Ugh, just one of those days

TOTALLY felt like quitting and coming home today. I didn't sleep very well
last night, so I was tired this morning. Then my grade 8's were blatantly
copying from each other during a quiz. I'd been warning them for a while
now so I finally broke down and wrote COPY in red ink at the top of one's
paper. (Later on I couldn't bring myself to give him a 0, because I knew he
didn't copy the *whole* thing, so I divided his marks by 2.)



Then there was the grade 9 quiz. Oh good lord. Simple simple algebra.
Most failed, miserably. I'm talking 0 out of 10. I just don't know what to
do. I've been slowing instruction WAY down. I wrote this quiz so that no
calculators would be necessary. I moved the timestable to the front of the
room so all could see. I drew a numberline on the board. We're talking 3a
+ -2a here. And the answers were all over the map.



I guess I just need to drink more on marking days, haha! Sigh.



On a completely different note, computer instruction for teachers started
yesterday. Most have never touched a computer, so we're starting from the
beginning. This is the mouse. This is the keyboard. But so far I got 2
beginners turning the thing on, starting a new word document,
finding/editing the document and shutting down. We'll see how long
enthusiasm lasts once they find out there's no printing or internet for the
foreseeable future.

More teachers are signing up though.now it's 4 more hours a week that I'm on
the hook.



I'm tired. And clearly not in the best of moods. I probably shouldn't be
blogging, but then again I figure you guys want to know about the ups and
the downs of living and teaching in Africa, right? Least no one has died
this week.