A Game Night, Cheaters, and Getting Ready to Go Back

2-22-09 We have been plugging along, students (hopefully) studying and teachers teaching. This last Thursday night (the 19th), eight of us went to another school on the island and had a game night with two Americans who are also working on Ebeye. One is Amy, who works at Gem School, and the other is Matt, who works at the public school. We all brought food, and because we had done so, started at the Marshallese time of 6:00 PM (really, it was 6:40 or so). We ate and talked and had a very fun time playing games.

Despite the fact that I enjoy being on Ebeye, I have started making my preparations for my return in May. I have conversed (through e-mails) with my adviser (who calls me "beautifully organized"), and I'm excited about registering for classes in March. There was no power on Saturday night (we were doing various activities and it randomly went off; it came back for about fifteen minutes, then stayed off the rest of the night) and it didn't come back on until almost eleven in the morning on Sunday. Because we were electricity-less this morning, I sorted through my books and papers and tried to figure out which ones I will be sending home via the US Postal Service. Now I just need to sort my clothes into what's going home and what's staying here. I'll leave that to some other time, though.

I graded Friday's vocabulary quizzes and sorted through the mess that the world history tests had become. It all started when about five of the eleven students decided to pretty much blatantly cheat on their tests last Tuesday--but to have finished their tests in order to create some odd loophole that got them out of trouble. They were wrong. I was, to say the least, not pleased. I went back to the apartments and created two new tests from the old test and gave it to them on Wednesday, after lecturing them about cheating. You see, I want them to do well. That's true, but I also want them to be doing their best. Doing their best is NOT defined as cheating so they can get a good grade. I would rather have them earn D's than cheat to get B's. I told them that, when they cheat, they make it difficult for me to keep one of the expectations I told them they could have of me: that if they needed help, I would do so. Of course I don't gauge everything by their test scores, but it does factor into how well I think they're understanding everything--and if they're all getting high scores because they're cheating, I can't entirely know that they don't understand. So I graded those new tests--giving extra credit to those who hadn't cheated, and giving the score from the second test in place of the first test's score to those who cheated. *sigh* I hope they learn that cheating isn't the answer. I also explained to them that I knew what they were doing and began giving them examples of the things they did to cheat because I had seen it done. (To be honest, I have only cheated once in my life. It was a first grade spelling test, and the consequences were such that I have never cheated again.) Their mouths were slightly agape as I explained (and sometimes demonstrated) their various behaviors. They each wore a look of "Whoa, I didn't really know that she knew that!" Sometimes I think that students believe their teachers to be completely stupid, and that sort of stumps me. How else would we be able to catch them in the first place?

I do think that I will be glad to move back from teacher to student in August, in order to more fully learn how to be a teacher. I already appreciated my teachers, but I think I definitely more fully understand and appreciate them. It's hard to believe that there are only three months and a week left of my time here on Ebeye--it feels like the time has sped by, like the days, weeks, months have been grains of sand slipping through my fingers, caught in a sea-breeze. There are still days when time seems to drag, but those times are no longer the majority (they were more of the majority in September, or October). My students keep asking me if I'm going to miss them, and my answer is always (and will always be) an emphatic YES.

More later.