Wednesday the 19th was a roller coaster of emotion! It was exam day for English. Jason took 5th grade, and I proctored 2nd and 3rd. The day started out great. The first 2nd grade class probably did the best with the most 10/10 or 9/10. Very few got less than 8/10. I was very proud of my alumnos. The morning was overall a very smart set of kids. I was even pleasantly surprised with a few of the kids who I expected to do badly and ended up studying like crazy and did super. The morning was a high.
I should have quit then, because the afternoon betrayed me.
A 3rd grader came in for some extra study time just before the exam. She tried so hard but Jason said she just wasn’t getting the stuff. While she was taking her test, she came up to ask me a question about one of them and was also concerned about the rest that she had already answered. I told her the rest were fine, she just needed to answer the first one. She couldn’t figure it out, so I tried helping her understand. Finally she said “Oh, I know, I know!” She went back and finished her test, and when she handed it in, I could see that, in fact, she did not know. Then the whole second page of her test was wrong. I felt so bad! I really really wanted her to do well because she tried so hard. Unfortunately I won’t be with her next year, but maybe I’ll offer some private English tutoring (which they call a “Particular Teacher”).
In the same class was another girl who did very poorly. There’s a story with it though. Before the test her mom came up to me and said she studied so much and tried really hard, but the mom doesn’t know English so she couldn’t help her at all, but hopefully she does ok. She actually did the worst – I think she just can’t take tests, because the rest of her work is always fine. I could tell when she handed me the test that she knew she did badly. When her mom came to get her, I had a feeling she would want to talk to me, so I did what any self-respecting foreign teacher would do: I hid in the bathroom. I waited a few minutes and decided to test the water, but she was still out there so I went to the snack bar to pay my tab. After several minutes, I figured the coast was clear so I went back to the yard. She was still there sitting down, so I went into the church where some kids were practicing for their end-of-the-year presentations. I’m certain I avoided this woman for 20 minutes, and finally I got tired of it. THE SECOND she saw me, she came up to me and asked how her daughter did. Ugh…so I showed her the exam, and Jason explained to her that her daughter will pass English based on the rest of her grades, which seemed to be all the mom cared about. I need to work on my parent skills.
Finally there was a girl in 2nd grade who was taking a while to finish her test. When they start, they sit on opposite ends of their table to minimize the potential for copying. When most of the students had finished, she asked if she could move her chair to its normal position, and I said sure. She sat back from her desk, and I noticed she wasn’t writing anything else on her exam. She just kept looking down. I figured she had a question and she was embarrassed, so she wanted to wait til everyone left. But part of me wondered…
Sure enough once the kids all left, she came up to me and said she can’t read very well, could I tell her what this question said? So we worked it out until she figured it out, then she went back to her desk. I watched her answer one or two more, and then she handed me her test and left the room. At that point I checked her desk and found a paper with drawings and their meanings in Spanish and English. I couldn’t believe one of my precious, adorable students cheated (I have other not-so-precious, not-so-adorable students I would expect it from). I felt betrayed. I felt sad, heartbroken. I am certain she didn’t cheat on the whole test, but I had to give it to her teacher. She ended up confessing, which makes it a little better, but it wasn’t until she was confronted. The Principal showed mercy and only took a letter grade off, but if she hadn’t confessed, it would have been thrown out and she would have received a 0.
So my year is officially done. The older grades will have their presentation in 2 weeks, so that’s my last time with them until February. Maybe I’ll have some fun excursions to take!
-j
I'm Jason, and I like to write.