March Madness

And I am not talking about the basketball kind. I am talking about the real madness that always comes to teachers at my school around this time: portfolio scoring fever.

Yesterday was the kids' last day before break. That means that they were all home sleeping, relaxing and basically doing nothing today. What was I doing? I was knee deep in portfolios, sitting in a hard wooden chair, reading the most HEINOUS pieces of writing I have seen in a long time and stuck in a room with 65 other people and not allowed to talk. Now, the portfolios, heinous writing and hard chair I could handle, but I am a very social creature. If there are people around, I want to talk...and asking me not to is not something I do well. So, I plugged my ears with headphones and tried to block out the fact that others were there. I figured if I couldn't hear anyone else moving, breathing or shuffling papers I would think I was alone.

I found out today that it is very hard to be quiet when you are finished and others are still working--especially when you have already been quiet for four hours! I swear, we are just like the kids! Honestly, sometimes after my students finish a test or a quiz they automatically talk to the other kids around them. That always frustrates me, and I am constantly telling them to be quiet--all the while thinking "how hard can this be?" I found out today that it is incredibly difficult! In fact, our table did get called the "bad" table when we were asked to be quiet like 3 times. *blush*

I am glad that the whole scoring thing is over--it was long, tiring, and a tedious process. I would like to thank Eddie Vedder, Eminem, and Ace of Base for helping me through this difficult time. I'm off to de-fry my brain.