May 29, 2013
My classes today went
really, really well – especially considering that I had no materials to work
with whatsoever, not even a textbook to follow. I had kind of suspected that I
wouldn’t be provided with anything, and as such had planned a lesson that could
be tweaked to span the course of an hour with essentially any level of
students. (And luckily I’m experienced enough that planning an entire 15 day
course and all of the materials to go along with it shouldn’t be much of a
problem.) I had brought a selection of white-board markers with me, although
what I should have brought was a selection of chalk. My classroom (like all the
classrooms at the Myrzamambetov Public School) has only one ancient chalkboard.
Luckily it has a lot of windows, since while it has six ceiling lights, only
two of them work – and they’re pretty dim.
My first class (Group 1)
consists of ten high-schoolers, ages 16 to 18. They are my most “advanced”
class, and I’d say they range from mid- to high- beginners. My second class
(Group 2) consisted of twelve middle-schoolers, ages 13 to 15, and is solidly
in the mid-beginner range. My third class (Group 3) consists of thirteen
elementary school and lower middle school students, ages 11 to 14, and they are
low- to mid- beginners. None are flat beginners (ie, they all at the very least
know the alphabet and some basic sentences). Additionally, they all seem to
speak Russian to varying degrees. While I like to use English as much as
possible in the classroom, I am not one of those ESL/EFL teachers who does not
believe in using the student’s native language (or in this case, pre-existing
second language) to help facilitate explanations when necessary. All three
classes were very excited to see me, and all were incredibly eager to
participate. The third (and youngest) class especially was especially excited;
students were seriously jumping over each other for the opportunity to read
aloud. All three groups really seemed to enjoy the singing.
Group 1 meets from 9:00 to
10:00. Group 2 meets from 10:15 to 11:15. Group 3 meets from 1:30 to 2:30. This
means that I have more than a two hour break between my morning classes and my
afternoon class.
During my break, I went into
the teeny-tiny store located directly across the street from the school. When I
say teeny-tiny… well, this place was little more than a kiosk, containing three
boxes of juice, a rather comprehensive supply of booze, a lot of cookies and
candy, some ice-cream, sausages, sweaters, scarves, and socks. No bottled water
whatsoever. Sigh. I bought a miniscule carton of juice and added 475som to my
flash drive modem. (Sadly, as the thing is of Chinese origin, it is impossible
to tell my balance. I couldn’t figure out what the Russian meant when I
requested my balance, so I switched the language to English, and it is just as
indecipherable. Chinglish nonsense. So who knows how long my 475som will last
me.)
After my third class of the
day, I returned home and napped. I nap a lot, no matter what country I’m in or
what I’m doing. Rakhat seemed concerned that I might be either sick or homesick
or simply bored, so I had to explain that I pretty much need a nap every
afternoon. I have to admit, I feel a little bad about this habit, given the
insane schedule that Rakhat must keep. Not only does she work at the school,
but she takes care of three children – including Nurel who is only 2.5, and she
must do things like milk the cows and hand-wash the clothes. She is constantly
on the go from before I wake up in the morning until around 11pm.
After my nap, I did some
lesson planning for the following day, as well as outlining the general plan
for the remaining fourteen days of my course. The London School had given me a
laptop in order that I could record audio-files to accompany their Beginner 1,
2, and 3 level texts. The laptop also contained the outlines for their Beginner
1 and 2 texts (as yet unwritten, as far as I can tell) and the actual full
electronic file for Beginner 3. I had hoped that I could use the outlines and
the text from Beginner 3 in my classroom. Unfortunately, the text was just too
Bishkek-centric. Talking about going to the cinema next to Ala-Too Square or
dancing in a nightclub after dining in a café near Sovietskaya is great
location-centric content for a school based in Bishkek. However, Bishkek might
be the capital of Kyrgyzstan, but it is so vastly different from Toguz-Bulak
that it might as well be in a different country. Toguz-Bulak doesn’t have any
cafés or restaurants to speak of, much less any nightclubs! Additionally, the
topics seem more appropriate for adults and university students (ie, discussing
careers and university courses) which makes the content rather irrelevant to my
11 to 18 year old Toguz-Bulakian children. Not a problem: I’ll create my own
content.
After lesson planning, I
watched Rakhat milk the cows (from which she makes fresh kefir, as well as
cow-milk kumys every night). Like I said, the amount of work this woman does in
one day is simply incredible. I couldn’t do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment