This past week I got very sick with a cough (thank you students!). My doctor doesn't do "walk-ins" so I had to go to Urgent Care. Unbeknownst to me the old Urgent Care was closed up. I called my dear hubby in a despair who found a new one that was close by.
The young physician’s assistant wrote me prescriptions for a nuclear strength cough medicine and antibiotics. A few hours later I had broken out in a terrible rash. By morning my face was swollen and my lips looked like Goldie Hawn’s grossly enhanced lips in “The First Wives Club.” My hands, feet, waist and the area above my arms on my back look like leprosy. Even my ears are red and itchy! Dear Gary helped me call various places and I got a new prescription. He even volunteered to go pick it up for me. In the meantime the rash has spread and gotten much, much worse, although the coughing isn’t as bad. Is that improvement?
Usually when I have had a long run of really good health I can’t help myself and brag about it which, as everybody knows, is the surest way to tempt fate, but this time I didn’t. I am as miserable with the icthing as I was with the coughing. Surely there is a lesson to be learned here but I’ll be damned if I can figure it what it is.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
ICHING -ARGHHHHHH!
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Secrets of Standardized Testing
Tomorrow we start our AIMS, which is Arizona's Standardized testing. *sigh*
Secret#1 - Read the questions first. Even better - read the questions and answers first. Then you don't panic about the questions because you will know the questions and the answer choices.
Secret #2 - It's multiple choice:THEY GIVE YOU THE ANSWER!!!!! You have a 25% even if you just guess. (Forget the old thing about the "C" answer as a guess, that was back before they had computers mix up the answer choices.) Actually, if the questions and answers are read carefully the answers become obvious.
Secret #3 - This may sound hokey but it absolutely does work; imagine that you GET TO TAKE THIS TEST! Seriously, this does work. Your subconscious mind does what you tell it, and if you think something will be awful - bingo! it will be awful. If you think you get to do something it puts it in a whole new, and postitve light.
Secret #4 - After having taught for 30 years I can tell you that people who do well on tests use the above secrets. They know not to get stressed because that is self-sabotage. I promise, if you don't do well on a test no one will take you out back and shoot you.
Secret #5 - No matter how well I prepare my students, the scores are always a shock; some do far better than I hoped and some seemed to have not brought their brains along. Testing is a bigger crap-shoot than anything Vegas ever came up with. Nothing can be done about the teachers and students who cheat either, except that it always catches up with them eventually, and yes, there is a lot of cheating. (Statistically it is nearly impossible for an entire class to make unbelieveable gains in one year, but a blind eye is turned to that. Oh, well.)
Secret#1 - Read the questions first. Even better - read the questions and answers first. Then you don't panic about the questions because you will know the questions and the answer choices.
Secret #2 - It's multiple choice:THEY GIVE YOU THE ANSWER!!!!! You have a 25% even if you just guess. (Forget the old thing about the "C" answer as a guess, that was back before they had computers mix up the answer choices.) Actually, if the questions and answers are read carefully the answers become obvious.
Secret #3 - This may sound hokey but it absolutely does work; imagine that you GET TO TAKE THIS TEST! Seriously, this does work. Your subconscious mind does what you tell it, and if you think something will be awful - bingo! it will be awful. If you think you get to do something it puts it in a whole new, and postitve light.
Secret #4 - After having taught for 30 years I can tell you that people who do well on tests use the above secrets. They know not to get stressed because that is self-sabotage. I promise, if you don't do well on a test no one will take you out back and shoot you.
Secret #5 - No matter how well I prepare my students, the scores are always a shock; some do far better than I hoped and some seemed to have not brought their brains along. Testing is a bigger crap-shoot than anything Vegas ever came up with. Nothing can be done about the teachers and students who cheat either, except that it always catches up with them eventually, and yes, there is a lot of cheating. (Statistically it is nearly impossible for an entire class to make unbelieveable gains in one year, but a blind eye is turned to that. Oh, well.)
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