Finally! Students!!!! Sept. 6 - 12

6 September 1999
My first class started at 11:40 this morning, so I arrived at school at 8:40!!! Didn't know what I was going to do for three hours, but I had plenty of time to obsess and drink coffee! I organized the cabinet that Jana left me--reviewed material, looked over some things. I know that since I only meet with each group once a week, I can do the same introductory lessons for each class. The usual, what is your name? what are your favorite hobbies? if you could visit anyplace in the world, where would it be and why? favorite and least favorite subject and why? where do you see yourself in 5/10/15 years? How are you special or unique? They wrote the answers to these questions for me to keep and review, and then they had to ask me one question each--about me, my town, my school America, anything, they just had to ask a question. It went really well.

And then the afternoon came. I figured out that my lesson plan was not going to work for my afternoon classes, as I have some students in my afternoon English Conversation (2 lessons--90 minutes in the afternoon) classes who are in my morning English Language classes (1 lesson--45 minutes), so I will not be able to ask the same questions, as the kids I have in morning classes will be bored out of their minds. So it is back to the drawing board tonight!!!

In Conversation class, we decided on what topics we would cover (for an explanation of the school system, see the Gymnázium Vel'ká okruzná page. We have decided to cover the boring topics first (Slovakia, Great Britain, the United States)--lots of facts and history and not much "discussion," and then move into topics like Changes in the 20^th Century, Cinema./Music, Information/Media, Curriculum Vitae/Employment, etc. I only hope I can make it remotely interesting.

I only had two classes today (one Language and one Conversation), and it didn't go as badly as I anticipated. The students are very polite, and very, very quiet. I think it is going to take a while to get used to how quiet they are, too. I know that this is the first day, and I know that I talked too much and too fast, and I know that they are going to have to get used to me, and I have the feeling that this is going to be an INCREDIBLE year.

I found out what the man yelling through the housing estate was saying. Barbora and I were walking home (she teaches with me and lives across the street-she has been very helpful since I got here) and she asked me if I heard someone yelling on Sunday. She told me that he was asking people if they wanted to sell him their old newspapers or magazines. He would give them either a very small amount of money or he would give them toilet paper! Welcome to Slovakia!!!!

Again, I am amazed at how well these kids speak English. A couple of them have been to the United States and Great Britain, and it shows in their language skills. I changed questions for the afternoon Conversation classes. I asked who is your role model and why? when are you happiest? not happy? what is an aspect about yourself you would like to improve? What is an accomplishment you are proud of? Almost all of the students said they were most proud of being accepted to this school. And it is true--it is the hardest school in the region to get into. They must pass a rigorous test before gaining admittance here. The names are harder to remember than American names, even though they are somewhat similar (Zuzana, Jana, Michela, Maria, Veronika, Katarina, Peter, Michel, Ivan, Richard). And so far, in two days, I have seen 60 students, and I know we see more than that in a usual day at HHHS, but it seems like a lot here! The students are still very quiet--I think they are either really curious about this American teacher, or could not care less. I haven't decided. The teachers continue to be wonderfully supportive. I feel that if I have any questions whatsoever, I could ask them and not feel that they were silly questions.

The canteen: It is very unlike what we have at HHHS. You need to buy tickets for the month in advance. The canteen serves about five schools in the area, and it is open from 10:30 until 3 (I think). You should bring your own silverware and napkin (they provide silverware [not as nice as from home], but no napkins), and first you have soup. The soup is really good, it is served in these huge tureens and you take it to your table, ladle it into your bowl, and someone comes along and asks if they can take the tureen to their table. When it is empty, you take it to the kitchen window to be refilled from a HUGE soup pot. After soup, you take your ticket to the kitchen window. There are two windows and two lunches from which to choose. So far it has been meat (I think pork) and cabbage and potatoes, and I don't know what the other choices have been. Something in gravy with potato "dumplings," (looks like slices of bread but made from potatoes). You also get a drink--something pink and watery!!! People don't seem to be in the habit of having a drink with their meals!

Barbora took me to get a bus pass ("Mestská Karta"--City Card). I don't know what I would do without her! Things seem so bureaucratic here! When I lived in DC, all you did was go to the machine, put in your money, and out popped a two week bus pass. Or you went to the line, stood in it forever, gave the human your money and the human handed you a two week bus pass. Of course it is not so simple here--you actually have to talk to someone to get your pass, so I could not do it alone!!! First of all, you need a passport size photograph for the plastic cover of the bus pass (why? I have no idea--no one ever looks at it!!). Then you have to show your identification card (or in my case, passport), to even be able to purchase the card. THEN you have to fill out a form with your identification number (I don't have one, since I wasn't born here, so they used part of my SSN--it took a while for the clerk to solve that problem!!), then you pay for the card. It has a microchip in it, and it is good for 90 days or 240 rides. And it was only $14!! I must note at this point that the bus system is VERY different from the busses I am used to in NYC and DC. There, you have to put your money into the box at the front of the bus or show the driver your pass. Here, you buy your ticket from a machine before you even get on the bus, and punch the ticket yourself when you board the bus (the driver is in the front, separated from the rest of the bus by a door). So really, you can try to get away with not paying on the bus; this happened to me once last week, as the ticket machine at the stop was in the process of being repaired, I had to be at work, and it was too late to walk to school, so I just got on the bus, but was guilt ridden the entire time!! I made sure I had change since then, but now I have the pass, so that solves that problem. But I have seen this happen, albeit only once: there are "ticket checkers"! They ask you for your ticket and if you don't have one, you can be fined a lot of money. Barbora told me that you can pay the driver if you can't get a ticket from a machine or don't have change, but the ticket is a little more expensive. Opps, I could have bought a ticket the whole time.

Wednesday and Thursday are my "long" days--am a little nervous!

8 September 1999
Five lessons today! First one started at 7:50--earliest all week! Classes went really well. Nothing much different from Monday and Tuesday. Students are quiet, the do everything they are asked, I am still amazed at the relative silence during the day. NO ONE asks for a hall pass to the restroom. As a matter of fact, I asked one of the teachers, and such things do not exist!!! Another thing that strikes me: all of the students say hello and goodbye when they enter and leave the classroom!!! This standing up when I enter the classroom still blows me away! I think it is going to take some getting used to. My first impulse is to tell them to "sit down," but I really do appreciate the respect they show.

One of their "getting-to-know-you" questions is "How are you like other teenagers your age?" The absolutely AMAZING answer is: they all like to go to pubs with their friends! Yes, the drinking age here is 18, but almost no one follows it. The students even have their "own" pub here--very near school.

I discovered today what Sunday's gunfire was. I was walking home from the bus and heard the gunfire again-three times in quick succession. I kind of jumped and turned around. A man was beating a carpet on the carpet beating contraption in the yard! There are these jungle gym looking things all over the housing estate, and now I know what they are used for--cleaning carpets!!!

9 September 1999
Today starts my one marathon day of the week. I teach seven lessons in a row. One of the teachers has asked me to teach American literature to her class. I will see these students once a week for two lessons (90 minutes). I am very excited about this. I am also a little nervous. Because now it occurs to me that I did not bring over enough material for this. And that I am not going to know how to teach literature to non-native speakers. Thank goodness (again) that there is Internet at my flat. There are great lesson plan sites and short story sites that I will definitely use. Of course now I am thinking of all the things I could have brought over and am kicking myself.

There is this gradebook/class register/lesson plan book that I can tell is going to take me all year to get used to. Let me see if I can explain this clearly (as I still don't understand it!!) Each class is divided into 2 groups (there are 20 classes all together (years 1 through 4, classes are divided into field of study [like a major] A (Physics/Math or Physical Educ ation), B (Math), C (Biology/Chemistry), D (Languages), and E (History/Slovak Language and Literature)). At the start of each class, you need to take attendance and write who is absent in the class register and sign your name in the appropriate lesson time. Then you have to put what you are doing for that lesson into another section of the book. As I am teaching one class of another teacher's class, I have to find their section of the book and put my lesson for the day in the appropriate space. I still have no idea what I am doing, and have to ask for the students' help! Of course, they laugh at me for not being able to perform such a simple task!!! But then again, it is a good way for them to explain something to me in English (see, I can justify anything!!!)!!!

I had two classes of second year students (sophomores). Most of my other classes are fourth years (seniors) with a few third years (juniors) sprinkled in. They are so refreshingly noisy!!! Still very respectful and polite, but they are very chatty, too! I feel a little bit like I am home!! They are very nice kids--am looking forward to class with them very much. So this marathon day was not as hard as I anticipated.

The teachers are usually going from one classroom to another, and doors are always locked, and classroom keys are kept in the English department room, so we are not in class right away. I had class from 8:40 - 3:00 nonstop, and I was in one room all day. So I was in the classroom before the start of every class. The bell for the third class rang, no students. I waited, no students. I looked at my schedule, I was in the right class, still no students. There was a German class outside waiting for their teacher (the teachers' philosophy here is "they will wait for US" [I like that!!]). I had had a couple of the students the day before, I stepped outside the classroom, none of the students were mine, I went back into class. I was just about to go and investigate, when one of the students called to the stairway, "She is here." The students had all been patiently waiting in the stairwell (which was hidden from my view) for me to come to class!

10 September 1999
Ah, back to the normal "routine" ! Class didn't start until 10:45! (I am sorry--I promise not to talk about my schedule anymore--first and last time!!!)

Today I have all third year students. The first class is specialized in Sports. They seem like fun--also not as quiet as the fourth year students. But in relative terms to HHHS, incredibly quiet!!! All week, every class stood up when I entered the room (which I entered AFTER the bell rang, as is protocol here!), every student said goodbye when they left the room, NO ONE asked for a hall pass, and I didn't turn the classroom lights on once!

Observations/ anecdotes:

• They don't turn lights on anywhere in the school, I am not lying or exaggerating. There are many, many double paned windows around the school, in the hallways, classroom, one entire wall of each room is windows, but even early in the morning, when it is not completely light, no one turns on the overhead bulb lights.


• Restroom and hall passes are unheard of-they simply don't exist. A student would not think of leaving the classroom during a lesson.


• Students have duties each week, assigned by their "Class Teacher." This means that from the lowly 1^st graders (Freshmen) to the big bad 4^th graders (Seniors), each week one student from each class has "duty." Duty means erasing the board after class, putting the chairs back up onto the desks at the end of class, basically being at the beck and call of the teacher for the week. I went to erase the board the first day, and the duty student took the eraser, said "Let me" and erased the board.


• Students also don't leave the room after the bell rings until you dismiss them. I discovered this because the bell rang on the first day of my first class. They just sat there. I was sitting on the desk. I looked at them, didn't say anything because I was in shock, they still SAT there. I said thank you, have a good week, THEN they got up and left. EVERY student says goodbye as he or she walks out the door. It is sincere-they are not just doing it because they have to, maybe it has just been ingrained in them since their first day of school years ago, but everyone speaks to the teacher on the way out. I only had one problem with communication so far this week.


• Today, I was talking, giving instructions for them to do an introduction activity, I thought I was talking slowly, and the students were doing the assignment I had written on the board. A great number of them asked to use dictionaries. 20 minutes into the lesson, one girl raised her hand to speak(!) and said that they had not understood a word I said since I walked in, could I please explain again!! I apologized and kind of started to laugh, and they started to laugh, and it ended up being a very good class. They asked me if my American students could understand me, and I told them I often talk too quickly for them, too!!!

Today after school I walked through the town square, and there was what looked like a "flower children" convention. I expected to hear Grateful Dead music any minute, as there were speakers set up and funky, colorful plywood street signs set up around the square and a banner that read "jasidielna" (jollieworkshop). I must admit, I thought it would be some Deadhead kids. I was walking down one street and a student I had this week ran up to me and said, "Take an elephant picture with us." "Us" being a few of these kids, some children with Down's Syndrome, and various people walking through the square who were also asked to take a picture. (We had to put our arms out like elephant trunks!) He is a senior, a kid who looks too cool for school, long hair, skateboarder type. I had no idea what he meant, but there was a group of these flower children, so I said what the heck. Come to find out, this is an "International Festival of Creativity and Fantasy" for people with mental retardation, Down's Syndrome, etc.,

jollieworkshop in the town square

and it is mostly run by young people. So there were students from my high school and other gymnasiums dancing around the square with disabled children and adults. It was really cool. It also made me wonder how many of our students (even honors students) would do something like that on their free time (not just to do the Special Olympics to get out of school for a day).

I think I'm going to really like it here ....

11 September 1999
Stayed in town today--cleaned house a little, went to town, generally had a very relaxed weekend. Hardly talked to anyone, except at the grocery store. They all know the "Americenka" and are very tolerant of my butchery of their language and are extremely helpful.

12 September 1999
Got on the bike, rode around, walked around the countryside, and came back home and studied Slovakia. Actually, my Language classes will be less stressful, as the other teachers will let me know what they want me to teach. Tomorrow morning I will do a video lesson from the Headway series with the students. In Conversation, we have to start on the maturita topics, and the students chose to do Slovakia first. Great. Now I have to learn everything about Slovakia in order to discuss it with them. This means geography, history, economy, political system, places of interest, customs, holidays. Of course, the students can tell me all of this, but I want to at the very least be semi-prepared. So I have compiled copious notes (no big surprise there), probably too many notes, and will attempt to have them talk about Slovakia in English for the next two weeks. It occurs to me what a daunting task this is--the responsibility of preparing these kids for their school leaving (maturita) exams in May, they will pull a topic out of a hat and will have to talk on that topic for 15 minutes. It is up to the teacher to prepare them on the possible topic they could get in May. So now I think I know a lot about Slovakia. Of course the students will know more. I hope I can help them put what they know into English, but most of them speak English so well, I am sure they will not have much difficulty.

<< the faculty of Gymnazium Vel'ka okruzna