Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Martha, the Test Grader

Martha is a single mom, with a four year old daughter named Emily. Martha is just trying to get by day to day. This morning, at 6:00 AM, as Martha was getting ready for her job as an Achievement Test Grader in a state far, far, away, her babysitter called and said she couldn't watch Emily today. After three phone calls, she finally reached her sister, who agreed to watch Emily for the day. The only problem was her sister lived 20 miles away, so Martha barely had time to get there, and then make it to work on time.

As she rushed around the kitchen, eating a piece of toast while she picked up, Emily spilled her cereal all over the floor. Five minutes later, after cleaning up the spill, Martha glanced at the clock and realized she was going to be late. She grabbed a cup of coffee to go, snatched up Emily and bolted out the door. She put Emily in the car, and jumped in her seat. As she reached across to buckle the seat belt, she spilled her coffee down the front of her shirt. "Oh @#$#@@#$," she thought.

She unbuckled Emily and ran back in the house to change. She searched high and low, but there was nothing clean to wear. She grabbed her cleanest dirty shirt out of the laundry, shook it out, and slid it on. Once again, she and Emily headed for her sister's house. Naturally, she hit a construction zone two minutes from her sister's. After sitting for 10 minutes, she finally got through. She sprinted in, gave Emily a kiss good bye, and headed off to work. She had 11 minutes to make the 20 minute drive.

She was lucky, the construction only held her up for 5 minutes this time through. Unfortunately, her head pounded with a migraine from the stress of the morning. And work hadn't even started yet.

She reached work, late again. She stopped by the pop machine, but didn't have any change for her daily dose of Diet Coke. As she rounded the corner, there stood her boss, with a mean look on his face, and her daily stack of tests to score. "Late again, I see," he said with a scowl. "Don't even think about taking a break until you get this school's tests scored."

With her head pounding, no Diet Coke, and no time for Advil, Martha reached for the first test. Martha, the test grader opened your test.

How will you score?
*
Thanks to my teaching neighbor, J. Stevenson who first told me about Martha.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/kandyjaxx/173120800/

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22 comments:

Justin P. said...

I never thought of how hard a job she has.
I would never even think of having a job like that.

jacob p said...

That is a sad story, I will be thinking about that when I take the test so I think about how much these test graders are going through.

cassie p. said...

I really think that Martha is very helpful for grading the tests and she has to grade them all and what mrs stevenson has helped us with I think that we will all do very good on the tests.

Kennedy F. said...

If Martha was grading my test and she was like that I would make sure that I would take my time on the OAT. Also if she was grading my test like that then I would want to make sure that I would not want to do any thing stupid or not do any thing right. I am going to do the best that I can and we will just see how Martha grades my test. It is like giving someone stupid my test so i have to make sure I do every thing right.

Makayla K said...

I really like Martha because she is very helpful. When I take the test I will think of Martha so I will get a good score. So Martha will not have to take along time to score mine.

Kaylee M said...

When I take my Ohio Achievement Test I sometimes rush through it but I need to take my time. And sometimes thinking of Martha and taking my time and I might just past the test.

Hannah Hopkins said...

Poor Martha! If Martha was grading my paper I would make sure that I did everything that Mrs.Stevenson taught us and I would try my hardest to do my very best and make things easier for Martha.

Brandon C. said...

That sounds like a hard job especially with Emily on her hands. I am going to make Martha's job way easier on my OAT test. I will restate the question, number my response, and organize my response so that poor poor Martha can read and grade my answer just as easy as walking, and I might send some Advil or Tylenol in my answer document. :)

Hannah Caudill said...

I feel so bad for Martha. I will make her job a lot easier by numbering my responses, using text language to help me spell, and underlining key words. I will also make sure I restate the question.

josh johnson said...

I think Martha has it hard. I'm going to use everything I know to help Martha. That way she'll be able to grade my test fast and get it over with.

Kate R said...

I want to help Martha by trying my best on the OAT. I want to do everything that Mrs. Stevenson's taught us and make my test easy for Martha to grade.

bailey m. said...

I hope our whole class makes Martha very happy. If we don't then I think I will die. I don't think I will do good on this test.But I do hope I do.If I do fail then I am going to hate it. I really want to pass so I can go to the seventh grade with my friends.

Emma H. said...

I would hate it if this would happen to me then still have to go to work. It makes it worse when you work as a test grader and have to try to read sloppy hand writing and all that stuff. When you put it like this then it makes more since as to why we have to write neat and organize things.

Jessika W. said...

I am going to have Martha smile when she gets my test. She is going to smile and she will have a organized paper with numbers and key words,the whole nine yards. I am confident that I will pass the test. I am not worried or anything. I am just going to pass the test no doubt about it. I think everyone will pass the test!!!!!Martha is going to smile when she gets my test. Martha is going to smile when she gets everyone's test.

Brianna H. said...

Martha has very hard job if you think about it. Grading all those tests. If I was Martha I would be miserable, but on the bright side I would have a job and maybe get payed if they do pay. All she has to do is hire a nanny CLOSE BY. Then her boss wouldn't be so mad at her for being late all the time. I'm going to do a great job on all the tests (maybe).

trindi b. said...

I would hope that she will smile when she grades my test because I know I am going to pass it or at least try my best to pass the OAT. I also will try too write my best so I do not get a big fat 0 on a question.

Jordan r. said...

WOW she has one hard job! I wouldn't want to have that job and it makes it all the more worse when you have a 4 year old daughter who's baby sitter can't watch her plus having to drive to your sisters when you have barely any time to get to work.

Destiny S. said...

It really sounds like she has had a really bad day.Since she has had a bad day things are not going to be how you think that it will be. When you write and you think that you have did a good job! But you have had sloppy hand writing than then she or he might not even want to score it because he or she has had a bad day and does not want to be in anymore stress than he or she is already been through. But when you have good hand writing and you did really good answering the questions they might actually sit down and be like wow this boy or girl did really good and look at her or his handwriting I might actually take my time and grade this! When you write good and you did a good job than maybe you will make their day a better day.

Gabby L. said...

I feel very sad for her. I know how she feels. the reason I know how she feels is my mom woke me up one morning at 7:30 and I had to rush because the bus comes at 8:00 but it takes fifteen minutes to walk or run down to the bus stop. The problem is my brother spilled his milk all over the floor and on me. The bad thing is we missed the bus. When my mom got in the car the dogs got out and we had to catch them. When we made it to school it was 9:30 and the doors were locked. We had to knock on the door. by the time i got in the building it was 9:45 and I got a tardy slip. My test was also starting at that time. I had a awful headache. I got a very bad grade it was a D and i Usually get AS and BS on my math tests. That is how I know how she feels.

corbit c. said...

I would score bad because I can not spell good. I might get some points because I numbered. Anther thing that is bad is I do not have good hand Writing.

Kyndrah said...

I'd hate to be Martha. I'd also hate to have her grade my test when she's in that mood. So when I take the Ach. Test I'm going to write neat, so if who ever is grading my test they won't give me a zero for not be-able to read it.

Amber said...

I think Martha is sort of like you. She always has a diet coke, you always have a coke, (though I'm not sure if it's diet or not,) you grade our papers, and Don't you have a little girl, (daughter,) named Emily?!? Weird!