1 July 2008, Tuesday

Yesterday evening was a rollercoaster. We got back earlier than usual – 4:50 instead of the typical 5:10/5:15ish. I played soccer with a bunch of the ENC (eastern North Carolina) corps for about an hour and a half. Soccer has been so much fun, especially because I haven’t played much in a long time. After dinner I tried to squeeze in a run to the post office. Since we leave at 6:30 in the morning and don’t get back until 5 (or later), I had to find a post office downtown which took a lot longer than expected and then I got lost trying to make the Charlotte regional team meeting so I ended up being probably 25-30 minutes late. Thankfully the meeting wasn’t that important so I didn’t get in trouble.

Another thing to be thankful for – all I had to do last night was print what was due today. It was all done before I got back. However, the servers were down so when I went to print it just didn’t work. I couldn’t even log in. So after fiddling with my computer I got it to print from mine rather than having to go on a lab computer. This is after we were told in sessions about how TFA was responding to our mid-institute surveys and making sure all the printers in the labs printed… When I got back, Rob was overjoyed (note: much sarcasm) that there was one measly 8th grade math binder for the ENTIRE INSTITUTE when probably a third of the people here are teaching it. Needless to say, Rob never got to use that binder because the line was too long. I told him it didn’t matter – there wasn’t much that is useful in there anyway.

Today we found out the final exam we are giving is the EXACT SAME TEST that as was given as the pre-test. I can understand having TFA write the final exam so that it is consistent, but using the exact same test? The rational we’ve been given is that it’s a control so we know exactly how the students have improved because it’s not only the exact same material, but also the exact same questions. To make things worse, we weren’t told this in the beginning so I’ve used the exact questions off the exam in class, sometimes as examples that I’ve walked through. If I wasn’t already convinced the “data” TFA is going to parade around as us being successful this summer was a joke, this would do it. While I do think the testing is a joke, I do think they have improved at least somewhat during the summer session.