Nerves...

So who do you think is more nervous before testing? Teachers or Students? 

After reading Testing Miss Malarkey (free on SlideShare)..I must agree that teachers are.  I'm worried that they're worried and I'm worried that they won't use all their strategies and I'm worried about the students who will work their hardest and still have to retake.  I'm worried about their repressed energy during testing causing poor choices during indoor recess after testing b/c of the rain.

Today we "popped our fears away."  Students (and myself) blew up balloons, wrote our testing fears on them with Sharpie and then went out side and popped them away. I think it was therapeutic for the students fears/worries to be heard and validated.  Then, the act of getting rid of them allowed us to move on to meditative mandala coloring to create a calm and anxiety free environment.