Finding My Groove

October 1, 2007

To be perfectly honest, the last couple of weeks have been rough, not only have I been suffering from either a sinus infection or food poisoning, but it has also been much harder than I expected to find my way as an English Teacher. Even though Peace Corps taught us everything about how to write a lesson plan, and the importance or P1-Presentation, P2-Practice, and P3-Production, putting it into use was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.
During the first two weeks of teaching, I found myself repeatedly tripped up by both the Kazakhstani educational system, and my own naivette and incompetence. The book they have us using is full of small but glaring grammar and spelling mistakes, which means that I have to often completely rewrite portions of the reading or grammar activity. This is complicated by the fact that the school officials want you to use at least 66 % of the text when in reality less than a third is usable. Another teaching difficulty is the fact that the education system allows for few adjustments in regards to the students’ actual comprehension level. Few of my sixth graders are actually at the sixth grade level, and they would be much better served by using the fifth grade text. The discrepancy between grade level and comprehension level is mostly due to the fact the students are expected to spend one day on each lesson, with a unit taking no more than five days. This is not nearly of enough time for the students to comprehend the information, especially with only a 45 minute lesson. Still much of my original problems were my fault. For several of my early lessons, I had a really hard time modeling my activities so that my students could understand what I wanted them to do, mostly due to my poor “Kazak English.” My body language was not nearly effective enough, and I was speaking too fast and using words that were too complex.
Fortunately however, the last couple of weeks have brought not only an improvement in my health but also my teaching. I now feel much more at ease teaching, and it has reflected in my job performance. My students now appear to understand what I tell them, and often seem to genuinely my lessons. Also, just the other day one of my trainers told me that I was a natural teacher and that I innately draw the class’ attention and interest, which I have to admit is one of the best compliments I’ve received in years. Still my best moment last week during lesson last week when I realized my students really understood the Past Simple tense. We were talking about our summer holidays, and rather than go with the typical, “I stayed in Chamalgan and played computer games, they began to make up stories about where they had been and what they did. It was an absolute blast, and when I realized that maybe I could be decent teacher after all. I know that the next two years are still going to be incredibly tough, and I still do not think that I will want to continue teaching when I return to the States, but at least know I am sure that I will survive for the next two years, and probably have a lot of fun at the same time.