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

In Trig class yesterday I gave them the results of their exam and seatwork, and I gave them the answers to the questions. No one actually got higher than 70 percent, and the fact was that even the consistently high scorers had lower marks in the seatwork than in the exam itself. Somehow though they accepted that their score for the midterms is the average of both papers, over 80 points; the exam is 100 points and the seatwork is 60 points.

I also told them how to compute for their class standing so far, which is the sum of all the tests so far over the total number of points (which, they computed, is 109). Some would rather get my computations though, because they know I’m going to be the one to give them their final grade anyway.

Brian dropped by in the middle of the session, but left again before I could check attendance, which was at the end of the hour and a half. His other classmate and fellow absentee, Miguel, who did not take the exam and was here during the seatwork but did not pass any paper, also left after a few minutes in class, without even asking about getting a make-up exam.

In contrast, another student, E.J., who was also absent in the exam and the seatwork, approached me after class asking if he could have a make-up. I told him about the procedure and my policy regarding that.

A third member of Brian’s “group”, James, who was also in class during the seatwork, it turned out didn’t pass any paper either.

In the cafeteria afterwards, a fourth student exhibiting the same behavioral pattern, John, approached me to ask for a meeting to talk to me on Thursday, saying he has a reason for his performance, or should I say non-performance. I told him to look at my free time from the schedule in the faculty room and see me between my classes.

During Trig, some of the students were already asking for a postponement of the mechanics exam. I told them it would be difficult because it had been delayed so long already. And even my cousin was against scheduling it on Thursday because of a previously set exam in Calculus and another one in Human Behavior.

Before my mechanics class, another student (a Dean’s Lister) went to the faculty room to ask for a deferment of the exam, saying even he wasn’t ready, and because the practice and board work I had announced for last Thursday did not push through. This time I told him that if he could inform all of his classmates beforehand and get their consensus about having the exam either on Tuesday or Wednesday from 5 to 630pm, I would consider it.

What I didn’t tell him was that last Friday, it was already announced that the former university president and former Department of Education secretary would be observing some classes such as Math and English and including mine. So an exam was definitely out of the question. In English, in fact, my cousin’s speech was moved to another day so that their teacher, Citas, could provide a better demonstration of interactive teaching skills. But it turned out my classes wasn’t visited after all.

After passing around the attendance and poll sheet during class, 34 signed up for a Wednesday exam, and 19 for Tuesday, including my cousin. Since I made two exams anyway, for the 1120am and 1pm class separately, I will give them the test on those two days and still have a lecture session on Thursday.