OGT week is upon us, and I must take time to observe the rituals and regulations that go with it. Students are already the children of routine, and OGT week is the pinnacle of that daily rhythm. Students entire, they enjoy a hectic and shortened class time, and then they are shuffled off to begin the hours-long test that their career so dearly depends on.

Standardized testing is on my mind; the first thing being obvious was the chaos it caused. Teachers had just a few minutes for each class period; just enough to make it more than a lazy homeroom, but never enough for a serious class discussion. The class I will be teaching, 4th period intervention reading, for example, was theoretically set up to work on a very basic critical thinking exercise as part of its daily routine. However, the class was essentially abandoned; the students were too wily, the time too short, and the other tasks of the day, like explaining the OGTs once again and answering questions, took up the rest of the time.

What few minutes remained were essentially chaos as several of the more talkative students violently monopolized conversation. I am unsure that I would have been able to do anything about it even if I was more experienced and in full control of the classroom. Proximity had no effect on them, trying to get the rest of the class to help me calm them did nothing; classroom management remains a priority for me.

On the theme of classroom management, I did get the chance to work with another student who is also placed at Glass City Academy, and managed to view the school’s training series on disruptive students and how to deal with misbehavior. I found it to be very insightful and very helpful; the strategies ranged from a codification of simple ones, like ‘planned ignoring’ of problem repetetive behaviors, to other interesting but harder-to-implement strategies, like methods for assigning a particularly fitting punishment to a particular troublemaker. I hope that I can use these strategies in the near future. What still remains a behavioral concern for me is managing several students (or even the entire class!) at once. When this does occur - and so far I find that it occurs frequently-  I am at a loss for what to do. The internet doesn’t offer much in the way of easy solutions, so the only tactic I have adopted from Ms. Ellis is simply to ‘wait it out,’ and wait for the classroom to become calm enough for me to intervene with an individual student. The students chant, sing, rant, and laugh, and although they eventually return to some modicum of attention, I feel powerless while waiting. I plan on doing further searching to find more strategies to deal with large groups of disruptive students.

Returning to contemplating OGTs, I can certainly understand the need and desire for a comprehensive standardized test, even if the execution leaves something to be desired. One professor suggested alternatives, ranging from a comprehensive one-on-one discussion (interesting, but infeasible) to comprehensive final projects instead (which would give students greater flexibility in showing what skills they have learned.) Learning about alternatives to the oft-derided standardized test is something that merits exploring and needs further examining.