Testing, testing.

NYSESLAT testing is happening this week. We've been doing the Speaking portion since Tuesday (afternoon). It gives me a chance to have conversations withall sorts of kids I don't know or don't normally run into here at school, which is cool. It's also really intriguing to notice patterns in linguistic errors, or the kinds of speaking prompts that kids find funny, or the improvements/backsliding that certain students have made/done... Just like with the Regents in January, this testing sometimes [strongly] reminds of my experiences in Mozambique proctoring the national English exam. I really do enjoy sitting down and speaking with kids one on one, even if the prompts consist of, "What is the woman [in the picture] doing, and what might she be saying?" or the classic, "Why is it important to study another language?" Doing something a little different than the normal day-in, day-out classprepclassprepclass is a welcome break.

Well,
It's Thursday, it's the end of the TC semester, and springtime is in full, rainy swing!
I'm feeling positive about today.