Last week I have finished marking 88 copies of Science paper, integral to the evaluation of 15 years old for the entire country. Each paper has 36 pages (no objective questions whatsoever) so I ended up leafing and marking through 3 168 pages of pure agony. I love teaching, but marking is a great bane of my life. Thirteen years of teaching and still I don't find any joy plowing through stacks of paper. But I have ways to make things go easier for me...
This is my housemate cat, Putra or 'Prince' in English. He has a female sibling, somewhere in the house, named Bayu or 'Breeze'. (Hey, I don't give these animals their names ok!) Here, the tomcat is seen being adorable by my stack of exam paper. (I still miss my faithful cat Kiki. Learning from my mistake, I will keep short hairs only now.)
These two cats residing in my home doesn't belong to me, but my housemate. But I paid for their kibble and cat-sand. I don't do the feeding and changing the litter-box though. Putra is a huge cat from standard as the playful thing eats a lot more than his sister. I may buy more premium cat food to see how big he can grow.
Malaysia is going through the rainy season until January next year. For now, it almost rained everyday, and I like it! This photo was taken at 715 in the morning next to the school buildings. Heavy mist, where dinosaurs or a King Kong or two may lurk...
I post 10 prefects around the school building to help teachers bring stuff to the staff-room. And they do this everyday in the weekday morning from 700 till 730 am.
A student sleeping during an examination.
(You may think this picture is characteristically universal, but people don't fall asleep during exam in Japan, China etc) This is taken on the last day of the final exam. If it is really up to me, I let them sleep after finishing, and even while they were actually in the middle of answering questions.
You are responsible for your actions. Regret is not a luxury if you see it is fit to sleep in class and the exam hall.
And this is how I quickly get results from the stacks of paper. I make them attend a class with me, sometime late at night and we discuss and everybody marks their own damn paper. (Some teachers and parents are strongly against this, but I have my own reasons).
This is a two pronged spear. First, during marking, the students and I displayed every possible answers (wrong or right) and by listening to the discussion, EVERYBODY learns something from the mistakes made, or questions well answered. I entertained every questions and telling them the correct way to mark their own papers (and I purposely ask them not to have ambitions to be teachers, noticing how hard it is to be one now).
The second reason is even simpler. TIME. We can finish marking the whole lot in one sitting (about 2 hours). If I did the honest thing and mark everything myself, it would take me more than a week, and I am the one learning multiple times from marking the same copy over and over again, while the students might not even bat an eye for any corrections when they get back their copy.
Oh, and I may spend almost 8 hours discussing the same paper THRICE to three classrooms.
(Tell me if you agree or not with me).
If you are worried about the integrity of the results, and doubting the honesty of the students, I am way ahead of you. I only do these mass-marking by students for tests and NEVER major examination (like I mention above. 3 000++ pages remember?)
And this is me (holding the camera) and my two BFF having a Korean bbq dinner after me finishing the papers. The price was expensive and it was worth every cent (in my opinion, Koreans make the best bbq and steamboat sets ever). We spent two hours eating, mostly in silence because the food was really tasty. Both of them went for prawns and mollusk and I am more of a meat guy (beef, lamb and mutton). I don't see why we need to touch chicken when there are more expensive things to eat.
I am leaving for a minor pilgrimage @ umrah (to Mecca) this 7th December. And will be there for 14 days. My mom paid for everything and she wants all her sons to join her on the pilgrimage. I have mixed feelings for this journey, but I will not tell about it here.
Ok, now time to visit your blogs. I believe many may assume me dead or missing or both from the blogosphere. Wait for your turn folks.
Ramblings by
