Well, I figured it’s time I wrote something on my blog about teaching—my purpose for being here (according to Peace Corps, anyway!). There are some things that seem so obvious, and that I talk about so much in emails, I forget to mention them in the general blog updates!
I love teaching; I really do. Not quite enough to consider it as a lifetime career, but I am thoroughly enjoying myself right now! I enjoy planning lessons, and trying to make them interesting, and I am confident that I’m doing a pretty good job. I expected to feel more out of place in the classroom in the beginning, but I felt right at home from the start. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I know my Campus Life experience has greatly contributed to my comfort level.
To give a basic rundown, I teach 18 lessons in a week (45 minutes each), which is the minimum for Peace Corps Volunteers. I teach 8 different classes 2 or 3 times each week. I teach two 6th grade classes (3 times a week each), one 8th grade class (2 times a week), three 10th grade classes (2 times a week each), and two 11th grade classes (2 times a week each). Students here are grouped in classes that take all their lessons together until they graduate. So instead of each student having an individual schedule of different classes with different students, each class has its own schedule with the same students. 11th grade is the last year of high school here, so next year I should have all the same students except for my 11th graders. So I’m really excited that I’ll be with these same students for the next 2 years. It will be rewarding to be able to see their progress, rather than teaching the same things each year to different students.
I absolutely love my students. Of course there are a few who are a pain, but most of them are great, even if they aren’t great at English. I like them, and it seems like they like me! I haven’t had any huge behavioral problems. Huge relief for me, since they could definitely take advantage of my low language skills to give me lots of grief. The biggest problems I have are with students not coming to class and not doing their homework, but not with belligerence or disrespect, which would be much harder to deal with in a foreign language. So I’m grateful! The students are really patient with my bad Kyrgyz, and they don’t seem to be frustrated with me (yet), as I’m sure I would be with a teacher who couldn’t explain things clearly.
Even though the students have been taking English since 1st grade, most of their English levels were about the same (pretty low), so I just decided to start from the very beginning with all of them. It’s nice to have all the students learning the same things at the same time, because it means I only have to plan 2-3 lessons a week! Even that takes me hours on the weekends, so kudos to all those elementary school teachers who write lesson plans for every subject every day (Mom and Dad)! I don’t know how you do it!
I’m definitely learning my English grammar in the process! Some volunteers don’t like to teach grammar, but I don’t know how you can learn a language without it (unless you’re really young). This past month we have tackled pronouns, possessive pronouns and possessive nouns (‘s), immediate family members, simple adjectives (tall, smart, etc.), common professions, and the two killers: to be verb and articles. Kyrgyz doesn’t use the to be verb in the present tense, and they don’t use articles at all, so it’s kind of difficult to explain, and an even bigger hassle to get the students to remember that “Menin apam mugalim (my mom teacher).” Is actually, “My mom IS A teacher.” Really, why do we need these words?? Other languages do fine without them…
My classroom was pretty bare when I walked into it for the first time, but it’s finally starting to look pretty nice. I’ve made homework charts for each class and use stickers to show whether an assignment has been turned in or not—they really like seeing all the stars next to their names. And above that I have the “Super Star” wall for students who do all their homework on time for a month. And then I make charts for the grammar we go over, and put up pictures the students have drawn for homework. I’m becoming more and more please with the look of it as time goes on!
Sometimes it is difficult not having the resources that would be available to me in the States. The books are old texts from the Soviet period and I don’t use them at all, so I’m pretty much writing all my curriculum from scratch (also good practice from Campus Life there!). And we don’t have computers or printers or copiers, which eliminates the possibility of using handouts, and means I have to write everything on the chalkboard (yes, CHALKboard—I hate chalk!) for the students to then write in their notebooks. That can take a while, since I can’t really have anything to give them prepared ahead of time. And since there are no books and no handouts, I have to come up with all the homework on my own and write it on the board at the end of class, which can be a pain and quite time-consuming. Those are my main complaints; it can be frustrating to come up with a great idea for an activity and then realize I don’t have the resources to make it happen. Maybe we can work together to lobby GW School Supply to open a store in Jon-Aryk?? :-)
Grading is another issue. I started out grading students just as they would be graded in the States, on a strict point scale, but was forced to compromise a little bit when I realized about half of my students were failing on that system. Students just don’t fail here—to give a student a D is a huge deal, and is interpreted by the administration as you being a bad teacher. So even though I am not just going to pass everyone to avoid conflict, I knew it wouldn’t be acceptable to give Fs to half my students! So I have had to adjust, and with a painstaking groan, I am giving Cs to students with at least a 50% in my class. Other volunteers have said that is just the way grading is done here, and is probably even more strict than other Kyrgyz teachers. My one holdout is that it is still hard to get an A in my class. You may be able to squeak by with a C at 50%, or get a B at 70%, but you still have to get 90% to get an A. I just couldn’t concede on that point, since there are some students who are really that good, and deserve the prestige of getting a real A.
I know this is already a very long post (making up for lost time? I hope you don’t mind!), but I just have to give one more shout out to my own brilliant 6th grade teacher, who has inspired me to give Homework Passes as awards to exceptional students. Greatest idea ever. So Mrs. Ward, if you’re out there and happen across this blog, thanks to you!
