Exams Day 3

Today I didn't have an exam in the morning (my first break), so I used the time to really make a dent on grading. I am grateful that today's grading was much less eventful than yesterday's. Then, midway through the morning, my 4th year agriculture students came to me so that they could write their reports on the napier grass projects. I helped them figure out the general outline, but everything was their own work. I have been really proud of their work. Since I will be the only one grading them (even though it counts towards their national exam scores) I think I will give them all 100% (grading is pretty flexible on this one). That is 20% of their total agriculture score in November. They generally concluded that napier grass can grow here, although it is a bit too water intensive, so it isn't very practical. I was happy, since usually conclusions are something to the effect of "everyone should grow napier grasses because these plants will allow them to become better farmers." Or something like that. Most of the hard part in teaching agriculture is ending, I think. I hope.

I mentioned yesterday that I have concerns about another one of my students having a learning disability. As I was marking her exam today, I realized that she had also copied. Unfortunately for her, she sits next to the 3rd lowest scoring student in the class. Copying didn't help very much. I don't even know what I can do for her. I've given her some special attention, but I am not sure she is past the 6th grade level. I didn't penalize her at all (my default punishment for flagrant cheating is to take 20 points off of the exam), but I don't even know what to do.

After my afternoon exam, I sat at my desk grading and fell asleep on the papers. When I woke up, the students had already left school. I was a bit disoriented, but the other teachers were still grading in the staff room. They just assumed that I was marking in the lab, so we would all leave together. Exams are more than half done. I just need to push myself a few days more.