“Dear E.E. Cumming,

I love your peom. It’s great, especially if your in love. I love it because that mean you really care about your girlfriend, or wife. I also like it because it have sweet words. Sincerley, Dareion”

So Benchmark. um. it’s going? It’s difficult to describe the pain of watching my kids forget/ignore/pretend they don’t know/ give up on everything I spent the last months teaching them, but its glorious to see them remember. Those moments, specifically in math, have been few and far between. This is frustrating because we’ve seen so much improvement overall (even if it was from a mid-second grade level to a mid-third grade level…). So seeing us stumble over open response and multiple choice is hard, just because I know how much they want it.

My biggest triumph right now has been watching Lamarcus actually attempt all the open responses he’s had except one. He’s had…13 so far. He’s done 12. To put this in perspective, last year on the Benchmark he did seven. This is my success right now, though I’m not sure how well it will translate into success score-wise. Another little success with him was when I accidentally left my list of summer school kids on the desk and he, after seeing his name, looked at me and said “thank you.” He knows. So does Jasmine, James, Darrell….any kid who is on that list, they KNOW. It’s just frustrating to think that I’ve failed them to that point.

I know, I know, they were so far behind, they’ve not put in that effort, whatever. The fact of the matter is I’m amazed at how….diligently (if not hard) they’ve been working on these tests. I’m also only half-scheming what the end of the year will look like, but it will possibly involve dressing up as famous Americans, a poetry slam, several mad science experiments, and a math battle.

Oh yes. I’ve got plans.

But first, I’ve got 2 more days of testing..