So enjoying my whopping 15 minute break from STAAR testing.  I am soooooooo bored!  I have made a to-do list, I have colored my brains out, and I have eaten ALL the snacks I packed.  It is such a beating to sit in there all day, try and make my kids be silent, and try NOT to look at that stupid test!  UGH!

Is it June yet?  Is everyone out there as EXHAUSTED as I am?  Trying to keep my class even remotely focused is getting harder and harder each day!  I don't know if it is spring fever or this joyous testing season, but we are just not productive at all anymore!  I pretty much lost it today when one of my little angels claimed she had never done addition before.  Ummmm.... I teach 4th grade!  Then another one of my little sugars asked why we have to do paragraph labels (I am adamant about paragraph labels when doing reading passages) when, as she claimed, "This is so easy."  This same little darling had just missed 10 out of 22 questions on a practice packet so I just about came unglued!  How can you claim it is easy and ask NOT to use your strategies when you miss half the questions?  FRUSTRATING!  Sadly, I am noticing a trend in the lack of effort in my students.  When I first started teaching, 12 years ago, it was just one or two kids who didn't seem to care.  Now, it feels like I have 10 to 12 that just don't care.  I worry that kids have such a high opinion of themselves, that they really believe they don't need to learn anything.  They don't want to do anything that isn't hands on, covered in glitter, or on that dag-blasted ipad.  What scares me is that when we do something hands on and engaging, and technological, and (insert any one of a million current buzzwords) they are unable to transfer that knowledge that was supposedly gained in the lesson.  Unfortunately, we have three standardized tests to take, and the world seems to revolve around these tests.  I can teach fun stuff all day long, but unless they can actually learn from the "fun" lesson, and apply to a pencil paper test, its all just a big waste of time.  I don't mean to just complain here.  I really wish I could get re-energized.  I am in desperate need of my second wind!  I just don't know where/how to get it!  HELP!