September 1st marked the first day of school (of my last year here in Moldova). It was wonderful to be back at my school with my students. Until I saw them, I had not realized how much I had missed them (especially my 5th graders from last year). Despite the dreary, cold, overcast day you could feel the excitement that accompanies the first day of school. During the 'first bell' ceremony I looked around the courtyard at the students and marveled at how much some of them had grown and matured during the summer. And I felt lucky to be seeing them again for this second (and last) school year.
As usual, the schedule for classes is still being worked out, but I think we have our final version now. I decided not to teach a class by myself this year. Last year's experience with that was not a positive one and I feel more productive and useful for my students and partners when teaching with a Moldovan teacher. I have also decided to teach more hours than last year. Another change for this year is that we had a 4th English teacher join us. Last year I started with 3 partner teachers. Unfortunately early into the first semester I had to change my schedule and was unable to work with one of them (Oxana). I knew coming into this year that I would be working with 3 partners, but it was not until I returned from my vacation in Greece that I learned of a fourth. Fortunately, this new teacher is someone I already knew. Alina is my former Romanian tutor and a friend. This year I will be working with all 4 teachers whereas last year I had only worked with 2. Working with 4 partners has made scheduling much more difficult because of coinciding classes, but I am hopeful this will get ironed out. I am teaching one class each with each of my secondary partners - Maia (one partner from last year), Alina (the new teacher) and Oxana (who I was unable to work with last year). My remaining classes are all with my primary partner (and good friend) Elena. In total I am teaching 22 hours a week. I was hoping to teach 24 hours per week but had to drop one class because of schedule conflicts. Like last year, I am teaching most of the grades between 5th and 12th (last year I did not teach 6th grade or 12th grade and this year I am not teaching 7th grade).
Another new addition to this school year was being matched with a teacher and classroom in America for a pen pal type of experience through the Peace Corps Cloverdell World Wise Schools program (http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/). I tried this last year with a match I was given, but the teacher had changed schools and was unable to participate. However, this new match has been great. He and his class have been excited about the prospect of communicating with me and my classes. He and I have talked about many possible projects we can have our classes do and I think this will be a wonderful opportunity for his students to learn about Moldova and Its people as well as giving my students the chance to learn more about America from peers (versus from me) and practice their English. His school is located in Southern California and his students are all 5th graders. He has 31 students in his class, so to keep the numbers relatively even I invited my 5th grade and 6th grade classes to participate since my combined total in those classes is 37. My 5th grade class is still shy about the idea of this, but seem interested. My 6th grade class is ecstatic about this opportunity and are coming to me with ideas of what they would like to do with their new American friends. These students are the truly brightest parts of my time at school!!
I started this new school year with a refined focus on what I now know I can do for my school and partners. Last year I tried a few different activities (English Club, private tutoring-kids and ,adults, group tutoring, national exam preparation, etc..). This year in addition to teaching, I will have a 12th grade exit exam (the Baccalaureate) preparation lesson, a 9th grade exit exam preparation lesson, English Club and supplementary group grammar lessons for some of the students in my lower grades who are struggling a bit more than others. I have decided that I do not want to do private tutoring and want to focus all my attention on my current students and my school. I have already started preparing materials and writing lesson plans for these extra lessons that will begin at the end of the month. I am also working on creating books for each of my partners that I will give to them at the end of the year with all of the materials I have created on my own or with them.
This year has definitely begun much more smoothly than last year. I knew I had learned to be more patient during my first year, but I had not realized how much until the start of the new school year. Having a better understanding of how schools in Moldova work, not having the stress of meeting new teachers and students, the jitters of being a new person in a new environment and having MUCH better Romanian skills has made this new school year easier and more enjoyable. In many ways, getting back to school was like coming home. And this last year that I am here I am going to do my best to enjoy each minute of it.
Here are some pictures and videos from the first day of school:
This is my main partner Elena and I right before we walked into the school for our first lesson
All of us standing in the courtyard around of the steps to the front of the school during the 'first bell' ceremony
This little girl is a new 5th grader in our school (and one of my students-Victoria) and she is preparing to sing "Buna Dimineata" (Good Morning). See the video below.
Now for some videos during the ceremony
This is my 5th grader Victoria singing
This is the ceremonial ringing of the "First Bell" for the school year. Two 5th grade students are accompanied by two 12th grade students. The 5th graders are the new incoming class while the 12th graders are exiting.
