To Walk a Mile in Teacher's Shoes

This was my first week of teaching first and second graders. I have two groups of first graders and one large group of second graders. I taught this group of second graders last year, and I had a huge blast with them most of the time, but now the school decided to combine two classes in to one. There are 33 2^nd graders in this class, and my head is about wanting to explode. Somehow, despite all the noise and the fact my throat hurts now I had a great day.

The second I walked into the first group of 1^st graders I was a little scared. If you think that a Georgian can be brutally honest then you have no idea what to do was a Georgian 1^st grader. If your pants are a little dirty – they laugh. If your shirt is slightly too big – they laugh. Last year I was proudly wearing my brand new scarf I bought in Egypt. A young girl whispered to her friend next to her “Look, he looks like a girly boy!” So when I accidently sprayed a little too much “Click” Axe Deodorant Body spray this morning I was greeted with a group of children saying “Ohhhh suuniiii” (“Oh the smell”). Joy—this is going to be a long year.

But the first graders actually went reasonably well. I had a really in depth and descriptive lesson plan, but nowhere to print it out. Then, there was some miscommunication between my counterpart and I and neither one of us brought the CDs for our music. Ughh. It was still good. I played games and joked with the students in English. We taught them words like “stand up”, “sit down”, “walk”, “talk”, “stop”, and “jump” (they loved that one). Of course, we also the words “Hello”, “Goodbye”, and “I’m –“so they could introduce themselves to each other. In the second group of first graders I took them outside with the “walk”, ‘stop”, and “jump” commands. As we were going outside a group of teachers heard us coming down the hallway and some were smiling and thought this was great, but others glared and whispered “ar sheidzleba” to each other. The only bad part being when a girl saw her mother and then cried hysterically—good times. In second grade I was alone for a while with the 33 students. My counterpart calls me just as class was starting and told me he had to run up to his other work for 10 minutes. I was more than a little PO’d, but I reviewed some of the things we did last year with students, and the handed out their nameplates. Yeah, we made nameplates for our younger students in English, so they could start seeing how it was written.

I wanted to do more, but I found my Georgian still isn’t quite good enough to give detailed instructions of what I want them to do. On top of that, little kids are really hard to understand when speaking in English—in Georgian it’s like talking to a whispering, bronchitis patient about to have their larynx removed (but who still talks amazingly high pitched). Also, sometimes I get the sense that my presence in the classroom is more of a hassle than anything else. In Keda I have a celebrity like status and when I’m out running saying “Hello” to children to whatever they believe that I’m always a fun-loving guy, and class can easily get out of hand. I’m not sure how to break this cycle either. It could also be that have two groups of 20 1^st graders and one group of 33 2^nd graders makes teaching considerably more difficult no matter what you do.

The Georgian government also came out and decided to buy new netbook computers for all the 1^st grade students. It is preloaded with some learning games and alike, and many teachers were given instructions on how to use the computers, but according to the ERC here probably 30% of teachers in the whole district are able to use the computers to supplement learning. I am also concerned about giving a five-year-old such an expensive piece of hardware. I mean, I was watching the mayor hand out these computers and two young boys were trying to hit each other with their new computers… Hmmm…

I do like that they are going to start using new books produced by Macmillian. With DVDs and audio CDs this really could revolutionize the English classroom—if teachers get the proper training that is. I have a lot of opinions about this particular subject, and a lot of things I’d love to say; unfortunately this is not the time or place to write about it. I just have to keep reminding myself that I’m in the Peace Corps, and it’s SUPPOSED to be difficult. Though, sometimes it’s hard not to feel like the chips are stacked against you—especially as a younger teacher.

To be honest, so far this whole experience in Peace Corps has sometimes made me think that I don’t want to be a teacher anymore. Then sometimes when I’m not in a classroom I get anxious and annoyed because I miss the kids and the feeling you get when a lesson goes just right. I get a lot of those feelings when I tutor as well. In some cases teaching gives me great satisfaction, and in other cases it’s just frustrating and annoying. There’s very little a teacher can do with a student that misbehaves. My Masters of Teaching tries to say that in order to reach those students you have to relate with them and reach them on another level. Well what do you do with a student that never has a book, pen, or paper in class? I even went as far as buying him a notebook and giving him one of my nice mechanical pencils. Still, he doesn’t bring them to class. When I ask him why he’s not prepared he looks at me with a smile that just says “Why are you even talking to me? I don’t care.” Unfortunately, I have tried with that kid and it didn’t work. So, I’ll go to another one, the kid sitting next to him and work with him. He’ll start responding positively and I’ll feel better. Unfortunately the first kid still won’t do his work, but nobody is allowed to fail and so he is passed on up to the next grade. Self-esteem is one thing, but whatever happened to personal responsibility?

I saw similar behaviors in my student teaching. A student blames me for their actions and then goes home and tells their parents I was mean to them. That parent freaks out and I’m left with a traumatizing month. I’m not a huge fan of tenure for teachers, and I’d support getting rid of tenure if it meant equality in pay. I even support a longer school year and school days. I think 1-hour classes are better than 45-minute classes, because a teacher can do more in class and make a better lesson. The problem is, what would good teachers do in response to unruly parents and students? A powerful and extremely ticked off parent could possibly get a teacher fired. Really, an unruly student tells his parents many bad and exaggerated things about a teacher, the parents get angry and push for the teacher’s removal. So, an unruly student could get a teacher fired for no good reason. That hands students more power than a teacher, because nowadays a teacher cannot even send a kid into the hall, cannot give low grades, cannot do anything that makes the student even the slightest bit uncomfortable. Simply a detention, which don’t do much to change the behavior.

The truth is more power needs to be given back to the teachers. Teachers Unions exist primarily because it was believed that the administration doesn’t do enough to protect the teachers. It’s very discomforting to work in an environment in which a teacher can be criticized so heavily because a student was acting up. Teachers are also supposed to live up to certain standards that nobody else is expected to adhere to. If a teacher makes a mistake they may have serious consequences. If a young teacher makes a mistake (before tenure) they may not even have a job the next year. The pressure that is put on young teachers, on top of the many problems they face within a classroom are the primary reasons for the low retention rates in schools.

Education is directly linked to every other facet of a nation. Its economy, military, foreign policy, reputation, ability to cope in crisis, innovation, and infrastructure, poverty, and equality are all things that come about from an education. If the education system fails because good teachers leave the profession because they don’t want to face the low pay, long hours (of working and planning), stress, and lack of protection and authority within their own classroom then America will face even harder times when the future comes.

Helping Those in Need vs. Ethnocentrism

I have been trying to write a blog entry for several days, but I keep getting on a topic and then not liking what was written. Then I’d write about politics but realize I was making claims and saying things without any support—not that I need to in a blog since it’s a journal and not an academic article. I would like to say something about school and what I’ve been doing, but university started today and I’m not needed until tomorrow. I also think you should all know I’ve spent the past 35-minutes looking up the proper uses of the em dash I used above; if anybody strongly objects to its use please feel free to respond in the comments section. In the meantime you can read about the essay writing class I am preparing for.

Last week I was approached about teaching my own class helping 3^rd and 4^th year university students write essays. I excitedly accepted, but am now busily hurrying up preparing for it. I have never written a true syllabus before, but this is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I have ten course topics so far:

1.       Structure of an Essay

2.       Types of Essays

3.       Creative writing

4.       Avoiding Plagiarism

5.       Finding a Topic and Writing the Thesis

6.       Researching and Citations

7.       Outlining an Essay

8.       Writing the Essay: Introduction

9.       Writing the Essay: Body and Conclusion

10.   Editing

After that I have nothing. There are 15 weeks in the semester, but I will only be there for 11 of them. I’m thinking some of these topics will need more than one session to cover, and I’d also like to give time for students to edit their work and maybe do peer editing. If there’s anything in this list you all think shouldn’t be in, or something that should be in and isn’t, just let me know. I’ve never been a great writer—despite the compliments most of you give--most of my papers in college were mediocre at best.

I’m really excited about trying to teach creative writing. If there’s one thing that I think is missing from most of Georgian education its creative thinking and writing. I’m not sure if it’s an after affect from Soviet education, but students are generally uncomfortable forming independent thought. I think students are too afraid of being wrong and looking stupid in front of the teacher and their classmates. I’ve seen this in the United States, but not in the same scope as I have in Georgia. Mass cheating and plagiarism is generally accepted as part of school life. I don’t know enough about Georgian culture to give an accurate answer. Georgia has a rich written heritage from the Middle Ages, and poetry is a huge part of their life. Maybe I’m looking at the critical thinking in an American-ethnocentric way.

This brings up an interesting point now. What is my right to judge students in western style of learning? I guess that’s something I’ll have to explain to them before class. Why it’s important to know any of this--Hm, I think I'm going to go think about that now. Hopefully I can reflect more on it later.

A New Year

So now that a few of those more depressing entries are out of the way it’ll be cool to talk about what I’ll be doing this coming year. As many of you know I was working at the school here in Keda last year. I taught English to 1^st, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, and 12^th graders. I talked to Peace Corps after school ended about possibly changing things in my site in order to investigate to opportunities for Peace Corps Georgia. See, ever since TLG came many Volunteers in Peace Corps have questioned whether Peace Corps needs to be in schools. If the purpose of Peace Corps should be to get a country to the point it can sustain itself, than TLG is Georgia being sustainable. So I talked with Peace Corps and we decided that we could look into other possibilities.

My first idea was to work straight out of the Educational Resource Center here in Keda. This would mean trying to help the schools in the Keda District raise money for their projects and trying to advance the English cabinets and assist the workers with whatever they may need. I already have done some things like this already, and I’ve been very successful. I also get a great feeling helping schools other than my own.

At the same time another Volunteer told me about an opportunity to work at Batumi University. It’s all new, but it looks like I’ll be helping out in the History department, and doing practicum work for American and British Literature. I was also just approached to possibly lead my own class on essay writing. This will possibly be three days a week and will be a great opportunity for me to really hone many of my skills and will also be a big challenge and change. I do sometimes wonder if I’m completely qualified in fields like History that can be so specialized, but I am here to help and I’m sure I’ll find a place amongst the faculty.

I will also be continuing my English teaching for 1^st graders in Keda twice a week. So it looks like I’ll have 3 jobs 5 days a week! I sure hope I’m not going to be over-committing myself (something I have a tendency to do) and then letting many people down all at once. It will be REALLY hard, but I think this coming year will be really good if I can stay motivated and get my work done. It can be extremely rewarding for me, the students, and the faculty. This will also be good experience for me in general and what I want to do when I finish Peace Corps; whether that be teaching or graduate school.

So wish me luck tomorrow with my first day of school, and I’ll keep you updated with everything that’s going on. Hopefully I won’t be too busy and will be able to continue keeping my blog current.

The Day I Won't Forget

This picture always sends a powerful chill and shake down my spine. When I look at it I can't help but feel mixtures of sadness, anger, and disbelief. The way the skyline suddenly disappeared in New York City best exemplifies the way we as Americans suddenly had a large piece of collective conscious suddenly disappear as well. This post is for all of us.

This is not my first attempt at attempting to write a blog entry about September 11, but I’m hoping this will be my last attempt. I first started writing about how America has changed since the attacks and the consequences of it (mainly focusing on how it has lowered America in the eyes of the world) of it. Finally, after writing about 3 pages about that I didn’t like it. I don’t think I or anyone else should use this day to discuss politics or the ramifications the attacks had on the USA. I’d be more than eager to discuss it any other day, but not today. So, I finally made the decision, and had the insight to realize that this post should really be a memorial and thoughts about the people who were killed during the attacks, and a little bit about where I was and what I did that day.

I was a Sophomore in high school. I grew up in central New Jersey in a very ritzy area where thousands of families commuted into New York for business. That’s why when I was sitting in Algebra II, and the announcement came on the loud speaker from the principal that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane that my thoughts were “Which one of my friends has a family member at the Trade Center?” My mind flew to the girl down the street and her father, but I soon got the message he was on the other side of Manhattan. The other tower I don’t think had been hit yet, and many of us assumed it was a small plane that just ran of course or something. When the auditorium was full of students watching TV on the projector saw the actual extent, and then witnessed the second airplane hit we started freaking out a LOT more. Cell phones were just beginning to pick up steam, but all the lines and connections were down because of too much traffic. Teachers tried to maintain more order by telling students to go to class, but also understood most students wouldn’t listen to them, and also they wanted to see as well. I skipped gym class when I watched the South tower get hit, and then I remember watching South tower fall and then our teachers and principals got us out of the auditorium. I sat in Chemistry class while the teacher tried to teach a lesson, and the rest of us sat angry and stunned. Then the Pentagon was hit, and minutes later I can recall with near precision seeing lower Manhattan disappear behind huge plumes of smoke and debris of what was a 110-story building. We all know the rest of the story of that day…

The rest of the day is a blur. I came home and my mom asks me where my neighbor friend was. The school called her and said he’d be coming home with me. We do get a hold of him and he tells me it’s okay and his parents are trapped in Manhattan, but are safe. We spend the rest of the day watching the television in nervous fear and desperation. Until 2001 life was easy and normal. Lives, including my own changed that day and the weeks following it. I can remember driving passed the train station near my house and noticing cars that never moved, left by their owners who would never return. There were a lot of horrors that day that I will never forget.

Those killed in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, grandparents, grandchildren, and friends. People died of all ages and nationalities. I think we should remember the day and what it meant for families and how families were unexpectedly and cruelly separated that day. This post is dedicated to them, because I will never forget them. This post is dedicated to the soldiers and marines who have died since then to make sure this never happens again. This post goes to the families of all of them.

Please go ahead and share what you were doing, and where you were when our lives changed forever. 

Clap.... Clap.... Clap... Clap... Clap..Clap. Clap.Clap.Clap.Clap.Clap.

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who donated to my project. I am always hoping more and more people will donate a little of what they have to help those who don’t have.

A many people in the West Windsor-Plainsboro area remember, Mr. Welsh passed away about one year ago.  I say this only because soon I will begin a new year of teaching (where I’m not sure, but that’s a whole other story) and I want to remember the man who acted as my role model for teaching. I have yet to see anything in the NJ newspapers, Facebook, blogs, or the wwp-today website about Mr. Welsh this year. This is my one year tribute. In Georgia it’s traditional to hold a supra two weeks after someone’s death, then one month and year after, so on and so forth (basically there’s always a supra for someone in the past), that way they are never forgotten. The one year supra is always a special occasion, and although I’m not able to hold up a wine glass and say “gaumarjos” (cheers) for Mr. Welsh, I will pay him a tribute here in my blog.

Mr. Welsh knew that the reason I became a teacher was because of him and the influences of the other social studies teachers at WW-P South (Mr. Connor, Mr. Stuart, yes even Mr. Bond). But Welsh had the random unexplainable outbursts and random tangents that always got us interested. We learned, but we also had fun. I remember senior year he went into the teacher’s lounge to get some papers, and the entire class piled into the elevator which was in the classroom (yes, imagine 20 17-year olds piled into the elevator, it reeked). Everyone except one student who was told if he left class one more time he’d fail or get detention or something. So just imagine Mr. Welsh’s surprise when he walks back into the classroom and there’s Goldberg sitting all alone just shrugging his shoulders. Then imagine the whole class piling out of the elevator back into class. The look on Mr. Welsh’s face was one of amusement and disgust (“Really? All of you fit in there? That’s gross”).

Welsh classes were not always all about the subject matter of the day. Often something would get brought up that was an important “life lesson”, and Welsh would then dedicate the rest of the class to making sure we left more aware human beings (usually with a tears of laughter coming off our faces). Anybody who had Welsh knew all about his “slippery slope” and the “10 Things You Should Know Before Graduation”. I also had my AP Government class with my then girlfriend, Erin. Erin and I always sat next to each other, and I swear we were Mr. Welsh’s favorite couple (although I doubt the rest of the class felt that way), and he’d always give us some kind of advice here and there. He was always very interested in every aspect of a students’ life. He cared about the whole student, not just their academic success.

Now if any of you remember from my “About Me” I really wanted to be in the military. When that didn’t happen and I went on to teaching Mr. Welsh became my role model as well, and he knew it. I went to interview him for several assignments I did, and he even got featured on the webpage I had to make for the end project. He gave me a lot of advice about growing as a teacher, and some encouragement I still have to apply today. Mr. Welsh had a way of relating to every student in the classroom: popular, unpopular, jock, emo. Everyone had a place in the Welsh classroom. That is still something I try to do, and it’s much harder to do when in a different culture and language. In fact, I have tried some of the Welsh tactics in Georgia, and usually they just get people staring at me like I’m a complete freak, and then moreover people around town then talk about how strange and uncouth I am. Yes, Mr. Welsh was probably uncouth, but he got the job done, and people loved him for it.

I never actually tried to understand Mr. Welsh’s personal life. Mr. Welsh was a teacher and therefore he separated his personal and professional life completely. He told me this one story (I won’t go into detail) where he gave the middle finger to a Disney character in front of the entire senior class during senior class trip because he was unable to separate his personal and professional life. Here in Keda it’s almost impossible for me to do that. Of course I don’t act like my real self in front of students, because I am not their “friend”. Those few times that I do I always regret later. Also, it’s normal for everyone to know your business here. I do whatever I can to hide certain things about my personal life from my students. It’s funny because sometimes my host mother will just start talking about my personal life to guests and such when students are present. My host father always looks at her like: “What are you doing? That is not allowed”.

Mr. Welsh also made sure to tell me that it could take me 4 or 5 years of teaching to really feel comfortable in front of the classroom. 4 or 5 years to be in the position like he was in front of the classroom! Mr. Welsh loved teaching. And I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t admit it, but he loved the way students saw him. We loved the way he would walk around the school with a boisterous yell just to say “Hello”. He made WW-P South. And I think the whole North vs. South argument is put to an end just because we had Welsh.

Wherever you are Mr. Welsh you are certainly not forgotten.

The Fitness Center

Hey, so the last post was pretty touchy feely. This post is going to be me begging a little… okay, maybe not begging, but you get the point. I’ll probably be writing about this more and more in the coming weeks and months as well, but please listen up.

If you take a look at my Current Projects tab you will see I am trying to build a fitness club in my town as part of my secondary project. The thing is I need to get money to buy all the equipment and pay for transportation and alike. This is a project that so many people in my town keep asking me about and keep wondering if it will work; they are very excited. The project is on the site Wide Awake. Wide Awake is a non-profit group that handles donations and helps people like me get the projects they need for their communities. They are great people and have only the people they help in mind. All the money given to them for donations goes to the projects. THERE IS NO ADMINSTRATIVE CUT! I have been using Wide Awake since I arrived in Keda, a former PCV started it, but he passed it on to me. Since then I’ve worked with him, and the director of the Educational Resource Center here in Keda to get write these grants to get things for the schools in our region. We bought books for kids under the poverty line, beehives for a family, 100 dictionaries for the schools, chalkboards for some classrooms, science equipment, and just a bunch of other useful things. Most of these projects have been under $500, but I decided to use this site as a way to raise money for my fitness center. I am looking for $4900, which sounds like a lot (it is), but if everyone I know can pitch in a little, and they get their friends and family to pitch in some I should be well on my way to getting fully funded.

You may be asking yourself, “Why should we give money to a FITNESS CENTER?” Well, after the collapse of the USSR the athletic departments that had been funded very well fell apart. Many of the community centers went under due to underfunding, and athletic competitions and education began to fall behind drastically. This can even be seen in the home as well. In a 2005 WHO study , 59% of women and 49% of men in Georgia were overweight. By 2015 that number is going to go up 64% and 55% respectively. Now, these numbers are nowhere near the United States and many developed nations, but it’s still very high. Also, unlike the United States, people in Georgia don’t have access to equipment or proper information to keep themselves healthy. Keda has an indoor sports complex, and a brand new wrestling/kickboxing/martial arts center (there is a Georgian champion in one of the village for wrestling), and I decided that a great addition is to make the sports center more community friendly was to put in some treadmills and elliptical machines.The nearest place for people to exercise is over an hour a way in Batumi, but the cost of one of those fitness clubs is enormous. Those clubs are pretty much reserved all for people with money, and tourists. Building a fitness club in Keda will give people in a small town some of the luxuries only to the rich can use now.

The fitness center will also double as a healthy living classroom. After it’s built I’ll have the trainers there learn basic weightlifting, weight loss, and endurance exercises and they will hold classes. I’ll bring in female PCVs to hold yoga classes to get more women involved. In fact, I was planning on making it women’s only day one day a week. Then the fitness center will also be a classroom for healthy lifestyle classes. We will use the space to discuss HIV/AIDS, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, nutrition, mental health, and lots of other things. The best part is, Peace Corps has a committee for healthy lifestyles with LOTS of information I could use and people that could come and do lessons. It really would be amazing! People in my community don’t have access to information about these topics, and I’d love to have a real place where I can get people to come and listen to lectures and talk about some of these issues.

This is a really important step for the people in Keda, and they could really use all the help you can give. If you find yourself in a giving mood please donate anything you can for the people here. Tell me and I’ll also have you name engraved on a plaque that will be hung up inside the fitness center forever.  That’s right, YOU WILL GET YOUR NAME ON A PLAQUE, WRITTEN IN ENGLISH AND GEORGIAN.

So, again, here’s the link and please help my community. Tell your parents, friends, family, church group, boy scouts, and anybody else who may be interested. Thanks again everyone, and have a great Friday! 

Here are some pictures of our building and the fitness room:

This is our community sports facility. The room with the lights on is my fitness center. 

It's not huge, but I already laid out a great plan for the windows. Putting the treadmill facing the window so it looks like you're running outside. 

On the other side of the room. We'll keep one of the desks as a sign-in desk to track how many people come in. 

Right now it's a really boring room, but everything works! No work has to be done of the room itself. I will be attaching a new electrical socket to the far right wall. 

Alright, take care everyone. And remember, one more time! Your name on a PLAQUE in GEORGIA