in, Denver Colorado

STAR testing started on Monday. I'm administering the CMA (California Modified Assessment) to a group of 5 students who are either RSP or SPED. They have shorter sections (time and number of questions), the questions are written more simply, and they're allowed as many breaks and clarifications of directions as needed. On the first day, one student finished 15 questions in 5 minutes. Seriously!? There's no way. I had him go back and check his work, but he still managed to get 4/15 wrong. All I can do is encourage him to do his best and collect his booklet when he's finished. It's awesome when they answer correctly, and unbelievably FRUSTRATING when their answer to "how do you punctuate 'in Denver Colorado" correctly?" is "in, Denver Colorado". Grrrrrrr. I just keep telling myself "We've done all we can to prepare them for this test, and it's in their hands now!"

Today is Wednesday, which means that even though we're off at 12, we have to be back at 2:30 for PLC. So, all 5 of us went to lunch where we met my Roomie and her brand new baby girl!!! Oh my goodness she is beautiful and perfect in every way. Her fingers and toes are so teeny weeny! I'd forgotten just how small newborns are until I saw her. I'm so happy for my Roomie and her little bundle of joy; they're such a happy family!

Because of testing, I've had a lot of time to read and finish my book, The Glass Castle. My co-worker is a big reader, and she and I were talking about the craziness of this book. In a nutshell, it's a memoir written by a woman who grew up with her brother, two sisters, and 'parents'. They lived all over the US and just barely made ends meat. The children are intelligent, inventive, and tough, and put up with the most ridiculously insane neglect from their parents. Dad is a drunk who has big dreams but never follows through, steals money from his kids, and disappears for days at a time. Mom is an artist whose education is wasted. She's jealous of her children's successes and is basically a willing victim of her husband's. My co-worker was talking about having read the book with her book club and that the discussions were incredible. The more we talked about this book and others I should read, the more I realized how much fun a book club would be. I'm always reading books and then telling the Boof about them because I have all these thoughts and have to share them. But he doesn't care, and no one else I know is reading the book, so my thoughts end up just staying in my head. Having a book club would be the perfect way to share my thoughts about books with others who enjoy the book and reading in general. When she and I decided we wanted to do it, two of the other girls joined in, so it looks like we have a 4-member book club in the works! I really hope it works out, and that we make Room our first novel :)