Mid-Term Time!

I have been busy this past week preparing my mid-term exams. Not only did I have to write the exams but I also took it upon myself to tpye the exams. I felt bad giving them to the secretaries to type because all four of my exams were pretty long and all had a short story the kids are going to have to read. The other teachers, I found out after the fact, are giving exams that are like five or ten questions. I heard the word mid-term and I thought of the tests in America..oops. My kids are probably going to hate me because all of the exams have at least four parts and they are getting the entire three hours to finish, the teachers are also going to hate me when they are forced to monitor my exam, I am also probably going to hate me when I am forced to pull and all nighter grading them so that i can leave early for break...oh well.

I did not realize when I volunteered to type my exams what this would really entail. I knew that I could whip out a six page paper in under two hours, how hard could typing four exams be? Well when one to the secretaries led me tot he room where the typerwriter was located I started to sweat. The only time in my life I have used a typewriters was when I was about 6-9 at the omniplex (only the colest museaum for kids ever) and even then it was an electronic one. When they showed me the dinosour I was suppsoed to sue with the special paper I was to use and left me to my own devices I was baffled. It took me a good 45 mintues of frantic sweating and button pushing to figure out a. how to capotalize letters b. how to format the typewriter to go past the middle of the page for one line and how far I could really go after it dinged the end of a line before I had to start another line and c. how hard I had to hit he keys to make the impression on the paper (this was some kind of special typewriter because it didnt use ink and only made indentions on this paper). Needless to say i wasted two sheets of paper, which I felt bad about before I even figured out the simple things. Spacing was hte next beig obsticle and took me typing out one full story miserably to get it right. After two hours i had only finished one exam. I did finally get on a role but even then I didnt dare use anything but my pointer fingers to type. As a side note most people can tell either from personal experience or from reading my blog that I am a horrible typist and speller, this compounded my nervousness when typing the exam because you can really use correction fluid on this paper. One of the secretaries did come in at one point and comment on how fast I was typing, I couldnt tell if there was a hint of sarcasm in her tone or if she was really telling the truth, I pushed on though.

By the time I was on to my third exam I was feeling pretty comfortable and even ventured as far as to use other fingers to type, partially because my pointer fingers were hurting so bad from hitting the keys so hard, and partially because I felt comfortable. Each exam was taking me progressivly less and less time as I became more comfortable with my new friend. By the time I finished the fourth exam it was almost 7 p.m (I started at around 2 mind you) it was getting dark, my hands were hurting really bad and I even had a small callous that had developed on one of them. I did gain anew found respect for the secretaries of the 1930s and 1940s who had to type on these non-electric typewriters everyday..so rough.

When I get to Zambia next week I am going to upload pics of the typewriter and my finished product, also I am going to upload a pic of the "copy machine" at school. I finally got to see how they make hte copies this week and I am still a little baffled. It is this crank thing that is really more like a printing press from what i have gathered, all I know is it must suck to have to crnak out all the copies of all the exams and the ink for this thing gets EVERYWHERE I'm talking ink handprints all over the office wall fromt he guy trying to pull one sheet off and put anotehr on, it was comical/kind of confusing to watch it all take place. I still cant beleive that it all works without electricity.