It’s down to the final week. Yesterday (Tuesday) was my last day actually having to teach anything in class, if you can call what I did all semester teaching, and today I start with finals. Technically, I started with oral exams with my M.3’s on Monday, but still have to give them the listening portion. My M.4’s are doing debates. It’s been a struggle, to say the least, to get them to prepare over the past week. They know it’s almost the end of the semester, I know it’s almost the end and it has been ridiculously humid which makes me not want to be at school even more. I have no idea what to expect out of these debates, especially since one group chose to debate over which is more important: A pretty face or a rockin’ body. Should be riveting. Haha Don’t get me wrong though, there is one, maybe two groups out of the eight that actually seem prepared and eager to present. Well, maybe not eager, but they do want a good grade so they’ve put a bit more effort in. Not surprisingly, they’re also the kids with the highest grades at the moment and really don’t have much to worry about.
The main thing getting me through this week, though, is the fact that I leave Saturday morning for a few days back in Phuket. I can’t imagine anything better than going down to a tropical island and spending my days lying out and reading or exploring the nearby beaches and mountains by moto. We were originally supposed to have next week Monday and Tuesday off for study days and with Wednesday being a religious holiday, classes were canceled as well. Key words being were.
When we started the semester, we were told that finals would be the last week of February 27 through March 2. Then they got pushed up a week so they ended on this past Monday. Next, they were pushed back to March 8-15 with the week before being a reading week with Mon-Wed off. It’s been temporarily moved back and forth from all these dates, but in a meeting in January, it was confirmed that they would be that second week of March…until two days ago.
Now, at this point, Lizzy and I had already booked a flight to Phuket over those three days of vacation we were supposed to have and don’t have the desire to cancel, nor can we justify not using these tickets we paid close to $100 for. It’s not that big of a deal for us, as we had planned on finishing up with finals this week anyway and just getting a sub to have an end of the semester party with our classes on Monday and Tuesday. However, it kept getting better!
While giving our final review in our last class with any of the M.3’s last week we found out that they have standardized exams scheduled for the Tuesday and Wednesday we planned to give half of their finals. We freaked out for a bit, but decided just to give up our lunch periods the remaining 3 days and having them come to us. Great, right? Not so great when we walked into one of the four classes on Monday to give the oral portion and they told us that class was canceled for a tutor session for the next day’s exams. We then went back down to our office and someone came to tell us that the tutor session was pushed back an hour and we still had class. We trudged back up the steps only to see two more teachers clearing out the classroom again and marching the students upstairs. Back in our office they told us that, yes, they did have tutor, and didn’t see how it was a problem that they took this period even though this is the only time we can give them their finals. Thankfully, it was the only class we see twice this week so we could afford not having class, but it still makes things a bit more stressful since we now have half the time to go through just as many students.
On top of all of that, we were told that we only needed a speaking portion for the finals where we would create situations based on the workbook and have one-on-one conversations with each student to test their skills. Friday, 7th period we were told that we also needed a listening portion. That left us with one class period for each class to give a listening exam and test each of their speaking abilities. At forty students a class, this would take two full classes anyway, especially since they want each student to be tested for at least 3 minutes apiece. I freaked out a bit, but now I’m too the point where I’m just happy to fit all the kids in and grade them based on how they did in what little time we have. Less work for me, more fair to them since our original schedule we told them about changed so much and they’re all going to pass anyway since that’s how they do it in Thailand
In other news, I come home in 32 days!! I’m hoping that March flies by since I have a few trips planned before I hop on that plane back home. First there is next week’s trip to Phuket, a week of sitting around doing nothing at work, a weekend English camp with GIE, a few more days of nothingness at work, 4 days in Chiang mai and one last week of sitting around getting paid to do nothing before I pack up all my stuff and say goodbye to Bangkok!
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