Holidays are for ...

One of the great things about teaching at a school in Cambodia with a largely Cambodian student population is that we take all the Official Cambodian Public Holidays in the correct day. Now in May, this is a bit of a nightmare for getting any actual work done, with Tuesday off the first week, Monday and Wednesday off the second week, and Monday through Wednesday (3 days) off the third week, but you are unlikely to hear me complaining.

Today was an important day on the Buddhist calendar: Meak Bochea Day. This day particularly commemorates Buddha, and his teachings.

So what about me? I don't celebrate Buddha or his followers. Well actually, for me it was a perfectly timed "Pupil Free Day" when I got into the classroom and got my grading caught up, made sure I was ready for the rest of the week's lessons, and recreated some of the documents I lost in the great flash drive disaster!

I think, for the first time since the start of the school year, all completed class work that needed to be graded is done! That said, I have a big project about to hit my desk and one of my next top priorities is to set up the grading worksheets for it. I have been reviewing student work informally during the course of the project, to inform teaching of the rest of the project, but I haven't actually done any formal grading. Fortunately it's a half class project so I should be able to tackle it without feeling overwhelmed.

All this is just as well, because it is now 3 1/2 weeks until my next one day break (a Thursday), and after that it is 4 1/2 weeks until Khmer New Year and a 6 day break (including the weekend). In the past we've had a whole week for Khmer New Year (with a weekend either side), but because of the timing this year we only get Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Monday this year. Life's like that.

Well, it's time to finish. I'm in great need of a good night's sleep before I tackle the coming week. It was hot today! With no students in the classroom, there was also no a/c, so I'm fairly tired, although it could have been worse - the power could have been off so I'd have no fan, and the funeral ceremony that went for much of yesterday could have gone on all day today (instead of finishing around 10.30am) which would have meant keeping the classroom door closed, thereby reducing cross ventilation.

Good night all.