it's over! and I'm alive!

Oh, I'm so glad today's over!

For people who weren't aware, today I presented two "open lessons" at school. That is, I taught two carefully prepared, methodologically correct lessons to good, quiet students while about 10 teachers from other schools in town watched me. And my vice-principal. And my director.

My topics were "The Ukrainian Diaspora in English-Speaking Countries" (8th form) and "The Life and Creative Work of J.K. Rowling" (11th form). I'd spent the last two weeks preparing...the Internet came in very handy, as I found newsletters from Ukrainian scouting organizations in Canada and Australia, not to mention downloading the Order of the Phoenix trailer onto my computer on Monday when I realized that my HP3 DVD that I wanted to show a clip from to start class was in Kharkiv at Kathryn's.

The research was fun...for instance, did you know that Kazakhstan has the 2nd largest number of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, after Russia? (The USA is #3.) I've made so many photocopies in the last week that I'm surprised there's blank A4 paper left in town.

So this morning, I got up, put my last few materials together, dressed up (earrings! polished boots! favorite sweater, skirt, and scarf! Peace Corps pin!) and caught a marshrutka (it's the size of a kindergarten van) to school, as I had my purse, my tote bag, and my laptop bag. Spent the first two class periods in the teachers' room being nervous. Then the teachers showed up and it began!

My 8th formers were awesome...they're great kids anyway, and the pressure of all the extra people in the room meant that my smart kids decided to show off how much they knew (although one group of boys just went silent for 45 minutes). Natasha, however, got so nervous she felt sick and asked to be excused, but she pulled herself together, came back, and did a good job. However, after the lesson, Firyuza was peeved at me because while I had already given her an 11 (a very good mark...usually the highest I give is a 10), I changed my mind and bumped Zhenia up from a 10 to an 11 as well. Somehow this made her mad at me (because she wants to be the BEST), so she snapped in Russian, "Give me a 2!", turned on her heel, and stormed out of the room. Honestly. Teenage moods!

My 11th form wasn't quite as stellar as my 8th form, but they were also good. We had a group activity where I separated them into the four houses at Hogwarts...Slytherin won. Since I'm not supposed to be political as a PCV, I'll let my readers who are familiar both with Ukrainian politics and Harry Potter to draw their own conclusions.

After the second lesson, we had a short question-and-answer period, and then we had lunch in the school cafeteria (not school lunch, much better!) so the director could show off that we have one (it only predates me by a year or so and apparently not all schools offer lunch). Then I collected all my stuff, Nelya gave me tulips, the director told me I'd done a good job, and I caught the bus home. Played on the computer a little, and then fell sound asleep for about two hours!

I was starting to wake up when the phone rang...it was my friend Natalia calling to tell me that two people had already called her and told her that I'd done an awesome job with my presentation, so she was calling to congratulate me and suggest that I should lie down and relax. So I told her I'd already been doing that. :)

It's over...слава Бого (thank God)! But I hope that the teachers who saw it really did get some new ideas, that it wasn't just showing off the American teacher at School #3. Because that's more important.

And now I have to write a test for my 7th form for tomorrow and plan an English club. A teacher's work is never done! (And I do hope that Firyuza will improve her attitude!)