Test Day

The other day, I totally felt like I was in a Coca Cola commercial.  I was walking to school and decided to grab a cold Cola before heading over because it was super hot.  Just walking along drinking the soda from the can, people passing me carrying things on their head, greeting me “Boa tarde Senhora”, blue sky with white fluffy clouds, goats grazing along the side of the road.  I just smiled to myself thinking, wow I am totally in a commercial right now J

Class was another, yup I’m in Africa moment too.  This week, I gave my first ever test to my Bio students.  Only ten questions: multiple choice, true/false and short answer.  After training, I had been prepared for ridiculous levels of cheating: students writing notes on their arms and legs, looking at their neighbor’s paper, writing on the walls and desks, discretely leaving “trash” on the floor, whatever they could do to assist them during the test.  Either my students were super sneaky and I was super clueless, or I got the good students, because, to my surprise, I didn’t catch anyone cheating.  It was, in some way, kind of disappointing because I was ready to crack down and make the cheaters cry!  But at the same time, I was definitely impressed.  I also had made it pretty hard for them to cheat, four different versions of the test, made them put all their stuff up front, one student per desk after I split the class in half, so I’m thinking that probably had something to do with it. 

But, anyway, back to the Africa moment, it started pouring outside, and the rain pelting down on the tin roof was so loud!  The students could have been having full on conversations across the room during the test and I would not have been able to hear them.  Then it started raining inside the classroom, and not just a little water dripping through, but enough so that we had to move the desks away away from the center of the room where the water was raining down.  I just shook my head smiling to myself.

But props to the fellow teachers!  Tests are boring!  And grading is hard!  It’s sad when you can tell the student knows what they are talking about, but for some reason didn’t right that one part of the question you specifically asked for.  I so want to give them points, but there is only so much you can do…