I gave my first test of the trimester (segment of a school year, not a pregnancy) and as usual, I haven’t the faintest idea how my little snowflakes have done.  It is generally hard to tell how a kid is going to do until you have actually tested them.  I have some kids (esp. girls) who do their homework so completely and thoroughly, and then are amazed when they can’t seem to write a complete sentence.  That is something I will continuously be amazed by, is a 9^th graders inability to write a sentence that makes sense.  I seriously get word salads from kids sometimes.

Back to test taking, I am always somewhat relieved to get to a test day because it allows me to chill and breathe for a moment, but I am just as anxious as most of my kids are on a test day.  (There will always be some who feel no anxiety about ANYTHING, even though they should.)  I really try to make the connection between completing class work in a thorough and timely matter, but I must admit, that some of it does come down to luck and natural ability.  Is it wrong of me to think that the majority of A’s should go to students who are just naturally smarter than B students?  In college, I don’t think that effort always wins an A, and I want to prepare them for it.  I remember putting in insane effort in college to get a B-, because that is truly all I could manage to grasp about metaphysical philosophy of the Italian Renaissance.  Judging from a few of my parent-teacher conferences though, parents always assume that effort=A.  I wonder what kind of a reaction I would get if I brought this up with fellow teachers/administrators.   On one hand, one wants the good statistics of higher grades, better test takers, but one also wants the tests to reflect a higher level of achievement and knowledge. So what do I tell a parent when they are mad that their snowflake got a C- on the test that they supposedly studied their bum off for?  I have to tell myself that if any student of reasonable ability puts in a reasonable amount of work, that they can achieve reasonable success.  I like to say reasonable, because it sounds so much more enlightened than moderate, which ends up feeling like mediocre.  Then I am reminded that aiming for the middle is what I do and then I delete that difficult question on the test.

I guess what I really enjoy are kids who work hard, get that B+ and are happy for it.