Final teaching for now
on Melissa Hipkins (Rwanda), 01/Jul/2010 13:49, 34 days ago
I have finished my spell of teaching and practicals at ISAE and now I have the sobering duty to mark the exams I have set. It's pretty nerve racking going over the papers hoping they have not made a compete hash of things, because that's really down to me and my methods. They should do alright after all the questions they posed me during the exam itself. I was supposed to be present at the beginning of the 2 hour sessions to clear up any points of English that were not readily understood. It turned into more of a duel between me and the class; their idea to all but wheedle the answers out of me.Never having set exams at this level before, I had already presented the papers to Dr Anselme for his assessment of the clarity and relevance of my questions, and he seemed satisfied all was plain and comprehensible. He needed to scrutinise the papers and ensure their security before the exam itself. There is a whole college document about setting exams, 9/10ths of which is making certain that the papers are not sold or stolen for the benefit of the examinees. I also took advantage of all the teaching skills available among the VSO volunteers to get some tips on marking. The most sensible seemed to suggest reading all the scripts before laying pen to paper, to get the general level and to see the standard of writing and of English.To this end I had attempted to have by me samples of their handwriting by getting them to copy some sentences. These I had made up with combinations of letters in words I thought might be difficult to decipher; but in the end all it gave me was the chance to put the names of the students to their exam number identities using their style of writing as the clue. Mind you, I don't yet know them all by name by any means. Attendance registers are the "CP's" (Class President's) duty and probably due to my inexperience I have not tried to go further than just to recognise all their faces. Probably all for the better when it came to marking the exams as I had no prejudice as to who ought to pass or fail.It became apparent after the first paper that I had over elaborated the multiple choices at the end and that the principle had not been fully understood. The answers were pretty random, no better than chance so I decided to discount the individual responses and give them all the same mark. After this wake-up call I needed to modify the subsequent papers.It also showed me that they are good at reproducing lists of points for and against but when asked to use the information to solve a problem the point was usually lost. That's my fault for not setting them problems during the course. I shall know better in future. Even so, only a small proportion of the class have actually failed.It's been cold in Musanze despite the approach of the dry season. It has not really rained for the last 2-3 weeks but it's been overcast and fresh enough for me not to take my jersey off all day. The nights however have been clear and it's really been pleasant to walk back to the hotel under a full moon. At least it lets me see where the rocks are sticking up in the road and to avoid tripping painfully over them. The roads are dusty in Musanze but there is very little traffic along them except the ubiquitous moto-taxis, and they don't travel fast on the rutted streets.In Nyanza however the road outside the house is a route between the town and Lake Kivu 60km away. It is not paved and the dust has accumulated to levels where footprints are always clearly visible and your shoes get a powdering the colour of old lady's rouge after only a few hundred metres. Being a throughway, lorries and buses kick up a real fog that settles everywhere. I'm not sure whether being below the level of the road means it floats over us or settles preferentially. Either way the floor has a perpetual record of footprints and Jacky has a job to keep up with the inflow of dust under the doors. Saturday night we watched the USA get beaten and returned home under the full moon. The dust was illuminated white and with it softening the roofs and trees gave the appearance of a fall of snow, especially with the tracks on the road. The feeling that we should be cold and at least see our breath on the wind and the sparkle of frost was overwhelming.Whether it is a co-incidence or not, the water supply has been very intermittent to say the least. There was a debate recently among the volunteers as to which they would rather not go without: water or electricity. A lot had thought when they first arrived that to be without a water supply would be more intolerable but most have changed to the opinion that electricity is the most indispensable. It's true that with a good collection of jerry cans, we have 6 x 20 litre plastic cans, and strategies that include the use of the shower water to flush the loo, or the washing up water to soak the compost heap those cans will last perhaps 3 days so long as the clothes washing takes a rest.Lack of electricity on the other hand means candles or the dreaded kerosene lamp in the evenings and having to light the charcoal for hot water to wash up, no film to watch and reading by candle light. This is harder to bear and we have been lucky that any cuts we have had up to now only last for a couple of hours max. The loss of power during the England- Germany match was a case in point. When it went off, we were 0-0, on restoration 2-0 to Germany. I wish the power had been off for the whole of the second half. Dismal.