Hello! I'm so sorry to hear you were so sick, Suzie... we knew if we hadn't heard from you it would have been for good reason! We were somewhat afraid that our emails had been going to your spam or junkmail by accident but ruled it improbable since our parents haven't heard from you and since the Kazakh police haven't shown up at the school :) I hope you're feeling better! Let us know if you need any Kazakhstan remedies that you've run out of at home!
Today started a little rough at our host home but we got to school just fine and plenty early; Keri had a middle school math class to sit in on so I walked with her (face almost fell off in the cold... can't believe that I'm looking forward to Spokane's weather) and met my mentor teacher early to discuss my lesson from yesterday and hers and my joint lesson plan for tomorrow. She had a lot of good feedback and some great tips about classroom management that were really helpful and she allowed me to unload what I felt wasn't great about how the lesson went. In all it was a really fruitful conversation. Then Lindsay and Tim came asking me for help with International Day which is this Friday, so we went through the preschool building and assigned all the 16 countries represented to rooms and divided the classes attending into smaller groups headed up by teachers and aides. Not too in depth but I spent a good chunk of my after-lunch time typing it all out and making it nice enough to present to the staff. Anyway, it was another good day in the life at Kazakhstan.
Sorry, I should have kept you updated about my host stay! It's much better. It is still a little uncomfortable at times but we're learning how to create boundaries for the boys and, although we don't always agree with her parenting, we've built a good relationship with our host mom. The variety of diversity we've encountered here still amazes me though... we've been to completely Russian-speaking places, partook (partaken? Partooken?!) in Kazakh relationships and traditions, work at an international school where most of our students represent different countries, dealt with people both in poverty and in extreme wealth, and live with a Russian woman with a Louisiana accent and two severely developmentally delayed boys. Needless to say, I feel good about our well-rounded experience :) have a huge week ahead including babysitting for some teachers, a hockey game, the indoor bazaar for my souvenir shopping, a birthday party at the super fancy indoor tropical resort, a visit to a public school, dinners with QSI staff to say goodbye, and oh yeah, teaching! I feel comfortable in saying that we've taken advantage of every opportunity given to us to integrate into the culture and I have no regrets. Relationships are being built and I'm honestly sad to be saying goodbye to the staff and kiddos at QSI. They tell us daily though that we can always apply for next school year :)
I actually had a planning period today with my teacher so we spent some time preparing for our Japanese tea ceremony/cherry blossom ceremony/music experience for cultural studies tomorrow. Missed ELL and science for it, but it was a valuable time to work with my teacher. Afterward school Keri and I had an interview with our Russian mama (Anastasia) and I spoke at the staff meeting about International Day. Went home, worked with the boys on their homework, had dinner, and am now in bed nursing my bruise from a very comedic and painful fall I had earlier today :) minus the slip, it was a normal day! We're starting to get into a routine, we don't even have qualms or much difficulty communicating with Russian speakers anymore! We've found ways to use the words we know and universals signs to communicate our needs or questions. It feels really good to be learning so much :)
Anyway, so happy to hear you're okay (or at least getting better) and thanks for answering those questions! Some of them we still went ahead and did enough to cover our bases so I'm sorry, you may have a little extra reading :) get well soon, and dasvydanye!
Chels
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Day 15: Corpus Collosum
Hi Suzie! Please talk to us, we have lots of questions! Hope to hear from you soon...
This weekend was delightfully cultural. Keri and I both felt as though we had finally migrated away from tourism and were just, well, living! It was wonderful to integrate into the culture and feel comfortable with it instead of petrified and unsure. On Saturday, we did have quite the getaway. My mentor teacher Nina and her husband picked us up at a mall just five minutes’ walk away from our host stay (it’s called Mega, we go shopping for groceries at the PAMCTOP, or Ramstore, inside of it all the time) and took us to a little place called the English Book & Coffee Store. I’ve adored this cultural immersion, I really have, but this place was a slice of heaven. Mostly English speakers, the first real coffee I’ve seen around here that’s not “instant”, and an older American woman who owns and runs this little library-like place with comfy booths and broccoli quiche. Twas amazing and exactly what we needed. Also, the woman who owned it was part of a mission I was given at the beginning of my trip! I was trying to be friendly to a nice older couple on my airport shuttle and found out they were going to be on my flight to Frankfurt; they were on their way to moving to Turkey indefinitely. They said, after extensive conversation, that they had a friend in Astana named Martha who owned a little coffee shop and if I ever saw her to tell her “Tom and Pauline said hi”. It had always been in the back of my mind, so it felt good to accomplish my mission J After that, we walked to the Artume indoor bazaar and met the Kruger family to look around. Found out some interesting Kazakh superstitions though... we were waiting for the Kruger’s to arrive and decided to sit on the floor until we did. We got a lot of interesting looks, especially from young men and older women. We asked Shari, Tim’s wife, why that was and she looked at us with wide eyes. She said that it’s a common medical belief that if you sit on the floor you will freeze your ovaries and kidneys. Apparently everyone was staring at us because we were voluntarily making ourselves infertile. Well, sometimes learning is hard and awkward!
After Artume, we had pizza with the Kruger family and decided to walk the 2 or so miles home. We were in a new part of town and wanted to explore, so it made sense! It was wonderful to feel so self sufficient. We were able to ask questions and have people understand us, it was awesome. On Sunday, after homework and rest, we went to a local ballet production of Swan Lake with our host family and beforehand went to a Kazakh friend of our host mom’s for dinner. It was great, we asked questions about family culture and the Soviet Union, and ate the first good manti I’ve had since coming here (still made me sick though... fourth time in a row, but it would be rude to refuse. Fun stuff). The culture here seems to have an iron exterior since smiling at strangers is considered foolish, but when someone knows you or knows a friend of yours than they do everything they can to make you feel welcome. It was wonderful! P.S. Our host family situation is much much better. Our relationship with our host mom improves every day and although we don't always agree with her parenting we know we'll be fine through the rest of the trip. So yay!
Today I taught a lesson in the math hour for my second graders. It was really scary, I’m not used to that age group! And I know that every child is a culture of one and as diverse as they come, but haven’t really dealt with diversity on that scale before. I was told that the lesson was going to be regrouping and I had the weekend to prepare; thank goodness, because I had to relearn the addition tricks for 2nd graders! I thankfully had an “aha!” moment and thought of a new addition trick I called the “Dragonfly Trick”. It involves breaking the tens down on one side, the ones down on the other and combining them in the tail. You’ll see the lesson plan and worksheets J I felt okay about it, of course it didn’t go as I expected and I wished I had done things differently. I will be debriefing with my mentor teacher tomorrow before classes start (she had to jet right after school) and will have a better brain about the experience. It just helped me to realize how difficult it can be to keep all the cultures represented in a classroom in mind when planning a one hour lesson. I tried to scaffold it down by modeling first, having the whole class work through it, have partners create problems for each other and solve together and finally independent practice with a worksheet. The big thing I realized, and I know for all age groups but in a different way with these 7 year olds, how much of teaching is classroom management. The big issues I had weren’t necessarily confusion, they were “I don’t want to work with so and so” or “quadruple digit numbers are so much cooler!” I learned a whole new breed of patience today, and I think it was both humbling and good for me. Anyway, after hearing from my mentor teacher I will have more to report on.
So basically I went about my normal day, went to my ELL class and traipsed up to Mr. Burkey’s middle school classroom to distribute the chocolates I had forgotten to bring on Friday for my Jeopardy winners. I’ll be staying there in the afternoons for the rest of the week and it sounds like Mr. Burkey is very willing to share his classroom, so we’ll see what happens! Off to bed now though, can’t believe the last day is a week from tomorrow... oy, how time flies when you’re learning!
Chels
This weekend was delightfully cultural. Keri and I both felt as though we had finally migrated away from tourism and were just, well, living! It was wonderful to integrate into the culture and feel comfortable with it instead of petrified and unsure. On Saturday, we did have quite the getaway. My mentor teacher Nina and her husband picked us up at a mall just five minutes’ walk away from our host stay (it’s called Mega, we go shopping for groceries at the PAMCTOP, or Ramstore, inside of it all the time) and took us to a little place called the English Book & Coffee Store. I’ve adored this cultural immersion, I really have, but this place was a slice of heaven. Mostly English speakers, the first real coffee I’ve seen around here that’s not “instant”, and an older American woman who owns and runs this little library-like place with comfy booths and broccoli quiche. Twas amazing and exactly what we needed. Also, the woman who owned it was part of a mission I was given at the beginning of my trip! I was trying to be friendly to a nice older couple on my airport shuttle and found out they were going to be on my flight to Frankfurt; they were on their way to moving to Turkey indefinitely. They said, after extensive conversation, that they had a friend in Astana named Martha who owned a little coffee shop and if I ever saw her to tell her “Tom and Pauline said hi”. It had always been in the back of my mind, so it felt good to accomplish my mission J After that, we walked to the Artume indoor bazaar and met the Kruger family to look around. Found out some interesting Kazakh superstitions though... we were waiting for the Kruger’s to arrive and decided to sit on the floor until we did. We got a lot of interesting looks, especially from young men and older women. We asked Shari, Tim’s wife, why that was and she looked at us with wide eyes. She said that it’s a common medical belief that if you sit on the floor you will freeze your ovaries and kidneys. Apparently everyone was staring at us because we were voluntarily making ourselves infertile. Well, sometimes learning is hard and awkward!
After Artume, we had pizza with the Kruger family and decided to walk the 2 or so miles home. We were in a new part of town and wanted to explore, so it made sense! It was wonderful to feel so self sufficient. We were able to ask questions and have people understand us, it was awesome. On Sunday, after homework and rest, we went to a local ballet production of Swan Lake with our host family and beforehand went to a Kazakh friend of our host mom’s for dinner. It was great, we asked questions about family culture and the Soviet Union, and ate the first good manti I’ve had since coming here (still made me sick though... fourth time in a row, but it would be rude to refuse. Fun stuff). The culture here seems to have an iron exterior since smiling at strangers is considered foolish, but when someone knows you or knows a friend of yours than they do everything they can to make you feel welcome. It was wonderful! P.S. Our host family situation is much much better. Our relationship with our host mom improves every day and although we don't always agree with her parenting we know we'll be fine through the rest of the trip. So yay!
Today I taught a lesson in the math hour for my second graders. It was really scary, I’m not used to that age group! And I know that every child is a culture of one and as diverse as they come, but haven’t really dealt with diversity on that scale before. I was told that the lesson was going to be regrouping and I had the weekend to prepare; thank goodness, because I had to relearn the addition tricks for 2nd graders! I thankfully had an “aha!” moment and thought of a new addition trick I called the “Dragonfly Trick”. It involves breaking the tens down on one side, the ones down on the other and combining them in the tail. You’ll see the lesson plan and worksheets J I felt okay about it, of course it didn’t go as I expected and I wished I had done things differently. I will be debriefing with my mentor teacher tomorrow before classes start (she had to jet right after school) and will have a better brain about the experience. It just helped me to realize how difficult it can be to keep all the cultures represented in a classroom in mind when planning a one hour lesson. I tried to scaffold it down by modeling first, having the whole class work through it, have partners create problems for each other and solve together and finally independent practice with a worksheet. The big thing I realized, and I know for all age groups but in a different way with these 7 year olds, how much of teaching is classroom management. The big issues I had weren’t necessarily confusion, they were “I don’t want to work with so and so” or “quadruple digit numbers are so much cooler!” I learned a whole new breed of patience today, and I think it was both humbling and good for me. Anyway, after hearing from my mentor teacher I will have more to report on.
So basically I went about my normal day, went to my ELL class and traipsed up to Mr. Burkey’s middle school classroom to distribute the chocolates I had forgotten to bring on Friday for my Jeopardy winners. I’ll be staying there in the afternoons for the rest of the week and it sounds like Mr. Burkey is very willing to share his classroom, so we’ll see what happens! Off to bed now though, can’t believe the last day is a week from tomorrow... oy, how time flies when you’re learning!
Chels
Friday, January 14, 2011
Day 12: Kit Kat
Hi Suzie! So today was a great Friday, full of different things... Today was our visit to a nearby village school with the U.S. Embassy to distribute toys to some 1st graders. It was incredible, the press was out and everything. Three or four reporters jammed into this little room with 30 some odd 3 to 6/7 year olds... was quite the sight. Some of the kids were wearing traditional Kazakh garb and the event was opened with gift giving followed by a song by a little girl and an old Kazakh dance. This cultural experience was great and so different from anything we've had thus far. It was great to be a part of seeing so many happy kids thanks to QSI and the Embassy. One eye-opening thing was talking to a woman from the school while we were there. She said that the three classrooms we visited and gave gifts to were the only three rooms in the entire three story building (educating over 270 kids throughout the day) that had heat. And without the big buildings in Astana available to break the wind passing over the tundra steppe, it gets to be mighty cold in the winter. The children were so disciplined, the older ages stood when we entered and exited a room. They were also wearing similar clothing; not uniforms, but looking almost exactly like uniforms! Just with small differences. They sang to us in Kazakh and were quite like most all the Kazakh's I've interacted with here; they didn't smile much. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, just different! We Americans are so used to smiling at everyone and all the time, but here they probably think we're obnoxious for it. Their culture is much more reserved and private. It's just something to recognize and I've been trying to respect it. Anyway, the school seemed glad to have us and it was quite the whirlwind event.
Well, as you know, it is Friday. You also know what that means. Kids are living in Zero-Motivationland. My ELL teacher had them work for the first 20 minutes or so and then they could play games, so I of course played Mafia with a group of middle schoolers... you know, it's funny; no matter where I go, the arguments of kids and preteens are always the same, especially when playing games :) one universal that I've found among many! After ELL I went to my science class and prepared my classroom. I decided I couldn't take it anymore and I was shifting my sub-ly duties into a more creative, teacher role. I planned a Jeopardy review game for their lesson, complete with increasing difficulty and rules. It was wonderful to kind of loosen things up in there, the kids were laughing and
joking. I of course had to explain what Jeopardy was and they wanted to hear more about Alec Trebec, go figure. At the end of the day, one girl came up to me (very quiet girl, didn't say much except to ask to go to her locker and get the right notebook every day at the beginning of class) and asked if their normal teacher was coming back and I said that he was on Monday. She sighed and said, "oh no, but you made this fun" and shuffled out the door after a hardy goodbye. Its those little interactions you don't expect that are most affirming; here I thought nobody wanted the sub in the room trying to crack jokes and discuss learning... I guess it just made me happy to think that my review lesson was received well :)
And now for a weekend full of studying and other frivolities! This Sunday we'll be going to Swan Lake with our host family and tomorrow we'll be going to a coffee shop owned by an American woman I was told (by a stranger on the plane/airport shuttle actually!) I should say hi to. That and the indoor bazaar's supposed to be pretty cool. We haven't heard from you in a while and are starting to get worried, if you're receiving these please let us know! We aren't sure if you're getting them or if something has happened to you... anyway, would love to hear back. Thanks :)
Chels
Well, as you know, it is Friday. You also know what that means. Kids are living in Zero-Motivationland. My ELL teacher had them work for the first 20 minutes or so and then they could play games, so I of course played Mafia with a group of middle schoolers... you know, it's funny; no matter where I go, the arguments of kids and preteens are always the same, especially when playing games :) one universal that I've found among many! After ELL I went to my science class and prepared my classroom. I decided I couldn't take it anymore and I was shifting my sub-ly duties into a more creative, teacher role. I planned a Jeopardy review game for their lesson, complete with increasing difficulty and rules. It was wonderful to kind of loosen things up in there, the kids were laughing and
joking. I of course had to explain what Jeopardy was and they wanted to hear more about Alec Trebec, go figure. At the end of the day, one girl came up to me (very quiet girl, didn't say much except to ask to go to her locker and get the right notebook every day at the beginning of class) and asked if their normal teacher was coming back and I said that he was on Monday. She sighed and said, "oh no, but you made this fun" and shuffled out the door after a hardy goodbye. Its those little interactions you don't expect that are most affirming; here I thought nobody wanted the sub in the room trying to crack jokes and discuss learning... I guess it just made me happy to think that my review lesson was received well :)
And now for a weekend full of studying and other frivolities! This Sunday we'll be going to Swan Lake with our host family and tomorrow we'll be going to a coffee shop owned by an American woman I was told (by a stranger on the plane/airport shuttle actually!) I should say hi to. That and the indoor bazaar's supposed to be pretty cool. We haven't heard from you in a while and are starting to get worried, if you're receiving these please let us know! We aren't sure if you're getting them or if something has happened to you... anyway, would love to hear back. Thanks :)
Chels
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Day 11: 4th Floor
Another day, another dollar... well, paid by me that is. Oh well. Was able to talk with my teacher and feel comfortable with the differences between elementary and middle school and will be teaching math on Monday! That and I'm planning a lesson for my science class tomorrow as review, so it's a big time right now :)
Two things I wanted to address. My substituting for science has been really disappointing because the curriculum is so strict that the only way the specifications can be covered (especially since I don't know what they are exactly and saw the lesson plans 10 minutes prior to being in front of the class full of students) is through writing vocabulary words from the section, reading it, doing the section review problems and completing a worksheet recommended by QSI. I know with more time and freedom, I could meet the standards of the school and help them learn in more creative ways, but it's been frustrating feeling powerless over the absent teacher's wishes. I feel pretty useless; thankfully some kids had questions about the section today and I secretly said "hallelujah! I'm worthwhile in here!" Anyway, it was a very different experience than I've been used to, but hopefully tomorrow will put a little zing back into it :)
So it's been interesting at our host family. The host mother gets very easily frustrated with the youngest and we feel as though she's pouring all of her high expectations into him. It almost seems as though she's, for lack of a better phrase, given up on her eldest son and he does much of the housework when they're home. This morning, we heard lots of frustration and anger from her towards her son. They get up every morning and sit in the kitchen from 6am until breakfast and she reviews his coursework with him. She leaves little time for him to process the question (which is huge for him! His disability causes him to process longer and have slower responses, much of the time she cuts him off before he's had time to process the question...) and berates him in frustration. At one point, I may have heard a hit of some kind. We told Tim all this this afternoon when the oldest son's aide came up to Keri and I after school asking if we'd seen Alex, the youngest. Needless to say, most of the staff searched for an hour and couldn't find him. He was supposed to be in after school art class but wasn't there and some of his things were still at the school. We didn't know what happened to him! Finally the staff called his mother and she went home to find him there, he must have gotten on the bus instead. This didn't make mom happy either... we had dinner at my mentor teacher's apartment tonight and didn't see her for more than 30 seconds tonight, but this may become an even stranger and more awkward situation. Thankfully Tim has urged us to be completely honest with him and has offered us residence at his house again, but we don't want to inconvenience him and his family and want to at least try to see this through. Keri and I talked about it and we'll at least be staying here through the weekend, giving the benefit of the doubt that its a stressful time and they're still adjusting to school/work after vacation, etc. In all, it's been rough but we're making it.
Today was fairly stressful, I apologize that I have just Negative Nancy things to say today. But tomorrow's another day in Astana! And we're going to a village orphanage outside Astana tomorrow with the U.S. Embassy to give away toys, so that'll be incredible to see some Kazakh villages and such. We live, we learn and we move on. Crazy to think we'll be back in 12/13 days though...
Chels
Two things I wanted to address. My substituting for science has been really disappointing because the curriculum is so strict that the only way the specifications can be covered (especially since I don't know what they are exactly and saw the lesson plans 10 minutes prior to being in front of the class full of students) is through writing vocabulary words from the section, reading it, doing the section review problems and completing a worksheet recommended by QSI. I know with more time and freedom, I could meet the standards of the school and help them learn in more creative ways, but it's been frustrating feeling powerless over the absent teacher's wishes. I feel pretty useless; thankfully some kids had questions about the section today and I secretly said "hallelujah! I'm worthwhile in here!" Anyway, it was a very different experience than I've been used to, but hopefully tomorrow will put a little zing back into it :)
So it's been interesting at our host family. The host mother gets very easily frustrated with the youngest and we feel as though she's pouring all of her high expectations into him. It almost seems as though she's, for lack of a better phrase, given up on her eldest son and he does much of the housework when they're home. This morning, we heard lots of frustration and anger from her towards her son. They get up every morning and sit in the kitchen from 6am until breakfast and she reviews his coursework with him. She leaves little time for him to process the question (which is huge for him! His disability causes him to process longer and have slower responses, much of the time she cuts him off before he's had time to process the question...) and berates him in frustration. At one point, I may have heard a hit of some kind. We told Tim all this this afternoon when the oldest son's aide came up to Keri and I after school asking if we'd seen Alex, the youngest. Needless to say, most of the staff searched for an hour and couldn't find him. He was supposed to be in after school art class but wasn't there and some of his things were still at the school. We didn't know what happened to him! Finally the staff called his mother and she went home to find him there, he must have gotten on the bus instead. This didn't make mom happy either... we had dinner at my mentor teacher's apartment tonight and didn't see her for more than 30 seconds tonight, but this may become an even stranger and more awkward situation. Thankfully Tim has urged us to be completely honest with him and has offered us residence at his house again, but we don't want to inconvenience him and his family and want to at least try to see this through. Keri and I talked about it and we'll at least be staying here through the weekend, giving the benefit of the doubt that its a stressful time and they're still adjusting to school/work after vacation, etc. In all, it's been rough but we're making it.
Today was fairly stressful, I apologize that I have just Negative Nancy things to say today. But tomorrow's another day in Astana! And we're going to a village orphanage outside Astana tomorrow with the U.S. Embassy to give away toys, so that'll be incredible to see some Kazakh villages and such. We live, we learn and we move on. Crazy to think we'll be back in 12/13 days though...
Chels
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Day 10: Snakes on Planes
Ahh today was a much better day in headland! Migraine was gone, hopefully never to return, and I felt well enough to involve myself in my classrooms to a degree that I'm happy with. My second grade kiddos were rambunctious but awesome as always (there's a six year old that was moved up to the 7 year old class and he's almost surpassing everyone in his third day... its incredible to see!); some of these kids have thought processes and minds that amaze me! After working with them on reading and math, they went to lunch and I had my Kazakh quesadilla (the school lunch for the day... more like a strange vegetable and cheese burrito wrapped in a non-sweet crepe. I loved it though! First time I've seen broccoli since coming here!) and discussed my new host family with Keri and her mentor teacher who teaches the youngest. Wasn't intending to be gossip, just as it isn't now, we were just trying to get a feel for what's going on at home.
The situation is somewhat strange as we're learning more about their home life; dad is in New Orleans and referred to by first name by the kids, but mom still refers to him as her husband... the teachers don't know what's going on and how that affects the kids, so its kind of a mystery. Also, we learned of their coming to the school and what took place. The mom alerted the school of her eldest's arrival and his need for special education, so the school hired a specialist to work with him. On the first day of school, she arrived with both boys and said that her youngest was ready for his 5th grade class. She said he never had an IEP back in New Orleans and was almost offended by their questions. I mean this in no slight whatsoever, but her youngest is quite noticeably severely developmentally delayed and in need of special services, especially speech therapy, but it seems as if their mother is almost in a little denial of that fact. I can imagine having two sons with special needs, no spouse (we think) and a very high-paying, powerful job must be taxing and not as she expected... I don't know, we're speculating quite a bit as to how that plays into Alexander's education.
After lunch I went to English and helped students write descriptive paragraphs on the animal of their choice. Also I spoke to the teacher about standards since I heard a lot of conversations about Environmental standards during yesterday's staff meeting. He handed me a huge book about QSI's standards as an institution and explained that it was very prescriptive. It tells you exactly what you need to teach, how they want you to teach it, what materials to use down to the edition of the text, and even which problems in the text are to be done. I was shocked at how constrictive it was. Mr. Cloyed said that the experienced teachers (who know how they like to teach and what they spend time on) complain about this curriculum, while the younger teachers are thankful for the framework seeing as they haven't begun to build a routine and curriculum of their own. I find this interesting because I began to think; I wonder if QSI does this intentionally. They probably expect more novice teachers to be younger and more willing to move and travel internationally, while they probably expect more expert teachers to be happily settled into a comfortable school district where their families and themselves have no want or need to go abroad. This may be speculation, but it makes sense; although it is not typical here. Some of the teachers are relatively young but most have teaching experience and spouse, not to mention children that have been moving with them between countries. Anyway, the curriculum is very set-in-stone and emphasizes rote learning; lots of out of book work and worksheets provided by texts. Leaves very little room for creativity. I started asking myself when I got here: could I work in an international school like this in another country?! For these kids, absolutely. The different cultural dynamics and learning based on that are incredible and I've fallen in love with it. But do I want to be under this curriculum umbrella with little to no room for my own ideas? And can I be that far away from my family and feel somewhat isolated from my host society? I don't think so... I kind of want to explore possible international schools in the U.S., if they exist. Either that or I'll just find a very culturally diverse city to teach in in the Pacific Northwest :)
Grading is also different at QSI. Students either meet A mastery, B mastery, or are P "in progress". Their rubric basically says that any student receiving a P is not failing but the teacher will focus on that subject with the student until they reach at least B level. Those are the only three grades, besides W for withdrawal. Quite interesting, not sure how I feel about it yet...
After English came science with my middle school/high school class. It once again reemphasized their importance on rote learning. The students every day have a section of the text to read, write down the vocabulary words and define them, answer the section review questions and fill out a worksheet. Yup. Awesome. They have a chapter review assignment on Friday that I'm hoping won't take too long because I want to plan a fun review game... can anyone say Jeopardy?! :) it was fine, I wanted to discuss the chapter in greater detail and discussed how the students learned best at the beginning of the class (asking if they preferred to read alone as they have been or if they preferred to popcorn or group read and discuss the work; they chose working alone) but ran out of time for class discussion. Boo.
Anyway, I was taught numbers one through ten in Russian by a 7 year old American today :) and finally learned a word in Russian I've been wanting to know and struggling to keep in my head since I got here: I'm sorry! Very important since I mess up constantly here... well, and in the U.S., nothing's changed much it's just amplified!
Keri sent you some questions we both had about our portfolio assignments, let me know if you didn't get them and I can send them along! Thanks
Chels
The situation is somewhat strange as we're learning more about their home life; dad is in New Orleans and referred to by first name by the kids, but mom still refers to him as her husband... the teachers don't know what's going on and how that affects the kids, so its kind of a mystery. Also, we learned of their coming to the school and what took place. The mom alerted the school of her eldest's arrival and his need for special education, so the school hired a specialist to work with him. On the first day of school, she arrived with both boys and said that her youngest was ready for his 5th grade class. She said he never had an IEP back in New Orleans and was almost offended by their questions. I mean this in no slight whatsoever, but her youngest is quite noticeably severely developmentally delayed and in need of special services, especially speech therapy, but it seems as if their mother is almost in a little denial of that fact. I can imagine having two sons with special needs, no spouse (we think) and a very high-paying, powerful job must be taxing and not as she expected... I don't know, we're speculating quite a bit as to how that plays into Alexander's education.
After lunch I went to English and helped students write descriptive paragraphs on the animal of their choice. Also I spoke to the teacher about standards since I heard a lot of conversations about Environmental standards during yesterday's staff meeting. He handed me a huge book about QSI's standards as an institution and explained that it was very prescriptive. It tells you exactly what you need to teach, how they want you to teach it, what materials to use down to the edition of the text, and even which problems in the text are to be done. I was shocked at how constrictive it was. Mr. Cloyed said that the experienced teachers (who know how they like to teach and what they spend time on) complain about this curriculum, while the younger teachers are thankful for the framework seeing as they haven't begun to build a routine and curriculum of their own. I find this interesting because I began to think; I wonder if QSI does this intentionally. They probably expect more novice teachers to be younger and more willing to move and travel internationally, while they probably expect more expert teachers to be happily settled into a comfortable school district where their families and themselves have no want or need to go abroad. This may be speculation, but it makes sense; although it is not typical here. Some of the teachers are relatively young but most have teaching experience and spouse, not to mention children that have been moving with them between countries. Anyway, the curriculum is very set-in-stone and emphasizes rote learning; lots of out of book work and worksheets provided by texts. Leaves very little room for creativity. I started asking myself when I got here: could I work in an international school like this in another country?! For these kids, absolutely. The different cultural dynamics and learning based on that are incredible and I've fallen in love with it. But do I want to be under this curriculum umbrella with little to no room for my own ideas? And can I be that far away from my family and feel somewhat isolated from my host society? I don't think so... I kind of want to explore possible international schools in the U.S., if they exist. Either that or I'll just find a very culturally diverse city to teach in in the Pacific Northwest :)
Grading is also different at QSI. Students either meet A mastery, B mastery, or are P "in progress". Their rubric basically says that any student receiving a P is not failing but the teacher will focus on that subject with the student until they reach at least B level. Those are the only three grades, besides W for withdrawal. Quite interesting, not sure how I feel about it yet...
After English came science with my middle school/high school class. It once again reemphasized their importance on rote learning. The students every day have a section of the text to read, write down the vocabulary words and define them, answer the section review questions and fill out a worksheet. Yup. Awesome. They have a chapter review assignment on Friday that I'm hoping won't take too long because I want to plan a fun review game... can anyone say Jeopardy?! :) it was fine, I wanted to discuss the chapter in greater detail and discussed how the students learned best at the beginning of the class (asking if they preferred to read alone as they have been or if they preferred to popcorn or group read and discuss the work; they chose working alone) but ran out of time for class discussion. Boo.
Anyway, I was taught numbers one through ten in Russian by a 7 year old American today :) and finally learned a word in Russian I've been wanting to know and struggling to keep in my head since I got here: I'm sorry! Very important since I mess up constantly here... well, and in the U.S., nothing's changed much it's just amplified!
Keri sent you some questions we both had about our portfolio assignments, let me know if you didn't get them and I can send them along! Thanks
Chels
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Day 9: Crab Chips
Why hi! Sorry this might not be the most eloquent email, I didn't get a ton out of today sadly due to my first migraine ever (not so much fun)... and it was a real bummer because I was asked to be the substitute for middle/high school science starting today through the rest of the week and there was a staff meeting we attended, not to mention my 2nd graders and all of that craziness. I'm feeling a little better now and getting situated in our new host home. It's a mansion apartment! We have the entire second floor (yes, this apartment has two floors) to ourselves. It should be a very interesting experience (as this all has been already), our host mom is Russian and lived in Louisiana... she is also a single mother to two severely developmentally delayed boys (her 16 year old reads at a low 1st grade level) and holds a very prestigious job (I believe as the manager of this region) at Conoco-Philips Oil. Eeek! Anyway, we're getting nicely settled in and are slowly integrating into our school.
My mentor teacher is still wonderful. She is unendingly patient (as you need to be with that age group) and pays attention to every student when they speak, regardless of whether it's related. She just has such a way of imparting value to students, its no wonder they love her, especially when most of these kiddos have hard-working parents that are likely not home as often as they would like to be. She places a lot of trust and responsibility on her kids, taking time to teach them the skills to solve their own problems and reiterates when necessary. She employs repetition beautifully as a way of learning (of course different varieties of questioning and such but a lot of repetition of the same rules) and has a very calming, confident persona. I know I'll learn a lot from her while I work with her. We haven't really discussed my lesson in the class yet, but we will soon; I'll be going over to her and her husband's apartment for dinner sometime at the end of this week or this weekend and will discuss it then along with an interview :)
I think Keri and I are kind of sad to say goodbye to the home we've held since we've been here, the Krugers' apartment. Its not ours and we have no title over it, but it's been our refuge and the one piece of consistency this whole trip. That and the family has been a blast! We know we'll do fine here and that everything will be great in a few days, but it kind of feels like the beginning all over again. Oh well, it shall pass!
I'm trying to see if I can integrate anything into the science class near the end of the week, just into one of the class periods, but the teacher's lesson plans that he left are pretty strict, necessary, and time consuming. Hopefully if I motivate well I can slip something in in the last 15 minutes of class, but we'll see. The kids were awesome and extremely diverse! Out of 8 students, we had students from Kazakshtan, the U.S., Japan, Pakistan, Korea, Poland and France. Bah. I thought it would be an insurmountable challenge on Migraine Day, but they were extremely self-motivated and knew what was expected of them while their teacher was gone. At the end of the class I held an impromptu discussion of the lesson, asking some questions that applied the content to Astana, and then allowed them to grill me like I knew they wanted to :) they ended up asking me my age (of course), where I was from in America, and if it was as cold there as it is here. They were great, I can't wait to head over to the high school building each afternoon to talk a little science with them.
On another bright and happy note, I was taught how to use QSI's very own dysfunctional copy machine! Yay! I helped my mentor teacher by making some book packets and guiding questions/worksheets for tomorrow's reading groups. I've been working with two kiddos during this time; one of them is a Kazakhstan native and about where she needs to be, the other just got moved up to the 2nd grade from the preschool/kindergarten classroom and almost seems at the top of the class in reading and math already. Smart kid! But also a little socially immature and has a lot of energy. It's quite the test of patience, especially since the Kazakh girl is known for being passive-aggressive and inciting some mischief... should be fun to see how this plays out.
Anyway, I'd better get to sleep or I'll be one heap of miserable tomorrow. Keri and I both have had a bit of a hard time acclimating our bodies to this change the last few days, hope it doesn't last long... oh, and some of the kids think we're sisters; we think it's pretty funny and it kinda feels that way :)
Peace,
Chels
My mentor teacher is still wonderful. She is unendingly patient (as you need to be with that age group) and pays attention to every student when they speak, regardless of whether it's related. She just has such a way of imparting value to students, its no wonder they love her, especially when most of these kiddos have hard-working parents that are likely not home as often as they would like to be. She places a lot of trust and responsibility on her kids, taking time to teach them the skills to solve their own problems and reiterates when necessary. She employs repetition beautifully as a way of learning (of course different varieties of questioning and such but a lot of repetition of the same rules) and has a very calming, confident persona. I know I'll learn a lot from her while I work with her. We haven't really discussed my lesson in the class yet, but we will soon; I'll be going over to her and her husband's apartment for dinner sometime at the end of this week or this weekend and will discuss it then along with an interview :)
I think Keri and I are kind of sad to say goodbye to the home we've held since we've been here, the Krugers' apartment. Its not ours and we have no title over it, but it's been our refuge and the one piece of consistency this whole trip. That and the family has been a blast! We know we'll do fine here and that everything will be great in a few days, but it kind of feels like the beginning all over again. Oh well, it shall pass!
I'm trying to see if I can integrate anything into the science class near the end of the week, just into one of the class periods, but the teacher's lesson plans that he left are pretty strict, necessary, and time consuming. Hopefully if I motivate well I can slip something in in the last 15 minutes of class, but we'll see. The kids were awesome and extremely diverse! Out of 8 students, we had students from Kazakshtan, the U.S., Japan, Pakistan, Korea, Poland and France. Bah. I thought it would be an insurmountable challenge on Migraine Day, but they were extremely self-motivated and knew what was expected of them while their teacher was gone. At the end of the class I held an impromptu discussion of the lesson, asking some questions that applied the content to Astana, and then allowed them to grill me like I knew they wanted to :) they ended up asking me my age (of course), where I was from in America, and if it was as cold there as it is here. They were great, I can't wait to head over to the high school building each afternoon to talk a little science with them.
On another bright and happy note, I was taught how to use QSI's very own dysfunctional copy machine! Yay! I helped my mentor teacher by making some book packets and guiding questions/worksheets for tomorrow's reading groups. I've been working with two kiddos during this time; one of them is a Kazakhstan native and about where she needs to be, the other just got moved up to the 2nd grade from the preschool/kindergarten classroom and almost seems at the top of the class in reading and math already. Smart kid! But also a little socially immature and has a lot of energy. It's quite the test of patience, especially since the Kazakh girl is known for being passive-aggressive and inciting some mischief... should be fun to see how this plays out.
Anyway, I'd better get to sleep or I'll be one heap of miserable tomorrow. Keri and I both have had a bit of a hard time acclimating our bodies to this change the last few days, hope it doesn't last long... oh, and some of the kids think we're sisters; we think it's pretty funny and it kinda feels that way :)
Peace,
Chels
Monday, January 10, 2011
Day 8: Fantastic Mr. Fox
First day in the classroom: awesome. My teacher is wonderful, her kids are awesome and so cute I almost cried, the school is so friendly and the staff/aids were a huge part of my feeling welcome, and all other good praises! The kids call me Ms. C and are asking if I'll come teach them here in Kazakhstan when I graduate (typical friendliness of 2nd graders I think :) ) and the classroom management I've seen in Ms. B's class has been a great model as to how I can mold my own classroom. She has basically given me the choice of how I want this experience to look; she said I could observe, interact with students, teach, whichever I wanted! So I talked about how the first day or two I want to do a little more observing than usual in seeing how elementary education works (you know how secondary and elementary are two very different monsters) and get to know names... not to mention phase into the classroom so it's not too much of a shock for the kiddos. I circulated the room and knew everyone's name by the end of the day (only 16 of them in her class total and 13 were present... 3 were still on vacation) and want to next learn where they are from. I know that we have some students from Korea, India, Finland, America, and Kazakhstan but want to make sure I know the rest. I spent the first half of the day with them, had a small pull-out group for reading and circulated during math, had some lunch, went upstairs for an Intensive English class (basically ELL) and finished with art with my kids! My mentor teacher, Ms. B, has a 2 year old (funny enough, her husband was the ELL teacher I was with!) and goes home right after lunch to relieve their nanny, so Tim and I are trying to figure out what would be a best use of my time for the remainder of the day. I'll keep you posted!
Something that was huge for me today was getting to know one of the aids in Ms. B's class. Her name is Ireena, she's a 23 year old Kazakh with a degree in translation and interpretation. She was unbelievably friendly and engaging, asking questions and always making sure I felt comfortable and knew what was going on. I guess it just kind of reiterated the importance of being that friendly face and in being interested in newcomers, it goes a LONG way in making them feel welcomed. In all, everyone at the school was very friendly and I got to meet a lot of teachers and hear their stories. The strength it must take to move your whole family to another country! It's incredible to me. And the kids in my class are so smart and so want to be in school, its almost an idealic setting. I know it won't be like this for long or for me particularly, but its been nice to have this whirlwind of culture shock and change staved by a good school experience. Tomorrow is the day Keri and I (hopefully) move into our new host family's place with them and is also a staff meeting where we will be meeting all the teachers and sitting in on some good 'ole administration junk :) also, Friday may be an interesting day for us. The U.S. Embassy did a Toys for Tots drive through the school and wanted some teachers to help distribute the toys to villages around 80km outside Astana during school hours this Friday, so naturally Tim thought maybe we'd be interested! I truly hope it works out, we've only been in cities in Kazakhstan and there's a whole other culture in the nomadic villages that I know Keri and I would love to experience. Here's to hoping it becomes a reality!
Anyway, off to bed with me. I can't believe it's almost 9:40 and I haven't passed out! Bye bye jetlag! Unfortunately, I'll meet you again in two weeks... blurgh.
Hope you're well :)
Chels
Something that was huge for me today was getting to know one of the aids in Ms. B's class. Her name is Ireena, she's a 23 year old Kazakh with a degree in translation and interpretation. She was unbelievably friendly and engaging, asking questions and always making sure I felt comfortable and knew what was going on. I guess it just kind of reiterated the importance of being that friendly face and in being interested in newcomers, it goes a LONG way in making them feel welcomed. In all, everyone at the school was very friendly and I got to meet a lot of teachers and hear their stories. The strength it must take to move your whole family to another country! It's incredible to me. And the kids in my class are so smart and so want to be in school, its almost an idealic setting. I know it won't be like this for long or for me particularly, but its been nice to have this whirlwind of culture shock and change staved by a good school experience. Tomorrow is the day Keri and I (hopefully) move into our new host family's place with them and is also a staff meeting where we will be meeting all the teachers and sitting in on some good 'ole administration junk :) also, Friday may be an interesting day for us. The U.S. Embassy did a Toys for Tots drive through the school and wanted some teachers to help distribute the toys to villages around 80km outside Astana during school hours this Friday, so naturally Tim thought maybe we'd be interested! I truly hope it works out, we've only been in cities in Kazakhstan and there's a whole other culture in the nomadic villages that I know Keri and I would love to experience. Here's to hoping it becomes a reality!
Anyway, off to bed with me. I can't believe it's almost 9:40 and I haven't passed out! Bye bye jetlag! Unfortunately, I'll meet you again in two weeks... blurgh.
Hope you're well :)
Chels
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