7 Weeks, But Who's Counting?

So, today was the first day back to school after Spring Break, and let me tell you how much I want out already! After teaching 6th grade for 5 years, this is the least-attentive, most talkative worst-behaved overall group we've ever had. Even some teachers who've been there 20+ years are saying the same thing. They drain all the energy I have by 3:30 every day.

We start our state testing (TCAP) next week, so this week is "finish reviewing" week.  First of all, with a new curriculum, a new test that is supposed to be higher-level thinking such as application and analysis of skills, and the fact that our job security is now directly tied to our individual test scores, I hate "teaching to the test" more and more each year, but it's getting hard to find much of a way around it.

Our school at least bought these great test-review books that have helped me to review kids in isolation on skills we worked on earlier this year in a much more holistic manner. They've made the past few weeks really easy on me, but I know that the students are completely over it. I mean, a week and a half of test prep before the break and another week after? Yeah, that's how massive my tested Language Arts/Reading curriculum is.  Reviewing takes two and a half weeks. 74 tested skills. Yay?!

So, in other words, if I can make it through the next two weeks, after TCAPs are over, there are only 5 weeks left. All downhill from there, right?