For some reason, this weekend I decided that I was at a point in my peace Corps service where I could do a complete apartment reset and clean-up, and have it last until the final cleaning when I leave. Having an apartment last for nine months until I leave in July, with only small maintenance clean-ups to keep it going, seems a bit hard to me. Hopefully what I did this weekend will make it okay.
What I did was a complete old-papers purge, book organization, bathroom and kitchen cleaning, and floor scrubbing. Laundry was also thrown in to boot. I'm pretty happy with the way the apartment turned out. It looks new, but lived-in, with books on the shelves and everything arranged. If only I can keep it this way.
On the real work front, last week was test week so this week will be grading week. Not fun times, tedious times, and I actually have to get back to them. But last week went surprisingly well. My new system for getting the cheaters and talkers worked much better than I expected. The old system suffered because it played by American rules. I was under the assumption that is I challenged a cheater, took away his/her test, and failed that person, the rest of the class would gasp, shake their heads, and slap a red C on that person's chest for the rest of the year. It may not always happen that way in America, but someone who gets caught cheating always seems to have that bad luck stigma attached to them.
Here in Bulgaria, cheating and talking during a test is inherent. When I tell them to be quiet, the students look at me like I'm violating a right. So, I've gone quiet too. Before each test I tell the class that I'm going to sit there with my own gradebook open, and if I see talking or cheating, I'll take down names and record the violations depenfing on how bad they are. Worked like a charm. There was absolute silence during every test. I was satisfied. There are still tests that have all the same wrong answers--that just comes from having students sit at tables for two--but those are usually the worst tests anyway, the students that get the best grades usually don't let the others cheat. They're nice that way.
Posted by Rob at November 8, 2004 07:53 PM Today my ninth graders were crazy monkeys. They want to know why they should study English when they are going to be tobacco farmers. And they think I should dress better if I expect to catch a husband, because what other motivation could a woman possibly have in life?
I love my village.