First Day teaching

A lot of my posts so far have been about firsts.  That is because that is what I am doing.  This is the first week.  My first class. My first host family.  My first time living in St Petes.  There are somethings that aren't my firsts.  Not my first time in Russia.  Not my first time talking to Russians in English.

This morning was really pretty crazy.  We got to the school like 20 minutes early so that we could take a look around and take a mental inventory of the supplies at the school already.  I did a little bit of translating between Marci and Ludmilla.  We went to the big room for opening and found a bunch of kids sitting on benches against the wall.  Ludmilla was trying to see who was present and who wasn't but her phone kept ringing.  She, of course, had the universal cell phone ring that almost everybody else has here in Russia.  I think it really funny that they all seem to have the same ring tone. Highlight here was that Ludmilla told me to tell Marci that she really isn't involved in ILP.  She is just in charge of getting the kids to us and the taking the kids back at the appropriate times.  She told us "okay, its time to play."  So I guess things are a lot more relaxed here than they are in Thailand.
We then had all the groups split up and meet their teachers.  The group that was going to to do Basic Reading was with Courtney and I look over and like 3 or 4 kids are giving her the fig and laughing.  A fig is kind of like the American equivalent of flipping somebody off.  You can give the fig to your friend I guess meaning "No, forget you!" but in a playful not incredibly rude sort of way.  But if you were to show the fig to a stranger than that would be incredibly offensive and rude.  They were giving Courtney the fig and so I quickly walked over there and told her what they were doing.  She was smart enough to realize that the boys were laughing and so something was up.
Once the kids were separated into their groups then Ludmilla showed each of the teachers the rooms that they would be teaching in.  I ended up doing some more translation for Ludmilla and Marci.  Then I was with Marci observing the different groups.  We would try and help out the teachers and introduce ourselves and then it was time to rotate.  We did that for a while and then I went to check on Courtney and ask her if she had given her kids a break and she said that she hadn't.  So I thought that it would be a good idea to go on break because the kids looked kind of bored.  Ludmilla had told Marci and me that Basic Reading could be in one of the halls but they couldn't go through the doors.  So I told Courtney that they could be in the hall.  She then had them take a break and told them that they could be in the hallway.  It was a disaster!  I stood at one side of the hallway and she stood at the other and I would tell them to go see Courtney and she would tell them to go see me and they just got all riled up.  Then the break never really ended for Matvey and Vova.  They never calmed down.  It took for ever the other students but not for those two.  In this part of the school there are 2 little rooms that are side-by-side and you can do a circle by going through the doors.  We did that circle a lot because we would close one door and then they would just run around the other way.  It was horrible.  Then a guy showed up, I think he was one of the fathers of somebody from another group, and he told the kids to "Be calm!" and to "Sit down!"  Which really helped for like 20 seconds.  Class was really close to being over and Courtney really didn't have much else planned and so we just kind of sat there with these crazy kids, trying to calm them down.  Eventually we got smart and locked the doors using the keys that were in the keyholes.  That was exciting.

All the teachers then met up in the ILP room and talked about how their mornings went and how teaching went while we waited to lunch to be ready.  Lunch was really good.  It was a beef and potato soup with a really nice broth.  Then there was some really good bread.  Tasty!  Everybody else was really glad that I spoke Russian and that I could translate for them.  It was about this time that other teachers recognized that the Russian teachers didn't call me Andrey anymore.  But the Russian teachers have called me Andrushka.  Andrushka is a more endearing way of saying Andrey. So now some of the other volunteers may start calling me Andrushka.  It makes me laugh a little inside every time I hear it.

So that was only half the day.  We then came back to the apartment and worked some more on lesson plans and did whatever.  There is a lot of preparation that needs to be done and some of us still don't understand really what we should be doing while teaching.  A lot of time right now is spent preparing lessons and getting the supplies that we need ready for our upcoming classes.

I teach a level 2 elementary class in the evenings.  It is 2 hours long and I had 4 kids.  They all have pretty normal names: Masha, Arsenni, Yegor, and Misha.  I didn't really know too much but I did have a plan and so here was the plan.  For the first 5 minutes I was to welcome.  Then for the next 40 minutes we would introduce ourselves make name tags and then I would take their pictures.  Then we would have a 5 minute break. We would then play a get to know you game where I asked questions and people would say "oh, I have done that." and then we would look at the printed pictures that I brought to Russia. Stop for another 5 minute break and then read the story Grizzle's Grumbles in our book.  Then I would wrap up and send the kids on their way.
Things didn't go like that hardly at all.  Saying my name and everybody's name with name tags and pictures took all of 15 minutes.  Maybe.  Then I tried to stall for something to do.  I looked at the pictures that I had brought from home and thought "oh, this won't be interesting to these kids.  They are just of my family and we aren't doing anything. There are no stories here."  But then I did take one picture out.  It was of all of the kids in my immediate family.  I then talked to the kids about how many members there are in my family and if they were older or younger.  Then I asked about their families.  Nothing seemed to fill this thing we call time.  We took a longer break than I planned for and then we started to read the story.  I was kind of surprised that I kept the kids attention pretty well up until I pulled out the book to read the story.  All of the kids saw the book and said, "No! No! No!"  So they already knew what it was and they don't like it.  I wasn't really sure what to do.  We need the book in order to read and so that is what we did.  It was kind of like pulling teeth getting them to read.  While one of them would read the other 3 would talk to each other in Russian.  They didn't like reading because they don't understand what they are reading.  Actually, I am not really sure how much they did understand.  At times it seems like they really understand a lot but then they start reading and its like they didn't understand even a single word they were reading.
We finished reading the story and had like 5 minutes left in our class and I really didn't want to just hold onto them for no reason.  But I didn't have anything else to say to them so I just let them go.  Masha was so glad when I said that she could go.  She said, "Hurray!" The other kids shared her opinion.
I, myself, was happy it was over.  It was definitely a learning experience and I know a couple things that I can do better for next time.  I am sure after I teach a couple more times than I will do things a lot different than I did them the first time.  So now that is over now I can just get better.
The other thing about is teaching is that afterwards its just like, I want to talk to somebody that actually understands the things that I am saying.  I want to go talk to the other teachers to 1. see how their classes went and 2. have a coherent conversation with people. Teaching is hard.