TUESDAY, TUESDAY

Tuesday morning.

MCAS morning.

Yup, today and tomorrow are the last two days of state testing for my students.  English tested in April.  It's math time, and that means I will be sitting at my desk (and occasionally circulating around the room), counting and re-counting and triple-counting all the materials to make sure I don't end up in DESE MCAS jail for losing a pencil or a cheap plastic bendable ruler or a neon-blinding reference sheet with the formulas written all over it.  I will be counting the students' booklets over and over and over again with obsessive-compulsive maniacal accuracy.

Welcome to the world of state testing.

But this isn't the fun part.

The fun part is the shifting of schedules we'll have to do in order to accommodate three grade-levels of testing.  Starting Tuesday, our daily schedule will be so convoluted that I have to write it in multiple places to make sure I don't screw it up.  For eight school days, we will not go through the same schedule twice, and we have four days when four different classes will meet half-time before lunch and half-time after. Different classes.  Every day.

It's going to be awesome.

I've taught this type of split-class schedule before but it was at a different school in a different grade.  This is going to be hilarious. And you know who'll screw it up?  Who'll go to lunch when it's time to teach and try to teach when it's time for lunch?

You know it's going to be me.

I shall report back after the last day of New and Unusual Schedule Changes, but if you're a betting person, pick me.  I have absolute faith in the fact that I am a space cadet.  I may be great at counting minutiae, but when it comes to daily changes I'm a bit slow on the draw.

I'll let you know what state I end up in after wandering away from my post.

Happy MCAS, kids, or happy that you're not me today (or for the next eight school days).  Either one, I'll make sure I don't misplace your sentiments during the test.