If only I were Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man

I think my situation is often different from the other teachers. I wasn't expected to have many students in my last class before finals, but Saturday's American Studies class had a fair amount of students. To be sure, they weren't as full as normal, but there was still a considerable amount of them (pictured below).

American Studies 1: Last day of class

American Studies 2: Last day of class

This week marks exams at University of Bamako. That means my days are entirely filled all week long (and a bit next week, too). When I'm not giving tests to my own students (more on that in a minute), I'm proctoring for other teachers' classes.

It also means I'm extremely exhausted. It's a good exhaustion, but it's still an exhaustion none-the-less. I really have no time for other things. Tonight, for example, I didn't get home from giving exams until after 7:45pm (with an 8am start).

Giving my exams has proven interesting. One problem is the simple fact there simply aren't enough of me. Simply put, they scheduled all the Conversation Year 2 exams at exactly the same time in entirely different rooms (and even different buildings on different sides of the river). Given that I taught 3 conversation classes this semester, it has caused a problem.

I've given the exam for one of the three. The others I've simply had to try and reschedule later this week and the beginning of next week. The one I gave began today at 3pm, but didn't finish until after 7:30pm. It was scheduled for 2 hours, but seeing that I had 70 students to try and have one on one conversations with, well... two hours just doesn't work for that. That's going to make the other two conversation class exams fun to look forward to.

I also received next semester's schedule this week. I'll be teaching 16 hours of American Studies. 12 hours of 2nd year and 4 hours of 3rd year. That I'm actually really looking forward to. I'll be teaching 6 days/week--meaning I only have Sunday off, but still.. it's a good schedule. It does mean that I'll have to retool what I was planning on doing for podcasts (I had just assumed that I'd be teaching at least some conversation classes), but that's okay. I think I'll examine a poem or short story each week that's period specific, break it down and emphasize vocabulary.