Examination Blues

7 August – I don't like babysitting 15-18 year old ninth graders while they're supposed to be studying for exams. That said, I am doing better than last week. A few boys from my class are becoming regulars on the stoop outside my classroom because they disturb everyone else inside. I have some reservations about kicking kids out, but the best thing is that it tacitly informs the other teachers as to the kids that are causing problems in my class so when two of them decide to fight one morning the other teachers are prepared to back me up and generally take over the disciplinary process. I don't think we have a disciplinary process, maybe we should work on that. Once a few get booted from class the rest of the day is relatively peaceful, some kids study, some kids sleep, but either way they stay quiet enough that I can mark tests or read. And I'm not fuming at the end of the day. Today grade 9 wrote my exam and I'm hoping to get it marked and have their grades figured by Thursday when the grade 10 kids write physical science. That one will be interesting because it is on par with the exam they have at the end of the year, and it is the same test that five other schools will write. If I'm lucky I'll be able to get some simple statistics from the other teachers to compare with the scores my students get. I have forgone the use of Excel to figure grades this term. Doing the addition in my head helps me stay sharp and figuring averages and drawing graphs to see the grade distribution gives me something to do while I sit with the kids during their study times. Without having to plan lessons I get to insert other activities in my schedule but I can only read for so long before I feel like doing something else.

10 August – Good news and bad news. The three boys that went for the tryouts for the national under 17 soccer team? Out of over 200 boys they pared it down to 30 and all three of ours were selected. Our little rural school represents 10% of the remaining players. The boy from my class is one of three goalkeepers left. From what I've heard if the U/17 goes abroad for a tournament they take 25 kids so you can't imagine that all three of ours would get cut at that point and for a single match they take 18, but you have to have two goalkeepers so the boy from my class would likely be included on such a trip. I can't claim to have contributed anything to their success but I still get to enjoy it. And the bad news... The 26th of August is a national holiday, Heroes Day, and there is some big celebration in Katima this year. That means that all of the government buses will be taking people deep into the Caprivi Strip (Katima is the last stop on the way to Vic Falls) so we can't have the bus we were promised to go on our tour. The worst is that didn't realize the conflict until late this week leaving us with a bunch of 7th graders excited about a trip that is completely arranged but no way to get out of the village. This week I worked with the cream of the 7th grade to help them come up with questions to ask when we visit the Parliament. I already planned in my head to buy a few bars of soap and some extra deodorant to make sure the boys didn't stink to high heaven during the long bus rides. And now we may not be able to go. The teacher organizing the tour was making calls and sending faxes hoping to find an alternative source of transportation but its not looking good considering our tight budget.

And I'm not sure if this is good or bad but two boys from my register class won't be back next term. All year these two have caused problems in all of their subjects. Neither one performs well academically and both have been in trouble on various occasions (these are the two that got in big trouble for disturbing study time). Once exams started they were disturbing my class enough that I kicked them out a couple times, then on Friday morning after they had arrived to school late these two decided to start fighting each other in class. My patience had long been exhausted so I marched them out of class over to three male teachers who were outside chatting. Their collective patience had also been exhausted so the boys were told to go for the weekend and not come back without their parents. They were not allowed to write the examinations until their parents had been to the school for a meeting. This much took the better part of a week and when the parents finally arrived the decision was passed down that these two boys would not be allowed to return to the school next term, but that they could come at the end of the year to write the examinations. Naturally, its not the best situation but my conclusion is that its best for everyone. The other kids have suffered long enough dealing with classmates that habitually cause problems and the two boys are just wasting time at school. They may as well be at the farm working, learning some trade or skill that can help them in life because formal education isn't the right fit. The other conclusion I drew from this situation is that the other teachers are very supportive of me, understanding that I didn't come this far to put up with this kind of behaviour. On the heels of this incident, another boy in my class that has caused different sorts of trouble for a variety of teachers decided to ramp up his disrespectful attitude. He is one with a great deal of potential that I have talked to several times to try to prod him towards some measure of maturity. His promises to improve his behaviour have been empty though. Every day this week the class writes an exam before break, which is at 10am. Every day this boy finishes his exam quickly, sits for a few minutes, gets an uncomfortable (read: pathetic) expression on his face and asks to go to the toilet. Everybody knows that I'm going to turn down such a request, especially during an examination and particularly when break is only a half hour away. Nevertheless, this brat (I apologize, but it had to be said) was undeterred. He asked to go to the toilet Monday and I said no. He asked to go the toilet Tuesday and I said no. Now, if I was more perceptive I would have sent him out of the class before the exam to nip this one in the bud, but these are ninth graders, they should be able to take care of themselves a little bit. And besides, no one else was having any urinary difficulties associated with break being moved back 30 minutes during the examinations. He asked to go the toilet Wednesday and I said no. The discomfort grew, the face more contorted and more pathetic, squirming ensued. He asks again if he can go to the toilet and I say no again. A couple minutes later the little (he is one of the two noticeably shorter boys in the class) brat stands up defiantly and heads for the door. I knew this was a possibility so I was prepared, I calmly told him to go relieve himself and then go to the office. Of course he didn't go, but later that afternoon once I involved a few other teacher that have disciplined him before he found his way to the office and had to face the music. I sense in my recounting of this story a tinge of triumph. That's probably accurate, this kid is wasting so much potential it drives me crazy but his defiant attitude is so obnoxious that its nice to see him castigated by a posse of teachers. His parents have actually refused to come to the school on another occasion when his 4th grade brother was causing problems for the Head of the Primary phase so we'll see what comes of it.

I think I should end on something good, but sitting here I'm struggling to come up with anything noteworthy besides me skipping school on Friday (today) to go to town early in the morning. I should be going to a wedding tomorrow, but it probably won't be that much fun and it just reminds me that I missed a wedding in Tulsa last weekend and another in Wichita tomorrow. We don't have a principal right now, her husband is a diabetic that is on dialysis to mitigate kidney failure. I heard he has rejected the idea of a transplant because he's old and has been sick for a while. I now get excited when any tests I grade are above 50%, I had 3 grade 9 kids make above 70% for the term. And I think my exam was a bit too easy. I do think that part of the problem with the lack of academic motivation here is the lack of meaningful feedback. Some still don't care but several that are in the borderline group studied hard after I revealed their pre-exam grades and improved significantly. One boy with a G (between 20% and 30%) for the term pre-exam made a C (60% range) on the exam. I started marking the grade 10 exam and the better class only answer 40% of the multiple choice correctly. After marking first term exams I bought myself a nicer red pen, it gets used extensively. Out of 125 grade 9 exams with 3 pages of multiple choice I had 2 perfect pages. That is 2 out of 375. I think I found the good note to end on. The boy that had a G and made a C on the exam is one that at the beginning of this term started hanging around with the two big troublemakers. About a month ago I started focusing on him more, talking to him and not cutting him any slack for misbehaving. He isn't all the way there yet, but he made an obvious decision that he didn't want to face more punishment and be excluded from the rewards I arranged for the kids with good behaviour. Hopefully this change will continue next term and without the bad influences around he will keep improving. There are a lot of things around here that I can't change, some kids will remain defiant, some adults stubborn and deep in a rut, but there are some kids that come to my class to learn physical science that will hopefully learn a little bit more than just science. Whether they like it or not.