08 October 2013

08 October 2013

Today I got up, got dressed, had a breakfast of Kasha with raspberry jam, and walked to School #5, as I was to observe my counterpart, Y, teach her class. I was able to ask her some questions, get a copy of the texts, and find out what she wants me to cover on Thursday before the class started.

There were only 6 students in her class, so it was a very small class. She started it by introducing me, and letting her students ask me questions. I got to show off some photos (the class was impressed that I have a pet snake and I live in a house; one of them said that her dream is to live in a house instead of a flat), and then the lesson began. The previous lessons had been about taking a 15 day tour of the US, so, as the native speaker, I was asked to read the sections. Next, Y had her students read the passages aloud, showed them pictures of mentioned locations, then had the students come up to the front of the room and recite one of the passages. After that, she gave her students a noun, and had them give her adjectives that could be used to describe that noun. She corrected some spellings (since Ukraine uses English (UK), so will this blog), and I noticed that the use of the target language wasn’t exclusive – she used Ukrainian to suggest a word, but required the students to say it in English. She also explained a few words in Ukrainian.

The new material presented was a collection of pronouns, the relative pronouns. She wrote the words on the board, and gave examples by using them in sentences. She then had the students copy the table into their day books, and then had them create sentences when given a noun and a description (as in, a clown is someone who makes people laugh). She also went over a conjugation of “to make.” As the lesson was double English, she assigned a home task, and then they had a brief break. I had a Tech session during her next lesson, so I wasn’t able to observe it.

Today’s Tech session was about lesson planning, as we are teaching our first lesson on Thursday. First, though, we went over English club – one of my cluster mates was told that the students were looking forward to the first English club meeting… tomorrow! We were able to quickly cover what we needed to know to have a successful meeting.

We then went over how to plan a lesson, and how much time to allocate to specific parts of the lesson. School #5 has 45 minute lessons, so we have to fill 45 min, but we have to fill only 45 min. We can (and should), write the homework on the board before class, but we will have to go over it, not just assume that the students will copy and understand it.

We went over how to write objectives, as they have to be very specific. They need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. We were given other tips – try to connect the warm up/motivation to the presentation of new materials. We can start with just about anything, so long as it is a warm up and motivator. Students have liked word searches, tongue-twisters, word associations, among others. We were also give tips as to how to present – flash cards and real objects work the best. Always have a object that we can throw – hot potato is a fun way to burn time, motivate, practice, apply… We were then given a few minutes to sketch a plan of our lesson, which we need to do for home task, as we have tutoring (where S goes over our plan add decides how SMART it is) tomorrow afternoon, after a full day of Russian. Just before we left for Russian, we went over what you need to do before and during the lesson. We also learned that we need to decide what we want our students to call us, as they use patronymic address. Just our first name would be to informal – just a friend from America, not a teacher – and a formed patronymic would be too forced. I already know that I wouldn’t last a minute being called Miss Megan (as Mister/Miss _______ ) is the usual PC suggestion, so I guess it’s the almost-to-formal “Ms. Bennett” for the next 2+ years. We then hurried to our Russian class, as we were running late.

Once back at V’s flat, we met up with the language training coordinator, Vl, who was there to meet with V. We spent sometime asking him questions, and practicing our Russian. We learned a few new words, as he would ask us the question we asked him, and then ask a clarification question. After that, we spent some time going over the past tense (what did you do yesterday), and asked “with who/whom” questions. We also went over how to ask what someone’s favourite dish is, or why they like something, as well answering it (we can say: “because it’s fun” or “because they are delicious”). We used our new words in a fake interview with another student (I got to “interview” Vl), and then got to present our partner to another student – “yesterday, I cooked with ______ (instr.), and I found out that ________ (nom).” After that, we had a break for lunch.

We boiled water for coffee/tea, and had lunch. I had bread, cheese, and grapes. The grapes here are amazing – completely sweet and juicy. Haven’t had a bad one yet. We made tea for V and Vl, who joined us after having a meeting to discuss the class. One of the things that Vl was here to do was to give us our bank cards, and the contract that we had to sign. We had to sign 2 copies (one for the bank, one for us) 3 times in each language! But, now we have our bank cards, so we will be able to get our stipend next month.

After lunch and signing official contracts, we went back to Russian. We went over time – the words for hours, minutes, and seconds change depending on how many of them there are… We then practiced telling analogue time, in Russian, remembering which variant of hours and minutes to use. After several rounds of practice, we learned a new verb phrase, which we practiced by asking a classmate what the time was, when the ______ was, and when we thought we would be how after the ______. Then, we learned a new verb, and the Russian translation for a famous Shakespeare quote: “to be, or not to be? That is the question.”

The new verb was “to be.” In Russian, “to be” is used primarily in the future tense. In fact the tense “will be ____ing” is formed by conjugating “to be” and adding the infinitive of the word to it. So, I learned how to form the simple future today. We practiced it, buy making up sentences based on what we would be doing tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, in a week, in a month, in a year, before going over a few new words. These words were the words of daily activities – wake up, get up, wash my face, get dressed, eat breakfast, make the bed, put on make-up, and others like that. We drew pictures next to the words to make it easier to remember them.

After that, we were done for the lesson, but M and I had to finish our lesson plans. We walked to his flat, where we created our materials for Thursday, and decided who was going to do what. While we were working, we made tea. In the space between M starting the tea to steep, and us remembering it (5-10 minutes, his host-Mom had put out a small tea tray for us, with the sugar bowl and some sweets. It was very nice of her. We kept working, and were able to finish our lesson planning and most of our handouts in about two hours.

As it was fully dark, and after 8pm, M walked me back to my host-family’s flat. I’d asked before we walked to his flat (should we go to my host-fam, as then you wouldn’t have to walk me back), but he said he liked the walk, the alone time. Once back at my host-family’s, host-Mom started reheating my dinner (a type of soup that had rice and a grated pickle – very good), while I changed out of my dress clothes. Dinner was a subdued meal, as my host-sister (still no heat or hot water in dorm) was working on her homework, and host-Mom had already eaten. They joined me for dessert – my host-sister had a grapefruit (which she shared), but host-Mom and I had kasha made with pumpkin. A pumpkin which she had grown in her garden. She grows beets, beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peanuts, walnuts, grapes, carrots, onions, potatoes, pumpkin, and those are just the ones I remember.

After dinner, I did my Russian home task. V said that she would try to avoid giving us a lot of home tasks on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as they were already our busiest days, so I didn’t have that much to do.

Tomorrow is the first meeting of English club, so we get to run that, as well as going over our lesson plans for our first lesson on Thursday.