Holidays are here!

It is August 26th, Thursday and Shelley and I are now on vacation for the next 5 days. School resumes next Wednesday and we are into September, midterm marks and report cards. I should have a posting a day with pics. That's assuming I have a decent internet connection.

However, I do have a data plan on my HTC Desire Android 2.2 phone and when I tether my laptop to it, I have speedy access anywhere I have phone connectivity! Isn't technology wonderful?

I don't know where we are going as Shelley booked everything, but once I get there, I will let you know.

TTYL,

Jim

Mea Culpa

I have been bad. Paul cotton just pointed out I have been slipping on the frequency of my blog posts. I have been busy, but that is no excuse. The good news is that Shelley and I have a 5 day break coming up on August 27. We are going to some beach resort in Malaysia to veg out. If they have internet access I will post daily with pics.

Shortly thereafter we have 11 days off and will be going back to Siem Reap and Bangkok. We quite enjoyed both of theses places so they will be rest and relax vacations rather than see as much as you posssibly can in as few a days as possible :-)

Teachers are going crazy trying to get assessments done for the midterm report coming up. The students are getting by with 4-5 hours of sleep and it is starting to show.

We all need a break!

TTYL,

Jim

Last 2 TPA's Typed Up!

I have completed all 10 of my classroom visitations and I have typed up all my evaluations. Now I have to meet with the 10 teachers and go over their evaluations. If all this sounds like a lot of work, believe me, it is! Probably a minimum 15 minutes per teacher or about 3 hours of meeting time.

Shelley and I are finally booked for a beach vacation at the end of August. I think I will need it.

My class of 35 is progressing and the students are learning lots of good stuff. The problem is the amount of marking for that one class is equal to 2 classes. Presentation time is also a major problem as I lose too much instructyional time if each student presents. So I will have quite a few group presentations.

TTYL,

Jim

Saturday August 7th

If you have a test on Friday and then collect the student journals as well, you kind of have to expect to have some marking on the weekend. I am 6 hours into it and have another 4 hours to go.  The pitfall of teaching is the marking.

The good news is that 8 of my teacher performance appraisals are complete and typed up waiting for signatures. That leaves 2 more to complete this coming week.

Apart from marking tomorrow, I am not sure what Shelley has planned. We have not been into KL for a while so maybe we will make it a trip for the afternoon.

TTYL,

Jim

It's Tuesday August 3rd

Well, we are definitely back into classes. This is week four and quizzes and tests are the norm. My class size settled down as 35 and for the most part they are great students.

I am in the middle of 10 TPA's. Teacher Performance Appraisals. Here at Taylors each teacher gets reviewed once a year, where in Canada, it is every five years. One is too short, and the other too long.  Two or 3 years would be a good choice.

Other than that, not much to report on except we had a 3 day vacation to Kuching which is in east Malaysia. We visited a great cultural village, similar to Upper Canada Village but much larger and more diverse. We then visited the orangutans in the wild and saw about 8 of them, including 2 babies.

We visited the city of Kuching (almost a million) and had a tour. It was the start of their festival and their was a regatta on as well. Kuching is billed as the second cleanest city in Asia next to Singapore, and I would have to agree.

Some of our students met us on Saturday night and showed us around the festival grounds. They all head to Canada in the next few weeks, most to U of Toronto. I will upload some photos over the next week.

TTYL,

Jim