Or, Our School Life.
So I've made an entry devoted to my work here teaching English. I've added photos from School No. 9 in Vasylkiv and School No. 1 in Pavlograd, ranging from October to this morning. Without further ado...
School No. 9 in Vasylkiv, with our 10B class. I'm on the left, next to Avital and Colette.
10B, same day
Showing my driver's license to the students
Observing a lesson in Vasylkiv
Courtney and I with 2 of our best 10B students, Anya and Alina
More 10B students from Vasylkiv in one of our demo lessons.
A demo lesson in Vasylkiv with a younger class, 6th or 7th grade I think
School No. 9's direktor, on the left; Larissa, Peace Corps staff and our trainer; and School No. 3's direktor (I think)
On a school field trip over winter break to Dnepropetrovsk, at a McDonald's. We went to see a children's production of Alice in Wonderland on ice in Russian. Several 5th grade classes from different schools went. Yelena Ivanovna, my counterpart and English teacher at School No. 1 in Pavlograd is on the left in the brown jacket, with her homeroom class and our 5A class in tow.
The front of School No. 1 (my current workplace in Pavlograd) in the dead of winter on a rare sunny day. It looks almost completely different now with leaves on the trees and so forth.
Some of the 10A students at School No. 1 at a Christmas party/my welcome party, shortly before winter break.
The Christmas "pageant" in my school. One of my 10A students, Kristina, is Snegurochka, the granddaughter and companion of Ded Moroz (Russian Santa Claus).
Ded Moroz, Snegurochka, and me
10A at a lesson in March. We started the double-header lesson with learning the old folk song "Oh! Susanna," which they thought was awesome (especially with the harmonica and banjo mp3 I played for them)
"Shto?? What is your banjo?!" (just kidding, they knew what a banjo was)
I still haven't mastered teacherly writing on a chalkboard. And probably never will.
The chapter we were on was weather, which is how "Oh! Susanna" tied into it (somewhat vaguely and strenuously). Here Roma and Kostya give their best impersonations of weathermen.
And now it's Zhenya's turn.
...and now Masha's turn.
Then Sasha got a try.
The better part of the 10A class. With yours truly, nash amerikanyets!
And last we have my 5G class at our English day camp this morning. Today was music today, so I helped them ("helped" being generous giving my complete lack of vocalist talents) learn 4 English songs--"Jingle Bells," "Hakuna Matata," "Oh! Susanna," and last but not least, "You Are My Sunshine." The last has enormous personal importance to me, because Mom used to sing it to me when she rocked me when I was a baby.
That concludes this for the day, mainly because that's basically all the photos and the only video I have from school. As you can see, I am greatly enjoying my work here, and the school is happy to have me as well. I wish I had some more photos of my colleagues here in Pavlograd, but that will come I suppose. I went with about 15 teachers on Friday to an old Soviet Pioneers (basically Communist Party Boy and Girl Scouts) camp to grill out and drink. It was great fun, but as usual, I didn't have a camera. I'll be making a photo and video blog of my apartment and neighborhood soon, so look back for that in a week or two.
So I've made an entry devoted to my work here teaching English. I've added photos from School No. 9 in Vasylkiv and School No. 1 in Pavlograd, ranging from October to this morning. Without further ado...
And last we have my 5G class at our English day camp this morning. Today was music today, so I helped them ("helped" being generous giving my complete lack of vocalist talents) learn 4 English songs--"Jingle Bells," "Hakuna Matata," "Oh! Susanna," and last but not least, "You Are My Sunshine." The last has enormous personal importance to me, because Mom used to sing it to me when she rocked me when I was a baby.
That concludes this for the day, mainly because that's basically all the photos and the only video I have from school. As you can see, I am greatly enjoying my work here, and the school is happy to have me as well. I wish I had some more photos of my colleagues here in Pavlograd, but that will come I suppose. I went with about 15 teachers on Friday to an old Soviet Pioneers (basically Communist Party Boy and Girl Scouts) camp to grill out and drink. It was great fun, but as usual, I didn't have a camera. I'll be making a photo and video blog of my apartment and neighborhood soon, so look back for that in a week or two.
