day 71

March 11, 2010

 

Day 71:

           

 Today was a rather stressful day in deed. I knew it would be and I tried to plan for it as much as possible but there was only so much I could do. In the morning I went to school and prepared all of my tests for the kids. I wrote each students’ name on their test and also wrote a goal for them; a number for them to shoot for. That was the easy part. The hardest part was figuring out how to make the test 100 points. Eventually I did and around that time I went to administer the test.

            Most of the kids finished in about 30 minutes as they should have. It wasn’t a hard exam and they all had the answers given to them yesterday. I graded a few in class and was very pleased. I didn’t want to do my traditionally better students first because then I’d be setting myself up for disappointment after grading their tests were done. So I picked randomly and graded two tests. Jody got a 92% and her goal was a 90% and I think Jerson was the other one. He got a 92.5 and his goal was an 85%. I stopped with those two and graded the rest later in the trailer.

            The exam schedule messed up the plans that I had. Instead of having both of my classes take the exam today, the day was over after the third period exam, and tomorrow, first thing, is the fourth period exam. We were going to have a party during their classes tomorrow. So what we ended up doing is rescheduling the whole thing for after school tomorrow.

            Eric agreed to drum the first half of the play solo and let me finish my grading. I finished up most of it pretty soon and so I relieved him of his duties before intermission. Then he went back to grade all of his exams.

            The play went great. I’m worried Cassailis, Hamlet, is going to lose his voice before closing night. He’s a great actor and his on stage timing is great. But he has no concept of breathing and how to project his voice without screaming. His throat is almost certainly going to hurt him tomorrow.

            After the play I came back to the trailer and was pretty spent. My back hurt from standing and drumming for two hours and I didn’t feel much motivated to do anything. Eric, Ally and I started the last episode of Entourage before we were interrupted by Professor Garrod. We ended up not resuming the show.

            I’m not sure how I should feel right now. Tomorrow’s the last day I’ll see my students in class. Probably the last day I’ll see them period. Even then, some of them may not show up to school which is a tragedy because regardless of the fact that I like some more than others, I still want to see them at least one more time before I leave. I’m preparing myself mentally for having to say goodbye to them and I think I’ll be okay but it’s going to be an emotional environment and in emotional environments, anything goes. Until next time, from Majuro, bar lo yok.