Let the testing begin!

Along with being a school librarian, I am also the school "testing coordinator." This means that I obtain, organize, distribute, collect, and review all material needed for the standardized testing which the teachers give once a year, and then send the test documents out for scoring and make sure the scores for every child and classroom are received. There are twenty-four classrooms and about 450 students, so this a lot of material to keep track of and handle.



The black test folders on this cart hold everything a teacher needs for the test ---test booklets, answer documents, sharpened pencils, laminated "Do Not Disturb" signs, math formula sheets, blank paper and paper rulers (both for computing math problems) and the test instructions which the teachers read to the students during the test itself. This cart contains the test folders which I prepared over the past few months and distributed to the 5th and 6th grade teachers today, which is 1/4 of all the test folders I prepared for the school overall. These suckers are heavy, and I learned quickly to plan my work so the handling of these big folders is as minimal as possible.

The test themselves take about two hours a day for four days. Scheduling problems required the school's two campuses to have different test dates, so testing is taking place over three weeks, which is a long time for me to have my mind on a task that is quite detailed and stressful.

So I was glad that the "start" bell went off today....the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll be done!