Monday, March 15, 2010

Oka! Exams? Tomorrow?

Not long ago, I wrote a blog post about the bell schedule wackiness. Well, today’s events brought my frustration to a whole other level. Today, Monday, 1/3 of the way through the day, it was announced that 3rd Quarter finals would start TOMORROW for 1st and 5th periods! 
The tsunami royally screwed up the school year as several days were missed and we had to allow for an adjustment period (quite understandably). Thus, our school decided to hold 2nd Quarter exams 2 weeks after we got back for Christmas break. This meant that Quarters 3 and 4 would each become a week shorter. The DOE, though, decided to cancel spring break, as well. That’s right! That much needed break would be no more. Our administration never gave us a date for Q3 exams though they did mention that they would “probably” end up being during the old Spring Break. Weeks went by and nothing was confirmed. Last week my principal casually mention that “ya, I guess we’ll have exams next week... same schedule as last time.” No official schedule was ever distributed, and I assumed that Wednesday (1st and 2nd), Thursday (3rd and 4th), and Friday (5th and 6th) would be exams, and each day we would have 2 study hall periods.
So at the Monday assembly my teaching world was thrown completely off balance when it was announced that 1st and 5th period finals would be TOMORROW (seeing as the staff expected to see our 1st and 5th periods to review one more time before the exam). 
Teachers were frustrated. How would we review? How would we print our finals in 1 day (on the one-broken-half-the-time copier)?  “Oka!” I say! (oka = Oh-My-God-like-expression in Samoan)
So here is to being flexible and optimistic! 
(When I get back to the States, I will be invisible and undaunted by the unexpected!)

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