Exams looming

Exams are next week which makes for a weekend of marking and exam writing... sigh...
I have been organised with history and have been jotting down notes as the term has gone on, alas with other courses less organised. It has been a bit of a chaotic term with lots of lessons lost with military camp, university entrance exams, sports day among other interuptions - in all about 2 weeks lost.

We use a US syllabus here, which has distinct advantages. There are no external tests for the students- the US rely on university entrance tests that are not content specific. This means I can teach what I want and how I want. I can spend more time getting them to develop skills esp. essay writing and analytical reading and put less emphasis on covering masses of content. Something you don't get the luxury of doing in Aus. or the UK. It seems to be paying off.

Another advantage compared with the HSC system is that students are not competing for a rank in the class. It means that if a student submits a piece of work where they have missed the point it is fine to get them to resubmit until the work is a better standard. If they fail a test, they can do a retest of modified material to make sure they do understand the material they are doing. I gave a quiz the other day on the American revolution, anyone who got less than 80% can redo it and get a new mark recorded. The main point is that when it comes to the exams, they need to understand the facts to be able to write essays and analyse sources. A retest on facts is not a guarantee they will do well in the exam, but not knowing them is a guarantee they will do badly. More than exams, it means they have to make more of an effort to learn what I set out for them to learn.

But there are down sides too... the text books are appalling. I am sure I must have complained about this here before. ... The history book is a great reference book, but it's not designed to have the students do much deep or critical thinking. Consequently, much of my time is spent generating material for class. At the moment in journalism we are doing the war in Afghanistan and the rise of the Taleban... About 3 students out of 25 knew what the Taleban were.... so it's a bit of a slog..... We have been watching extracts from Charlie Wilson's war, an illuminating and horrifying story of the US Congressman who spearheaded the funding for the war in Afghanistan and will move onto watching parts of the video Osama. Videos are a useful balance to newspaper articles.

Despite the slog, I have been having minor successes. The two brothers I mentioned before have been coming to school every day. I think that aside from sports day and their school excursion, they have been away 3 days this term - amazing. I'd promised them a certificate if they attended school for 10 days straight. They got their certificates, signed by the principal on Friday. They were given a big clap and cheer by their classmates and were really chuffed. They seem to be in the habit of coming now, so hopefully they will keep the momentum. Another minor success this week was a distinct shift in attitude from one of the year 11s. Several times in the cafeteria I have reprimanded him for not scraping and stacking his plates - just dumping them in the sink. After all, plate scrapping is a very 'low class' activity...... sigh
Anyway... someone had spilt a lot of water near the bubbler on the year 11-12 corridor making the floor and stairwell extremely slippery and quite dangerous. I started mopping it up and he went and got another mop and helped.....
He is one of quite a number of students, mostly Taiwanese and Korean who live by themselves. His parents are in Korea, other students have one parent in a home country and one in the Thai provinces. They seem to manage fine, but it's quite sad.

After this procrastination, I will go to mall and mark. Less distrations there :)