Work, Work and more Work

It has been a while since my last post and this is largely down to (as the title suggests) work. Ive been kept pretty busy since my surprise 2 days off with both Matayom 3 and 6 getting ready for their National tests. Its basically something like the Junior and Leaving Cert i think. Anyway i had to prep M3 for the English part of their NT during the week and then at the weekend as well so was kept occupied with that. At least i was told i was going to be on duty that weekend. I had been told all week that the foreign teachers would be needed to work so i was all set for a working weekend. That was until friday at 4pm when i was told that i wasnt actually on to help. At this point i'd already made up my mind that i was staying in Li and i had nothing else to do so i decided to come to work anyway on Saturday. So up i got at the regular school time and starting helping out the on duty teachers with giving out the answers to a sample test. Basically they will have a multiple choice exam based mostly on converstaions so it was a case of picking out the least wrong answer from the 4 provided. This was a bit trickier than it sounds for some of the questions as the person who wrote the exam clearly didnt have a very strong grasp of English. The grammar was a bit all over the place and for a few questions i started by saying that none of the answers were correct but one was less wrong than the others.

So i did 2 classes in the morning and then for the afternoon i was asked to sit down with my coordinator/boss to run through the M6 version. I should point out that these tests dont come with an answer key, which is a pretty ridiculous idea but something you gotta deal with. Hence why the foreign teachers are enlisted to help out with the preparations, since the thai teachers teaching english arent too sure of the answers themselves. This is especially true for the M6 version which is very grammar heavy and deals with complicated situations and throws in some scientific terms for good measure. Now as far as grammar goes with me i know right from wrong but having to explain why this is right and that is wrong is not my strongest point. I had to explain most sentences and phrases and my boss was a bit flummoxed by some of my answers. And she is the one who gets the highest score from the school in the tests the teachers have to take so i cant imagine what the others would do. This was a particularly draining way to spend two hours but i muddled my way through the test and managed fairly plausible explanations for nearly all the questions. After a hard day's work i went home and relaxed for the evening with the intention of doing nothing that required brainpower the next day.

Unfortunately i forgot that i had to rewrite my Midterm tests as some students failed. They arent allowed to do that so im supposed to retest them until they all pass. Im probably not really supposed to change the exam but if i dont then they will figure out the pattern of answers and just put that in rather than looking at the questions. I had one boy do this for Math even though i told him i had changed the questions and answers. They are too lazy to study and have no incentive to so not a whole lot i can do. Anyway on top of that this week we are going to the zoo come Thursday in Chiang Mai on a field trip and then im heading back up on Sunday to meet Linda and Rob who have been travelling along the route im hoping to take after i finish in the school. So some fun after the recent drudgery!