School the past couple weeks has been crazy, and our weekends have been packed. After our Haiti weekend, we went to Cabarete, our favorite north coast beach the next weekend. It was nice to get some much needed rest and relaxation. The following weekend we hung out at home, which was nice, except for the fire.
Two weeks ago was pretty crazy with the last marking period finishing up, exams starting for eighth and twelfth grade, and reviews starting for everyone else. On Monday after school, I helped Keith chaperon an ecology club field trip to a little zoo in Santiago. It was pretty fun. They actually had more animals than I was expecting, although the conditions of the cage were pretty bad. It rained most of the time we were there, but the kids didn’t seem to mind too much. They had fun, and even though we got really muddy and wet, and everyone made it back in one piece! On Wednesday, Grecia walked into my tenth grade class at like 8:45 and was like, can you come with us at 9? And I was really confused... Anyways, apparently, she organized a field trip for the eleventh graders to Coraasan, which is the water treatment plant in Santiago. And since I teach first things on Wednesdays and then have a break until 11:45, and I teach chemistry, I was the "logical" person to ask to chaperon. Anyways, it was actually pretty interesting. And I like my eleventh graders, so it was ok. So, we spent the morning at the water treatment plant learning about what all they do there (in Spanish of course). I got mistaken for a student... It was great... The kids thought it was really funny. So, yeah!
My ninth graders had their last algebra test, and apparently decided that it was the last one, so they might as well cheat. I caught five of them cheating! Because we’ve had so many issues with cheating in that class, the ninth grade teachers all have to write two versions of the test. Usually I just change the order of the problems. Before every single test, I tell them, “Don’t cheat off the person next to you, because they probably don’t have the same test as you.” Anyways, the message doesn’t seem to sink in. If you copy off someone that has a different test, and have all the right answers to the other test, it’s pretty obvious to me that you cheated. And I tell them this every time! Anyways, this time, I had to fail Alex, Marcel, Ashley (who are all way too smart to need to cheat), Jose, and Sebastian. The one that made me the maddest I think was Sebastian. He was taking it after school in homework room with me! So, I was there to answer any questions he might have. Oasting was taking the test at the same time, but basically, Sebastian had my undivided attention for questions. Anyways, Oasting finished, I corrected his test, and walked from the table in the hallway into the classroom where my computer was charging, and back (maybe like 20-30 seconds). During this time, Sebastian took someone’s test, not sure whose, and changed all his correct answers on the first page to the answers for the other version of the test... So, he had the answers right, but then he changed them to the right answers for the other test. I didn't see him doing it, but I knew he had them all right, and then all of the sudden he had all the answers to the other version of the test. And he was using erasable pen, which really isn't all that erasable, so I could see what he had originally. The idiot!!! So I was mad at him, and at myself. So, what Jennie decided to do for the final is in addition to having two tests, we split the kids between the classroom and lab, so there are only twelve in each room which is nice. We also make them face the walls/ corners/ be back to back so that they can’t copy. And, Kaitlyn and I were in charge of the room division/ seating charts, so we put the smart cheaters next to dumb people so they wouldn’t want to copy, and we split up anyone that we knew would cheat off each other. For me, it worked out, and I didn’t have any cheat on my algebra final (which was Monday), so that was nice.
After that long week, we decided we needed to get away, so Lauren and I went to the Capital for the weekend. We went down on Friday night after school, checked in around 8:30ish, and went out for dinner at a restaurant on the water. The food was delicious. We got tostones and chicken, steak, and shrimp shish kabobs with the best flan I’ve ever had for desert. On Saturday, we went to San Cristobal for the afternoon. It was kind of a disappointment. There are supposedly some cave paintings there, but they are installing lighting in the caves, so we just got to see like two paintings. Then we went to Trujillo’s house that he had built but never lived in. It was really weird… We had to go buy shoes because apparently you can’t go in with sandals. Our taxi driver got mad at the guard lady who told us this and yelled “Como si fue alguien bueno” a lot. (Meaning, “It’s like he was someone good!”) Our taxi driver for the day was awesome though. We had a good time with him. Anyways, a little bit of a bummer we didn’t get to see the cave paintings and had to buy ugly 200 peso shoes to go in to the house which was slightly lame, but it was ok. We finished up the day wandering through the Zona Colonial and then had dinner and drinks in the Parque Colon, one of our favorite spots in the capital. On Sunday, we went to the botanical gardens which were awesome! They were soooo pretty! It didn’t feel like we were in the middle of a big city in a third world country. After that, we went back and hung out at the Parque Colon, got some lunch, read, people watched, and just relaxed before heading back to Santiago.
That Monday, exams started. I had my ninth grade algebra test and my twelfth grade pre-calculus tests. They went well for the most part. The kids were slightly crazy as usual! I’ll write up some more kid stories soon. Then last weekend we went back to Cabarete Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. (We finished early on Friday because the kids did a Mother’s Day presentation after their exam and then we got to leave at noon!). This week is more exams. They really stretch it out pretty far around here! Friday is graduation. Monday is everyone but 12th grade’s last exam, then the kids end of the year party, and then we’re done except for the kids that have to retake finals because they failed classes. We still have two full weeks of work after this though. What we are going to be doing, I have no clue, but we’ll see! After that, Jonathan comes for two weeks, and then I’m home! Crazy! This year has gone by so fast! Hope all is well! Love ya!
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