SBAC Math Test (Days 151-152)

Today is the state math test here in California, and so I'll do "A Day in the Life" today. Three weeks ago, I focused on the majority of my students -- the seniors -- as they took there California Science Test. But this time, the focus switches to me as a teacher and test proctor since again, the most of my students are seniors who are not testing today.

8:00 -- I arrive at the special classroom that has been set up for testing, along with fifteen juniors. Of these 15 students, two of them are in my own math classes (one girl from Calculus, one guy from Ethnostats).

As I set up the online CAT (computer-adaptive test) for the students, I can't help but think about the testing mishaps I had back at the old charter school five years ago.

First of all, recall that I never quite made it to the day of the actual test. Instead, most of my interaction with the testing website is related to SBAC Prep and all the practice tests that I had to give each week. I had trouble figuring out how to log on and set up a secure browser for my students. Perhaps I should have discussed this more with the other middle school teachers, who then could have helped me.

So of course, I'm not making this mistake again. This time, I walked next door to the other math teacher at our school (my partner teacher -- notice that teachers must proctor their own subjects, so we math teachers are proctoring the math exam). Most of the juniors taking math have her as a teacher, and she tells me that she already gave lots of SBAC practice in her regular classes. Thus there's no need for me to give any sort of practice exam today, and I can proceed directly to the real test.

My fellow math teacher tells me to pass out calculators for the exam. Recall that the SBAC also has an embedded calculator (powered by Desmos), but some students prefer a regular hand-held calculator.

11:00 -- The testing block ends.

Of course, as this is a state test, it's forbidden for me to post any test material here, or discuss any content of what the questions are like on the blog. Instead, I will write about how the students fare on this test -- including how long it takes time to finish.

One guy zips through the test and is done at exactly 9:00 (and that's including the 20-30 minutes it takes for me to hand out the test and materials). A few other students complete the test shortly after. At the opposite extreme, two students still haven't finished by the end of the testing block. Unfortunately, one of these two is my lone Calculus student.

Officially, the SBAC has no time limit. So instead, I walk the pair back to the classroom of my partner teacher, who collects the materials and will let them finish it during sixth period.

11:20 -- We resume our regular schedule with fourth period. In fact, the seniors have been following the regular schedule today, attending both Advisory and second period today (with other teachers covering my classes). The juniors start their schedule with fourth period -- and they're allowed to arrive a few minutes late to fourth period so they can have a quick nutrition break before class.

Fourth period is the second of two Ethnostats classes.

Anyway, this is the week that I'd scheduled the next quiz, which is on Chapter 15 (even though we've been working in Chapter 16 this week). So I assign the Chapter 15 Study Guide, which contains questions from the book that correspond to the upcoming quiz.

But as it turns out, I list the wrong problem numbers for the students to complete and don't catch the error until one guy in fourth period points it out to me. This means that I've assigned the wrong questions to my second period class with the sub (and they might be at a disadvantage when it's time for the quiz on Friday, since they don't see the real study guide).

Then again, at least second period gets an assignment today. In Advisory, I tried to leave another financial literacy lesson, this time on taxes (a Google Slide lesson made for me by another teacher). But unfortunately, I send my lesson plan to the wrong teacher, and so the teacher actually covering my classes is forced to improvise something else for today. I'll try to assign the tax lesson for tomorrow, the second day of the SBAC (the performance task).

I like the idea of assigning the tax lesson in April, since this is the month when taxes are due. (This year, Tax Day was on April 18th. As I explained on the old blog, in years when April 15th is on a Friday, Tax Day is now delayed to the 18th. This is because DC Emancipation Day -- the forerunner to the new holiday Juneteenth -- is on April 16th, or moved to the previous day if it's a Saturday, just like Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve in years when December 25th and January 1st fall on Saturdays. So taxes weren't due until the Monday after DC Emancipation Day).

12:50 -- Fourth period leaves for lunch. Sixth period is my conference period.

Today just happens to be the last day of one of our classified office workers, and so a party is held in the lounge in her honor. This marks the first time that I've ever celebrated Administrative Professionals Day, held on the fourth Wednesday in April. (That our secretary's last day would be on the holiday is just a coincidence.)

3:05 -- Sixth period ends -- but I already told the lone junior in my Calculus class that I'd hold a tutoring session for AP Review today for her. As it turns out, she still hasn't finished the SBAC CAT, and so my partner teacher will let her finish after the Performance Task portion tomorrow.

And this worries me a lot. If she can't even finish the SBAC in four hours, what chance does she have of completing the AP Calculus Exam -- a much more difficult test -- in the allotted three hours. (Unlike the SBAC, the AP doesn't grant extra time.)

I know that this girl is a strong Calculus student -- as the only junior taking AB, this makes her one of the top math students in the whole school. And, as many math teacher bloggers point out, being good at math doesn't equate to being fast at math. But on the other hand, we can't escape the reality that the AP Exam is a timed test, and she's signed up for that timed test.

Of course, after spending four long hours on a math test, the last thing that she really wants to see is more math problems. Still, we get through the lesson -- and I keep reminding her that the goal is for her to process the information quickly so that she can improve on her testing times. I hope that she'll be able to answer enough questions quickly enough to pass the AP Exam.

4:05 -- The AP Review session ends. I leave campus and drive down to a local restaurant -- where the party to celebrate our departing staff member continues. This is the third gathering we've had here since December -- and each time we had a party for a staff member who was leaving us.

Today is Sunday, the third day of the week on the Eleven Calendar:

Resolution #3: We remember math like riding a bicycle.

Of course, today's resolution bears repeating. Our students must memorize formulas (for example) in order to be successful in our math class and successful on the SBAC and AP exams.

Again, I can't post anything about the SBAC questions. You can find a discussion of the released SBAC questions on my old blog, in many of my April and May posts from previous years.

Oh, and it's also been my blog tradition to link back to my most popular posts on SBAC day. As it turns out, my most popular post on my new blog by far is its very first post:

Sara(h) Week Activities (Day 2)

Here "Sara(h)" refers to the two famous bloggers by that name -- Sarah Carter and Sara Vanderwerf. I incorporated some of their early activities during my first week at my new school.

The next two posts are tied for my second-most popular:

Chapter 7: A Tale of Two Variables (Day 47)

Baptism Sunday Post (Yule Blog Challenge #12)

I'm not sure why these posts got more hits than the others. The first was my monthly posting day for October, when I wrote about my classes, one of my students who ran Cross Country, and then my own days as a XC runner. The other was my last winter break post in January. That day I fulfilled Shelli's Yule Blog Challenge by completing my 12th post as well as her One Word Challenge for 2022, and discuss author Eugenia Cheng and her opinion of "Black Lives Matter."

Technically, my annual "most popular posts on the blog" should go back one full year, back to the start of my SBAC posts last year on the old blog. Well, just as my first post on the new blog has the most hits here, my last post on the old blog has the most hits there:

The Future of This Blog (Day 2)

My second most popular post during that stretch really is about the SBAC itself:

SBAC Practice Test Questions 5-6 (Day 163)

So you can click there to see what sort of questions my students might have worked on today. That post also discussed my career as a Track runner, this time in the form of a COVID-97 What If? (which, as you know, I've since changed to a COVID-96 What If?).