[etni] Fw: re: The Bagrut Exam
- From: "Ask_Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "ETNI" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 07:09:46 +0300
----- Original Message -----
From: tessa shrem - tessashrem@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: The Bagrut Exam
OK, so it's over for another year – no, what am I talking about – it's over
until the nightmare starts for the winter Bagrut.
I suppose I shouldn't complain. It all went off relatively smoothly. Only
7 radios didn't function properly (out of 18) in Module E because some are
ancient machines that couldn't hold a station properly, and should have been
junked about 15 years ago, or because the proctors decided to fiddle with
the stations despite being told the radios had been preset, or they didn't
know how to switch them on (I mean, like, duh!). Oh, and did I mention
thick concrete walls which have an adverse effect on reception?
And I won't go into the subject of ambiguous or poorly worded questions,
because other people have been writing about that, and it isn't really part
of the gripe of this posting.
But the pre-exam nightmare is beyond any description. The hours spent on
marking at least 2 sets of "matkonot" for each class for the different
modules, the even more hours preparing the "magenim" for each module
according to the rubric put out by the Inspectorate, the nervous tension
caused by fighting with the pupils, their parents, and sometimes even their
home-room teachers about their grades, because we do the magenim differently
for English, the whole question of pupils who are repeating Modules and what
to do about the magenim for them.
After every Bagrut exam, ETNI is inundated with postings from teachers who
are fed up with the whole system. In fact, I haven't spoken to ANYONE who
thinks this is a good way of doing things. Some teachers are talking about
questionnaires. I'm not sure what a questionnaire will do apart from
confirm what we all already know – major changes are necessary, and having a
new Literature module is not the answer, although it will at least give
those of us who teach Literature the opportunity to say "Yes" when the
pupils ask "Why should we do this? Is it on the Bagrut?"
I'm not sure what we ought to be doing, but I'm willing to join any group or
any initiative to try and improve things. Does anyone have any concrete
ideas?
Tessa Shrem
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