Ah, CST week in California; where young students are pigeon-holed for the next year of their education. Nothin’ more fun than that! My son is in second grade and this is his first year of Standards testing. Did you know you do have the option as parents to not have your children take the test? Now, if the entire state of California refused to have their children take the tests…hmmm…just a thought. I had Max take the test. He will eventually have to take multiple choice/standardized tests for the important stuff, like college. Yep, in …let me count…nine years, he has to take the SAT and ACT tests so it’s good to start prepping him now. (Okay, all those who think I am not being sarcastic, raise your hand.)
Now, I don’t want to get all soap-boxy, but education should be number one on most politicos’ agendas. It seems to me that most people who control silly things like budgets, seem to forget today’s students are OUR future. These are the people who will be taking care of us when we are old and feeble and can no longer take care of ourselves. Do we really want a society of lazy, apathetic morons taking care of us and deciding our elderly fate? Seriously. Again, just sayin’.
When you are a graduating senior, you no longer have to take the CST’s because, let’s face it, they would screw up the API scores just because they have already gotten into college and no longer care if they are pigeon-holed or not. It no longer matters if they are an EL or have an IEP or a GATE student. Man, educators really love their pedagogic acronyms. They just care about prom and graduation and seriously, who could blame them? So, now what the heck do you do with your seniors for five days? You can’t let them just stay home because the state gives schools money based on daily attendance. So it is time for CST Senior Week! Woot.
Let me back up and give you the back story. On the first day of school this year, a few of the seniors cornered me and asked me to be the senior class advisor for them. I guess the look of fear on my face was rather daunting so they did what they had to do to make me accept the gig.
“Ms. Levine,” they leaned in and said it almost in a whisper to entice me. “You’d get to plan prom.”
Damn. They knew my weakness for pretty ball gowns, sparkly tiaras and very high heels. Damn students. So, yes, I was the stupid teacher to agree to this. And yes, the prom is going to be seriously amazing. Wait til you see my dress…
The year for the seniors was challenging. The year for their fabulous senior advisor who had never been a senior advisor before was even more challenging. There were tears, yelling, slamming of doors, hiding in the bathroom. And that was just in the first semester. And that wasn’t the students either. No one on the administrative staff told me what the senior class needed for any part of the year. Prom, CST week, graduation, nothing. No one even told me specifically what I was in charge of and who to contact and the rules of fund raising and what permits you needed for beach day. Nothin. Nada. Nope-a-roo.
It was baptism by fire which let’s face it, I am Jewish so baptism of any kind isn’t really my favorite sport. By the way, when I asked the senior advisor from last year what I needed to do and for phone numbers and lists and stuff, she basically said I was on my own. Now, I understand when someone gets fired from their job they may not want to help the school who fired them, but I didn’t fire her. Seriously…
The first semester, I helped proof their personal statements for college applications. Then I wrote twenty-six letters of recommendation, which seriously was fun to do. Writing what you actually like about your students is a good thing. When you are writing about all of their positive attributes, it balances out the crappy students who give you a headache.
They took my role as their advisor seriously. They came to me with academic and personal issues. Relationships, drug problems, family problems, money issues. I kept reminding them I was not a therapist, but they just wanted someone to hold their hand and tell them that it was going to be alright. They hid out in my room when they were frightened and upset. They retook the SATs and ACTs. I watched them change and grow and get ready to move on to their futures.
With that said, may I just say that when thirty-three out of thirty-eight students get into four year universities, it’s kind of rewarding to be their advisor.
So, CST week was super awesome and fun and exhausting. Oh my god, was it exhausting. I just didn’t want to lose any of them. I was the only chaperone for most of it. I have no voice left. Seriously, try counting students who don’t stand still in a crowded train station. I told them I couldn’t lose them because they would totally dock my pay if I did. I think it’s like, $4 per student lost, or something like that.
We did have a full week. We did a beach cleanup, the Grammy museum, movies and bowling, senior lunch and our beach party. They forced me to see “Fast Five” and if you have never experienced a movie with teenagers who think they need to talk back to the screen, well, actually, yell back at the screen…oy. When I drove home after the movie, man, I wanted to race. Vroom. I do have flames on my car and flames do make the car go faster. But it is hard to race in a minivan and I don’t think Vin Diesel would take me seriously if I offered to race his Charger. They are now making me see the rest of the fast, furious and bald guy movies. Did you know there were four other ones? Seriously, was that really necessary?
I did have fun this week. I got to hang out with them and relax (well, I relaxed after I repeatedly counted them). I even let them give me ghetto braids. They are great kids and I love being a part of their senior year. Next up is grad night at Disneyland, Prom and graduation. Almost done fund raising and almost done planning.
Then I have Dash’s preschool graduation, but that one might be a little easier…
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