Occasional Tales

Sic transit alius annus. Although the past two weeks have dragged to some extent, this term and, indeed the whole year, seems to have swept by with indecent haste. This term may have been a little shorter, but it vanished faster than a well-greased fox down a rabbit hole. We got our new timetables today. I’m mostly teaching the Little Gods on Earth (i.e., the same classes I’ve had this year) as well as one InterBac  HL class and one Ass HL class. I’ve inherited the former from Mr Foucault and have no idea what the composition of the latter will be. Someone seems to have a sense of humour because Ms Giggles has landed the few sensible dimwits who opted to do SL English next year. If that class has some of the usual suspects, then she’s going to have her work cut out for her. Unfortunately, I may be no better off because I suspect my HL class is likely to be sporting a few numbskulls who should be in the SL class. The new boy and I will be teaching the Ass HL classes. The

Suspicious English. I gave the Ass classes their writing exam last week. Quite a few of the nitwits have lost marks for not re­pro­ducing the features of the text type. I wanted a title (preferably catchy), a short opening paragraph (also catchy), and a Q&A section, which would constitute the bulk of the interview. I didn't get that even although I told them more than once what they should’ve done. It seems that some of the little darlings had been talking to the InterBac students because several of them gave me the embedded interview text type which I never mentioned. So not too many points for format. One of the students in Ass β wrote something which seemed suspiciously good, but having managed to run it through turnitin (there were technical difficulties), it was found to be 100% original. I’m so used to students’ writing being a plethora of unnatural English that some piece of writing which demonstrates easy competence with idiomatic English comes as a surprise.

They wish it was all over. It isn’t yet. Once again term limps slowly to the finish line as we continue our busy schedule of babysitting – when there’s anyone to babysit. The new timetable started this week, and since Medb volunteered to take the pre-AL classes, I had nothing on Monday and Tuesday which were, in fact, holidays for the rest of the country, viz. the Dragon Boat Festival. The Ass classes were having the last of their exams. But it’s far from being all over for me because the Ass classes still have the writing exam to do on Friday, which means I’m going to have three hours of invigilating on Friday morning with a short break in between the two sessions. My plans for the exam had to be adjusted because the Little Gods on Earth (LGEs) are having their “graduation” on Friday afternoon, which meant that Ass β, whose double is normally split by lunch, will be boring me for a solid hour and a half. I’m predicting that I’ll go into that class early and find that a numb