Tests and New Toys

All of my classes survived the tests today, almost all students finishing in the allotted time. They still could not find the period of an object making 60 revolutions in 25 seconds, of course. Part of the problems may be the fact that I don't shy away from letting the answers be fractions, and they're all (especially the lower level students) mortally afraid of fractions and other non-integers. I should probably rewrite the lowest level test to have more integer answers, but given that they freak out if you suggest that they don't have to convert pi into a real number in order to solve problems, I can't possibly make all of the answers on a circular motion test integers.

In more exciting news, I stopped by my IT director's office to get the information I needed in order to get a colleague hooked up with the school's web-portal/parent-pacification system, and walked out with a Student Response System! It was just sitting in the back of her ofice, unloved! Granted, it's not a Senteo, it's a CPS and one that's a version behind current, but still! 32 clickers, the reciever, and the software to run it! Now I just have to figure out if I can jam my current SMARTnotebook files into that system, or if I have to fake it by telling the CPS system that I'm using verbal questions...

It's always a bit of a juggling act, balancing exam security (also uncharitably known as the desire not to write an entirely new midterm or final every year) with allowing students to learn from the experience of taking an exam. In particular, I have a student whose 504 plan specifies that she is to get a copy of all her tests, quizzes, and papers back in order to review them. My supervisor pointed out that this does not include exams, so he feels no guilt about the department policy of not allowing students and parents access to the exams (outside of test time). I feel a little guilt. I hate having to prepare students for state exams without having sample questions, so I wish I had sample questions to give my students to prepare for the midterm and final. The review packet MM uses is terrifyingly harder than the actual test, and I haven't had time to do a thorough overhaul of it with the midterm in front of me. I wonder if I can steal time before the final to work with CM on the final review packets...