Although, I have not yet received my new camera I’ve been told it is in the country somewhere. This is great news and means I am probably only a few days away from beginning to compliment my posts with photos again.
In the meantime, I will painting this depressing scene with words. My first term as a teacher in Ghana has ended and I’ve been abandoned by the students which have for the most part become some of greatest friends. There is a pile of no less than 800 ICT exams and 100 Picture Making exams and reports to grade before my vacation can go on. This sucks. I am beginning to realize that I simply have too many students. Even as I am recording grades in my grade book, I am discovering there are students who’s educational strategy is to not go to class or hand in any of the classwork and then get at least 50 points on the final exam which translates to passing grade and therefore safety from canning per the Headmaster’s promise. (He has vowed to cane each of the 1300 students 6 times for every failing grade they receive. This would be simply impossible, considering how many students fail each term. I just honestly don’t think it is promise that can be kept).
All the little things are clawing at my patience. Students write their names one way on one test paper and another way on another. It is literally a miracle if I don’t make a thousand mistakes transferring this information by hand from my Excel spreadsheet to the students’ Terminal Reports. It is no wonder schools in America made computerizing grade books such a high priority- the time savings would be profound here, that is if time was scarce. It isn’t so, hand writing nearly 1000 Terminal Reports somehow seems like a manageable task. Once this mess is resolved I will make a B-line to the beach and not leave until school reopens sometime the second week of January.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment