It’s the first day of school for 2013, and guess what my students get to do? Take a test! Yay! Actually, we already had midterms the week before. The school wanted me to just hand them a written test that they would administer for me, but because pronunciation is an important part of their grade, I opted to do it myself in my classes this week. Sarah and I still tried to help out during midterms, though, by proctoring some of the Thai exams. Sadly, I don’t think the school appreciated our efforts. While the Thai teachers just sat in the hallway and let the students get away with cheating, we took it seriously and monitored the hell out of those kids. We were dismissed after the third test and told to go home.
Well, if the Thai teachers are okay with sweeping that under the rug, then at least I could treat my own test like it mattered. I’m having a hard time being strict about this, though. I keep telling the students, “This is a test! No talking! No looking! No cheating!” But they ignore me and share answers, anyway. Of course, they’re sharing the wrong answers, so I guess it doesn’t even matter. Here’s a hint: don’t cheat off the dumb kid! I knew their English was bad, but seeing their answers on this test gives me little hope. For example, here’s one of the easier questions:
How are you?
I’mfine__________.
I explain to them that I’m just looking for something other than “I’m fine,” and yet I’m getting answers that range from “yes” to “boy” to “lefxt.” It’s been a little disheartening to grade the tests in between classes and see mostly 10s and 12s out of 40. What’s particularly frustrating is that all of these questions came from the worksheets we did together in our normal classes. Some of the students will realize this and pull out the worksheets, hoping to cheat off them, only to realize they didn’t do the worksheets when they were supposed to! Maybe my next lesson should be on how to cheat correctly…

