The past couple of weeks have been busy with the end of the
school year and other festivities. Two
weeks ago I gave my last tests of the year to all of my turmas. As you may have expected, it didn't go so
well.
Testing is one of my least favorite things about teaching,
especially in Mozambique. Mozambicans know how to cheat. Some of them aren't as good at it as others,
but they all try. Some succeed. Some fail.
I despise it all.
This trimester, I gave my tests on Wednesday/Thursdays. I had one ciencias turma on Wednesday and two
others on Thursday. The test seemed to
be going okay in the first turma I gave it to, until I realized that one of the
best students in the class was writing all of the answers down on the corner of
his scrap piece of paper. These scrap
pieces of paper are THE WORST. All of
the students want to use them, and I leave them space on the back of the test,
but they just hate “dirtying the test.”
They will complain to no end if I don’t let them use scrap paper, but
scrap paper is a Mozambican teacher’s worst enemy when it comes to testing. Students pass them back and forth, sending
the answers. They’re just the
worst. Anyway, when I saw this student
writing down the answers, I made a mental note to make sure to collect his
scrap paper when he turned in his test.
By the time he came to turn in his test, there were only a few students
left in the room. He brought me his
test, and I asked him for his scrap paper.
When he turned it in, there was a chunk of the paper gone, conveniently
where all the answers he had written down were.
“Where’s this piece of the paper?”
“I don’t know teacher, another student gave me the paper to
use and it was already missing.”
“No, I saw it on here earlier, and you were writing down all
of the answers. Where is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about teacher. That part of the paper wasn't here.”
“You’re lying. Give
it to me.”
“I don’t have anything, teacher.”
…
Until he eventually reached into his pocket and pulled out a
small piece of paper. On one side was
written ‘Prova A’ with all of his answers, and on the other side ‘Prova B’ with
all of his neighbors’ answers.
This was the chefe da turma; the person who is in charge of
the turma, and who is an excellent student in math. I didn’t even know what to do with myself.
“What were you going to do with these?”
“I was just going to take them home to remember the answers.”
“Don’t lie to me.
What you’re doing is so ugly, do you realize that?”
“Yes, teacher.”
“The year went so well and this is how we’re ending it. How?
Why did you do this?”
“I’m sorry, teacher.”
“I want to cry right now, just leave.”
That’s basically how it went. I was so disappointed. I wanted to quit. I wanted to cry. I wanted to crawl in bed and never come
out. Unluckily for me, there was a whole
other day of testing in front of me. It
seemed to go smoothly in my first two turmas (until I got home and realized
half of one turma cheated), and then I got to my third turma. Everything was going well, until one student
came and turned in his test, followed by the dude sitting next to him. They turned in the same test. I purposely alternate tests to keep the
students from cheating.
“Joaquim, come here.”
“Yes, teacher.”
“Why do you and Felix have the same test?”
“What do you mean, teacher?”
“You turned in the same variation of the test. You were sitting next to each other. How did this happen?”
“I don’t know, teacher.
That was the test that you gave me.”
“Okay, well you’re lying because I never would have given
you the same test.”
Just then the third person sitting at their desk turns in
his test which is, conveniently enough, the same variation. They all traded tests while I was passing out
the tests so that they could cheat.
Later, while I was grading, I found out that 4 separate desks of
students all had the same variations. I
also found out many students from that turma also cheated. (I know when students cheat because they have
at least 5 points higher on the test then what I think they’re capable of
getting.)
I didn't know what to do.
I felt defeated by the Mozambican education system. I felt disrespected by my students. I just wanted to go home. Then I got an idea. I decided that if the students really knew
the material of the questions they got right, they would be able to do it again
in front of me. I selected two questions
that the students got right on the test, and the next class called them up
individually to solve them. If they
solved them both correctly, their score would be maintained. If they missed one, they would have 25% of
their grade taken off. If they missed
both, they would have 50% of their grade taken off. The students didn’t know what I was doing or
why I was doing it, and I didn't tell them until the next class when I handed
back their tests. Some admitted to
cheating. Many denied it, though they
clearly had no idea what they were doing.
Mozambique, you are so frustrating!
Saturday October 12th was Professor’s day in
Mozambique. I went to the praça with
Sarah in the morning. After the usual festivities
of placing flowers on the plaque for the praça dos herois and cultural
activities at the praça, all of us teachers headed to the soccer field for the
face-off between the secondary school professors and primary school professors. They had uniforms and everything! It was so official! After my colleagues finally understood that I
would not be participating in the game, I watched half of the game, and spent
the second half eating gelo (flavored
ice/a popsicle) in the shade and talking to the school’s director. It was such a hot day and they were playing
this game from 11-1. Who’s idea was
that?
After the game, we went to the school for refreshments. All of the teachers said they would prefer to
go to the school right after the game instead of going home to take baths first. Sarah and I went to the school, and in true
Mozambique fashion the rest of the teachers took about an hour to get there. By
that time we would have been able to go home and eat lunch, but we thought we
didn't have time. Silly Americans. Anyway, we stayed long enough for me to drink
a beer with our colleagues (and get extremely tipsy from it due to lack of
food), and then headed home to eat lunch and hide from all the drunks. Later, we found out that they were at the
school until 7 at night and then went to the bar to continue the party.
The next day, I got up for church -- like normal, and a mãe
came to get me for mass – unlike normal.
Normally, I just meet everyone at church, but little did I know, this
was a special day at church. I helped
some mães carry a pot to the church, and they explained to me that we had a
lot of visitors in Messica for mass and a big party afterwards. I didn't really understand the occasion, but
I also didn't really need an explanation.
I was just happy to be part of it and happy to have a full church and a
priest in Messica!
Mass was indescribably wonderful. I understood the message of mass, because it
was done in mostly Portuguese, and I could understand the Polish priest
extremely well. All of my favorite mães
were there. There was so much joy in the
church despite the ridiculously hot temperatures. The priest initiated a dance party at the end
of church before the blessing. It was my
favorite mass thus far in Africa, and just what I needed after the rough week
of cheaters and feeling discouraged. After
mass we had lunch at the church, and I got to talk to the priest, sisters, and
other mães from church. The priest spoke
fluent Portuguese, local dialect, and English, so I was pretty impressed. He was visiting from Sussendenga, but I’m
planning on going to visit him sometime because he was awesome. After lunch, all the different visiting
groups danced and sang individually, and all of the máes from Messica gave me
a capulana and made me go up with them though I had no idea what I was doing. I
caught on pretty well and was told I dance well and need to buy a capulana
matching theirs so I can officially be part of the group. J
This past week was my last real week at school. I went and told the students their averages
for the trimester and for the year. I
worked on grades and dealt with students coming up to me and asking me to bump
up their grades because they wanted an extra point or because they were
failing. Such a fun time.
On Friday, I went to Chimoio with Sarah and our friend
Otilia to go shopping. We went to the
huge calamidades market and went a little capulana crazy. I am so excited to get new clothes made,
though I don’t know exactly what I want with each capulana just yet. The rest of the weekend was a normal weekend
in Messica. Then today I went to
calamidades with Otilia again, and spent most of the day with her.
Tomorrow, Otilia is going to teach Sarah and I to make the fish
that Messica is famous for. I am pretty excited about it. I also will turn in
the grades for the year, and then the school year is officially over and I am
free! Besides the pesky national exams
in November.
The countdown is on for December 1st when I will
have some special visitors in Moz, and then the 16th when I’ll be
back in the US.
Até a próxima,
fiquem bem! (Until next time stay well!)
I love hearing from you!
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