At last, at long last, the testing season draws to a close. Yet we have two weeks left in the school year.

Kids are done. They think that the tests finish their year and that they should be allowed to spend the remaining days playing games on their phones and socializing.

My district concurs. They have scheduled end-of-the-year, mandatory trainings for teachers. It can only be that with their tests completed, the district staff does not think anything educational is taking place in the schools.

Grumpy Old Teacher disagrees. I teach for the entire school year, the whole 180 days, and even on the last day of school, I still have children learning.

Isn’t that what I was hired to do?

No educational opportunity will be lost through a casual disregard for the importance of making each and every day count.

Now I do adjust the educational activities to match the children’s attitudes. But I do keep them learning.