Yesterday I had to invigilate two exams, neither for my own classes, and while the first one went surprisingly easily, finishing very early because ALL 250 students got up en masse in unison at the thirty-minute mark and left, so we invigilators could leave early, and the second one went rather easily, too, when I returned to my office I found an email waiting from me from Fukudai's administration. They were telling me that because I didn't go to invigilate the exam I was assigned to do, our department chair had to do it for me!
I thought, What the what? Didn't I just invigilate an exam? Then a horrible thought hit me: what if I'd gone to the WRONG room?!?! I immediately hustled back to the venue, the second floor of building 8, and to my horror discovered that indeed I'd been in the WRONG room, 826, when I should have been in 821! How could I have made such a mistake? I've been at Fukudai since 1997, doing exams every semester since then, and I've never gone to the wrong room or missed my invigilation duties. What happened is I went to the second floor of building 8 and instead of checking the room number, assumed the big one on the left of the stairwell was for me, because ... because... because I saw a mob of students crowding into the room and assumed that mine must be that one because... because... because... I have no idea why I didn't bother to check the room number before entering the room! Earlier that day I'd checked my invigilation room assignments to confirm them and had written them down to be sure I'd remember them and not make any mistakes... ANYWAY, I had to apologize to our chair and promise to take one of his exam duties in fall semester, but I do feel very sorry for him to have to do an extra job yesterday. Invigilating is not easy. You stand around or pace a little too for an hour, trying not think about catching coronavirus (or covid) and feeling your feed, knees, and lower back start hurting... And my careless error made our chair do an extra test! Yikes... By the way, yesterday I also forgot to bring my collared shirt with me when I left for the bus, so it was lucky that my blue t-shirt was good enough to pass muster (maybe...). Am I losing it? I am over 60 and it is over 35 degrees... Oh, one thing I did during my invigilation yesterday was to note the t-shirts the kids are wearing, and here are some interesting ones: a black t-shirt with a lovely photograph of the sky with colored clouds in it and the words: "Serendipity: (noun) finding something good without trying to." A black t-shirt with giant white words "WORK WORK WORK" and a green line of paint crossing through each one. A long-sleeved black t-shirt with the words "HAVE INSPIRATION" written going from the left sleeve across the back and then down the right sleeve. A beige t-shirt with the words, "FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION ALL MUST SUCCEED" And then the puzzling one: a t-shirt with letters on the back looking like they'd been cut out of a magazine or newspaper for a kidnapping ransom note, saying, "Atmosphere Urine."
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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