My students
I'll be honest- I complain about the students here a lot. Not mine, necessarily; mine are more or less pleasant to work with. Some of them are even delightful. But teaching in an educational system where there are no disciplinary measures to speak of is tiring. The harshest punishments I know of are being yelled at by the vice-principal for scholastic misbehavior, and having your name passed to the local police for the 'watch out' list for legal misbehavior. Consequently, I can't begin to count the number of times 'fuck you,' 'motherfucker,' and 'kiss my ass' have been said as I walk by (though always when my back is turned). Many of the children I teach are of gentler stock, but there are plenty in my school who think Insult the Foreigner is a sweet game. Service in Eastern Europe is rightfully called 'Posh Corps' in light of the creature comforts, but I wonder how many African volunteers get this kind of abuse from kids?
That was not what I intended to speak about, though. I wanted to tell you about what I'm doing this week. Although volunteers are given primary assignments, we are generally expected to cultivate side projects. As a TEFL volunteer, my primary assignment is teaching English in a secondary school. My side project has been creating a resource center at my school for the foreign language teachers in our town, which has gone pretty smoothly with only one or two hiccups. However, compared to the volunteers who write 3 or 4 grants before closing service, and practically attaining beatification in their towns, I look uninspired. So, to go out with a louder whimper, I decided to engage in a small project before leaving. To that end, I joined forces with the school psychologist to conduct a short seminar with various senior classes in my school on the dangers of human trafficking. Most volunteers prefer to focus on HIV/AIDS (and rightfully so, considering that Strana has the worst situation in Europe), but there is already an excellent NGO here that works with heroin addicts and that encompasses HIV/AIDS work in its procedures. So, I decided to focus on something else.
This week is "Week of Children's Protection" here in the borders (clearly the Soviet Union had no monopoly on catchy names), and to that end, the school psychologist has organized a week full of activities focusing on children's well-being. Various specialists from the city education council are leading seminars of smoking, HIV/AIDS, surely narcotics and alcoholism- and I am working with one of them to explain what is trafficking and how not to let it happen to you. I am grateful for the help because when I speak Russian in public, I often clutch due to nerves. If I know exactly what to say, I'm fine- but in a stroke of ill fortune, I forgot to put my lesson plan in my bag with the visual aids this morning. Nevertheless, I think it went over reasonably well- there weren't too many snickers about prostitution or the fact that the visibility of the men's stage make-up in the otherwise commendable special made by the International Organization for Migration. I think they got the most important point, which is there are ways to safely work abroad without becoming a slave. Plus, I'm doing it again, so I can hopefully be less tongue-tied tomorrow.
And on an entirely different note, sometimes my students crack me up. I teach 3 different seventh grade classes, and now we've all read one advice column letter in our textbook about poor little Denis, who goes to a new school where he has no friends, blushes whenever he talks to girls, and has a crush on one Tina. After we read his letter, I always ask my students to give Denis some advice. Here is some of the best:
-He should be more open
-He should make friends
-He should express his feelings about Tina
-He should not blush
-He should get in a fight, because that's how you get girls' attention
All this from 12-year-olds! I don't know if they're monstrously experienced or have no idea how hard it is to follow some of their suggestions (save, of course, the last one, because that is sheer genius).
That was not what I intended to speak about, though. I wanted to tell you about what I'm doing this week. Although volunteers are given primary assignments, we are generally expected to cultivate side projects. As a TEFL volunteer, my primary assignment is teaching English in a secondary school. My side project has been creating a resource center at my school for the foreign language teachers in our town, which has gone pretty smoothly with only one or two hiccups. However, compared to the volunteers who write 3 or 4 grants before closing service, and practically attaining beatification in their towns, I look uninspired. So, to go out with a louder whimper, I decided to engage in a small project before leaving. To that end, I joined forces with the school psychologist to conduct a short seminar with various senior classes in my school on the dangers of human trafficking. Most volunteers prefer to focus on HIV/AIDS (and rightfully so, considering that Strana has the worst situation in Europe), but there is already an excellent NGO here that works with heroin addicts and that encompasses HIV/AIDS work in its procedures. So, I decided to focus on something else.
This week is "Week of Children's Protection" here in the borders (clearly the Soviet Union had no monopoly on catchy names), and to that end, the school psychologist has organized a week full of activities focusing on children's well-being. Various specialists from the city education council are leading seminars of smoking, HIV/AIDS, surely narcotics and alcoholism- and I am working with one of them to explain what is trafficking and how not to let it happen to you. I am grateful for the help because when I speak Russian in public, I often clutch due to nerves. If I know exactly what to say, I'm fine- but in a stroke of ill fortune, I forgot to put my lesson plan in my bag with the visual aids this morning. Nevertheless, I think it went over reasonably well- there weren't too many snickers about prostitution or the fact that the visibility of the men's stage make-up in the otherwise commendable special made by the International Organization for Migration. I think they got the most important point, which is there are ways to safely work abroad without becoming a slave. Plus, I'm doing it again, so I can hopefully be less tongue-tied tomorrow.
And on an entirely different note, sometimes my students crack me up. I teach 3 different seventh grade classes, and now we've all read one advice column letter in our textbook about poor little Denis, who goes to a new school where he has no friends, blushes whenever he talks to girls, and has a crush on one Tina. After we read his letter, I always ask my students to give Denis some advice. Here is some of the best:
-He should be more open
-He should make friends
-He should express his feelings about Tina
-He should not blush
-He should get in a fight, because that's how you get girls' attention
All this from 12-year-olds! I don't know if they're monstrously experienced or have no idea how hard it is to follow some of their suggestions (save, of course, the last one, because that is sheer genius).
posted by Life Called | 10:21 AM
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