"Hey guys!" I started my class today, "do you realize that this is your one week anniversary of starting middle school?" After a spontaneous but very well-earned round of applause I continued, "So guess what? We are going to take some tests!"
There were equal parts groans and laughs, but everyone was resigned: these kids have never been in a school that didn't test the heck out of them. They expected nothing else.
And as such? Most of them performed like yeoman, brave and stout, producing a page or so of prose in 45 minutes or less. (We'll talk about quality later, I'm sure.)
At the end of the day, one girl stopped at my desk on her way out the door. "I have a pop quiz for you," she said.
It was only fair. "Shoot," I replied.
"What's my name?" she asked.
"Greyson," I answered without hesitation.
"Wow!" she said, "How do you do that?"
"I work at it," I told her honestly, thinking of how I go over and over my rosters matching names to faces, "Because it's important!"
She nodded, genuinely impressed.
There were equal parts groans and laughs, but everyone was resigned: these kids have never been in a school that didn't test the heck out of them. They expected nothing else.
And as such? Most of them performed like yeoman, brave and stout, producing a page or so of prose in 45 minutes or less. (We'll talk about quality later, I'm sure.)
At the end of the day, one girl stopped at my desk on her way out the door. "I have a pop quiz for you," she said.
It was only fair. "Shoot," I replied.
"What's my name?" she asked.
"Greyson," I answered without hesitation.
"Wow!" she said, "How do you do that?"
"I work at it," I told her honestly, thinking of how I go over and over my rosters matching names to faces, "Because it's important!"
She nodded, genuinely impressed.
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