This week has been in a word, crazy. On Monday my fellow PCV’s and I started practicum, which consists of two weeks of practice teaching classes and is advertised to the Romanian children as free English classes. While the volunteers who trained last year spoke of having 15 students in their classes, the situation this year was slightly more insane. Apparently word had gotten around this year, and not only that, the Romanian teachers had told many of their students to come without actually registering them. So, on Monday morning we found hundreds more students than we had been expecting. I had some mothers sitting in chairs in my class, with the intent of saving their children seats, and other mothers trying to force extra students into our classes long after we were supposed to have started. I of course was a bit of a sucker, so we had kids sharing desks, seats, and even sitting on the floor, until someone brought some extra chairs for us. Our classroom was equip to accommodate 27 but after the mothers had gotten to me we had well over 34.
We finally began teaching about a half an hour after we had planed. The surprises didn’t end after class began. I had planned for Monday under the false impression that all 6th graders in town would be as fluent as my 13-year-old host sister. While there were some very smart students who knew what I was talking about, Including my host sister Andy, who I had forced into one of the seats in order to ensure that she wasn’t turned away, It was clear that the majority of the kids didn’t know what I was talking about. Thanks to my experience teaching English to lower level children in Spain I quickly realized how I needed to adjust my verbal communication and rely heavily on writing in order to make myself more easily comprehended. Once we had that figured out the remainder of the three hours flew by. Me and the two other trainees, who I have been sharing my class with this week co-taught the entire first day, which served as nice training wheels. It was a really nice way to warm up to this rather draining experience, but it made what lay ahead even more intimidating.
On Tuesday we divided the three hours amongst ourselves and observed the other teachers while we waited our turn. During my hour, of course, one of the Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders decided to come and observe me (all of us get observed at one time or another during the week). I was freaked out since it has been so long since I have been in front of a class, and now, on my first spin by myself in Romania, I would have expert eyes on me. This of course was ridiculous on my part since the PCV’s are there to be helpful, not rather than malicious, but I, the overachiever that I am, have a hard time wrapping my head around this concept. Thankfully my “Marilyn Monroe/ adjective” lesson flowed excellently, much better than you would think it would based upon the name I have given it. Since then I have been really confident in my teaching and have had a lot of fun in the classroom. It would be hard not to; these kids treat us like movie stars. During every break I have to pose for at least 3 minutes while they take pictures with their camera phones. It is fun to be famous! So yeah, I have only gotten to Tuesday, and I haven’t even touched the afternoon portion of my days, but that is just going to have to wait until I learn genitive in Romanian. Study time!
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