End of Semester Blues

I really shouldn't write anything today. My nose is dripping, my throat is sore, it is freezing here in the teacher's room, I am wearing gloves while I type this and I just realized that this is my last class withy the 9th graders.

Now, admittedly, in some cases, this is a good thing but I have gotten quite close to some of these kids. It also would have been better if I had realized it sooner and done some kind of bang up finish. While we were doing the date (as in every class) I realized that next week they have exams for three days. After that, due to the vagaries of the calendar and because Chinese New Year is late this year, we will have one week of the new semester BEFORE semester break.

Next semester I will not have the 9th grade at all and will pick up 8 classes of 7th graders. Yecch. I haven't taught that young in a long time. What I have is bad enough. It pretty much shakes out to where the top 4 classes are a joy and the bottom 4 are a waste of my time and theirs. This is a point I have tried to make to the school here since I would have a lot more impact if I had the better ones twice a week and skipped the lower ones altogether. The answer was to agree but point out how tightly the kids are scheduled.

When the program gets back together in Taipei in March, I will make this point. Their idea was to bring native speakers to the hinterlands but the hinterlands can't really take advantage of us.