Monday, December 13, 2010

Final Exam Fun

So I'm slowly grading a stack of final exams from my Middle East history class and just came across this gem. I had to share.

Q: Who was Mehmet Ali? (The 19th-century military governor of Egypt who forcibly modernized the economy)

A: He was a peaceful man who was always kind and generous to others. He was Islamic and found great pleasure and satisfaction by reaching out to others.

This same student answered an essay question about culture in the Ottoman Empire from the 15th-17th centuries using two examples: 1) women's rights in the Qur'an and 2) a term first coined in Iran in 1979. Her essay about socialism in the Middle East from 1950s-1970s was based on a film about current Syrian-Israeli border conflicts. Her overall grade on the exam for this combined effort: 12/100. Ouch.

Friday, December 3, 2010

play that funky music

Today, my coworker told me I was a good dancer "in a funky white girl kinda way". Compliment accepted.