I always looked forward to March...until I started teaching. Everyone says how long March is. No long weekends, no vacations. There are pretty much no more snow days in sight. Then there is the MCAS. Suddenly it is crunch time. Do your students know everything there is to know about writing a five paragraph essay? And did they memorize their MCAS performance from last year and can they use the process of elimination when answering multiple choice questions and do they know their open response graphic organizers by heart because they won't all be provided with them on test day.
I hate to break it to all the higher-ups, but we stress a lot more about the MCAS than the kids do. In fact, I have heard it directly from several students (some of them very conscientious, intrinsically motivated students, mind you) that they don't really try on the MCAS because it doesn't count on their grade and it is too long and boring. Two points to consider: First, seventh graders think EVERYTHING is boring. Second, should I tell them that it is MY job that hangs in the balance if they just "don't feel like it"?
Ahhh March...a month that used to be the harbinger of warmth and green and spring, reduced to a barren ward - ideas, and creativity locked away behind the neat and formulaic lines of a five paragraph essay graphic organizer.
But...with the MCAS and all its surrounding activity (academic assemblies, incentives for performance on practice test prompts, endless staff meetings where data data data is analyzed, drill after drill in the classroom)...the time starts to pass quite rapidly. Almost too rapidly. And suddenly you don't feel there is nearly enough time in March.
And then, before you know it, it is March seventh, and you are writing an entry you meant to write a week ago. Hmmm, maybe it won't be such a long month after all.
