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Fun Ideas To Help Keep Your Sanity Through Standardized Testing: By Gina Ciuffetelli


Posted Date: 04/05/2021

Fun Ideas To Help Keep Your Sanity Through  Standardized Testing: By Gina Ciuffetelli

It starts with an “s” and ends with a “t.”  That's right... I’m talking about the “standardized test.”  HOLD ON, before you slam your laptop shut and toss it out the window just for seeing those words read this article first. We have some not-so-serious tips to help you get through administering or proctoring standardized testing while actively monitoring without feeling like you want to quit or bury yourself inside a deep, deep hole like a Honey Badger. 

 STEP COMPETITION

Get a cheap step counter and have a competition with your fellow test givers to see who can log the most steps around the room.  Everyone can throw in a few bucks and either win the pot or you can get a gift card for the winner.  You have to walk around anyway to make sure the little darlings aren’t “helping” their neighbors, so why not maybe get a free dinner out of it? Or some Bath and Body Works Aromatherapy to help you through all the stress of testing? Oh… let's not forget to mention exercise and all those health benefits too.

 IMAGINE WHICH ANIMAL EACH STUDENT WOULD BE

Squirrel? Owl? Tiger? Pomeranian?  We all know our students’ personalities are unique as fingerprints. So, if a powerful wizard came along one day and turned all students into animals to save them from hours and hours of testing, what would they become?  Be careful.  If you snort out a laugh, everyone will hear you.  And they’ll assume you’d become a wild boar.

Warning! Zombie Outbreak signZOMBIE-APOCALYPSE READY CLASSROOM

We all have the usual stuff in our classrooms: books, desks, writing utensils, sheep brain in a jar… (oh, that might just me?  I AM a science teacher after all!) 

So, what would happen if the Zombie Apocalypse happened during testing?  What's in the room that would save you and your students from the hoards?  What new and innovative uses would you find for the pencil sharpener on the wall that hasn’t worked in 15 years? I bet once you plan out your strategy, you may just thank me.

 There are SO many more fun things you can do to pass the time while keeping your obligation to maintain the integrity of the test and make sure your students stay on the straight and narrow. Check out We Are Teachers and Love Teach for many more creative suggestions. 

 

And don’t worry all you Honey Badgers out there… we’ll get through this together.

 

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