Yesterday I was very happy to be going back to school. I’m comfortable there now, and I always have something to do, even if it’s a boring task like marking exams or books (which is what I did for most of the morning). Pius, the head teacher/class 7 English teacher, had me mark his class 7 books. He hadn’t marked a single one since the last time I helped him and I think there’s now an agreement that I will be doing all of his grading. The way he showed me how to mark is really easy; I’m supposed to give a tick anywhere the work is done and an “X” wherever they didn’t finish. But, I’ve decided to give them some feedback because that’s what really helps them learn—not a participation trophy. So I spent my first 2 hours at school going through one half of the class seven books, up until break. Yesterday’s break was warmly welcomed not only because I was thankful to be able to look at something other than sloppy handwriting and misspelled words for a little bit, but because I love the little tea and bread routine nowadays.
After break Pius had me go to his class to give them a mock exam and supervise it. It feels like at this point I’m just doing his teaching duties for him. I will say that he is super busy—if any teacher, student or parent has a complaint it is sent to him and half of his day is spent in his office dealing with just these nuisances—so I don’t blame him pawning off some busy work. After they had finished the exam, I went to mark it. It only took about 45 minutes to mark (it was only one of the two classes from grade 7). I finished marking right as lunch started and went off to eat.
It was my favorite lunch yesterday. I love rice and beans; it’s a safe choice compared to things like the tiny fish. I hurried through lunch because the 30 minutes allotted for it was going to be my only free time to set up the computer room for the Riveting Results class. However, when I cut lunch short to go set up, I found the room was a mess from A/C having been installed over the weekend. The teachers decided to hold off on RR for the day and hopefully tomorrow it will be clean and cool for us!
This was good because Pius wanted me to sit in for him during his other lesson, doing the same thing as before. This go round I was smart and spent my exam supervision time marking month old notes and tests as pupils finished them. With this efficient strategy I left myself with about 2 hours of marking for today. After the regular day was done I went on the bus route. Driving around never fails to spike my heart rate, and I’m not sure I’m ever going to get used to this crazy style of transportation! Once done with the route, back to school for remedial. It was Abby’s birthday yesterday, so the head teacher had a little celebration surprise planned for her during the remedial break period. It was nice. All the kids sang. We had some cake. Abby (the one cutting the cake in the picture below) was surprised. It killed a lot of lesson time, so the kids enjoyed it.
On the remedial evening bus route, the usual and nothing special other than getting some ice cream for Abby. We had another little birthday celebration after dinner for Abby at home. We stayed up a bit later than usual eating cake and taking pictures. This morning I’m a tad tired because of it, but hopefully I’ll pull through soon. Music today!