Nation-Wide Test Day

Date: 12/21

Today I got to school and was told that I don't have to teach any classes today.  (Thus why I have posted about 5 posts on this blog today alone...and I still have 2 hours left in the day!)  The reason for no classes is that it is a national testing day.  I have heard of this happening many times from other teachers.  You come to school and people tell you that it's a free day.  I probably should be working on prep work for Winter Camp but I have been really slack with updating my blog so I figured it wouldn't hurt to get caught up.

Anyway, about 2.00 pm this afternoon I realize something quiet strange.  There is English being spoke around me.  This might seem like a strange thing to notice, but I get in this bubble at school where I block out everything.  I can't understand it anyway.  And for days when I don't have to speak, I can go a whole day without hearing any English besides inside my own head.  So for me to suddenly understand English at my school--it was quiet a "Wait...what's that?" Moment.

Turns out there's an English section to this National Exam.  (I just typed "National Exam Test" as if Exam and Test aren't synonyms.  Lord, I'm supposed to be teaching English....)

It was kind of funny.  David is sad because his parents didn't remember his birthday.  Bob and Susie want to go to the movies but can't because they have science homework--which they will finish today so that they can go to movies tomorrow.  Some is sick because she got in a car accident.  Someone asked to see a library card.

And the voices were really bad.  Very stilted and disjunct.  Super high rises and extreme falls--over exaggerating for the sake of trying to make it easier to understand.  While I comprehend the reason why they do this, it does not make it authentic for the students.  In the classroom, I slow my speech, dumb it down, and also use higher and lower rises, along with some pauses around important key words, but I don't over do it.  Over doing it is setting a wrong example.

But it was funny to hear these random voices just pop out of the speakers.  Like, "Hello!  And NOW we will be beginning of the ENGLISH PORTION of this test!"