At school, there were two events this week: academic competitions and Sports Day. As a result, I saw six of my nineteen classes this week. Because of the competitions and preparations for Sports Day, most classes were missing a third to half of the students.
Academic competitions were Tuesday and Wednesday. The English competitions were Tuesday. I was a judge for the spelling bee, and Kate and Lovely were judges for speech. I’m not sure why Tony was not a judge; perhaps because he didn’t have a student he worked with. Monday the three of us were taken to a meeting for most of the morning. It was not helpful, and we didn’t need to be there. The man in charge said would pronounce a word, say a sentence with it, and then pronounce the word again. I was to prepare sentences. Then they decided that I shouldn’t prepare sentences because I’m a native speaker and might make them too difficult. So the other judges would prepare sentences in the morning. When I arrived and asked for the words and sentences, I was told that I would just say the words two times. No sentences. The women there didn’t seem to know what I was talking about when I told her about the meeting on Monday. Oh, well. Khun Toom had asked me to practice spelling with her 6th grade student so he could get used to my voice. She gave me a list of words that I thought looked like an official list. It was. It was the words that were prepared for the contest. Sister Toom also asked me to pronounce words for her 9th grade student. She, too, gave me the official list of words that were in the contest. At the contest, I wondered how many others had the official list to practice with. Sister Toom’s boy had missed about ten words on Monday, but he was the winner at the contest—perhaps because he missed the words and then practiced them. Kru Toom’s boy was second at the contest, having tied with a girl twice and then lost in the second extra round that had special words that were not on the original list and were very difficult for that level.
When I finished the spelling contest, I went to the storytelling contest hoping to see Bank. The contest had started and I didn’t know if he had presented yet or not. He hadn’t; so I got to see him. He was fantastic. He really rallied for the presentation and did a wonderful job. He’d been excellent at school on Monday, but he was even better at the contest. He took first place with a score of 94 out of 100. I am very proud of him. He will go on to the next level, which is the contest for all public and private schools in Ubon. (This week’s contests were only between the private schools. The public schools have their contests next week.) People kept congratulating me on the good job, but I had good material to work with. He had good skills when we started and is highly motivated and is an extrovert, all of which contributed to his success. Sister Viphaporn told me she is very happy, as is the Mother Superior, who knows about my winning student.
On the way back to school, we had lunch at a food shop, which was a special treat for the students—and teachers. When I went to my afternoon class, there were no students. I knew that many would be at the competition, but I knew that some would be at school. When I asked about them, I was told they were “somewhere.” We weren’t worrying about the fact that their location wasn’t known. OK with me. I had just thought the students left, who would not be the top students, could review and practice vocabulary, which they could use.
Spots Day was Friday. It was originally scheduled to be last week but was changed till 30 November. When I saw the bleachers and altar set up, I wondered if it had been changed to this week. The other teachers in the office had learned about the change, another example of the lack of communication of information. In preparation, students practiced for the opening parade every day in the morning and during the 3:00 class for two weeks. And some also practiced at 4:00; so we had our make-up class to the boom, boom, boom of the drum while they rehearsed. They played football during the lunch break. My other schools didn’t spend so much time practicing for the parade. When I mentioned this to Khun Yindee, she said, “It’s because it’s a private school” and explained that it’s all about showing the parents what their students can do.
Thursday I heard Kru Tang tell the students to come to school at 6:00. That, of course, means that teachers had to be there, too. It takes a long time to get their makeup and costumes ready for special events. When I arrived at 7:30, the school was practically empty. The parade started somewhere else. About twenty minutes later, we heard the drums heralding the arrival of the parade.
The ASEAN country flags were all carried. This is definitely a big theme this year.
I would say that more students were in costumes than at the other schools and more flags were carried, but other than that, and considering that it is a much larger school, it didn’t seem more spectacular than the other parades.
There were also many more preschool students in costumes. A number of parents walked along with their young children. Many of the students were dressed up only for the parade and opening ceremony. It’s all show. At the other schools, the costumed students presented dances to the VIPs and were cheerleaders. Here, only about twenty were cheerleaders. Only three groups presented dances, and they weren’t in the parade. The others were truly there only for show during the parade and opening ceremony and changed into regular clothes afterwards.
After everyone gathered in the common area, we waited about twenty minutes for the important men to arrive for the opening ceremony. I felt bad for the students standing in the sun. After everyone walked out in order, the morning activities began.
Everyone was divided into four teams; I was on the purple/violet team. We wore shirts showing our color.
Students walked in the parade and sat in color groups.
Some students were the cheering squad and sat in bleachers. Each team also had a small group of cheerleaders. Others seemed to roam around most of the morning. I think a lot of students went home. There was a long break during which students practiced cheering and the cheerleaders practiced. Then the teachers played football. Since I’m not a lover of sports, I spent the rest of the morning in the office.
After lunch, students gathered in the bleachers and the rest of the students present sat and watched. The running races took place. Then there was a contest between the cheerleaders. After each group performed/danced, the teachers danced by color groups. Next was the tug-of-war contest between the groups. After that, students took down the decorations for their section of the bleachers. Then it was time for the usual closing ceremony before going home.
I was surprised how few sports were actually played on this Sports Day. At my other school, students played football and volleyball. They also played chairball and tacraw at the larger school. The day was about students playing sports and supporting their team. Here, most of the time, the students were not involved in sports and only a small group of each team was involved in cheering. In the morning, when I asked about other sports contests, I got a vague answer. When I asked about football, I learned that they had had football contests during lunch. I had thought they were practicing for Sports Day. So the day wasn’t really a Sports Day; it was a Fun Day. And the students had fun. I’m glad it’s finally over, as the boom, boom, boom was getting to be a bit much.
At 5:00, the end of the teachers’ day, there was a dinner/small party for all teachers. They served salad, chicken noodle soup, and ice cream.
Other news of the week:
I’ve been enjoying my after school make-up class with the 7th grade students who failed last term. I required that they attend a special class for one week for English and one week for science. I think most of them have special needs that are not, and cannot be, addressed in the large class. Working with them in this small group reminds me how much I have enjoyed working with such students over the years, helping them learn that they can do learn and do the work and they are not stupid. They have really worked in this class and most of them are trying to do the work. With the small group, I can make them read on their own. Most of them can do something with support and with time to do it. They are, of course, highly motivated to change their grade, which also helps. A few, however, cannot do anything. I talked with Khun Toom about this latter group and about giving them a passing grade when they really can’t do anything. She said it’s up to me in the end. We’ll have a meeting about a couple of the students. Those who chose not to attend the class will fail.
The 8th grade students finally asked about improving their “0’s.” So next week I’ll start with them. I’m not as enthused about raising their grades, as most of them are the ones who just talk and do nothing in class and then copy answers for two minutes and think I should be happy and praise them because they have completed the work. I have finally realized that they are probably surprised at their failing grade because they “do” the work and think they are being good students. The fact that they have failed every test did not sink in. I’ll make more effort to make that clear this term. I also realized that they did not get mid-term grades other than the grades of their exam, which they didn’t pay attention to. I’ll make those clearer this term, too.
All this making up grades (Students will have 10-25 points added to their grade to make it 50.) makes me wonder if I should just give in and give them their 50 passing grade in the first place and save myself the extra work. Knowing myself, that won’t happen, but sometimes I wish I could just do that.
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