It's March!

How can you tell it's March? 

Not because the snow is a mile high and brown around the edges.

Not because the sun is trying to peek through the clouds, reminding us that Spring is just around the corner.

You can tell it's March because tensions run high at work! Teachers are feeling overwhelmed, students are feeling over tested and under energized, cafeteria workers are feeling the need to move noisy kids outside for fresh air.

It's March because while teachers want to be feeling refreshed from snow days, playing in the remaining white, glistening snow, and warming their faces on the sun, they are instead preparing for the time of year when standardized tests will test everything BUT the students.  It will test a teachers patience.  It will tests a districts quality of education.  It will test a parent's faith in the teachers.  But it will not test the kid. This year more than any we are faced with testing! New tests. Lots of tests. Less time with students engaged in quality learning.

With so much discussion focused on PARCC, conversations among parents of who is opting out, teachers worried about how this will affect their evaluations, we need not forget why we really teach. We're here FOR THE KIDS.

At the end of the day, they need us to motivate them to always do their best, not just for a test. They need us to encourage, listen, understand them. They need us to remind them that after all, this is JUST a test.