the middle of day 3.  and what do we do?  spazz, pull our hair out, and wonder how the heck they're supposed to finish in time.  honestly, finals week is more stressful on us (me & my coworkers) than it is on the students, even the ones that actually apply themselves and care about their grades enough to be stressed out. 

what made it worse this year is that i have my own "final" tomorrow morning, the day after finals week.  i have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn, not to go swimming like i normally do, but to go take the praxis I test and prove that i'm competent enough to teach basic reading, writing, and math skills.  basically, i'm taking the state graduation qualification exam or sat/act all over again, except with a different name.  after 3 days of testing already, my brain is fried, which does not bode well for kicking ass on this test like i'd like to do.  i'd really just like to throw my middle finger up a the whole world and crawl into bed.  for many, many, many days. 

the bright side to today was the snowfall, which dumped a whopping 10" of amazing powder on the elevated parts of the island.  it was coming down so heavy and causing problems on the road that many activities after school were cancelled, including the swim practices that i was supposed to cover.  so instead of standing on deck for 3 hrs yelling at kids, i spent 2 hrs shoveling the driveway.  not going to lie, i felt like a bad ass when i managed to figure out how to start the gas-powered snowblower, but after it died (due to lack of fuel, which i didn't know how to re-fill) it was back to the good 'ol hand shovel.  so i'll be taking my test tomorrow with sore, blistered hands and an aching back. 

god i hate getting old...and i hate tests.