Sorry for my absence, but now that I am teaching every day but Sunday (class on Friday now!!) I have been quite busy and once I get home and am done preparing for the next day I am tired. Laziness aside, I will tell you all about my week! So my teaching schedule is coming together, still a bit unsure about Saturday, but that should be resolved soon. Again, all the classes are 80 or 90 minutes and I have one on Monday, three on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, one on Friday, and one (might be two) on Saturday. Thursdays I spend my afternoons at School No. 8 working with two groups of kids and one group of teachers and administrators on culture and language. Although this is 8-9 different groups, there are only 5 different subjects.
Four of my classes for the University are based on the TOEFL text book preparing students for the exam. Although some of these students may not take the TOEFL exam, most Grants and post-graduate opportunities require the test to be taken. So there is not set time when they will have to be ready but it is a distinct possibility that they will be taking the exam in the future. I will be working with them on writing, listening, and speaking. There are certified teachers for grammar and structure, and some of these students probably know, at least how to explain, English grammar better than me. So with these classes I am starting with writing, and they are learning how to write the type of essay that is absolutely obsolete outside of testing. I had to do it for my state MEAP tests, and on the ACT, and I guess it is the same for the TOEFL. All in all, it's going fairly well. Some classes are better than others, and some students better than others, but I usually try to embarrass myself a couple times throughout class just to keep their attention. I find this works really well.
Two of my classes on Tuesday are more basic english from an Intermediate textbook. They actually meet twice a week, once with the professor for the grammar section and once with me for the listening and speaking sections. These students are a year or two younger than the TOEFL students and their English isn't as good. But, they are great students and we usually have some laughs in class. They are really nice to me and whenever they see me at the university they make sure to say hello. I can't really do as much planning for these classes as I would like (I do a fair amount of prep for the TOEFL classes) because the professor tells me what I will be covering the day before class when I see her on Monday. My Saturday class is a conversation class, although it has a textbook that I am still waiting to receive. But their English is pretty good and I have only had them twice so far so I am still figuring out how I want to structure the class.
Then, at the school on Thursdays there are two groups of kids that I work with and will be doing american culture (traditions, holidays, etc) and speaking practice. However, this past Thursday was the first day so we just did a "get to know each other" where they pretty much just asked me questions for 45 minutes. They are very curious about how life is in America and they had a lot of questions for me, ranging from my favorite color to what I want to do with my life after Russia. I was a bit surprised that their English was actually really good, they seemed to understand most of what I was saying (although this can be hard to gauge) and their pronunciation was good. After the two classes with the kids I had one class with about 7 school administrators and teachers. Some of them literally speak NO English, I was not expecting this as they told me this would be practice for speaking. It was funny because the Head of the school and the two vice-principals were there and I got to teach them how to say, "Hello. My name is ____. It is very nice to meet you. Where are you from. I am from _____." A good 45 minutes of class right there haha, but they were great and really really keen to learn and even asked for homework! So I am giving homework to the heads of a very good school in Kazan hahaha. Here is a picture of us, they wanted it for their news!
So this is my work schedule thus far, and I will try to be more "social" in my next post but I am pretty busy right now so we will see. Just wanted to keep up the blog as best I can. As always is great to hear from you all too, so feel free to email, leave comments, or send messages and I promise my next post will be more interesting/less dry! Take Care, Geoff.
Four of my classes for the University are based on the TOEFL text book preparing students for the exam. Although some of these students may not take the TOEFL exam, most Grants and post-graduate opportunities require the test to be taken. So there is not set time when they will have to be ready but it is a distinct possibility that they will be taking the exam in the future. I will be working with them on writing, listening, and speaking. There are certified teachers for grammar and structure, and some of these students probably know, at least how to explain, English grammar better than me. So with these classes I am starting with writing, and they are learning how to write the type of essay that is absolutely obsolete outside of testing. I had to do it for my state MEAP tests, and on the ACT, and I guess it is the same for the TOEFL. All in all, it's going fairly well. Some classes are better than others, and some students better than others, but I usually try to embarrass myself a couple times throughout class just to keep their attention. I find this works really well.
Two of my classes on Tuesday are more basic english from an Intermediate textbook. They actually meet twice a week, once with the professor for the grammar section and once with me for the listening and speaking sections. These students are a year or two younger than the TOEFL students and their English isn't as good. But, they are great students and we usually have some laughs in class. They are really nice to me and whenever they see me at the university they make sure to say hello. I can't really do as much planning for these classes as I would like (I do a fair amount of prep for the TOEFL classes) because the professor tells me what I will be covering the day before class when I see her on Monday. My Saturday class is a conversation class, although it has a textbook that I am still waiting to receive. But their English is pretty good and I have only had them twice so far so I am still figuring out how I want to structure the class.
Then, at the school on Thursdays there are two groups of kids that I work with and will be doing american culture (traditions, holidays, etc) and speaking practice. However, this past Thursday was the first day so we just did a "get to know each other" where they pretty much just asked me questions for 45 minutes. They are very curious about how life is in America and they had a lot of questions for me, ranging from my favorite color to what I want to do with my life after Russia. I was a bit surprised that their English was actually really good, they seemed to understand most of what I was saying (although this can be hard to gauge) and their pronunciation was good. After the two classes with the kids I had one class with about 7 school administrators and teachers. Some of them literally speak NO English, I was not expecting this as they told me this would be practice for speaking. It was funny because the Head of the school and the two vice-principals were there and I got to teach them how to say, "Hello. My name is ____. It is very nice to meet you. Where are you from. I am from _____." A good 45 minutes of class right there haha, but they were great and really really keen to learn and even asked for homework! So I am giving homework to the heads of a very good school in Kazan hahaha. Here is a picture of us, they wanted it for their news!
So this is my work schedule thus far, and I will try to be more "social" in my next post but I am pretty busy right now so we will see. Just wanted to keep up the blog as best I can. As always is great to hear from you all too, so feel free to email, leave comments, or send messages and I promise my next post will be more interesting/less dry! Take Care, Geoff.
Hi Geoff!
ReplyDeleteThis is your Caribbean family checking in ;-)
We are just back from an incredible journey of our own, having spent 4 weeks in South Africa and Swaziland. Simon uploaded a bunch of photos to Facebook, not sure if you have time to check that anymore!
I started at your first post and have just read every one, so I am all caught up now. It sounds like a truly wonderful experience you're having. I love you're new-founded teaching technique... embarrassing yourself once a class ;-) You remind me of your Dad when he was 17!
Looking forward to the next post, text or images, it's wonderful to be able to share your adventures.
Love from Wendy, Simon & Andrew
Keep rocking it over there man! Sounds like you're doing well, but try and find some time for yourself. Hit up that bowling alley every once and while.
ReplyDeleteI actually just interviewed a couple of cousins from Bolivia for Chuck's class, and they educated me all about the TOEFL. They both had to take it to get scholarships to universities here, but not without failing a couple of times. Anyways, funny how things become relevant like that.
Keep the pictures coming and stay positive brother!
Very Nice picture, Geoff. It is fun to read about your developing teaching experiences, (and I have no idea what Wendy could be referring to!).
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work and, I agree with Chris, check out the bowling alley when you get a chance.
Are you falling in love with any of your beautiful Russian students? You are certainly working hard! Very impressive. How's your Russian? Have you started dreaming in it yet?
ReplyDeleteSuch exciting adventures. It's wonderful to be able to participate in them vicariously.
I think your comment will get me killed by my girlfriend :) haha, but no worries. My Russian is coming along, slowly but surely, got myself a tutor finally so that has been an amazingly great help. And finally have a group of good russian friends (also very important). but alas, no russian dreams yet, still the occasional spanish one though!
ReplyDelete