Well, as it turns out there have been several developments that will make my life much nicer. These, of course, grew out of a particularly miserable set of circumstances.
Scenario 1: This is my week for final exams. I was going through my grade books form before the midterm and realized that there was a young student who hadn't taken the midterm examination. Since the end of our term got hopelessly shortened, I no longer had time for re-testing those people who had failed the first time. I was therefore giving them a written assignment so that these students could achieve at least a minimal passing grade. As for #8 (the girl who didn't take the midterm), I decided to give her the same project. The extra added difficulty in this situation is that I only see my classes once a week, and tons of classes have been cancelled. Hence our midterm and final exams were only 2 weeks apart.
Well, the day for the final rolls around. There is the normal amount of cheating and bullshit, but I was prepared for that (walking through the classroom, letting them use only the pencils I provide, etc.). What surprised me was when I went to hand out the extra "projects" to the students who had failed their midterms. There was some confusion, but they eventually all made it to their intended owners. All, that is, except for #8. As it turns out, she was not present. So no midterm, no final. And looking at her performance in the rest of my class, she has skipped half of the sessions and never turned in a homework assignment. This seems like the perfect candidate for a failing grade.
Anyway, I brought this to the attention of Pee Neat, and we in turn went to the head of the sciences department. After some brief discussion with my department head, it was agreed (much to my surprise)...I would be allowed to give the brat a grade 0!!!! This means that for the first time I will actually be allowed to give a student the grade I think she deserves. It is refreshing.
Scenario: The second difficulty I have had in the recent weeks is my co-teacher Pee Mam disappearing to seminars randomly. The most recent trip was to Phetchabun. She left last Tuesday morning, but didn't tell me about it until the afternoon. That was a bit irritating, since I was waiting for her instructions for class that morning. She won't even return until tomorrow. When I eventually did talk to her, I was told that she had left handouts for the classes...NOPE. So basically I am left standing here with all her classes and absolutely nothing to do with them. It was super awkward and I really had no idea what to do with them. End of story? I taught the classes I could, and just didn't show up to the ones I had no topics for.
This continued on and on, and just kept getting worse. I would email Pee Mam asking for her instructions for classes, for what topics she wanted me to teach, and I would wait for any responses. Needless to say, none were forthcoming. All the while she was busy posting photos on Facebook. Basically it seems like a lot of these seminars are just excuses to travel. I wouldn't care at all it I were left with the information needed to teach my classes. Ugghhh.
Well, it came down to the point where I just wanted to figure out my classes for next term. I had already told my coordinators that I wouldn't teach M1 again--they are just too young, don't know enough English, and are altogether incompetent when it comes to handling this type of studying. For example, the final exam. Their test was 30 questions, and 23 of them were taken verbatim from their midterm exam. That being said, about half of the class still failed (got less than 50%). I don't really know how to make it any easier, save for giving them the answers directly. I think the biggest issue is that they just don't understand enough English.
Anyway, back to the point. I won't work with M1 again, and despite constant pestering Pee Mam to tell me my classes for next term, I was getting no results. So today Pee Neat and I also talked to the sciences head about this issue. And magically it turned out well! I will be teaching M3, M4, M5 (3.1, 3.2, and 3/1--don't know the specifics on the other classes). It also seems that I will get to teach some of these classes twice per week rather than once a week...YAY!!!!! Finally, I get to teach solo. I finally don't have to deal with co-teaching anymore! So I won't have to put up with all of Pee Mam's crazy vacations and absences.
So even though my workload will be higher (18 classes/week rather than 12-16 like I have now), I think it will be worth it. I will be free from a lot of the bullshit that has been getting me down. Hopefully this will be a move in the right direction!
No comments:
Post a Comment