A Cycle Ends

Well, it seems hard to believe that one ten-week cycle at RMIT has almost come to an end. This week is final exams or EOC (end of cycle) exams. We had a class Monday, basically to prepare students for the Speaking and Writing exams on Tuesday. Today was my last day of teaching, as tomorrow is the final Reading and Listening exams. So today was more or less devoted to doing mock exams, encouraging students to get a good night’s sleep, and to stay positive. This week is known as “die week” in common parlance. At RMIT we teach two classes ... one for two days and the other class for three days. The three-day class is called our PET ... I forget what the acronym stands for. But my PET certainly turned out to have a lot of teacher’s pets ... the whole class was sweet and silly, and I became very fond of them. Today I saw several girls braiding and putting ponytails in Dung's (pronounced you + ng's) hair. He obviously loved being the centre of attention ... goofy, goofy... I certainly like my Monday and Tuesday class as well. In some ways they are equally cute and silly ... They are very different groups and I really hope both classes do well in the exams. After my level (6.1) they go into the final advanced level (6.2)and then into their degree programs ... so they will likely be in their business programs right after Tet, at the end of February. One very wonderful thing about RMIT is that all the exams are set in Melbourne, so we don’t have to make up the tests. Yay!! And when we mark, we don’t mark our own PET or Monday/Tuesday classes. Writing is blind double-marked and moderated by different teachers. Speaking is recorded by the interviewer and evaluated by a key assessor (expert second marker )if the student fails. We upload the file onto the shared drive and it gets looked after tickety-boo. I am not a key assessor yet, but next go-round I will be. As Steve, my level leader says, next cycle I will be an old hand ... he might have said hag, but he swears he didn’t (#^.^#) . At any rate, I will have to do more key assessing if there are disputed scores or jagged profiles. I am not sure if I am standardized in my marking ... have always had trouble with that, but I passed the assessment training and so according to RMIT, I am good to go. Self-confidence aside, I like that there are checks and balances, especially as there are just two exams ... a lot of pressure on both the students and teachers Insha’Allah it will all work out and the ones who are ready will pass.
So after exams tomorrow, we put our heads down and table-top mark the Reading and Listening exams and then the results should be all set to send to Melbourne for approval and students will know next week how they did. Like much of RMIT’s ESL program, the exam process is highly organized and very efficient. I can’t imagine how they do it all. We heard today that there are over 950 students in our ESL program, so that’s a lot of students to test, schedule (and counsel if they don’t make it).
Not that I have to worry about that, because on Saturday, I will be flying out to Haiphong in the north of Vietnam to see my dear friend Patty Ryan. So excited about that! I will stay for 4 days and come back to work on various projects for two down weeks (weeks without teaching). As I am the newly appointed resource queen/handmaid depending on whether you look at my sphere of influence (not) or whether you look at the fact that I occasionally have to clean up the resource room after slobby teachers, I have to become more familiar with the resources ... especially the CDs and DVDs. So I have a project. And then there is the desk to clean up. Those of you who have worked with me know what I’m talking about jajajaja. I will be presenting at a conference in Cambodia in February and so I should try and get a head start on that as well. Mostly I will be happy I don’t have to come to school at 6:15 for my 7:30 class ... that will be very nice.
The students from my Monday/Tuesday class have invited Kathy (their main teacher) and me to a picnic after school on Friday. So we are very excited about that. Apparently the park where we are going is about a 40 minute motorbike ride from RMIT. Students will take their motorbikes and Kathy and I will be passengers. I will post pics and a report on that later on. Such a nice way to end the cycle! I hope it doesn’t rain ...
The weather continues to be great here; however, I have heard several reports about the beautiful late autumn weather in Ontario and so I have been missing that golden October light and the nip in the air. I hope those of you in (southern) Canada have a pleasant, and extended fall with lovely golds and purples and beautiful fall foliage. Please let me know how you are doing. I think of you most often and would love to know what is going on with you and yours!