Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

No internet in the department all until before now, so as I write about Saturday, Monday has already piled up on me.

So all the Mathematical Method exams (1, trigonometric applications and geometry applications - the latter two being parallel) were scheduled for last Saturday. TrigApp was scheduled for 830-1030 am, and had 47 students (from 3 sections) to take the test.

It was very difficult to get the students settled down to take the test. They were boisterious even as I passed the questionnaires and answer sheets around.

This was especially true after they had started to read the questions, because they said Maila had promised them certain formulas which weren't there. One student, Wendy, tried to contact her, but she wouldn't answer her celphone.

After around 5 minutes finally they turned quiet, one by one starting to concentrate on their exam. I had to go around asking them if there was any question any time I would hear mumbling or whispering in various areas.

I also had to pass around an attendance sheet my co-teacher Maila wanted them to sign, that included their name, ID No. (some of which the students still had not memorized even though it's already the end of the second term) and their Christmas wish. Maila even emphasized that their wish should not be to pass her subject.

This stumped some students as they didn't know what to write. Some left that space blank, while some got around her instruction by writing "to pass all my subjects" and "to pass all my exams". The strangest wish I read, though it probably should not so much in this time of rampant kidnappings of rich businessmen's children, was that a couple of students wrote, "to be safe".

For one student, he asked that his chair be moved near the window because the auditorium's light was not enough to charge his solar-powered calculator.

The secretary passed by twice, because the faculty room's air conditioner was off, unlike the auditorium's, which had caused some students to ask that the temperature be turned up. I gave the secretary the take home quizzes Maila had asked the students to submit before they took the exam.

At 10am two of my MM1 students were already there. I told them that I had moved their exam from 1030am to 1045am to give me 15 minutes rest from walking around in the first exam.

One student, Ferdie, arrived fifteen minutes before the test was supposed to finish. I told him I could give him the exam, but it was still up to his teacher to consider it, knowing several students had already finished and submitted their papers before he showed up. He just said he'd talk to Maila on Monday.

Prior to the second exam I had time to tell the students to go to the restroom before starting. I was also able to set up a table and chair on stage from where I could oversee them and check papers at the same time.

There were 10 students from MM1 taking the test, and 14 students for GeomApp, who were also my students in graphing, so I was able to tell them to sit with empty chairs in front and behind them.

Ferdie showed up again. He said he would take the exam knowing Maila may not honor it. I said I'd try to contact Maila to consult on that situation. He left the auditorium, and I followed a few minutes later looking for Wendy to get Maila's celphone number (why is it we only get others' contact numbers during an emergency and not in anticipation of such?). I saw Ferdie consulting with some students who took the same exam earlier, and turn away guiltily when they saw me. Something to tell Maila before she decides on Ferdie's exam.

When he finally took the exam, I told him to write that he knows his teacher has the right not to consider his exam since he was late.

Brian, one of my students in Graphing also showed up asking for the TrigApp exam. I told him to write the same thing on the exam booklet cover. When he finished his exam about an hour later, THEN he asked for the GeomApp exam. "Now I'll fail THIS exam," he told his classmates.

Two other students of mine in Graphing also took both exams, but they were present from 830-1030am. They showed up late for GeomApp though, probably to cram some more.

I've been trying to call Maila since this morning but I haven't been able to reach her.

I'll try again when I finish uploading this, and I'll relate tomorrow how that situation resolved, as well as the first "meeting" yesterday of my creative writing group this year, two thesis students trying to coordinate an oral defense with the schedule of four teachers (three panelists and one adviser) in finals and course card distribution, as well my Astronomy exam.