I'm in way over my head. It was pretty gratifying that a few students were able to get results that were pretty accurate (it means that I am capable of making solutions to a precise concentration). Still, running the lab session today was crazy. Actually, there wasn't enough equipment, so we had to run it twice. In addition to the fact that the students didn't actually know how to use several of the apparatuses, we had to do a lot of damage control throughout. Most of the casualties were just test tubes that were heated too strongly. The students were using old fashioned pipettes, which meant that a few students drank the unknown solution (sodium carbonate doesn't taste very good, but it's harmless). Nothing bad happened, which was nice.
The most hectic part was that we didn't have containers for storing extra solution, so a few of them had to be remade during the exam. I think I would up making 0.25M HCl about 9 times. One time, I was so rushed that I mixed water with acid (one of the first rules in the chemistry lab is that you pour acid into water, not water into acid. Thank you Carmen Sandiego.) At least I didn't spill on my hand this time (I put a band-aid on today to avoid that pain; that's almost as good as gloves, right?). I'm not entirely sure how consistent the concentration was. The worst was making ammonia because of the smell. Also, I had to keep leaving my afternoon math exam with the third years to make solutions. I had one day of training with Mr. Hunt (my wonderful high school chemistry teacher) six years ago, but apparently none of the other teachers were willing to even try. My brain was pretty fried during all of this, and the other chemistry teacher wasn't doing so well either, so the students were completely unsupervised for a good part of it. Still, it's over now. I'm very grateful and glad there were no injuries.
As my stack of exams keeps growing (right now, I have 7 stacks to grade), I have been too tired to make much of a dent. Still, I decided to start off by tackling the third year math papers. The scores were not great, but I was happy with some of the progress that they've been making. I was particularly excited by one of my students who has consistently ranked second to last. His score had more than tripled his usual on this exam. I felt like maybe I had flipped some switch and he now miraculously understood some of the topics. Then I looked at the paper of the student sitting next to him (he usually ranks second or third in the class) and it all became clear. There was no switch that had been flipped. This was a clear cut case of copying (crowded classrooms make it a bit hard to prevent). Kinda crushes my spirit a little bit. I think I may have a talk with him about taking some time off of school. All the other teachers would love to expel him (I'll do everything I can to make sure that they don't find out about this), but I think he would do better to do things on his own terms. There's also the possibility that he is dyslexic or has some other kind of learning disability (I have another student with whom I have the same concerns). Since those things are completely unknown here, they don't really have any way of getting diagnosed or helped. I hate to admit it, but I haven't had much time to give them special attention either. I just don't know what I could do. For now, it will just have to start with a conversation.
On the plus side, no problems with water today.
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