Test Prep Yoga

After more than 5 weeks of structured test prep, state testing officially starts next week. Around the same time that test prep began I was asked by one of my school mentors if I was nervous for testing. I looked at her and replied "No... not yet, should I be?" She looked at me worriedly... "YES."

Needless to say, my antsy little second graders have been spending about an hour a day working through a structured test prep workbook (this hour has recently become 2 hours daily). Although the words "test prep" usually send anyone (regardless of their age) into a tizzy, my kids have begun to cheer "YESSSSSSSSS!!!"

Now, I'm not going to lie to you, I have bribed them. A lot.

Making test prep fun has taken every last ounce of my creativity. It started with goldfish (every time we finish a page we eat one together) and slowly progressed to giving out Easter eggs filled with a jelly bean or two to students who share their answer for a particular problem.

To work off the energy from the snacks, I sometimes mix in a little "Mr. Mark." Mr. Mark was shared with me by another TFA corps member at a workshop we had one Saturday. "It's a video game thing that you can project on the smart board," she said, "This man names Mr. Mark leads the kids on adventures where they run in place and have to jump over logs and dodge branches." Needless to say, Mr. Mark has been a BIG hit in the classroom and a great break from the never ending test prep.

Well, today, my friend Mr. Mark was unreachable. I tried and I tried but I couldn't get the video to load (please picture 27 second graders wiggling in their chair).

For those of you who know me well, you probably know I'm not afraid to be silly or make a fool of myself: especially in front of 7-8 year olds, with whom I could never fall out of favor (no matter how much I embarrass myself)! This being said, I looked at my disappointed class and said "Want to learn some yoga?" The cheers could probably be heard down the hall... who knew second graders knew what yoga was. After my attempt, they are probably only more confused.

I dimmed the lights, put on some Enya and started teaching the kids the sun salutation (note to readers - I haven't done yoga since I was in high school so my interpretation is probably inaccurate). Every student was out of their seats - their little eyes glued on me. We swung our hands up over our heads, down to our hearts and then up again. We swooped down to touch our toes, then into plank, cobra and downward dog. By the time we were finishing our second round I started to see little goofballs twirling to the music and ClassKlepto trying to do the splits. Aaaaand... that's when yoga ended...

I love my class. I love teaching.