BEACH: Ok, so I got my first sunburn since on the islands. It was very overcast yesterday while at the beach, and I guess I should have reapplied my #30 sunscreen, but I thought I was covered. Got a bit red, but hope that it turns bronceada (tan). Man, that sun is potent!
MORE SCHOOL FRUSTRATIONS: Ok, today was the the day that I was meant to give all my students (3 separate classes) their oral (speaking & listening) exams. So after telling my three 7th graders (two have been traveling with their family for three weeks or so...what do I do with that?!) for the past three days and that their test is at 7:15 am this morning, they were no shows. I was supposed to have them and two 8th graders present their research reports (which they all either copied and pasted from Wikipedia, and or used some other site and used freetranslation.com to complete), and while one student presented, the others were supposed to answer pre-prepared questions (which I painstakingly had to translate from their copy/paste jobs and get a note for our account so I could get copies for the students to complete--resources are at a bare minimum at the school). It was quite difficult to grade on only two presentations, as this was meant to be a GROUP presentation!
Anyway, after asking the director, she realized it was an "error in the exam schedule" and that I should give the exam to the missing three students tomorrow. I told her I prefer to give them zeros as they KNEW the exam was on today at 7:15am, and no one said anything to the contrary. Well, I guess I have to re-give it. So much for having ANY kind of authority in my classroom. This, I'm told, is par for the course at "the best school on the island" Tomás de Berlanga. I'd hate to see the worse school!
OTHER RANDOM THOUGHTS: I keep thinking of the joke(s) about "why did the chicken cross the road?" as I see this happen several times a day, every single day, and I can't think of one decent reply! Sometimes, they're just running from the cruel kids who chase them, or the stray dogs, but nothing funny comes to mind...I'll keep you posted if I think of something witty.
I also think it's strange that the school bus rides around over-filled with kids, with the door open, and one of the teachers usually riding in the door way, and there is no emergency exit at the back (as I discovered one day when I had to ride back there).
I also realize, that some cab drivers don't like to go to Tomás, kind of like trying to get one from Manhattan to go to Queens! LOL
Ok, I'm off to check out the progress on the spa (meant to open this Monday) and the Darwin Center to try and find out what kind of bird that red billed and footed bird might be. I'm told it's not a Galápageño bird, so I'm dying to find how rare sighting it was!
Ciao for now!
T
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1 comment:
The OC school system is about the same.......not like when we were in school!
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