T.G.I.F.

I cannot tell you how happy I am that the weekend is here and that our ELA state testing is OVER!  Talk about stressful.  Our first day of testing was Wednesday and the children did really well with it.  It took just over two hours for them to complete the first session, and over all they put a lot of effort into their work.  I think they felt better about it Wednesday because it was still brand new to them so they didn't know what to expect exactly.  Our second session on Thursday was a different matter.  Half of my class looked like they had very restless nights when they walked through the door which is never a good sign.  Fifteen minutes into the test session on of my girls has literally sleeping on her desk.  I was worried the "testing police" might object, but I had to wake her up!  I can't even describe how badly I felt for this poor child.  Her eyes kept wanting to roll back and close, and it took about ten minutes of staying right there next to her to make sure she was really awake. =(  Poor thing...someone not really familiar with how state testing goes said to me "I certainly hope there's a place on the test where you can mark that the poor child fell asleep and didn't do their best!"  Um, nope, unfortunately there is not, and they do not take such things into consideration.  Needless to say this afternoon a colleague and I took our classes outside for some extra recess, they definitely needed a break!  Now the weekend is here and my goal is to try to relax and recharge my batteries...wish me luck! =)