Not Friday the 13th but almost as ominous. Today is one of those days...you know, one of those days when you feel like a total and utter failure. This most awesome of days has been brought on by the sudden realization that while there is a program in place, it does not effectively benefit everyone equally.
We had our first "test" today and the mounting stress painted across the faces of each of the officers made my insides melt. I have to split my classes into levels.
I personally despise conventional testing, but at the same time, understand its existence. I also felt like I had failed as a teacher in not fulfilling the obligation I had to prepare them properly.
After watching each student agonize over different sections of the test, I told them that if they don't finish or feel as though they have accomplished as high on the test as they would like, they can take the test again next Friday after we've done more review.
There is no point in allowing students to sit frustrated. It will only create a hatred of a subject.
Just because I will allow a retest this time, does not mean I will allow one next time or the time after that, it simply means that I recognized my failure as a teacher, and worked to correct it.
I will create a schedule of 3 classes to start the week after next with a more properly managed leveled class system so that I can give my students the proper level of education they are prepared for - whether that be 8 steps back and at a slower pace or 3 steps forward and at a faster pace.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Big Bro Bully (Russia) - February 2, 2012
Tamuna is a wonderful woman! She is the police chief's secretary and my sanity. She also acts as the interpreter in my classes at the police station until next week when I will politely kick her out of class. No worries...we talked about it, and she agrees 100% that it'll be good for English language learners to hear and speak only English rather than relying on her translations.
Anyway, Tamuna is a fairly liberal-minded, 29 year old, unmarried Georgian woman. Gasp. 29 and unmarried. One of the first things she ever told me was that her mom believed that education was the most important thing she and her sisters could ever achieve. Already decades ahead of her time. She was not expected to get married and forget about education.
She is always very curious about American culture and asks how things are done there and explains how things are in Georgia and why they are the way they are. We sat down yesterday to lunch, where our conversations usually take place after classes are finished.
I plucked up the courage to ask her about the 2008 war with Russia. It was the first time I really recognized how young of a country I am living in and that everyone I meet has seen war.
Tamuna told me about leaving her home with her mom and two sisters as she heard Abkhazians were coming along with Russians as she remember from her childhood hearing of Abkhazians chopping the heads off of Georgian citizens. Her father stayed behind.
They went to a village 20km away from the main street of Zugdidi to stay with a family member. They were so terrified of the Russian planes overhead targeting houses that they all slept outside. After 4 days, the war was called off, but Russian planes continued bombing. After a week, this small country of Georgia had been rocked by it's big bro to the north.
Anyway, Tamuna is a fairly liberal-minded, 29 year old, unmarried Georgian woman. Gasp. 29 and unmarried. One of the first things she ever told me was that her mom believed that education was the most important thing she and her sisters could ever achieve. Already decades ahead of her time. She was not expected to get married and forget about education.
She is always very curious about American culture and asks how things are done there and explains how things are in Georgia and why they are the way they are. We sat down yesterday to lunch, where our conversations usually take place after classes are finished.
I plucked up the courage to ask her about the 2008 war with Russia. It was the first time I really recognized how young of a country I am living in and that everyone I meet has seen war.
Tamuna told me about leaving her home with her mom and two sisters as she heard Abkhazians were coming along with Russians as she remember from her childhood hearing of Abkhazians chopping the heads off of Georgian citizens. Her father stayed behind.
They went to a village 20km away from the main street of Zugdidi to stay with a family member. They were so terrified of the Russian planes overhead targeting houses that they all slept outside. After 4 days, the war was called off, but Russian planes continued bombing. After a week, this small country of Georgia had been rocked by it's big bro to the north.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Politsia - February 2, 2012
So, I teach police. It sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it. It actually is pretty awesome. I am enjoying it for the most part, and it is providing me with an experience I never could have dreamed of.
When we first got to Zugdidi, which is where my placement is, Pavell and I stopped at the police station before heading to our host families. I met a woman named Tamuna who is sort of in charge of me at the police station. It's hard to explain. If there is anything wrong, I contact her instead of TLG (Teach and Learn with Georgia). She also sits in on my English lessons and translates where necessary. She is 29, very sweet, and unmarried. She has had experience working with other foreigners, so it has been a wonderful experience getting to know her.
Two days later, on Monday, I decided my schedule and found out who would be in my classes. I teach Monday, Wednesday, Friday of every week for 4 hours each day. In theory, I have two classes of 14 and each class should last two hours. In practice, I have between 4-8 police officers that show up for each class and each class is between 1.5 hours to 2 hours.
There is a police officer that picks me up everyday from my host family's house and takes me to the police station. The police officers who work at the station I teach at work in one of five different departments within the station: HR, Detective Investigators, and Financial are three of them. I can't remember the others. They are considered "Neighborhood Police." They usually tend to be better paid than patrol police which are at a different station. If I were to walk to work, it would be between 1-1.5 hours which is quite far when it is this cold out, hence, the police escort to work. :)
In general, the police officers' English level is much higher than I had expected. They are half way through the second Level of the Cutting Edge books we are using to teach. The past two weeks, I have simply been working on review and will start teaching a new Module hopefully this Friday. They are expected to take a test the Friday of each week to show understanding of the new information. Even if the police officers didn't show up for the lessons, from what I understand, most try to show up for the tests.
With the idea from Pavell, the Patrol Police teacher, I start my lessons with a quote, a tongue twister, and a discussion of current events. This past Wednesday is when I felt my first disenchantment with teaching adult police officers. They were talking in my class which as a teacher of any age level, is frustrating. They speak in Georgian, and I cannot understand them. With that, there is occasionally more translating within the classroom than I would like, but Wednesday was the first day where I felt truly frustrated. I had the class take a break, so I could get my frustration under control before continuing the lesson. I asked the class if they wanted to discuss current events and most said yes. I asked them to bring in a current even that they could share with others on Friday. We'll see if they do.
The other troubles that go without saying when teaching police officers is that they are incredibly busy individuals. They have to put work first and answer their phones during class and may even have to get up and walk out. These I understand. It is the nature of their positions. But the talking...NO WAY I'm getting used to that.
However, in general, I feel very fortunate for the experience I am having. Not to mention, it'll look great on the resume. :)
When we first got to Zugdidi, which is where my placement is, Pavell and I stopped at the police station before heading to our host families. I met a woman named Tamuna who is sort of in charge of me at the police station. It's hard to explain. If there is anything wrong, I contact her instead of TLG (Teach and Learn with Georgia). She also sits in on my English lessons and translates where necessary. She is 29, very sweet, and unmarried. She has had experience working with other foreigners, so it has been a wonderful experience getting to know her.
Two days later, on Monday, I decided my schedule and found out who would be in my classes. I teach Monday, Wednesday, Friday of every week for 4 hours each day. In theory, I have two classes of 14 and each class should last two hours. In practice, I have between 4-8 police officers that show up for each class and each class is between 1.5 hours to 2 hours.
There is a police officer that picks me up everyday from my host family's house and takes me to the police station. The police officers who work at the station I teach at work in one of five different departments within the station: HR, Detective Investigators, and Financial are three of them. I can't remember the others. They are considered "Neighborhood Police." They usually tend to be better paid than patrol police which are at a different station. If I were to walk to work, it would be between 1-1.5 hours which is quite far when it is this cold out, hence, the police escort to work. :)
In general, the police officers' English level is much higher than I had expected. They are half way through the second Level of the Cutting Edge books we are using to teach. The past two weeks, I have simply been working on review and will start teaching a new Module hopefully this Friday. They are expected to take a test the Friday of each week to show understanding of the new information. Even if the police officers didn't show up for the lessons, from what I understand, most try to show up for the tests.
With the idea from Pavell, the Patrol Police teacher, I start my lessons with a quote, a tongue twister, and a discussion of current events. This past Wednesday is when I felt my first disenchantment with teaching adult police officers. They were talking in my class which as a teacher of any age level, is frustrating. They speak in Georgian, and I cannot understand them. With that, there is occasionally more translating within the classroom than I would like, but Wednesday was the first day where I felt truly frustrated. I had the class take a break, so I could get my frustration under control before continuing the lesson. I asked the class if they wanted to discuss current events and most said yes. I asked them to bring in a current even that they could share with others on Friday. We'll see if they do.
The other troubles that go without saying when teaching police officers is that they are incredibly busy individuals. They have to put work first and answer their phones during class and may even have to get up and walk out. These I understand. It is the nature of their positions. But the talking...NO WAY I'm getting used to that.
However, in general, I feel very fortunate for the experience I am having. Not to mention, it'll look great on the resume. :)
The Host with the Most - January 31, 2012
So, now I'm at my host family's house.
All in the Family
I have a 21-year-old host sister, Tiko, who is the only person who speaks English. She is married to a 30-year-old police officer, Dato. They live with his parents, Murmani and Eliso, who own two markets. So, strangely, everyone in my family works which is not the Georgian norm. Usually there is one woman who stays home and attends to "womanly duties" (cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids.) So they work everyday from 9AM-6PM roughly...although it seems like their schedule always changes. Everyone works at the market except for the host bro who has a 24 hour duty cycle supposedly every other day, but I have not seen him for 4 days straight. In addition, we live right next door to my host father's brother, sister, and mom. His sister was never married, his father passed away a year ago, I think is what I understood, and his brother, Kosta, works in Belarus but is on holiday to come home for the death anniversary of his father. Kosta is divorced but has two boys who live in Belarus with their mother. In addition, to Dato, my host parents have two daughters, Sopo and Maga. Sopo has one son named Saba and is pregnant with another boy. Sadly, her husband died a little over a month ago of an aneurysm. Maga and her husband have one daughter named Qeso and one son named Luca.
Temperature
We have arrived in the heart of winter which means we are in the midst of a nearly unbearable cold front. Something our program forgot to mention is that families in Georgia have one room in which they keep warm. The rest of the house is as cold as it is outside. I talked the host family into letting me have a small electric heater in my room that I turn on an hour before bed which doesn't exactly make it warm, but makes the cold a little more tolerable. My host sister also sent me to bed with two soda bottles that had been emptied of soda and filled with hot water (instant hot water bottle). I clutch those two bottles as if my life depended on it. Once under the three blankets hugging the water bottles for about 30 minutes, it starts to warm up and sleep is possible.
Food
The food has been pretty tasty. I arrived during the period where my family was mourning for Sopo's husband which includes fasting. They did not eat meat for 40 days. They are now back to eating meat but understand that I do not eat meat. I think they are worried now about what to make for me. I eat a lot of bread, cheese, salads (cabbage, carrot, mayo), cabbage/potato soup, ghomi (a grit like food), and fruit. Still working on the protein aspect. I had beans once and haven't seen them since. My host family also realized that I like wine, so I have homemade wine with dinner every night.
The House
The houses in Georgia are bigger than what I thought they would be. They are equipped for housing parents and children and children's children. So, when you walk into my host family's house, there is a living room with 6 doors off of it. One is the front door, one is the back door, one is the parents' bedroom, one is an extra bedroom, one is the kitchen, and the other leads to the shower room and to a staircase that goes upstairs. There is a small hallway with a door at the end upstairs that leads into another huge living area. There are two bedrooms off of there, one mine, and one the bedroom of the son and daughter in law. There is a toilet inside that doesn't flush. We are allowed to use it but have to "flush" with a bucket of water afterward. To add too much information, the inside toilet is only if you have to pee. You must use the squat outhouse for the alternative. I pretty well pray that I don't have to go.
Next post will be about my job. :)
All in the Family
I have a 21-year-old host sister, Tiko, who is the only person who speaks English. She is married to a 30-year-old police officer, Dato. They live with his parents, Murmani and Eliso, who own two markets. So, strangely, everyone in my family works which is not the Georgian norm. Usually there is one woman who stays home and attends to "womanly duties" (cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids.) So they work everyday from 9AM-6PM roughly...although it seems like their schedule always changes. Everyone works at the market except for the host bro who has a 24 hour duty cycle supposedly every other day, but I have not seen him for 4 days straight. In addition, we live right next door to my host father's brother, sister, and mom. His sister was never married, his father passed away a year ago, I think is what I understood, and his brother, Kosta, works in Belarus but is on holiday to come home for the death anniversary of his father. Kosta is divorced but has two boys who live in Belarus with their mother. In addition, to Dato, my host parents have two daughters, Sopo and Maga. Sopo has one son named Saba and is pregnant with another boy. Sadly, her husband died a little over a month ago of an aneurysm. Maga and her husband have one daughter named Qeso and one son named Luca.
Temperature
We have arrived in the heart of winter which means we are in the midst of a nearly unbearable cold front. Something our program forgot to mention is that families in Georgia have one room in which they keep warm. The rest of the house is as cold as it is outside. I talked the host family into letting me have a small electric heater in my room that I turn on an hour before bed which doesn't exactly make it warm, but makes the cold a little more tolerable. My host sister also sent me to bed with two soda bottles that had been emptied of soda and filled with hot water (instant hot water bottle). I clutch those two bottles as if my life depended on it. Once under the three blankets hugging the water bottles for about 30 minutes, it starts to warm up and sleep is possible.
Food
The food has been pretty tasty. I arrived during the period where my family was mourning for Sopo's husband which includes fasting. They did not eat meat for 40 days. They are now back to eating meat but understand that I do not eat meat. I think they are worried now about what to make for me. I eat a lot of bread, cheese, salads (cabbage, carrot, mayo), cabbage/potato soup, ghomi (a grit like food), and fruit. Still working on the protein aspect. I had beans once and haven't seen them since. My host family also realized that I like wine, so I have homemade wine with dinner every night.
The House
The houses in Georgia are bigger than what I thought they would be. They are equipped for housing parents and children and children's children. So, when you walk into my host family's house, there is a living room with 6 doors off of it. One is the front door, one is the back door, one is the parents' bedroom, one is an extra bedroom, one is the kitchen, and the other leads to the shower room and to a staircase that goes upstairs. There is a small hallway with a door at the end upstairs that leads into another huge living area. There are two bedrooms off of there, one mine, and one the bedroom of the son and daughter in law. There is a toilet inside that doesn't flush. We are allowed to use it but have to "flush" with a bucket of water afterward. To add too much information, the inside toilet is only if you have to pee. You must use the squat outhouse for the alternative. I pretty well pray that I don't have to go.
Next post will be about my job. :)
Friday, January 27, 2012
Oh-rientation - January 21, 2012
Orientation was actually pretty fantastic. I love the people in the program and attempted to soak up all of the Georgian we were learning very rapidly as our orientation was only a week long.
Our days were packed as breakfast started at 8AM followed by an orientation session from 9-10:15. Language classes started after that and ran until lunch at 1PM. At 2PM we had another session followed by a 3 hour intercultural training. We had a final wrap up before dinner at 7:30PM. This is when we could either eat at the hotel for dinner or go out and explore.
A small group of us went out the second night to the town center of Tbilisi. It was much more modern than I had thought it would have been. We went to a restaurant downtown where we had traditional Georgian food including kinkhali which is basically like a dumpling with either meat, cheese, or veggies in it. Khachapuri is another traditional dish which is just bread with cheese in it. From there we walked passed the president's house, a fortress, and a bridge that is gorgeous when lit up at night.
Another night, we went to the restaurant next door for dinner and watch the place explode into dance and song. I am eager to learn Georgian Dance but am not sure if there will be a means to do so. We'll see.
Mid-way into orientation, our group was asked if any of us were interested in applying to teach police officers instead of at a school. About 12 of us were interested. We were asked to send in our resumes. They made a decision the next day and I was one of two selected! So I will be teaching police at a police station rather than children at a school. I'm very excited for the opportunity!
As orientation came to a close, the host families or representatives of different areas came to pick all of us up. Pavell, the other police teacher, and I were picked up by a driver from the police station. It is technically a 5-6 hour drive, but it took us about 4. Demur drove like crazy! I do not recommend ANYONE to drive in Georgia. Trust the locals that they know how to drive on their roads, so leave it to them. :)
More to come about host family situation...
Our days were packed as breakfast started at 8AM followed by an orientation session from 9-10:15. Language classes started after that and ran until lunch at 1PM. At 2PM we had another session followed by a 3 hour intercultural training. We had a final wrap up before dinner at 7:30PM. This is when we could either eat at the hotel for dinner or go out and explore.
A small group of us went out the second night to the town center of Tbilisi. It was much more modern than I had thought it would have been. We went to a restaurant downtown where we had traditional Georgian food including kinkhali which is basically like a dumpling with either meat, cheese, or veggies in it. Khachapuri is another traditional dish which is just bread with cheese in it. From there we walked passed the president's house, a fortress, and a bridge that is gorgeous when lit up at night.
Another night, we went to the restaurant next door for dinner and watch the place explode into dance and song. I am eager to learn Georgian Dance but am not sure if there will be a means to do so. We'll see.
Mid-way into orientation, our group was asked if any of us were interested in applying to teach police officers instead of at a school. About 12 of us were interested. We were asked to send in our resumes. They made a decision the next day and I was one of two selected! So I will be teaching police at a police station rather than children at a school. I'm very excited for the opportunity!
As orientation came to a close, the host families or representatives of different areas came to pick all of us up. Pavell, the other police teacher, and I were picked up by a driver from the police station. It is technically a 5-6 hour drive, but it took us about 4. Demur drove like crazy! I do not recommend ANYONE to drive in Georgia. Trust the locals that they know how to drive on their roads, so leave it to them. :)
More to come about host family situation...
What do you mean 57? - January 17, 2007
Sitting in the O'hare airport, I look across to see a group of people chatting outside the gate to Warsaw, Poland. Strange. Surely not all of us could be on the same flight randomly. So, naturally, I eavesdropped until I felt quite certain that they, too, were through the Teach and Learn with Georgia program. Sure enough...9 of us met in the airport all the while I was thinking I would be the only one. My recruiter left some details out. Many people went through a recruitment agency named GreenHeart or FootPrints. I went through Reach to Teach. I missed out on a LOT of information as I would come to find out.
No worries. Adaptation and flexibility is the name of the game. About an hour into our flight toward Warsaw, I realized that the guys on either side of me were also TLGers! Ha! Sweet. We got to chatting. One of them had just finished a one year stint of teaching in Thailand and the other just finished an unsuccessful attempt at the Peace Corps.
The 9 original of us that met up in the O'Hare airport went out into Warsaw which was a bit of a gong show. We went out in the freezing cold, hopped on a bus, and went into the center of town. After walking into the Old Town, we found a nice warm place to sit down and have a bite to eat. All but 5 of us went back to the airport, but with a 13 hour layover, we had plenty of time to kill, so the rest of us set out to see if we could find the Warsaw Ghetto. Big mistake. Apparently it doesn't exist anymore... We walked around in the cold and snow to walk into a Radisson Hotel which responded to the question, "Where is the Warsaw Ghetto?" "You are in it." Haha. Very well. We headed back to the airport to meet up with other TLGers who were on the same flight to Georgia. After another 5 hours of lying around on the airport floor, we finally boarded the plane to Tbilisi.
We were met by a TLG representative, Tamara, who took care to get us all to the hotel. I was interviewed by a tv crew about why I was in Georgia. At the hotel, we were left to sleep or explore until our medical exams at noon. My roommate, Krissi, and I passed out and woke only to head to our exams. With all said and done, there were 57 of us in the program and we were to spend the next week getting to know each other and Georgian culture.
No worries. Adaptation and flexibility is the name of the game. About an hour into our flight toward Warsaw, I realized that the guys on either side of me were also TLGers! Ha! Sweet. We got to chatting. One of them had just finished a one year stint of teaching in Thailand and the other just finished an unsuccessful attempt at the Peace Corps.
The 9 original of us that met up in the O'Hare airport went out into Warsaw which was a bit of a gong show. We went out in the freezing cold, hopped on a bus, and went into the center of town. After walking into the Old Town, we found a nice warm place to sit down and have a bite to eat. All but 5 of us went back to the airport, but with a 13 hour layover, we had plenty of time to kill, so the rest of us set out to see if we could find the Warsaw Ghetto. Big mistake. Apparently it doesn't exist anymore... We walked around in the cold and snow to walk into a Radisson Hotel which responded to the question, "Where is the Warsaw Ghetto?" "You are in it." Haha. Very well. We headed back to the airport to meet up with other TLGers who were on the same flight to Georgia. After another 5 hours of lying around on the airport floor, we finally boarded the plane to Tbilisi.
We were met by a TLG representative, Tamara, who took care to get us all to the hotel. I was interviewed by a tv crew about why I was in Georgia. At the hotel, we were left to sleep or explore until our medical exams at noon. My roommate, Krissi, and I passed out and woke only to head to our exams. With all said and done, there were 57 of us in the program and we were to spend the next week getting to know each other and Georgian culture.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Georgia, I have arrived! - January 15, 2007
As I attempt to re-integrate myself into the blogging community, I realize it has been quite some time since my last update. My hope is that this won't again be the case.
I have journals of Andy's and my travels from this summer, but conveniently have left them on my other computer. When I manage to extract them, I will also post them on this blog. We had the amazing opportunity to travel through Pittsburgh to DC, up to New York City via a stop in Delaware to visit my cousin Carrie, and on up to Boston. We then drove up through Maine on our way to Canada where we camped in Quebec City before heading to Sutton Montreal for a friend's wedding. To finish off our road trip, we traveled down through Niagara Falls and finished with a trip to Cedar Point to fulfill Andy's and my love of roller coasters. We also spent two weeks in Alaska. After my cousin's wedding in September, I headed to New Zealand to meet Andy for the Rugby World Cup. We rented a camper van and traveled all over the country stopping occasionally for rugby games. In between the last main game and the final, we traveled to Australia for two weeks where we also rented a camper van and traveled from Melbourne to Sydney. We returned to NZ for the rugby final where luckily the kiwis overcame, for if they had not, the country would have fallen apart. We then traveled to Fiji for two weeks to visit friends before heading back to England for a month.
That brings me to now!! I am in Georgia (the country!) It came about quite quickly, but I decided that this was the best option for me with the amount of time I had. Andy stayed in England and continued his search for a job, and as it is quite an ordeal to get a visa for an American in England, here I am. I am here teaching until June before hopefully heading back to England to complete a masters in International Development. I have already been accepted to the University of Manchester and am waiting to hear back from the other three universities.
I have been here for two weeks but will make separate posts about my experiences as to not overwhelm with details.
I have journals of Andy's and my travels from this summer, but conveniently have left them on my other computer. When I manage to extract them, I will also post them on this blog. We had the amazing opportunity to travel through Pittsburgh to DC, up to New York City via a stop in Delaware to visit my cousin Carrie, and on up to Boston. We then drove up through Maine on our way to Canada where we camped in Quebec City before heading to Sutton Montreal for a friend's wedding. To finish off our road trip, we traveled down through Niagara Falls and finished with a trip to Cedar Point to fulfill Andy's and my love of roller coasters. We also spent two weeks in Alaska. After my cousin's wedding in September, I headed to New Zealand to meet Andy for the Rugby World Cup. We rented a camper van and traveled all over the country stopping occasionally for rugby games. In between the last main game and the final, we traveled to Australia for two weeks where we also rented a camper van and traveled from Melbourne to Sydney. We returned to NZ for the rugby final where luckily the kiwis overcame, for if they had not, the country would have fallen apart. We then traveled to Fiji for two weeks to visit friends before heading back to England for a month.
That brings me to now!! I am in Georgia (the country!) It came about quite quickly, but I decided that this was the best option for me with the amount of time I had. Andy stayed in England and continued his search for a job, and as it is quite an ordeal to get a visa for an American in England, here I am. I am here teaching until June before hopefully heading back to England to complete a masters in International Development. I have already been accepted to the University of Manchester and am waiting to hear back from the other three universities.
I have been here for two weeks but will make separate posts about my experiences as to not overwhelm with details.
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