December 14, 2010: First Semester Oral exam

December 14, 2010: Today was the first semester oral examination for the ninth graders in the bilingual classes. The test was actually a mock exam of what the students will be expected to take at the end of the year officially. We teachers on the panel had to dress in formal wear (i.e., coats and ties for the men and dressy dresses for the women on the panel) and the students wore dark trousers and white shirt, or in some cases, suits. The students were scheduled to speak before the panel in pairs in 15 minute intervals. There was a box in which were cards with the numbers 1 through 6 written on them and each number represented a topic that the student should expound on for his/her oral exam. After each student selected a number, he/she was given a picture representing the topic which they were to talk about. While one student spoke, the other was at another desk listening to what was being said. The students sort of acted as a support person for the other as he/she spoke, although they remained quiet as the student was tested. We on the panel followed up with specific questions about the topics. I was on the panel for the 9D class together with the form teacher for that class. In general, I was very impressed with the abilities of the students to talk uninterrupted for several minutes as they talked about the topic he/she selected. There were times during our exam when the other teachers of the students and the vice principal of the school witnessed the exam as it was in progress, just to see how the students were doing. The results of the exam for 9D were quite good in general, and I also saw the results of the oral exams for the other classes I teach. Overall, I was satisfied with the results, but of course there were a few students who surprised me by doing far better than I had expected they would do, and others who didn't do as well as I had hoped. I guess that's the norm when giving tests since that's how it goes when I teach calculus back at East Los Angeles College in the US.

In the mean time, I was approached by the coordinator of the poetry reading contest. She asked me to be the host of the contest when all the schools in Budapest gather at our school for the next round of poetry reading. What this means is that I welcome everyone to the contest and introduce the principal of our school who will give a speech beforehand. I presume that this will be the extent of my duties. 

Another teacher approached me later and asked if I would sing Christmas carols with the teachers for a school program. This will take place some time next week, just before school gets out for the winter break. Being a foreigner in a Hungarian school certainly has brought me all sorts of unusual opportunities to participate in activities I would normally not be qualified to be in.