Nothing to Write About

My school

Now that school has started, I am finally back in some sort of a routine. I'm not a big fan of monotony but after having one month with nothing scheduled I am able to appreciate it.

Each day I walk to school around 8:30 for first period class. Each day I have a different set of children at a different time. During school here, each grade is assigned a classroom for the year. The teachers move between classes. The students have English class two times a week for 45 minutes. I think English is one of the more difficult classes to teach because at least half of the students are way behind where they should be and the books assigned by the Government are far too advanced for even the strongest students in most of the classes. Therefore, keeping the students attention is very difficult because they do not care what the teacher is saying. I can not say that I really blame them for not caring either, the textbooks for the most part are very bland and uninspiring. They simply do not make learning fun for the students.

I catch the bus (a ride that puts wooden roller coasters too shame...they jar your body that much) either back to my house or to the neighboring city of Yereghnadzor if I need to do some shopping, meet other volunteers, or work with my Armenian language tutor. I usually leave school around 2:30-3:30 depending on if my Armenian counterpart has time to lesson plan or wants to work on private tutoring with me. Both of my counterparts have been very active in asking questions about how to correctly work the language (although sometimes they aren't receptive to my answer. I.E. Envelope is not spelled Envilope...not in British English and definitely not in American English...).

When I return home I like to hang out with my tatik (grandma) and help her with whatever her project of the day is. She is the coolest old lady I've ever met. She likes hearing English words and trying to remember them. She says it keeps her young. Per the suggestion of a friend, I was able to successfully able to teach her the English equivalent of "baaah." She now says "blerg" just as well as Tina Fey. It's great.

Each day there is always time to spend time alone in my room reading, watching movies, talking on the phone, or just napping.

One aspect of Armenian culture that I really like is all of the meals are eaten at the table in the dining room together as a family. The television isn't on (until 9:30 rolls around...my Tatik will never miss her favorite show "Ana"). After dinner, my host mom and my host brothers usually sit around for an hour or so drinking tea and talking. I learn Armenian and they learn English. At least two or three times a week the chess board comes out and I take on various family members. It's a nice way to end the day.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/08/holder-axelrod-denounce-f_n_708766.html

In other news, some idiot at a small church in Florida declared 9.11.10 Quran Burning Day....

Pictures and Clubs

The pictures above are from my permanent site.

The first day of school in Armenia is September 1st, nationwide all school's start on the same day. With the beginning of school, I have started developing the raw skills the Peace Corps gave us during PST. More so than anything else, I realize that my language skills are going to need to improve very quickly if I hope to discipline the older boys because they refuse to speak English. At this point, if they have not learned the basics it is simply too late to help them learn English, the best I can hope for is teaching them discipline and how to behave.

I have started to think of a few different ideas for Clubs within the village.

Beginner English Club for the other Secondary School in my village. The school teaches German and Russian as foreign languages. I thought of this idea when a police officer in the neighboring city of Yereghnadzor approached me and asked if I was the new English Teacher in Malishka. He said his son went to the other school but he really wanted him to learn English because he knew his son could get a better job if he could speak English. I gave him my phone number and asked him to call me next month once I was able to assess the situation better.

A creative writing club for the advanced 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. This club will happen, probably sometime around November or December at the earliest.

An athletics club, this idea is to draw in the boys who do not want to learn in class, I would organize sports activities once a week...futbol, basketball, volleyball, maybe even a running club if there was interest.

I've also been asked my a lot of the teachers to help them practice and learn English. I thought, if the interest was serious, that in my second year I would start small tutoring groups for the teachers who really wanted to learn.

I want to work on small business development somehow as well. When I leave the Peace Corps, I want to show that I gained experience in International Business for my Masters program. I still have not found a way to tie this into my Peace Corps experience in the village. My only prospect so far is working with the local hanewts (stores)on simple business practices. For example, posting the hours their open, bringing in products that other stores do not carry (most stores carry the exact same things). It's still a work in progress.

---Chad