Well, maybe NOW I’ve seen it all.

For various complicated reasons involving the calendar, the second term at the school where I work is longer than the first. It feels shorter, though, because it has more, and better placed, days off. However, the end of the second term is also the time for lobbying and, this year, for odd things to happen.

Lobbying:
The lobbying occurs because high school third year students (12th graders) are finishing their classes, sort of, and finding out if they will graduate with a good enough score to get automatic recommendation to the affiliated university. Because of this, their classes end early and they have exams whilst we are still teaching other grades.

My one student suddenly became worried about his final mark during the last class and began a near epic lobbying campaign with all his foreign teachers. (I’m guessing he lobbied all his teachers, but I only have evidence of him lobbying us). I told him that the end of the school year is a little late to worry about his score and then told him what mark he needed on the final exam to get a “9” (81-90%). He earned the score with room to spare. I then had to spend the better part of an hour babysitting him at a test pass back until I could let him go.

He also announced that he would not be attending our one class together next term. (Note: the HS 3’s are finished and will receive no more grades yet they are scheduled for classes next term; however, if they don’t show up, there is no actual consequence except I get to sleep in or not.)

Oddities:
The odd thing happened yesterday, when two of my more troublesome students explained that they couldn’t do their final presentations because “A teacher ate our homework”. Actually, it turned out they meant “A teacher stole our posters.” As near as I can tell, they were practicing for my class during their math class–note: English requires a higher final average than other classes for automatic recommendation–and their math teacher confiscated the visual aids they were going to use for the Sell a Prefecture TV commercial.

After class, I led them down to the teachers’ room where they managed to track down the math teacher in question. They explained the situation and he looked confused, dumbfounded and then horrified. He explained he’d thrown the posters away. He then dug in the trash and, much to the relief of the students and my stifled, therefore painful snickers, he found the posters and the students were able to complete the assignment.

Of course, the tablet I was using as my timer ran out of battery right as they were finishing so I don’t know if they actually met the time limit yet or not.

Normally I’d torture them a bit by threatening to make them go again. However, since they’d shown me an event I’d never seen in 26 years of teaching, I decided not to torture them. This time.