Finished With Practice School

Hello everyone. So I survived my first experience teaching here in Moldova. It was extreemely challenging, not because the students, but just because this was my first time teaching in front of a group of kids who knew little english, along with creating lesson plans and making ALL my materials by hand! I taught 5th form the first week and it was an eye opener. Most of the children knew very little or no english at all. However, I had to teach the 5th form which assums that these kids have a pretty good understanding of english. However, the textbook had some good exercises for me to use. The 9th form was more challenging in that I had to teach astronomy! So here I was trying to explain the Big Bang Theory and the difference between an meterior and comit (which I don't even know if I know the difference!). My students were really advanced though. We were able to have a debate the first few days of class about different theories concerning creationism, and as the week went on we did a few other creative activities. For this second week I worked with the co-teacher I will be working with in my perminant site for the next two years. I can tell we will be a good team in that we have the same ideas about creativity in the classroom along with dissipline issues.

So the next challenge will be getting through the lat two speaking assessments. The first assessment was really relaxed and comfortable. Basically we had to have a conversation with one of the language teachers along with acting out a situation like buying a present for a friend. On Tuesday we wil have another assessment like this. The last assessment however, will be more formal. Also all the trainees have to prepare some Moldovan songs for our swearing-in ceremony. So that will be interesting to say the least!

Hopefully this coming week I'll be able to download some pictures from practice school. Only one more week or so of training before I can actually call myself a volunteer! It's been the most challenging and unique experiences I have ever had and I have a feeling that this is only the beginning!