Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Feelings of an invigilator
It's quite an experience to be invigilating your own kids while they do your paper.
Before paper:
Check attendance and giggle (as silently as possible) at their I/C photos.
Try to get eye contact and wish them good luck silently. The normal reaction is, "Miss S... how? Die already lah..." Typical Singaporean reaction leh... given up when the paper has yet to start! But on the brighter side of it, maybe it's just a humble reaction. Heh.
During paper:
Look out for gancheong faces. Observe which questions they start on first. Teachers catwalk (Pengy, 2006) up and down the aisles, looking earnestly at them. The heart pumps fast... a sense of weakness overcomes me. I pray hard for God to watch over them, to give them a clear mind, to remember everything that they have studied (if they have studied) and to be wise in their application of that knowledge. I walk past each student and ask for a personal blessing upon them. It is really exciting to watch your own students sit for your paper. You wonder if they really understood everything you taught, and whether they put in any effort for your paper.
You feel proud when you see them producing somewhat impressive work. You feel sorry when you see students struggling (the ones you know have worked hard). You feel a sinistic “Haha! You’re gonna die this time round!” for those you know have taken your subject for granted and couldn’t be in the least bit bothered. You feel a heart ache when good students are answering the question wrongly cos they didn’t read the question properly, yet they are feeling good about themselves cos they are giving paragraphs and paragraphs of good details (which are unrelated of course!)... yet you can’t warn them.
After paper:
Not as exciting anymore. You wonder if their hands are already numb from the somewhat vigorous writing while you were having breakfast. You try to decipher if they have already given up hope or whether there is still a glimmer of hope in their sunken eyes. When you collect their scripts, you wonder if they are relieved to hand in the paper to you because they have a sense of satisfaction from their work, or whether it’s good riddance.
Invigilating your own students are so much more exciting than babysitting strangers.
The marathon has started. Good luck to me.
Before paper:
Check attendance and giggle (as silently as possible) at their I/C photos.
Try to get eye contact and wish them good luck silently. The normal reaction is, "Miss S... how? Die already lah..." Typical Singaporean reaction leh... given up when the paper has yet to start! But on the brighter side of it, maybe it's just a humble reaction. Heh.
During paper:
Look out for gancheong faces. Observe which questions they start on first. Teachers catwalk (Pengy, 2006) up and down the aisles, looking earnestly at them. The heart pumps fast... a sense of weakness overcomes me. I pray hard for God to watch over them, to give them a clear mind, to remember everything that they have studied (if they have studied) and to be wise in their application of that knowledge. I walk past each student and ask for a personal blessing upon them. It is really exciting to watch your own students sit for your paper. You wonder if they really understood everything you taught, and whether they put in any effort for your paper.
You feel proud when you see them producing somewhat impressive work. You feel sorry when you see students struggling (the ones you know have worked hard). You feel a sinistic “Haha! You’re gonna die this time round!” for those you know have taken your subject for granted and couldn’t be in the least bit bothered. You feel a heart ache when good students are answering the question wrongly cos they didn’t read the question properly, yet they are feeling good about themselves cos they are giving paragraphs and paragraphs of good details (which are unrelated of course!)... yet you can’t warn them.
After paper:
Not as exciting anymore. You wonder if their hands are already numb from the somewhat vigorous writing while you were having breakfast. You try to decipher if they have already given up hope or whether there is still a glimmer of hope in their sunken eyes. When you collect their scripts, you wonder if they are relieved to hand in the paper to you because they have a sense of satisfaction from their work, or whether it’s good riddance.
Invigilating your own students are so much more exciting than babysitting strangers.
The marathon has started. Good luck to me.
# posted by Banana Saviour @ 10:05 AM 
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Advantage of teaching General Paper - you can't quite tell if they did well or not for the essay. Though sometimes, I feel my heart lurch with shock when I see them taking on a question I don't think they can quite handle. Like last year's A levels, when my students tell me "Ma'am, we did the question on farming!" FARMING????
Haha! Why is it an advantage? Cos maybe there might be a chance? As long as they don't do a question on "farming"! Haha!
Have faith in your students,(yours at least...) they might emerge unscathed and might even return with an A! =)
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Have faith in your students,(yours at least...) they might emerge unscathed and might even return with an A! =)
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