Grading Tests

I had already started this blog but Tommy stepped on the power strip and turned it off, shutting down everything in this little internet cafe. Not surprising.

Once a month the children are tested on all the subjects. Today was testing day which made it pretty boring because I just supervised and graded tests when they were finished. The one thing that I wanted to write about today, though, was the tests that the children took. When I wrote in the title "grading tests" I meant I was grading the tests themselves. These things had so many typos and so many things that were just plain wrong. It was just another thing that showed me that the educational system here needs drastic improvements. When it comes to things such as not having enough textbooks I can understand the issue. Textbooks are expensive. However, tests are tests. They are pieces of paper and it should not be hard to find ones or at least write ones yourself that have proper English.

On each test there would be numbers skipped, answers missing, double answers, grammatical and spelling errors and stories where you had to fill in the blank that made no sense. I copied one down to share with everyone:

Adenge was clever girl. She usually won when they played these games. That day she had been able to make a list of words which sounded like man. She had also made another list of things which looked like a circle. Joina had been winner and now Adenge was crying. The teacher told her not to be annoyed. Another time she would win.

The bold words are the words that I filled into the blanks from a choice of 4 words. To be quite honest I do not know if I got them all right because it did not make any sense no matter what word I put in. Try taking that sentence with the bold words out and see if you can think of words that would work. Also, this was the first one I saw and copied down. The next two fill in the blank sentences were twice as worse.

Another problem was that there were no answer keys. The head teacher handed me all the tests and had me do them. I did 3 math tests, and 3 English tests. Each one was riddled with errors.

Seeing this really made think of how I could help out here in the future. I could simply send the school emails with tests of the appropriate age. I do not see how students are expected to learn when the tests they are being graded with are incorrect.

Working at this school is both awesome and frustrating. It is awesome because I am able to help out a lot. It is frustrating because I am becoming more and more aware of how horrible of a school Waskam is. I say that with concern. Waskam is a private school, apparently better than public ones. Many many times throughout the day I am standing there looking for someone to tell me what is going on. Most days I will just start teaching the students something until someone comes in and informs me. However, today it was just a free for all because I had no information and no tests to give out.

Tomorrow they have some more testing and then Wednesday Tommy and I are preparing a bunch of lessons on English and social studies (Basically to teach them about the US). That should be awesome.

Last night after blogging we got home and Tommy was surprised with a cake and some other treats for his birthday. Mrs. Kamau called me outside and at first I was a bit worried at what she had to say to me. She simply wanted me to get Tommy into our room for a few minutes while they set everything up to surprise him. Tommy knew what was going on right away though clearly because right after I talked to her outside I had to come up with the bs reason to get him to leave a conversation with Steven.

Although not much of a surprise, what they did for Tommy was really awesome and nice.

Steven is the kind of man that really just makes you appreciate life. Everything he does and says is with a huge smile on his face. He himself sees everything as beautiful as one could possibly see it. Tommy and I bought the family two paintings made out of banana fibers, one of a male masai and one of a female. When we showed Steven he looked at it as if it was a newborn kid of his and pointed out every possible detail within the painting. He is an incredible person.

Another person I am becoming more and more found of is Carolyn. She does so much for the family and especially for Tommy and I. We have been very careful to thank her as much as possible as she does not seem to get nearly as much appreciation around the house as she should. She cleans, cooks, and washes. You name it, she does it. Today she even did some laundry for Tommy and I even though I pleaded for her to simply show me how to do it on myself.

Alright, that is all for today. Thanks for reading.

-Kevin

In response to my Grandma, yes some of the kids are adopted. Faith and Grace were both adopted by our host family. However, I think many kids are never adopted. They are raised in Morningstar, the name of the orphan home, and provided with an education until they are old enough to get jobs and live on their own.