Well, I'm here!
I met Wayne Wildman's Turkmen twin who just happens to work in our English department at school. What a coincidence! He speaks in a very careful and polite British accent. Today I observed one of his classes. Before class he had said, "I would like to extend to you an invitation to my class which will be taking place next hour here at School Number 15 in Room 27." Once, during a class where teachers from around the city observed, (I know . . . on my 3rd day in town!), we were teaching a lesson and mentioned that it was unexpected. He piped up with, "Ah yes . . . unexpected like a winter storm." Later he came and said, "I truly apologize, Karen, for I meant to add that it was as unexpected as a winter storm IN MAY. I swear he's Wayne Wildman's ESL counterpersonality.
So far it's been hard to figure out what's really going to work at my school. The teachers seem to think I'm here as an expert in order to critique their classes, so I've seen a lot of great students answering pre-planned questions. Teachers get "checked on" a lot, but always through a strange list of necessities for classes. Like they get yelled at for not writing the month (the newly created months) in both languages on the board every day, but not given credit for creative classes. During the open lesson I mentioned that we did a Thanksgiving class that was very full of learning and practice. We were told that it wasn't REALLY a class, but more of a seminar. No new grammar introduced.
So hopefully I'll start music soon. I'll be playing for classes and doing a short lecture on orchestral instruments to get interest up.
Oh, yeah, and our school doesn't have heat--except 6 classrooms. Why? Because whoever has those teachers has rich parents that bought heaters for their kids' classes. These are also the kids with the most experienced teachers. Go figure. :)
Love,
Kari
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