DOBSON — Copeland Elementary School students were encouraged to “Rock the Test” on Monday during the End of Grade (EOG) test pep rally.

EOG begin in 10 weeks and the school’s faculty are working to prepare students and hopefully prevent some of the anxiety associated with the tests.

“We want to show the kids we’re behind them. We’re trying to turn something very stressful for our kids into a celebration. We want them to look at it as a time to show everybody what they know,” said Sharia Templeton, assistant principal.

The rally kicked off with Test Idol. Hannah Hungry, Uncomfortable Eulah, Freddy Frustrated, Sleepy Susie and Confident Casey faced off in the competition to see who was most prepared for the test. Students were asked to observe each of the teachers and determine which name belonged to which person. Confident Casey was eventually crowned Test Idol.

Students then had the chance to wrap up some of their EOG fears. They taped index cards with common testing fears to a teacher from third, fourth and fifth grade. Then, they had a race to wrap the teachers in streamers to cover the fears and eventually threw them away.

All of the homeroom teachers in third through fourth grade teamed up to write a song encouraging students to “do your best, rock the test.” The song will be the school’s theme song for the next 10 weeks. To add to the theme of being a test idol, each class will come up with a band name and decorate their door with that name.

The main event for the rally was a sumo wrestling contest between Assistant Principal Sharia “The Mighty Tester” Templeton and Principal Denny “The Baffled Body-Builder” Barr. Templeton came out on top winning two of the three rounds and proving in the process that if students are confident they can overcome the test.

“We had a lot of great team effort in getting things ready. We want the third, fourth and fifth graders to see the other people in the school supporting them,” said Templeton.

For the next 10 weeks, the students will decorate motivational posters to hang in the hall. Activities are planned for every week including a chance to win prizes, school spirit days and little stress relievers.

Templeton also is excited to get the kindergarten, first and second grade classes involved in helping the third through fifth graders even though the younger students will not be taking the tests. Each class will be teamed up with a third through fifth grade classroom as a test buddy. In the week before the test, the lower level classes will visit their upper level buddies to deliver small pieces of candy and motivational notes.

“We feel it’s really important this is a school effort,” said Templeton.

Teachers also are producing short encouraging videos with good luck messages, testing tips or other information which will be posted on the school’s wiki page for students to view.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.