In addition to teaching at the #7 school I have been teaching mandators three nights a week. What is a mandator you ask? The TLG staff refers to them as "resource development officers," which basically means school security guards. The Ministry of Education has recruited TLG volunteers to teach the mandators English. Our goal is to prepare them to "master the A1 English level" test. What this boils down to is three nights a week I teach very basic English to a group of rowdy school security guards. The major difference is that during the day I am a "co-teacher," but at night I am responsible for leading the lessons. The Ministry has already prepared the lesson plans, which mitigates some of the workload, and I have a teaching assistant, Nino, who provides translation.
There are roughly 34 mandators who cover all of the schools in Gori. I teach half, and another teacher, Annette, teaches half. Some of them have already studied English, so they are getting easily bored in class. Others are brand new to English and at times clearly feel a bit overwhelmed. Overall, teaching adults has not been nearly as frightening as I thought it would be. The biggest challenge has been the noise level and unwillingness of a few to take the class seriously. I have seen a handful of students who initially seemed very nervous about their ability to learn English work really hard and make some serious progress in just a few weeks. One of my students even said "be quiet!" to the noisy students. It was a proud moment.
They had their first test tonight, and the results are not promising so far. However, once I have a clear head and more time to look through the tests, I optimistic that I will see a pattern in those who are trying their best and those who are not. If nothing else, it will point to what skills we need to focus on. I have a feeling that it's spelling...
Two weeks ago the mandators decided to "have a dinner" for Annette and I. I should have known that "dinner" actually meant supra. The supra immediately followed our Friday night class, which despite ending a half an hour early, still seemed much too long for those who were eager to start the party. Over the course of the night there were many toasts celebrating the mandators, us teachers...and of course friendship, God and country. Much to my surprise and delight, my students turned out to be quite the dancers. There is no way to adequately put into words how much Georgians, specifically men, love to dance. They know every song that comes on, whether it's a traditional Georgian dance, the national anthem or Enrique Iglesias. Unlike in the states, the men will come to your chair, offer their hand, and request a dance. At the end of the dance, which often includes being spun around, you are returned to your chair with a kind thank you. The supra took place in a large banquet hall which was decorated much like a wedding reception, featured a live band and ambient lighting. I joked to my fellow teacher that it reminded me of a junior high dance (not that I went to any of those).
At around midnight, I was desperate to go home. I was exhausted from a long day of school and had to get up early to head to Tbilisi the next morning. I didn't want to offend my students who clearly had worked very hard to put together a wonderful celebration. So I asked Nino if I could sneak out. She responded, "what is sneak out?" I said it is where you leave without anyone noticing. So we attempted to do so. However, just as I was about to step out the door, I heard "Manuela, where are you going!?" I turned around to see my star student standing there with about 3 other mandators. I explained and apologized that I needed to get home to my family so they would not worry.
It felt a bit strange to be dancing (and drinking) with my students. The lines between friend, colleague, student and teacher are very blurred here, so that will be somewhat of an adjustment. Nonetheless, friends, colleagues, students and teachers all know how to have a good time.
No comments:
Post a Comment