Students Return

Mid-term break is over for students. I am afraid some will not be pleased with mid-term results and I must say I am surprised and disappointed in some of their performances.

As classes go, grades are meeting expectations. The majority are doing well. I am only surprised by some individual performances. Students that I expected to perform well did not. Some that I expected to perform poorly excelled.

The former I do not understand. These students displayed a very good understanding of the subject matter in class. Their weekly assignments were done well but their mid-terms were deplorable. It is almost as if someone else that was unfamiliar with the subject did the work for them. At the least, I expected passing work to be done.

I do not enjoy failing students. Sometimes I feel it is part my failure as their teacher. Perhaps I did not communicate well with them. I simply cannot understand how they performed so well in class but failed in their exams. I suppose conversations must be had to determine the reasons and to overcome them.

I cannot explain latter either, though I am pleased with them. These students seemed to struggle in class yet performed brilliantly on their exams. It is these students who challenge my thinking of my failure as a teacher.

It is a challenge to teach here. The course being taught determines the language to be used. I teach an English language class and must use English and Japanese and, on occasion, Cantonese. I teach computer science classes where I must use Japanese, English and Madarin. At times it is difficult to remember what language I should be speaking to teach.

It is common during the school year that I begin thinking it would be easiest to stay home and teach Chao lei. He is an easy student. I could only wish university students were as easy.