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Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

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Tests are Dumb!

So today I had to take two Praxis exams, which are the state teaching exams. I had to be there by 7:30, which is bad in itself. At least for me. :) A morning person, I am not. Anyway, I had plans on going to bed at a decent time last night so I wouldn't be tired. Well, AJ had other plans for me. I got in bed at 10:00 on the dot. That is EARLY for me. I was actually going to sleep, then AJ came up and said, "I've been thinking...." I knew at that point that it was going to be a long conversation and I should stop it, but I didn't. LOL. Well, I let him talk til 11:00. What a nice wife I am, huh?! Well, of course after that I was wide awake and my brain was running like crazy. Ugh. I finally went to sleep about 12:30. Then, I guess I was nervous, but I woke up several times all night, finally waking up at 5:45 and staying awake. UGH!!! That is NOT good for this 9 hour of sleep girl!

So on to the test. I get there with 20 minutes to spare. Then the testing people were late so we didn't get in the room until almost 8:00. Then they had to get everyone checked in, hand out tests, etc. It is funny seeing all the people trying to be teachers. Let me just say there are a TON wanting to teach middle school! Anyway, the testing didn't start until 8:30, an hour after it was supposed to. This first test was Elementary Education: Content Knowledge, which meant I had to know everything a K-6th grader has to learn. Yeah, I was a little freaked out. First of all, I am only going to be certified to teach up to 3rd grade, so I have no idea what a 6th grader should know. Also, Sam's homework sometimes freaks me out, plus, that is A LOT of stuff. How in the world do you study for all that. The test was made up of 4 parts, Language, Math, Science, Social Studies. I was confident in Language and Science, but the other 2 I was worried about. Math because I am TERRIBLE at math, especially fractions, and Social Studies was worrisome because I might have to know dates, certain people, amendments, etc.

Anyway, before the test started we looked at the clock and it was going WACKY! Apparently, all of the clocks in the school were. They were just spinning and spinning. It was crazy. Bad sign???

The Language part was a breeze. I had no trouble. Then on to Math. Um, yeah, that was trouble. It was bad. I had to circle a lot of the questions to come back to later. Thankfully, I had lots of time left at the end, so I came back and was able to figure out a lot of the problems. It just takes me a lot of time to really think about it and then I can finally do it. I think I did ok. Whew! Then it went on to Social Studies. Um, yeah, FAIL. I don't know if I really even knew one of the questions! It was so random, I don't know how in the world you would study for it. Let me just say, if you have to take that, brush up on the 60's! Obviously I know nothing about that era. I am pretty sure all through school, we always only ever got to World War II before the end of the year. Hopefully my scores on the rest of the test, make up for Social Studies. Thankfully, I usually could narrow down the answers to two so I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right. Maybe? Finally was science. That wasn't bad, I think I did pretty good.

Since we started so late, my hour break in between my two tests, turned in to 5 minutes. I had enough time to go to the bathroom, and that was it. :( We came back in and got everyone situated. This time, I took Education of Young Children. That one was easy peasy. Make sure you brush up on the different philosophers like Piaget, Erikson, etc. This test had 60 multiple choice, but then it had 6 essay questions. I'm not talking about a one or two paragraph essay either. These were like 2 pages long. Man, my hand was dying by the end, actually, it is still tired! Even the essay questions weren't that bad though, but this test is where the craziness started. First, the clocks were still messed up and it was very important that we kept time well because the whole test was only 2 hours long so we had to leave plenty of time for the essays. Thankfully, I have a watch on at all times. Well, halfway through, we heard a loud siren right outside the doors and then a minute later started hearing someone talking loudly through a megaphone or something. We couldn't tell what they were saying, but something was going on! I have no idea what though. Then I got done with essay 4 and started moving on to essay 5, only to realize that I had written almost the whole essay (1 whole page) on the wrong test page!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!! What in the world was I supposed to do?! I only had 30 minutes left so I just went on to the last 2 questions. I finished up just as the lady called that there was 10 minutes left!! YIKES!!!! I QUICKLY rewrote that whole page on the correct page. I write pretty small so that was A LOT of writing. I managed to get it all down and started erasing the page I had messed up on. I was erasing frantically when my pencil flew out of my hand and flew across the room. Oops! I just left it and grabbed my other pencil and kept going. LOL! I was just finishing erasing the last sentence when she called time!!!! WHEW!!! It wasn't erased well at all, but oh well! That was nerve-wracking to say the least! Sort of funny now though. Another issue was that while all this was going on, I hadn't eaten since 6:30 in the morning. Well, I have blood sugar issues and can't even go 4 hours without eating, normally, or I get really sick. Well, it was almost 2 O'clock and I was dealing with the freak out session. So I was sooo weak, shaky, had a terrible, terrible headache and I got so hot, I think I was about to pass out. I was supposed to go eat during my hour break so I didn't plan for not having time! Anyway, when I waslked out of there, I wasn't sure I was going to make it to my car. I was so sick. :( Thankfully, there was a Wendy's right across the street so I got food immediately. It took my like 2 hours, food, a root beer, and 2 cookies to finally get my sugar levels back in check. I still have a terrible headache even now though.

Anyway, it was a wacky, wild day. Hopefully I passed those tests, cuz let me tell you, they are EXPENSIVE. The makers of those tests sure make a lot of money, especially when I am required to take 6 of them.

I don't find out for 4 weeks. Yuck. I have 2 more to take in April and then I will be done with them! WOOHOO!

I really don't have much other news. Pretty much our lives are just school and home. Nothing new and exciting. Except for Avery losing his first tooth a couple weeks ago. He was SOOO excited for that! Oh, and I just got my hair cut and it is super cute and I love it. Can't think of anything else right now. I just had to get this craziness written down so I can remember all the stuff I went through to get this darn degree! LOL!