On Saturday at the Wor Zone, the English department released the final grades including those who managed to get a grade zero. Consequently the staffroom is abuzz with the kind of students who would otherwise not be seen dead near an English teacher, or an English class for that matter! Students who felt they shouldn’t have failed are asking to see the grading books, and I even had students and their parents coming round to my house yesterday (Sunday!) to ask me to check for them.
I personally have 15 ne’er-do-wells who are vying to change their zeroes to ones via a re-test. Their usual assumption is that I just give them their final test, which they scrape though or otherwise, but inevitably they pass. Ok, I did that in previous years and felt supremely dissatisfied that people who had to make no effort, got through without much fuss. This year, I decided to make it harder - much harder.
As my course is Speaking and Listening, I have always felt that giving a paper test as a final is a waste of time, though it’s something I have to do as a matter of school policy.
In the past, my re-test just echoed the final test, but this year I’m making them do a speaking test. The must memorise the conversations in all 5 units we studied this semester. Ok not much genuine speaking there but at least it’s something they’ll have to knuckle down to rather than a random a,b,c,d waste of time. I’ve given them 24 hours to prepare, and if they come tomorrow and perform to my satisfaction they get their grade 1, if not they come back on Wednesday. If they pull it off on Wednesday they get their grade 1, if not it’s grade zero on their first re-test card. I repeat this Thursday and Friday, and if there is ANYONE left who has not performed satisfactorally by then, I am authorised to fail them.
Four chances! That’s two more than they’re technically allowed!
Of course this announcement when given, was greeted with consternation by the students, who begged to have a simple abcd test, who berated me that they lived in faraway Rattaphum district, that it was so unfair to have to learn 5 units and not 2, though they ultimately knew that had they passed the first time around, they would not have to be there in the first place. It was a case of talk to the hand! This class will try to blag out of tests EVERY time.
I saw no reason to capitulate, after all these are students who barely lifted a finger all semester, and I’m certainly not a difficult man to please. Let’s see which of these students jump through the hoops quickest. I’ve got a feeling that I know which few I’ll still be seeing later in the week.
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You may recall a month or so ago, I mentioned that I was lusting over a new piece of DJing kit called the Hercules DJ Console, a widget that plugs into your USB port for hands-on mixing MP3’s. 
Tourist Warning: There have been a spate of muggings in the Songkhla area. Tourists and other animals are advised to avoid all non-essential travel around the perimeter of Khao Tang Kuwan in Songkhla at around 5pm-6pm if carrying shopping or other edibles. These thieves are known to mill about in their hundreds usually begging for food, but sometimes resort to bagsnatching if spurned.
Ko Yo is a small islands near the mouth of Songkhla’s Thalesap Lake. These days it serves as a conduit between the two sides of the mainland since the Tinsulanonda bridges were built in 1984. Spanning 2.4km they are the longest bridges in Thailand. It is all to easy to miss what this Island has to offer as you sweep by on the increasingly busy road that runs from east to west along the southern edge of the island.
Exploring the edges of the island, you will find the best reason to go to Ko Yo, its seafood restaurants. Built on platforms extending out past the mangroves surrounding the island, these beautifully set restaurants do some of the best seafood in Songkhla. The west-facing restaurants are more pricey, but then you do get a spectacular sunset with your meal if you go at the right time.
