::A Geek in Korea::

While evaluations and monthly testing are huge pains in the butt for teachers, level testing is the slow ride at the end of the day that soothes the pain away. The level tests are prepared by outside organizations and combined into a one hour test that all students in a class recieve once a semester.

They are based on standardized tests that we’ve culled from testing sources and modified into a test of skill for the students. It’s all multiple choice, and the students are crammed into a room, told to listen to some tapes, and select the appropriate answers. This isn’t the style testing we give on our normal monthly test, but it is the sort of examinations the students do in their actual elementary schools.

I will be proctoring some of these tests during the week. This is a sweet gig, as long as I can get the set up correct there is literally nothing more than pushing a button on a cd player and keeping students from cheating. I collect the tests at the end, and another teacher grades them with the key. Sweet.

These are the tests that place students in levels higher than their current level if the students do well. The most embarrassing thing that can happen at our school is being passed by your peers. This demoralizes even the worst of students and occasionally causes complete turn arounds in behavior, or the students quit. Either one is fine.

Usually we’ll be picking books for the next semester by now, but there hasn’t been anything spoken to me about it. Perhaps after evaluations are finished and we know where students will go, we’ll end up picking books based on who is in the class. Not sure yet.