Placement Tests

I was in the corner grading tests. Only three of my students were still working on the essay portion at the end of this year's placement test. James of Belmont stopped writing long enough to ask, "Ms. Denice, if everyone is finished we will play a game?" (note: I've decided to give alias's to any of my students that I write about instead of using their real names, or rather the English alias's by which their commonly known at our school.)

I looked at the clock and thought, "Everyone's not going to finish James of Belmont, because you're not going to finish." I said, "Worry about your test James of Belmont and we'll see what happens." He started writing again.

Then The Grand Duchess Herself stopped writing and asked, "Ms. Denice, what if I write a word in my test, and you don't know that word?"

I swung a withering gaze in her direction and thought, "You are a 7-year-old Korean girl. You don't know any English words that I don't know." I said, "If there is a word in your essay that I don't know, I will look it up in a dictionary."

The Grand Duchess Herself sighed loudly and said, "Oh good!" before she finished writing.

Tony '2-step' McDermott was in the corner flexing his fingers instead of writing the last of his essay. "Tony '2-step' McDermott," I said, "You need to finish or you'll run out of time."

"I'm sorry," he said, "It's just ... it's just ... this writing and this answering ... ... ... This monster is breaking my hands!"

I thought, "You're funny." I said, "You're funny. Finish your test."