This post has little to nothing to do with the NBC show 'Heroes'

I'm absolutely uncanny when it comes to recognizing faces. Really. If I were on Heroes, that would be my ability. I would recognize a face from a crowd or something. It's not as useful as the Japanese guy's power to go through time and space, but anyway, I can recognize any student's face. If I have met someone before, I remember that person's face.

Last Wednesday, I showed a movie in my Advanced Oral English class. Next week is the TEM-4 exam that students need to pass in order to get a full diploma from the school. If students don't pass the exam, they graduate, but do not get the same certificate that a student that did pass the exam would receive. The students take the test for the first time when they are sophomores and if they don't pass it, they take it again as juniors. About 60-65% of my juniors are taking the test again. I managed to take a look at one of the test review books all the students have and view some of the questions. I'll post some examples after the exam once I can get one of the booklets from a student, but most of the questions were quite difficult, even for me. There's a vocabulary section, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension (a tape is played and questions are asked). Believe it or not, it's probably just about on par compared to the SATs.

I can't stand the TEM-4, the TEM-8, CET-4, CET-6 and any of the other frivolous exams that students take. I really can't stand them. For the students, the tests are of utmost importance. They spend every waking hour studying and reviewing questions from the books. I can't blame the students though. It's completely understandable that focus so hard to pass the exams. The problem really lies with the education system. There's too much rote memorization and too excessive of a burden to get good grades and good exam scores. The creative foundation and joy of learning is completely lost in the desire to pass the next state assessment. The sophomores here take a class called "Philosophy" in which they memorize word-for-word the texts of relevant philosophers in Chinese culture; notably Marx (Makesi) and Confucius (Kongzi). Ironically enough, Marx would have abhored the very class and education system that is supposedly based on his ideologies.

Anyway, I digress. I decided to show a movie in my oral English classes this week because many of my students are stressed out with regards to the upcoming test and I figured I'd give them a break for a week. As I recognize all of my students' faces, I noticed that there was a new student in my class; someone I had not seen before. Sometimes when I show movies in class, (very rarely, actually) students invite their friends to come and watch, which is perfectly fine with me as a teacher. So I went over and asked what the new student's name was and he responded "Jimmy". It turned out he was in my class but he had only come once prior to the class I was showing the movie (we are in the 6th week).

Jimmy's English is by far the worst of all my students. He's also shy and reserved; two not very choice qualities for English majors at a teaching university. After showing The Truman Show, I caught Jimmy before he left class and told him to sit down. I waited until all the students were gone and I could talk to him without other students observing the conversation. I then essentially gave Jimmy an ultimatum. I told him he could continue not coming to my class and I would fail him, or he could come one hour a week to my office and I would prepare another lesson where I would teach him one-on-one.

Jimmy chose the latter and said, "Thank you" before leaving.

I'm not sure yet whether this will pay off, but Jimmy clearly needs some special help, much moreso than any of my other students. If he's planning on being a teacher or using English in any sort of professional context, he's going to need someone to work with him on a personal level and rapidly improve his proficiency (which is impossible in classes of 45+). Our first meeting is next Thursday at 4:30.