Semester Exams

Anyone who thinks that Semester Exam day is easier on the kids than the teachers is....well....partially right.  All I've done today is pass out a test each period, sit at my desk, and grade, grade, grade.  I'm all caught up now on everything the kids were supposed to hand in, and I'm even all set to start planning the quizzes and handouts for next week when we start reading "Night"...however, keeping them quiet and focused is tricky in these longer class periods...and writing the exams themselves is...indescribable.  I don't think I've had a more unpleasant and time consuming task than having to remember EVERYTHING we've gone over and then make a test long enough to last an entire 85 minutes.  The beast ended up being 157 multiple choice questions and 3 short responses...27 pages long...and enough to freak out several students when they felt the weight of the thing.  Oh, and did I mention that I had to re-number the whole thing....twice?  Yeah, that's because when Word works its really great...but when Word decides not to work...its a real pain in the ass. (I can hear Bond, typing away at his Mac, laughing at me and my Windows issues)  Luckily, that seemed to be the only glitch...that and a small typo on the first question.  Its unbearable when a test or worksheet is riddled with mistakes and the students notice.  You lose all credibility then.

Speaking of Bond, he lost his job yesterday at Awful Max (our pet name for Office Max) because they were 'downsizing' and 'restructuring'...basically meaning that they wanted to pay someone else less rather than keep paying him what he was making (and he was already making a pittance).  Its really unfair, but it might be a blessing in disguise.  His lease is nearly up, and he was thinking of moving to Columbus anyway in the hope of getting something better.  Maybe now he can.  I think it might be the best thing to happen to him (if all works out in that way)...but yet the idea of him leaving makes me really sad.  He's really my only 'hangout' friend around here.  I have Grumpy, but he never wants to hang...and then there's Subzilla (my substitute teacher friend) who has a family that she needs to be with a lot.  So I'm finding myself selfishly wishing that he would get to stay...even though I know its much better for him to leave.  Ah the moral dilemmas that adulthood makes us face.

Comments

Jess @ Frugal with a Flourish said…
Oooh ... first exams! That thing sounds like a beast! Sorry about Bond, hopefully he can find something better.
January 20, 2010 at 10:55 PM
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