27 Luni

Looking back on my childhood, I remember the endless summers that would suddenly give way to shivering waits at the bus stop and while watching my breath dissipate into the cold atmosphere my friends and I would reminisce about the warmer days gone by.   This summer is definitely over as the days are quickly getting colder and shorter; both of which seem to happen more quickly every year.  This past week marks my seventh full week as an English teacher here in Romania and though things are not as smooth as I envisioned them being in the United States, they have gone remarkably well.

In the initial weeks of this semester it took some time for the school to iron out the details of my schedule.  Since I have been assigned to split classes with three Romanian English teachers the Program Manager must be certain that there are no overlaps.  Since the computer program the school uses won’t allow for any classes of students to overlap, they were unable to input me into the system as an individual teacher because, inherently, all of my classes overlap with a counterpart.  After about three weeks the final schedule was printed, set in stone, and revealed that I did in fact have four different hours that took place at the same time as my other assigned classes.  Since I can’t be in more than one place at a time my first couple of weeks were lighter than would ultimately be the case, this allowed me more time to plan and helped me get up to speed in an easier fashion.  The downside of course was that I wasn’t able to meet the Peace Corps requirement of 16 hours of class per week, let alone the dozens of students that were not benefiting from my lessons.  Since the master schedule impacted so many teachers and about 800 students it clearly could not be changed; thus the easiest solution was to adjust which classes I taught.

The shuffle resulted in a number of students being disappointed but an equal number of students being elated to get time with the new American teacher.  So the end result is that I have four 9^th grade classes, two 11^th grade classes and two 12^th grade classes; once split this totals 16 hours.  The English level of my students varies greatly but fundamentally the vast majority of students are of a beginner low rating.  I find this to make for easy lesson planning as I don’t have to worry about whether or not a lesson will be too easy for them; we could spend an entire week just working on the alphabet and there would still be students struggling by the end.  Alas, the Alphabet is simply and understandably not enough for the Romanian Department of Education.  A full curriculum has been handed down from upon high that outlines what topics are to be covered each and every week of the year.  The benefit of such a curriculum is that it helps me to focus my ideas and streamlines the lesson planning process.  Rather than have to come up with a topic and a corresponding lesson I simply have to create a lesson that matches the predetermined topic.  Furthermore, I really only need two or three lesson plans per week since my ninth graders are all covering the same material and my 11^th and 12^th graders are also on the same basic page.  One difference is that my 12^th graders are preparing for the Bacalaureat exam that takes place immediately before their graduation; as such my 12^th grade classes have requested additional reading comprehension work.  Again this makes my job easy as the guesswork is removed.  Additionally, my three counterpart teachers are quite flexible with me.  They do not require that I work from the class workbook (in fact I do not even have a copy) so long as I stick to the general curriculum.  This is good news, as many other volunteers have reported that the workbook is not particularly up-to-date, and is centered on the United Kingdom; somewhat ironic for Americans to be teaching from British workbooks.  No they are not “trainers” they are sneakers or tennis shoes and no Iron Maiden is not particularly relevant to today’s music scene.

Beyond the students themselves, the most exciting aspect of teaching here is my classroom.  From what I am told it is quite rare for a Volunteer to have his or her own classroom.  Most volunteers share space with their counterpart teachers or are annexed to a library or otherwise multipurpose room.  Furthermore, in most Romanian schools the teachers move from class to class not the students.  In other words the students stay in the same room for their entire day and the teachers run frantically between them.  Fortunately, my school is the opposite, so I am able to prepare my room ahead of each class and wait patiently as they file in, usually late.  Admittedly school funds are still quite low, so I have had to invest in my own materials for improving the room.  Though a chalkboard was already in place, I decided to invest in a large erasable and magnetic whiteboard.  Being that I will be here for two years the investment seems well worth it and is already paying off.  The trusty HP multifunction printer I ordered has also been quite the lifesaver with printing colorful flashcards, games, the weekly quizzes that I hand out and making on-the-fly copies.  And since I invested in a wireless router for my classroom I can print to my HP from anywhere in the world over the Internet.  Which of course for practical purposes really just means my house.  Luckily there is a Romanian company that provides most of the classroom materials that I have wanted thus far and they quickly deliver for a modest fee.  The only part that could get really expensive in the long run is printer ink; at 100 RON for a black cartridge it’s quite the hefty fine.  Many teachers purchase their own paint for the walls, and I even know of teachers that are saving every penny so they can replace their rotten floors.  This being the case, we are lucky in that the electricity for the lighting works and that the water radiators keep our rooms warm with little effort from us.

Having my own room has also provided me with the flexibility to coordinate some additional classes.  My head counterpart would like for our school to participate in next April’s 7^th Europea Wine Championship.  She has selected eight students and asked me to work with them three days a week in preparation for the competition.  Our initial couple of months will focus exclusively on conversational English and the later months will focus on viticulture education.  Thankfully, my friend Jackson was able and willing to sift through my father’s attic for my old notebook from the Society of Wine Educators and send it to me here in Romania.  The culmination of this coursework will result in the selection of two students to travel to Italy and represent our school if not Romania as a whole.  Provided there are no major schedule conflicts and that I can raise the funds, I should be able to tag along for the adventure.  As if regular classes and preparing the Wine Championship Team were not enough, I have also elected to offer an hour of tutoring for those students so inclined to attend and I will be providing an hour per week of English instruction to the general community of Valea.

Despite the fact that my students are of a low English level and that many of them, especially my ninth graders, are nothing short of crazy, I still enjoy the role quite a lot.  There are certainly times when things get tense and I have to take a deep breath rather than throw a kid’s cell phone out the window, but even with unruly students the message is still getting through to some.  In the end I can’t assume that I will reach each and every student but if I get through to a few and have positive impacts in other parts of my Peace Corps life, this mission will be a success.

Stay tuned for future developments; here are a few things on my plate in the coming months:

• Consolidation Training, in which we practice our evacuation plan.
• Weekend Wine Tasting Trip to Timișoara.
• Romanian Inspectorate driven presentation on Modern Testing Methodologies.
• Thanksgiving Dinner with the United States Ambassador.
• Volunteer Advisory Committee Meetings and Involvement.
• Language Refresher Weekend here in Valea Călugărească.
• In-Service Training with my main Counterpart in Sinaia.
• Traditional Christmas Pig Killing x 2.
• Winter Trip to Paris.
• Potential April Trip to Italy.