E - Oh - Geeze...

And here we are, the pinnacle of the entire fourth grade year...what every day prior to now comes down to...the making of the whole year...right? Mmmm not quite. Silly EOGs. They are definitely important and this is a huge week of school, but I am not a fan of the stress placed on a single test. More importantly, the stress placed on the kids. These next few weeks are a time of worry for teachers, but I feel terrible for my sweet kiddos! They've worked so hard all year long, and now it seems to all come down to three days of testing.  I hate seeing them fret over perfect bubbles and answering every last question the right way.

That's why we had a mini-EOG pep rally today and practiced going to the beach or mountains in our heads and doing other things that can calm us down! I can guarantee you that as often as my kids are doing their calming routines, I will be too. And every other teacher in the school will be doing the same thing. People think they can take religion out of schools? Oh please, you better believe us teachers will be doing all but laying hands on our children tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday while they're testing!

My kids are so sweet and were full of positive comments this afternoon about their EOGs.
"I know I can make a 3 or a 4!"
"I feel good about my EOGs!"
I'm so thankful for children and their optimism :)

If you know a child taking the EOGs this week, do everything you can to give them a pep talk! It goes a long way and every little bit of encouragement is so huge to them. Also, give them Smarties. Thanks to teachers, they are automatically associated with success on standardized testing. Go figure!