Motivating Students Is A Full-Time Job

With all the stress I’ve been experiencing while working with all my partners to set-up the English department room, I had started to forget how much I was looking forward to this new year. I mentioned my new plan about how I’m working with my partner as a resource teacher, meaning I will spend more time helping them develop resources to share in the English department. And even though Peace Corps haven’t approved my new work plan yet, it’s how I’m working right now. The school is still kind of chaotic since the class schedule isn’t finalized yet, so I’m working on resource development.

Early last week, I brought in a game I made for my 5th formers that encourages completing homework called “Homeworkopoly”. It’s a board game based on “Monopoly” that the students get to play when they completed their homework from the night before. There are various prizes that they can win throughout the game, most of which are privileges such as wearing a crown in class or sitting in the teacher’s chair. When I showed it to my partner Valentina, she was so excited. She said she loved it and couldn’t wait to use it. She was so happy to hang it in her classroom and she thought the students would love it. And just in case I had any doubt to the sincerity of her thanks, she gave me a hug for the first time as a result of me providing material for her classroom.

On Tuesday, we explained Homeworkopoly to the students, and their face just lit up with excitement. Positive reinforcement is not something typically seen in Moldova, so the students were surprised to hear they could earn prizes. They seemed particularly excited about singing the “Hokie Pokie” with me.

Today, we were finally able to really start playing Homeworkopoly. The students were so excited. They couldn’t believe they were being rewarded for completing their homework. The students who completed their homework were so proud to show it to me, and they would make the biggest grin when I would call them to come and play. There were several students who didn’t complete their homework, so they would worked on it in class and show it to me, hoping to get to play. I explained that they had to do their homework before class. Based on the responses today, I’m really hoping to see a lot more completed homework at the beginning of the next class.

Seeing my students so motivated was incredible. I don’t see that too often here. Since I was able to spend my time looking up ideas to use in the classroom, I was able to make something that is new and effective in the classroom. Hopefully PC will approve my new plan, and I can be working more with my partners to come up with these types of ideas this year. 

Hram

September 19 is hram (town’s day) for Criuleni. And since I didn’t have school, I was able to celebrate with the rest of the town. Hram in Criuleni was basically a small carnival. During the day, there were lots of carnivals-type rides for the children, such as a moon-bounce and bumper cars. And there were a couple venders, selling things like glow sticks and yo-yos. But the celebration really began in the evening. There was a concert, featuring lots of singers and dancing. The audience often broke out into hora circles, including yours truly.

It was lots of fun. I ran into a lot of students, who were all surprised to see me dancing the hora. I left around midnight, but I could hear the music back at my house, and it sounded like it continued until 3 or 4 in the morning. One thing is for sure: Moldovan’s know how to party. 

Sometimes It’s Hard To Work With Moldovan Priorities

I had mentioned how my school has given the English department a classroom to use, which will also be a place where I can work during and after school. And this past week, the priority of the English teachers was to prepare the room. When I first saw the room, I thought I would be able to have some freedom with setting up the room in a functional way so that resources are stored well and in a logical order. And since I would be the one working in there, I thought I would get to plan the basic set up of the classroom. I was looking forward to having a classroom to arrange and decorate with my partners.

However, things weren’t going as I thought (as with most things here), nor are they going so smoothly. My partners all have their own opinions about how the room should be put together, but many of their ideas collide with one another. And many times, they turn to me to take their side. This is the whole reason why I want my focus this year to be getting my partner teachers to work together. They don’t understand how to work together without just letting one person have her way.

Furthermore, I haven’t been able to express what I want with the room. My goal was for the room to have a library-like set-up: lots of bookshelves with resources and some tables to work at. Plus I was hoping to decorate it with lots of posters teaching English grammar and vocabulary. However, my partners are not showing any interest in my opinion. When they ask my opinion, they just want me to support their idea.

Since this is the English department’s room, not just mine, and my partners will (hopefully) continue to use it once I leave, I am trying to be compromising. But right now, it feels like I’m the only one not getting heard. I was hoping to have a room that reflected all of us. And so far, all the opinions I have expressed haven’t been honored.

Even though the opinions of my partners are clashing, the one thing they all agree upon is that the priority of the classroom right now is beauty. When I first started talking to my partners about what I wanted to do, I was talking about how to have bookshelves for materials, a place for the posters, etc. But they wanted to talk about what color the curtains should be. In fact, as I sit here writing this, one of my partner teachers sent two students to clean the plants.

I’m trying to be understanding since part of the reason they’re working on the appearance is because the director wants to show the room to some officials who are coming tomorrow. But it’s really hard to be understanding when I can’t express my opinion of how to efficiently store resources in the room. I keep telling myself that this is a room for them so I need to let them set up how they would like. But many Moldovans have poor organizational skills, and I was hoping to help with this room organization.

I just have to let it go sometimes. But the room is starting to lose some of its functionality because beauty keeps being prioritized. This makes me wonder what the purpose of this room is; to develop and store resources for the English department or to impress others with a pretty room. Sometimes it is very difficult for me to work with Moldovan priorities, and I often feel like I'm working against them. I am hoping that once tomorrow has passed, I can slowly start to change the room to be more functional while keeping up the beauty Moldovans value.

Mugged Sorta

Well, I can now join the rank of Peace Corps volunteers who have been mugged. And the funny thing is that I was just talking to another volunteer this weekend about how I feel safe here. Theft is actually the predominant kind of crime against volunteers. Last year, there were 11 incidents reported. I guess I’m another number now.

After a fun-filled weekend in Chișinău, while I was waiting for my bus back to Criuleni, I was standing at a table by a kiosk near my bus stop eating a chicken wrap and drinking my Fanta. I noticed there was a man squatting a couple feet away from me watching me, but I ignored him because lots of Moldovans stare awkwardly at me and make me feel uncomfortable. After a couple minutes, he stood up and came really close to me. Some of the women working at the kiosk started yelling at him to go away. And as I took a drink of my Fanta, he tried to steal it from my hand! I started putting up a fight trying to keep my treasured soda, but soon realized that this Fanta obviously meant more to him than me and let him have it.

While I was standing there trying to understand what just happened to me, one of the women working at the kiosk came out and chased the man down to get the drink. At first, I was touched by her kindness. But as she was walking back to the kiosk, the other woman had to tell her that it was my soda. So obviously, she had only gone to all the effort to get the soda because she thought the man had stolen it from the kiosk. As she handed me my herpes-infested soda bottle, I thanked her and tried to continue to eat in peace, NOT drinking my Fanta of course.

My whole bus ride home I could barely contain my laughter as I was thinking about what just happened to me. Somehow I’m not surprised that I’m the PCV that got her Fanta stolen, even though I was carrying my iPod and a load of money in my bag. I should probably reported this right away so as others will not suffer such a traumatic ordeal as I have. So travelers be warned: if you decided to travel to Moldova, don’t worry about your purses and wallets; just be sure you guard your Fantas!

Kitty

About six weeks ago, I came home to find that my family had adopted a baby kitten. It was tiny and cute. I had only recently learned right before they brought the kitten home that we had lost one of the dogs, Charlie. I don’t know happened, but I assume he died. So it’s nice to have another pet around. Plus it’s a kitten!

When I first looked at the kitten, I realized it was very young; much younger than the ages of kittens we normally adopt kittens in the States. So I looked up kitten pictures online (always cute) and determined that the kitten must have been about 3 weeks old. It was so tiny, and it looked very weak as it moved.

Now that she is about 9 weeks old, I see a huge difference. She is incredibly playful and energetic. I’m trying to spend a lot of time with her so that I have one pet that is companion-like. I think it might be working because she likes to follow me around when I’m outside.

I asked my host mom what her names was and she told me Gov…or Gof (I can’t always tell the difference in the sound of “v” and “f’). Apparently, when she was talking with her grandson on Skype, she asked him what to name the cat and he picked this. I don’t really understand it, and neither does my host mom. But it was what her grandson wanted. But whatever her name is, she is certainly fun to play with and good company. And once the loneliness of winter gets here, I’m sure I’ll be happy to have a friendly kitty.

New Plan for the Year

My job as an English Education volunteer is to work with Moldovan English teachers to help improve their teaching methods and techniques as well as their English skills. Last year, I taught 18 hours class hours per week with four different partner teachers. In addition to the hours in classroom, I spent at least one additional hour per week with each partner planning the weekly lessons. I helped develop new resources for the lessons I taught, and I taught my partners some new activities. My days were long and difficult.

This year, there is another English teacher returning to our school from a 3-year maternity leave (which is a typical length for maternity leave in Moldova), so my other four partners are losing many of their teaching hours. The new teacher, Lilia, has asked to not work with me right this semester, which I can completely understanding since coming back to teaching already requires a lot of figuring things out. I wouldn’t want to make an already difficult time more difficult for her. Once she feels settled in, we might be able to teach together.

With all these changes, it would be difficult for me to do the same kind of routine as last year. So I have come up with a new goal, after talking with my partners: as opposed to a partner teacher, I will work as a resource teacher. I will teach fewer hours and spend more time researching and making materials. I will work with my partners to make these things, but I will be making things for classes that I won’t necessarily be teaching. And instead of spending all my time with my partners planning every minute of every lesson, I hope to spend that time teaching my partners new activities that can apply to all lessons and as well as better ways to teach English. Last year, our planning time together really needed to focus on what exactly we are doing next lesson. So this would be more about teaching my partners rather than teaching with my partners.

I also hope to teach my partners how to work together to make teaching easier. Right now, they each kind of work independently of each other. Each of them makes their own things. And when I would plan with each individual partner, the materials we made for that class were not always things that could be shared easily. So now, if I’m working more as a resource teacher, when I’m making resources with my partners, we will make things to share with the whole English department instead of the individual teacher.

Furthermore, Tatiana told me today that our director has given the English department a classroom to use. This means we can make it into an English resource center, so there is a place to put all the resources I will be making with my partners. It also means I finally have a place to work in the school during my free periods. Last year, I felt like a refugee when I didn’t have a class to teach, having no room to work in. With this new room, I have a place where I can spend my free periods at school to work on resource development.

I’m so excited about this potential idea. I feel like I can do so many more useful things with my partners this way, and I think my partners will like this arrangement better. And I feel like it uses my skills and education better. Plus, I think I will be happier doing this kind of work. Now I just have to get Peace Corps to approve this change. Wish me luck!

First Bell

Today is the first day of school. It’s easy to see on my walk to school; all the students are carrying a variety of flowers that they will give to their teachers throughout the day. Normally, the first day of school is September 1, but it was a Saturday this year. In years past, they sometimes will still make the first day of school be September 1, even if it’s on the weekend. Luckily, we were allowed to start on the Monday.

As I walk to school, I can’t help but be excited. I know that this year will still be difficult, but at least I will be back working with students and in a familiar place. Plus, this is the first time that I'm teaching a curriculum that I had taught the year before. And even though I know I will have so many awkward situations, I’m excited to work with the students once more.

Last year, there were so many awkward situations because I didn’t know what I was doing. My partners often didn’t automatically tell me what was going on, so I had to ask. But many times, I didn’t know what to ask. And this year, it feels like that they assume that I know what is going on since I was here last year. So I have to ask more about what is going on then before. For example, when I got to school, one of my partner teachers told me that my main partner wasn’t going to be here for the first lesson. My main partner hadn’t told me, and I ended up waiting in her room for her during the first lesson before someone told me she wasn’t coming. Oh well. But it’s nice to be back regardless.

The day began with the ceremony to start the new school year. Everyone gathered in the courtyard, which was nicely decorated with balloons and artwork. The ceremony began with welcoming the new fifth form students. The director also welcomed the new and returning teachers. The chairman of the executive branch of Criuleni also spoke about the year beginning. A couple students recited the school rules, and of course, several students perform songs. Three students dedicated flowers to the students, teacher, homeroom teacher, and school. The ceremony ends when two students from the first grade and two students from the last grade (which at this school is 5th and 12th form) walk around the courtyard ringing a bell that represents the first bell of the school year.

The first lesson was with the students’ homeroom teachers, and the lesson is about Ion and Doina Aldea Teodorovici, who are two famous singers in Moldova who died in a car crash in 1992. There was one other lesson after that and a meeting for the teachers. It was actually a pretty short day overall, but it officially means that the school year has begun.