So after play practice yesterday, I was pretty drained: came back home and passed out immediately. To start off Wednesday, I was already tired, but there's testing in the first class block, so that helped a little.
Every Wednesday, Pearson has students perform standardized tests. I'm not sure how the tests are distributed to students, since I think they take different tests depending on the room they're in that day rather than the day of the term, but I'll have to ask someone else in any event. Maybe I'll make a separate post about testing.
So I, last minute, got snapped up for proctoring a test. They call it something different, but it's proctoring, essentially; I wandered the room while students tested and made sure that they weren't cheating off each other or using notes/cell phones. This particular group of students was taking an English test, separated into home language and additional language groups (so L1 and L2+ groups). It's by all measures an intensely boring way to spend an hour, and I got very familiar with the room I was in.
When we collected the tests, they were divided into groups based on the student's normal English teacher, so there were some stacks with three tests, some with only one, etc. All those tests are then delivered to the staff workroom and distributed to the teachers after the office sees them.
After that I followed that teacher to her second hour class--first hour is axed entirely for that day, since the testing period takes up a lot of time. This first class was getting results from a test back (not the one we just took, another one earlier in the week), and I'm beginning to learn that the Grade 9 students are pretty rowdy. Some things never change.
Then, after my break and a free period, I went to observe another teacher who works with Grade 8's. I'm a little anxious to be assigned to them, as they're technically not in the age band I'm certified for, but they're counted as high schoolers here. Right when I came in, one of the students showed me the compass she got from her grandmother. It was very cute.
This class wasn't all too exciting. Mostly they were just finishing off an essay, so I sat quietly and helped kids spell certain words once or twice. Couldn't for the life of me remember if “licorice” is spelled differently in International English variants, but apparently it's the same everywhere, so I made myself look a fool to a 12-year-old.
And that was my last class of the day! I was assigned to the same teacher I had at the beginning of the day, technically, but I was asked to leave early for the Savoy so I could build set. When I got there I didn't have instructions yet, so I took a nap in the benches before the kids showed up to rehearse (apparently couldn't be awoken--oops) and then touched up some lines on a burger shop scene and began painting the logo. It's going to be a faux blue neon; hopefully it turns out well! I'll upload photos of set pieces later.
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