End of term madness

The end of term is approaching and there are many things to gripe about (as A01B discovered today):

• Broken technology. It took three teachers to get the &%^$*#! projector working in LT6 today. Cables in, press buttons, cables out, press more buttons, call technician, etc. There are six LTs in the school. Why don't they all have laptops which we can simply plug our thumbdrives into? Instead, we're forced to lug our laptops around school. Meanwhile, those 30+, oh-so-useful flat screen TVs, each costing several thousands of dollars...
  

• Missed classes. A-Level results are going to be out next week. We usually do quite well for our A-Levels and will probably get a day off from school as a reward. In other words, more missed classes. I mean, I'm only starting my first tutorial question of the term with one of my J1s this week, because of all the missed Thursdays. But the hardest hit will be the J2s, for whom we simply must finish the syllabus. Makeups are in order, and they are always a pain to schedule.
  

• The global "food staple" conference. Hubris. We're pretty good, but not that well-known. Kinda like Singapore actually. Let's start locally, and then see how things go from there. I mean, the only foreign participants are from the Philippines, for crying out loud! And the jargon is nauseating. And it "eats" -- heh! -- into my holidays.
  

• Term papers. It was a difficult question. But that's no excuse for some of the dross that I've been reading. A country-by-country approach?! In J2!? Contrary to what many people might think, the A-Levels do not take care of themselves, even for our students.
  

On a brighter note, the guy I interview on Sunday was very impressive and I hope that he gets admitted. It would be refreshing for Dartmouth to accept someone NOT from the top five JCs for once. Oh, and I have a DPO / ex-DPO social event this Friday to look forward to.
Posted by kungfuzi at 7:26 pm |