Exams. Still.

June 3, 2010

Well, I’m finished with four of my six exam days. I’ve given both physics exams, so only math remains… that will be on Monday. I’ve also finished grading all the exams. And recording the marks (as much as I can when the official gradebooks are actually shared amongst all the teachers so naturally, two are missing… two of the four I need). This means I really have very little left to do around school… Monday I’ll give my mathematics exam, and Tuesday I’ll help “invigilate” another exam. And then I’m done.

Since our secretary has been away on maternity leave (bouncing baby boy!), the librarian and I have each been working parts of her job as well: copying, printing, typing… Today was probably the busiest I have been since I arrived in Lesotho, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. Between invigilating, grade-entering, printing, copying, typing, printing, copying, egg-selling and tea-drinking (a girls gotta keep warm!), I didn’t get lunch until 2:30 and it was only then that I realized how hungry I truly was. The busy-ness is something that doesn’t really exist very frequently for me here; usually I have a good amount of down time… today was a very nice change. The only downside is that I haven’t saved any work for tonight after the sun sets and I have to sit by candlelight until its late enough (or I’m tired enough, whichever comes first) to bundle up and sleep.

I’m not sure what this weekend has in store. There was talk at one point of visiting a nearby friend at her school for “Poetry Night” with her Healthy Living club, but I’m not sure whether or not that will materialize. I’ll need to go grocery shopping, naturally, but that’s something I’ve come to enjoy, especially as foods (and deals – I’m still a bargain hunter!) change with the seasons (and I have built in refrigeration now!). I suppose I should probably find something to do so I don’t die of boredom, but what exactly that might be, I couldn’t tell ya (right now anyway).

Even though I’m not reviewing for any exams, I’ve learned some valuable lessons this week:
1. If you are planning to draw anything on an exam before you copy it for your 70-80 students, don’t forget to draw it… drawing anything on that many exams is such a drag.
2. Just because students are made to switch classrooms does not mean they won’t still cheat. I was absolutely amazed to see two students from different grades talking (obviously about their exams – one agriculture and one English language) during an exam. Wow.
3. Students will knock on your door, (almost) no matter what time it is. I was making breakfast this morning (granted, I make breakfast rather late nowadays since it is so cold!) and there came a knock. I didn’t believe it at first, but sure enough, a few seconds later there was another knock. They wanted their exams from the day before. Unreal. Lucky for them I had actually graded them!
4. At first I felt bad about not knowing all of my students’ names as they came to collect their graded exams. However, when I went over to another teacher’s place to combine grades, she didn’t know all their names either!!! I felt a lot better about myself.
5. Sometimes, you don’t need to have a particularly deep conversation to see that students get it too. As I was waiting for my bucket to fill with water the other night, one of the Form E boarders was walking past and asked how my day was. I have a great deal of respect for this student – he is a hard worker, very positive and upbeat all the time, also an athlete and clearly a leader in the school community. I said exams were surprisingly stressful, even for teachers, but my day was fine, and asked him about his. He replied (very enthusiastically), “Life is sooo nice, madam!” I was a bit shocked at first. As the oldest class in school, he has two exams every day, plus those classrooms are cold. Most other students are pretty stressed about even one exam a day, so I asked him why life was so nice. He responded quite simply (as if any idiot should know, myself included), “Madam, if you make your life to be difficult, it will be! But if you make your life to be nice, you will enjoy.” Think about it; the boy has a valid point.

All my love from Africa,
-Katie