So I’m coming up on being in this country for 100 days (with
the brief interludes in Turkey and Armenia) and have had the opportunity to
experience many vastly different things than what I am used to in the United
States. After reading many of my blog
posts they tell great stories of the unique experiences, but seem to lack the
daily life of Georgia and my personal perspectives on it. So I will write down my thoughts in a five
part series focusing on school, family life, food, politics, and general views of
Georgia. I have a feeling that these
will be long detailed posts, so hold on to your pants because you’re about to
go for a ride.
First and foremost I would like to talk about my experiences
working for a school system in a developing country, I mean after all this is
why I’m here right. I have two
coteachers that I work with, therefore two very different teaching styles and
personalities. Before I get to what I
have now, we must start from the beginning.
Personally I have extremely little training for working with
children. Apart from little interactions
with kids at my dads daycare, I haven’t had too many chances to deal with
them. Yet being a native English
speaker, as well as having a university degree I was perfectly qualified for
this program. It shows you how willing
the Georgian school systems are to reform their image of post soviet schools of
memorization. After a week long training
period on teaching methods, cultural adaption, and language lessons we were
thrown into the field. Luckily we had
three weeks at home to live, travel, and experience Georgia until the school
year started.
Initially at my teacher introduction meeting with our
coteachers and school directors I was told I would only be working with the
teacher I was initially introduced to.
Like everything in Georgia that was subject to change (though I didn’t
realize it at the time). Come the first
day of school I was introduced to two coteachers, which shocked me a little
because I was told two days before that I would only be working with one. Oh well I rolled with the punches and played
along with it for two days. After then,
the new teacher decided she wanted a transfer and abruptly left the
school. We waited until the next Monday,
when I was introduced to the teachers that I am working with now.
As for the schedule it constantly changes, however it seems
to have settled down quite a bit as of recent.
In the beginning it would change every day, and all I could do was show
up for class before first period and wait to be told where to go. Gradually the school settled upon what seems
to be a format that works for them, however it took 4 weeks for that to be
hammered out. Just like with the
teachers all I could do was roll with the punches and accept what was going on.
On the topic of supplies the school is in a strange
conundrum. I am in one of the newest
schools in the country, and the shadow of the old crumbling soviet school
building can be seen from all the classrooms.
Just because a school building is new does not mean that it is properly
equipped, or built with quality techniques.
The school is less than a year old, yet concrete is falling from the
walls, paint is peeling, and there is major problems with the electrical
system. It is nice to be in a new building
compared to some of my friends experiences, but I know that like many things in
Georgia the new school building is just a patch on a much larger problem. The chalkboards are beat up, clearly rescued
from the old school building, but that’s not the half of it. We are in dire need of supplies to properly
educate the students, with little help in sight. Teachers must provide chalk if they want it,
and students must provide their own textbooks, paper, notebooks, ect. Many of the parents can not afford to buy
every subjects books so students come to class with all, some, or none of the
materials that are needed for the class.
It has been a juggling act to accommodate everyone’s needs. One thing is certain though; I have been
trying with the best of my abilities to cater to each student.
My two coteachers are extremely different, and it has been
quite a challenge to meet both their needs.
The first teaches years 1 and 2 as well as many of the older
grades. Here we have been working on the
alphabet and basic word recognition. It
has been tricky teaching the 1st graders, because they are learning
the English alphabet at the same time as the Kartuli alphabet. Though she still relies mostly memorization,
she has been open to trying other teaching methods. With here I am able to introduce games,
songs, and different things to the students routines. It seems to be helping, and the kids are
reacting very well to me trying new things on them. Not bad for someone with no training,
right.
I have a completely different experience with my other
coteacher. We work together for years 3
through 6, so I spend the vast majority of my time with her. She does not want to stray from the way that
she was taught, which was straight rote memorization and translation. If I did not interject, she would be
perfectly happy having the kids recite passages that they do not understand all
day long. She will have me read them
something then translate it while I am reading.
Some of the translations actually hinder the education process. A perfect example of this is when we are
asking children to identify a picture that I am describing. I will describe it in English and she will
translate the description before the children have answered. No doubt they just wait for her to describe
it in their own language, and do not pay heed to the English passage. For discipline she just screeches and yells
at the children, pounds on the desk, and occasionally pulls hair and twists
ears. When I discussed this with the
other teachers and my fellow TLG volunteers it seems to be the norm. I continually try to compromise with her,
however she is stubborn in her ways and it does not look like I will be able to
make much progress opening her eyes to other teaching methods. Oh well what am I but an untrained foreigner
that she is forced to deal with in the classroom.
Now to the best part of the school experience, the
students. Every day as I walk into the
schoolyard, through the halls, out of the bathroom, and everywhere on the premises
children call out Helloooo teacha. They
try so hard to be recognized and work in the classroom, even after the initial
shock of having an American in their village has worn off. Even if they do not know the answer their
hands shoot up and some students nearly fall out of their chairs to get
noticed. They do their reciting of
memorized passages with pride, and love it to hear a dzalian kargi from me (my
second coteacher does not seem to give much positive reinforcement). There is a surprising disparity between
students, even within the same class. I
have some students that can read wonderfully, and have near perfect
pronunciation in the same class as students who can barely copy characters down
from off the board. This leads us to
often split up the class. While I help
the students who are struggling my coteacher will have the advanced teachers
continue their translation of various reading passages. This is not the case in year 1 and 2 because
they are both starting from scratch and all know nothing. The kids here are champs and they are trying
hard to impress me and learn English.
The older kids are starting to see western music and culture, so the
want to be American and have further incentive to learn English. Whether it is a good reason or not, it seems
to motivate the older kids (especially the high schoolers).
All in all I have learned a lot from my experience with the
Georgian school system. I have found
that your coworkers can make or break the teaching experience. In this department I have had a mixed bag,
but I think that it has given me a better perspective of what is actually going
on. It is a system that in continually
changing and trying to adapt to a changing world. Some are willing to accept this change, while
others remain rooted in the familiarity of their previous educations. Is there work that still needs to be done,
absolutely, but one thing remains the same.
The kids are there and for the most part enthusiastic about their
education and the differences that they have been undergoing seem to have been
working.
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