Ce iti place?

My eighth grade's homework assignment the other night was to use the new vocabulary words in sentences. In class, I then asked the students to read their sentences. One word was thigh. One of my better students, Victor, raised his hand and said his sentence:

"I like my sister's thigh."

I smiled, said, "Okay, maybe you do," and moved on to the next word.

Crunching the Numbers

Well, the results are in after my November Grammar Review Month of Fury (yes, I had recently watched Requiem for a DreamВ when I came up with the name for it). I spent all of November reviewing basic grammar in every grade level, along with basic family vocabulary. The grammar topics taught were:

the verbs "to be" and "to have";

the simple present tense;

negative sentences;

interrogative sentences;

the present progressive tense;

the simple past tense and

the simple future tense.

The fifth grade did not learn the final three, because they will learn them for the first time later this year. Every other item was review for all classes. From the stunned looks on the faces of even some of my brightest students, though, it was clear that though it might have been taught in the past, it had not been learned. After a month, it was time to test my students. The tests were 20 points; 15 for grammar and five for family vocabulary. The fifth and sixth grades had separate tests, but the seventh and eighth grades took the same test. Let's break down these statistics:

FifthВ Grade:

11 students (one excused from test because of prolonged illness)

Average score: 6.55

Average percent: 33%

Median score: 5 (failing)

Top score: 13

Sixth Grade, Section A:

10 students

Average score: 7.60

Average percent: 38%

Median score: 7 (failing)

Top score: 14

Sixth Grade, Section B:

Six students (seven skipped both testing dates and will receive a 2, but will not be counted in these statistics)

Average score: 9.00

Average percent: 45%

Median score: 10 (passing, but would be failing disastrously if the other seven had taken the test)

Top score: 13

Seventh Grade, Section A:

11 students (one excused because of prolonged illness)

Average score: 10.55

Average percent: 53% (the only class with an average passing grade)

Median score: 10 (passing)

Top score: 18 (my God, that Catalina is smart)

Seventh Grade, Section B:

Eight students (three students remain untested)

Average score: 7.00

Average percent: 35%

Median score: 7 (failing)

Top score: 12

Eighth Grade:

10 students

Average score: 8.50

Average percent: 43%

Median score: 8 (failing)

Top score: 13

A few observations on these data:

1. В  В Only two of my classes had a median passing grade, and one class's "success" can be dismissed because the weaker half of the class ditched class.

2. В  В My 7a group performed better on the test than my eighth grade.

3. В  В The majority of my students failed while taking a test on review material.

4. В  В The top scorers in five of my six classes were girls (although hardly a surprise in fifth grade, with 10 girls and two boys).

5. В  В These students have been studying English since second grade. The system is broken and I alone will not repair it. My vacation starts December 23rd.

New Photos

New photos are uploaded to my WebShots archive. Check the random
section for pictures of Sam's birthday party and reunion of Mereseni
people. (I have been accepted into their club because I've now lived
here longer than they have, and Malise is border-line accepted
because she was in Sarata Galbena and still lives in the raion.)

My vacation is booked for Romania and Hungary. Can't wait.

Lenin Traieste!

Some things you just can't make up in these Moldovan textbooks:

English for You and Me, Form 7. Writing Exercise 2, p. 43

Write the words in the right order to make up sentences:

a) We, strong, to, our, need, goods, country, to, make, produce, industrial, more.

For those of you who are impatient or were never good at sentence re-arrangement, it comes out to "We need to produce more industrial goods to make our country strong."

It's the little things that make you smile in Peace Corps.

Hochei

Yesterday, the article in the San Jose Mercury News was that Sharks
general manager Doug Wilson was ready to pull off a trade. This
afternoon I get online and read this.

Wow! Well, I think Sturm and Stuart have huge upsides that could have
the Sharks regretting this trade. Primeau is a solid B-list player,
but no one who will make a fan cry himself to sleep. Thornton is a
huge boost to the team that is in sore need of talkative guys who
will motivate everyone in the locker room. He's a proven quantity
that will get even better over the years—although it seems like he's
already hitting his down-slide because I've been reading Boston press
on him for years and he matured so much earlier than Marleau, who was
drafted in the same year.

Bottom line, the Sharks are thinner on defense now, but with two all-
star centers. This season just got a lot better.

How does this relate to Moldova? Well, Dad sends me DVDs of Sharks
games, but other than that, not much. Oh yeah, and the trade happened
while I was in Moldova. So I'm writing about it.