The 80's are Back!!

No, I do NOT mean the era of super-big hair and Day-Glo everything -- I mean 80-degree weather. Very warm today. But Thursday the high's only supposed to be 55?! Go figure.

The 8th grade survived the first day of testing. It was interesting to observe. There are a total of 8 students. All have IEP's, so they all have different test accommodations indicated, most particularly time allowed. One girl had 1.25 time (she hardly even needs that -- she'd wipe the floor with most hearing 8th graders). 6 of them had time-and-a-half, and one boy had double-time.

This is supposed to level the field, but my cooperating teacher and I noticed that particularly in the case of double time, it was giving him more time to think about it than a hearing kid would get.

On the other hand, we can't do something that would level the field -- clarify English (not the mathematics) by signing portions of questions when requested by the student. However, this might get changed in the future, thanks in part to me and my cooperating teacher.

The other day, we were doing a practice test, and one of the students asked me about a question. The gist was, a class is going on a field trip, there's a certain price for adults and another price for kids -- if 1 teacher, 3 parents, and 25 kids go, how much will the total cost be?

The student asked me if 3 parents meant 3 moms and 3 dads or just 3 people (moms, dads, whatever). I clarified it for her, but as I was signing back to her, I realized what part of the confusion might have been -- the sign for PARENTS. With a 5-hand, you touch your thumb to your forehead, then your chin -- it's a combination of the signs for FATHER and MOTHER. So when I sign "THREE PARENTS", it feels like it means 3 mom-and-dad pairs.

Anyway, interesting...

Another day of testing tomorrow... all open-response questions (today was half multiple-choice), but they get to use a calculator. Should be fun...