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.