"Here are some suggestions to help you do your best." Ask any of my students what that means, and more than likely they will tell "that's Mr. Dugger's spiel" (pronounced shpeel). When I administer the New York State assessments to my class, I tell them that NYS requires me to read a certain amount of text to them since it is a standardized test. When we do practice questions, I sometimes do "the spiel" as a way of getting them used to what they can expect to hear on the actual test day. By the time the test arrives, my "here are some suggestions" speaking part actually relaxes them a bit as they are used to it. Having said that, it is me, their very own teacher that knows them both as students and as individuals that is reading to them. It is me, their very own teacher that is personally invested in their collected and respective successes that is reading to them.
Today I found myself on the other side of the testing table. Here I was at a college that I had never been to waiting to take the New York State Educational Technology Specialist certification exam. I was sitting with other teachers (and teacher-to-bes) taking some incarnation of a certification exam.
I looked at the proctor. She was a woman who I had never before met. She did not know me from any of the other people in that room. I did not have the familiarity with my protcor that my students were afforded, yet I was just about to read her version of "the spiel" given to her by New York State as well.
90 multiple choice questions and one extended response essay later, I stepped out of the college with my fingers and toes crossed. There were questions about hardware, software, technology incorporation, and collaboration. I hope that I did my best.
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