I have somewhat repressed memories of my scheduling disaster at the beginning of last school year. I was a new volunteer with extremely limited language abilities, yet nobody understood why I couldn't read the cursive Ukrainian schedule and why, after two months at school, I still wasn't doing anything. In reality I was asking my so-called "coordinator" for help every day, often accompanied by my tears.
Looking back the school was at a complete loss of what to do with me if I wasn't an English teacher. Never mind that they had the option to ask for an English teacher when requesting a volunteer and instead opted for the youth development volunteer. I did what I could last year. I taught a few English clubs, art and tried to help out with healthy lifestyles classes (until I remembered I didn't speak Ukrainian).
This year I was teaching by the second day of school due to a number of factors. First, I ditched my coordinator long ago realizing she was never going to help me. Second, my language skills are at a level where I can help myself. And lastly, when I announced that I wanted to teach English this year there was a collective sigh of relief from the directors and asst. directors.
"This is what we've wanted all along!" The cynical side of me yelled back something about requesting an English teacher but I kept my mouth shut and smiled, happy I could make them happy. When I arrived at school the next morning I had a schedule, beginning that day at 1:30. They designed my schedule so that I am teaching every form once a week. That's nine hours a week, seeing that they don't teach English in first form and that there is no 10th form. Don't ask me why they skip 10th form.
My first day I had an hour to plan for four classes. Armed with direction from the English teacher about the curriculum and the Plokhotnik, the English books most Ukrainian schools are equipped with, I opened the book ready to conquer the day! The ninth form book began with a map of English speaking countries. I studied a map that included Washington DC somewhere in Indiana, New York in Massechusetts, and a large ice covered island north of Canada named Ireland. Right.
I'm now in my second week of teaching and things are going….well, going. I can still say with confidence that I don't like teaching. But I can also say that I'm happy about getting to know more of the students. There are good classes and bad classes. The second grade boys are convinced that if they hide under their coats they are invisible. Really! Just write the damn letter 'O!" It's the same in Russian! And Ukrainian! And I love my 4th formers from art last year, but they really don't have any interest in learning English, instead constantly asking me when we're making bracelets again.
Some classes, like eighth form, refuse to come to class altogether and I am secretly thankful. One of the things I make very clear to my director was that I couldn't discipline children (the verb for 'to discipline' in Russian is disiplinirovat), so in reality my classes are optional for students. Some students gave up trying to learn English after 2nd form so what's the point of them coming if they are so against learning it? Still, there are students who show up that really surprise me, students I thought had absolutely no interest whatsoever.
So I'm happy overall. I'm going to add an art class for the younger kids in October. I'm running out of ideas so it may not be every week. Plus, I don't teach on Fridays or Mondays (until I start my once and a while art class). Getting to and from the village is too much of a problem. I would never get out of I had to teach on those days and for my sanity, I need to get out sometimes.
I know what some of you are thinking. Nine or ten hours of work a week? Maybe it's just my mom's passive aggressive voice trying to call me out on the phone, but it's more than it sounds. In addition to those hours are hours of planning lessons, designing materials and translating into Russian. Even though the classes are English classes most students still can't answer "how are you?," so most classes are taught mainly in Russian. Second, as part of a grant I wrote I'm helping coordinate monthly healthy lifestyle seminars and activities. I'm also planning on teaching and helping at other sites. A friend who teaches at an Institute in Odessa asked if I'd teach a class about HIV/AIDS in November. Plus I'm still reviewing grants for the PEPFAR committee.
It's relieving to know that for the next eight months I have my basic schedule. I'll actually have an impact on some of the kids and get to know them before I fly away from their lives forever. And just like the first eight months felt like a millisecond, I'm sure the last will fly by just the same. Eight months. How crazy does that sound?
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