School has ended! Cue the Alice Cooper. On top of that, I have now been at site for over six months. It must be reflection time! Not to get sentimental on you all, but here’s some of the things I’ve learned over the last six months of running conversation clubs and living and working in Ismayilli.
1. I need to plan lessons more. I think my classes have been well run for the most part, and the students who come have been enthusiastic, but there have been classes that have been pretty hectic over the last few months. Next fall I need to make myself build more constructive and involved lessons to really teach and strengthen my club lessons.
2. When I do English conversation clubs, I need to have smaller clubs. Part of why the clubs were so hectic was because there were too many kids. It would be a lot easier to get a smaller group of kids active.
3. Assemblies here are both wonderful and frustrating. At the English night assembly I attended, the students performed wonderful songs and short plays they had learned in English, but the audience spent the time talking to each other, talking on the phone, and coming and going. For every song, the keyboard player played the same rhythm, always overwhelming the kids’ singing, and never at the same rhythm as the song.
4. Cooking for myself every meal is wonderful. Especially as spring and summer arrive, more and more fruits and vegetables are available and absolutely delicious. It’s really a lot of fun figuring out how to cook different foods for the first time.
5. Cooking for myself every meal is hard. Even harder: cleaning dishes after every meal.
6. It’s easy to spend a lot of food splurges. I’m looking at you, 10 manat jar of honey which I ate way too quickly. I’m looking at you, Baku. Foul temptress.
7. Bucket showers in a building not connected to the house is nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be when I arrived. The stove heats the whole room. And now that it’s summer we’re using a normal showerhead, which is only difficult when lighting the gas heater with a long piece of newspaper.
8. It’s all in how you present an idea. My director has initially rejected several ideas I had, or tried to limit the projects, but with a little creative explanation of the goals of the projects and how it can benefit the school, he’s quick to get on board.
9. There are more important things than teaching English. Or going to America. As I’ve been here, my priorities have changed. I don’t want to just be an English teacher, I want my students to act on their ideas and dreams. There are days when I could really care less if they learned English. Of course English is important for some of those dreams, but not all.
10. I do need to work towards a more permanent, lasting, and sustainable project. I’ve been putting it off because of worries about whether the project was being suggested for the right reasons or if it was a “show off what the PCV gave us” idea. After the counterpart conference, I think the sustainable ideas are more clearly known to my organization.
Bonus Thing I’ll Have to Learn: I’m going to have to be creative this summer to keep students interested and involved because after the end of June, my school’s going to be locked, and I won’t have a place for clubs. Word of mouth will have its work cut out for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment