Cheating and Cheese (4/2/2006)
I went to Arusha last weekend and the bus ride was a great opportunity to see green land now that the rains have come. It did not actually rain that much last week but it was the first time in a while that we had power for an entire week. Also this week was weeding so again I only taught half of my classes.
Speaking of which I got my first opportunity to invigilate exams and also to grade my math exams.The system is a little odd here there are "weekly exams" that started 3 weeks ago (but should have started 2 months ago) where two subjects every week get tested during the first 3 hours of Monday, consequently there are no classes during that time. However, because the same subject is tested at the same time and most teachers teach the same subject to multiple classes, this means that teachers are randomly assigned to monitor the tests. So last week I had my first assignment the form 2B class. I came in and wrote the exam on the board, some of the students could not read the questions because of the lighting and so I let them read the copy I had. Not long after this was finished another teacher came in to make sure the students were not cheating he said they were a class notorious for cheating. He confiscated a few papers and chided some students who were using their hands as scratch paper. Because of this teacher I decided would patrol the classroom the whole time. I think I did a good job.
During this time my classes were taking the exam I wrote. I admit I wrote a hard exam, but it was because many of the students were not doing their homework and I think they needed to know that they need to prepare for the national exam. All of my questions were taken off of it for the topics we have covered. I do not know if the would have cheated even if the questions were easy, I suspect they still would have but maybe not to the same degree. I was appalled to be viewing the exams seeing line for line the same work and same mistakes. The form 3B students were by far the worst. I have separated about 30 students out of 43 as cheaters. I think that they will be unpleasantly surprised to find that I will follow through and give them 0's as I said I would. However I think it necessary to do so and hopefully it will prevent future cheating.
I am sure many of you have been awaiting my next culinary catastrophe, so here it is. I accidentally discovered how to make cheese. I decided to invest in fresh milk daily, it reall
y is quite cheap at 15 cents a pint, but I view it as a luxury item and it is a daily expenditure. Anyways, I am now getting half a liter per day and one day I did not use it. So I let stay in my cool closet for several days (I think four). Then yesterday I decided to try it instead of pouring out, it kind of plopped out into the pan. Not deterred I added some water and corn flour to make my ugi breakfast. Of course I let it cook for a lot longer than usual and after about 45 minutes of simmering/boiling I figured it was safe. The ugi was more than a little bitter from the turned milk but after adding a lot of sugar it tasted a lot like a rich cheese maybe ricotta. I bet officially I have made sour cream, but none the less I prefer to think I am making something fancy and after cooking it has a texture more like a cottage cheese or ricotta than sour cream.
On a somewhat related note: I still have not temped my fate by eating the forbidden fruit again.
Later,
T.
Speaking of which I got my first opportunity to invigilate exams and also to grade my math exams.The system is a little odd here there are "weekly exams" that started 3 weeks ago (but should have started 2 months ago) where two subjects every week get tested during the first 3 hours of Monday, consequently there are no classes during that time. However, because the same subject is tested at the same time and most teachers teach the same subject to multiple classes, this means that teachers are randomly assigned to monitor the tests. So last week I had my first assignment the form 2B class. I came in and wrote the exam on the board, some of the students could not read the questions because of the lighting and so I let them read the copy I had. Not long after this was finished another teacher came in to make sure the students were not cheating he said they were a class notorious for cheating. He confiscated a few papers and chided some students who were using their hands as scratch paper. Because of this teacher I decided would patrol the classroom the whole time. I think I did a good job.
During this time my classes were taking the exam I wrote. I admit I wrote a hard exam, but it was because many of the students were not doing their homework and I think they needed to know that they need to prepare for the national exam. All of my questions were taken off of it for the topics we have covered. I do not know if the would have cheated even if the questions were easy, I suspect they still would have but maybe not to the same degree. I was appalled to be viewing the exams seeing line for line the same work and same mistakes. The form 3B students were by far the worst. I have separated about 30 students out of 43 as cheaters. I think that they will be unpleasantly surprised to find that I will follow through and give them 0's as I said I would. However I think it necessary to do so and hopefully it will prevent future cheating.
I am sure many of you have been awaiting my next culinary catastrophe, so here it is. I accidentally discovered how to make cheese. I decided to invest in fresh milk daily, it reall

On a somewhat related note: I still have not temped my fate by eating the forbidden fruit again.
Later,
T.
Labels: Peace Corps Tanzania
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