So today I finally was able to write in the all-important Teacher's Journal. Kazakhstan used to belong to the USSR, and they claim that this is a relic from that time period. Blame the Russians if you find it ridiculous, they say, not us. (the school is Turkish. The Turks don't have this Journal.)
The Journal is this thick book that is perhaps similar to a teacher's gradebook. Except that this book MUST be written in using a nice black ink pen, and, in fact, EVERY entry MUST be made in that same pen.
Each class has a journal, and it is filled out by all the teachers who teach those students. Each subject matter has a section--Maths, Science, English, Russian Language, Kazakh Language, P.E., Dance, etc, etc. Open to the book to the beginning of, say, the English section, and on the left side of the left page, you will find the children's names written down a column, much like in a grade book in the US. Except that the children's names are written in Kazakh script, which is impossible to read if you are not Kazakh or Russian. You need to get explicit permission from the Ministry of Education to write their names in English, which our school did not do. So we foreign teachers must keep a separate list of the children's names, in the correct order, in English, to help us.
Then for each column after their names, like a gradebook, is a different date. Except that you must write down the dates of every lesson that the children received. If they had two lessons in a day, then the date must be written down twice. Because for every lesson, a teacher must assign a grade to at least 3 children in the class, and write it in the Journal.
On the right side of the page on the right, there is another column for writing the "topics" of each lesson. The teacher must write down the title, or topic, of every lesson that she taught. These topics must match EXACTLY the topics and dates listed on the "Annual Plan"--the plan the teacher makes at the beginning of the year, stating the topic of EVERY SINGLE lesson that she will teach to the students. So much for adapting your plans to the students.
Now here comes the kill: There must be absolutely, positively, no mistakes whatsoever in these journals. These journals are checked regularly by the Ministry, and at the end of the year, they go to the Ministry, where they are kept, sacrosanct, as a record of the students' progress. There can be no mistakes because a change in the book--via erasing, crossing out, white-out, etc--can imply that somebody messed with the students' grades. This cannot happen.
("Has anyone heard of Excel?" Valerie asked.)
And so, if you make a mistake--no matter how tiny (misspell a student's name? write the wrong topic for the wrong date?)--then you must get a brand-new Journal and REWRITE THE ENTIRE THING. Except that, each subject must stay in the same handwriting. Meaning, you cannot rewrite the PE teacher's section, because that would be in your handwriting, not his. So, you are pretty much screwed if you make a mistake, and everyone will want to kill you.
EXCEPT, hello!!!! We are only humans and human beings make mistakes. So don't tell the Kazakh Ministry of Education, but the teachers have learned ways to cover their mistakes, make it look like nobody made a mistake and nobody meddled with the original writing in the book. I could tell you some of our secrets, but then I'd have to kill you.
As I said to the vice principal, when you require people to be absolutely perfect, then you end up with a lot of people finding ingenious ways to cheat.
In the first grade, the Journal is not too difficult. They don't receive grades until the 2nd semester. So, I can just hand my annual plan to my Kazakh teacher, who then fills in the Journal as if I've been following the annual plan. Of course I haven't. But as long as it looks like I have, it's all good. Valerie was sick for a week, and technically, she still had to abide by her annual plan and pretend she taught during that week.
For fifth grade math, however, I have to give grades. The grading system is a 1 - 5, with 5 being like an A or a B, a 4 being like a C, a 3 being like a D, and a 2 and 1 being like an F. Basically, don't give 2's. Seriously. If you do give a 2, you then have to provide plenty of documentation proving that you have done everything you can to help the student. It is better to give a failing child a 3, and then do what you can to help the child.
As I said, at the end of every lesson, you are supposed to assign a grade --1 through 5-- to every child and write it in the book. Then, at the at end of the term, you are supposed to average the grades for the children--and this is their FINAL grade, the all-important grade that can never be changed and will be with them for the rest of their lives.
So, the best thing to do is to give them tests that assess all of their knowledge, not just their knowledge on a specific day, and then go back and give them marks at various dates so that their final average turns out to be what it should be based on the tests.
Except that you aren't supposed to do that, that's another one of our secrets.
Here's an example of the ridiculous grading system. I have a student in 5th grade math, a sweet little girl I'll call Ingrid. She is Turkish. She speaks no English and little Russian. She is completely and totally lost in the classroom, and asks permission to go to the bathroom at least once a class period. I can write down a simple multiplication problem for her--say, 3 x 2--and she is still lost. So far behind the others.
I asked the vice principal (who, remember, had taught the class until I arrived) what to do about her. "Give her a 3," he said. OK. So if you're completely, miserably failing and are several grade levels behind the rest of the class, you get a 3. So what does a 4 mean? Does a 5 really mean anything?
I finally managed to fill out the 5th grade Journal--it was hard to find, as other teachers were always using it. I turned it over to the vice principal as if it were poison. Keep it away from me, I don't want to mess it up.
Keeping a log of students' progress and all the lessons taught is not a bad idea. Requiring perfection and no grades below a 3 is ridiculous.
Blame the Russians.
No comments:
Post a Comment