Hurry up and finish

The end of the term is nigh.

Not nigh enough, though. The term has been dragging painfully to a conclusion. The one bright spot is that we don’t have to come in on Monday. Yeah, Monday is the actual last day of term. Could this Empire be more stupid?

What has term been like this year? Short for one thing. With the Spring Festival being so early, term is ending nearly two weeks before it usually finishes, but that means the second term will drag on even longer. Even so, in spite of a shorter first term, I’m feeling knackered.

It may be an age thing, but getting up at 6.00am while it could still be any time during the hours of darkness has had a worse effect on me than previous years. There’s a reason why I hate alarm clocks: I inevitably wake up before they go off, and that might mean anything up to an hour. I did it twenty years ago and I still do the same today. But, as I said, it’s felt worse this term to be getting up so early and to be arriving at school just as the sun is beginning to rise. It then exacerbates the situation to be stuck at school for the next eight hours.

The Senior 1s did not seem to be the most auspicious group in the beginning because of invidious comparisons with last year’s classes, but in the course of the term, they have got better and could actually be on to get more As than previous classes so long as they put some work in next term.

The Senior 2s have been a disappointing. I landed Classes 3 and 4. Class 3 does have some very good students, but about two-thirds of the class are boys, which has a negative effect on the attitude of the class, and there’s a certain amount of arrogance among them. The problem is that they were meant to concentrate on IELTS and TOEFL this term, do the tests, and then start doing SATs. Instead, they’ve been off doing IELTS, TOEFL and SATs just as they please, and have then been regarding classes as a little pointless.

I admit that the classes have become a little aimless, but I’ve been trying to give them what I think will benefit them, viz. note taking practice and proper vocabulary. They’re generally not good at the former because they lack the level of competence necessary to take good notes. (Very much a case of geniuses at programmable activities [i.e., anything to do with maths]; utter rubbish at thinking; apt to give up without even trying.)

I’ve also given the Senior 2s brief news quizzes, but after several days of doing this, I could not, it seemed, provoke them into familiarising themselves with news stories of the day. In the main I focused on significant stories such as the crisis in the eurozone rather than home news. Nor was I doing this just for my amusement. The little darlings do need to broaden their horizons, but no matter how many times I ask them who Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife is, they’ll never remember that it’s Carla Bruni.

I definitely don’t want to be teaching the Senior 2s when they become Senior 3s next year. They’re already behaving like Senior 3s and are a step away from the upgrade, which is not bothering to come to classes at all. Their thinking tends to go, “There is no exam; therefore it is not important”. Au contraire, children. English is important for you even if you don’t have an exam. But ignorance is bliss, as they say, and the little darlings are so very ignorant.

I suppose I should do some planning for next term. It starts on Tuesday, which is also my worst day.