During math we have a mix of students from my own class and the class next door.  Math is broken down into the “high group,” two “middle groups,” and a “low group.”  On Wednesday my class was having a mini “pop quiz” on fractions.  We like to keep testing the students on fractions to make sure they really understand the material.  However, when the word “quiz” was mentioned, the students went nuts and were nervous and getting upset.  We never officially tested the kids on fractions because they weren’t taking it in as well as they needed to in the given amount of time.  Instead, we gave mini assessments throughout the unit and finally moved on to decimals and have been incorporating fractions in the first 15 minutes every day.  My cooperating teacher and I thought things were improving with fractions based on class work, but the pop quiz somewhat proved us wrong.  I think the students were just nervous that it was a “quiz.”  Had the students been given the problems to do like every other day I think they would have done well.   One of the students stopped trying to follow along and began crying and making a fuss.  Another student was grunting and putting his head in his hands and on his head buried in his desk.  Another girl had the most distressed look on her face it was sad.  So, instead of just letting the students fall apart, my cooperating teacher sent me outside with 3 students to work in a small group and help them one-on-one.  The boy who was crying breezed through the problems and said to me, “I do better on my own, I don’t need help.”  So that was interesting.  It seemed as though he just got really stressed about the idea of a quiz and following along in the allotted time.  The girl needed a little help but also seemed like she just needed more time and a less stressful environment.  It’s sad and interesting to see how much of a disaster the “quiz” was simply because it was called a quiz.