not my most interesting post, but bear with me, dear readers

Today was fun. Sveta, the English teacher for the primary kids this year, is apparently not around for the rest of the month (college classes of some sort, I believe), and I'm teaching the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th forms twice a week each. They're so much more fun than my older kids, and their behavior's better, too! (Well, not always...but writing in their daybooks or putting their name on the board--in English--in order to tell their class teacher about it proves much more effective with 8-year-olds than 16-year-olds.) They're all excited every time they see me (we're on week 2 of 3 together), and it just makes my day.

(It makes me cringe just a bit when I realize that probably my older kids were once this sweet and enthusiastic as well and that these kids will eventually develop attitudes and no longer automatically think of school as "fun". Sigh...)

Really, my life is fairly uneventful and I don't know what to post. I bought two books of the non-graphic-but-still-stupid-but-I-want-something-to-read-British-historical-romance-novel-variety at the second-hand store today. I've bought several of the genre by various authors over the last year, and I'm beginning to think that the defining characteristics are a) coal mining is involved, b) someone (not necessarily the protagonist) has an illegitimate child, and c) household maids will, in fact, end up marrying the master of the house after his first wife dies. I cannot wait to be in a country with a decent public library with books in English and interloan services.

Let's see...what else... Oh, I've been trying the Curly Girl method with my hair, with mixed results. I definitely get curls, but I'm so used to brushing them all out every morning that keeping it curly tends to look a little strange to me. But I've been having fun experimenting (I bought hair sticks!) and have gotten several positive comments from kids at school (plus Oleh Y's "How did you do that?" Me: "It's a female secret. I'll tell Vlada but not you.").

Tonight I experimented, not with my hair, but with cooking. I made pizza sauce, sauteed a very small onion, diced up kolbasa (hard sausage) and tomatoes, grated some mozzarella cheese, boiled penne pasta, mixed it all together with a bit more mozzarella and Parmesan on top, and baked it "until bubbly", as the cooking websites I checked out for baked penne said. (I also made garlic-cheese bread.) The result was really good, except that I misjudged the amount it would make and had more than I could eat. Nice hearty food for a cool autumn evening!

I really should go work on my statement of purpose for graduate school...

a week of math. what fun!

Tif told me to update, so here I am.

It's not been a very exciting week...lots of GRE prep and looking up various MATESOL programs online. MSU's still the one I like the best (I'm familiar with the area, I really like the English Resource Center where I would hopefully be a TA, and their website's easy to navigate...a big plus after reading 20-some sites!), but a few other places have caught my eye (if they offer Ukrainain classes, should this be a factor?).

I dunno. It all seems very complicated, and there's the question of whether or not it's a good idea to only apply to one grad school, in case I don't get in or the financial aid isn't as much as I'd like.

(And then there's the random programs unconnected to TESOL that catch my eye, such as Kansas University's MA in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies, which really has no practical application for me, but just looks really cool.)

The GRE prep is paying off...I took another practice test yesterday, and in a week of studying math, both the math and the verbal went up 70 points each. It's interesting...as I look up GRE stuff online, apparently it's more common to have a higher math than verbal, and I'm the other way around. Huh.

Last Saturday, I went back to the village where I'd been on Sunday, this time to celebrate my friend Andrey's 28th birthday. Once again, we went swimming in the river and ate shashlik. Before that, Andrey and his friend Alosha fixed the light bulb in my bedroom, which had been burnt out for quite some time. When I'd tried to change it, I'd found that the metal part of the bulb had corroded and was therefore extraordinarily difficult to remove, and in trying to do so, I'd made it harder. Andrey's comment (with a smile) was, "Next time, don't try and fix things yourself. Ask someone who knows what they're doing." Point taken.

That whole "I'm not going anywhere until COS Conference" idea seems to be out the window, but I'm waiting until I know for sure (tomorrow?) to post details. :)

I found a baguette (spelling?) at the store yesterday, so I made French bread pizza. It was good. I also made applesauce tonight to use up some apples Nadia gave me.

the beginnings of the GRE saga, plus a lot of other stuff

Happiness is seven new CDs of music--one of a Ukrainian rock group "Jeremiah's Tears" that I bought in L'viv, three country/oldies mixes from Tif, and three of Ukrainian/Russian Christian music that I got from my neighbors in the dorm at DCU. I'm still uploading the latter group into iTunes, mostly because it takes a while to get the Russian and Ukrainian song info typed up correctly (yes, I am a stickler for properness and like it to be in the correct alphabet; yes, I have a little cheat sheet for what the computer keys become when I put the Ukrainian settings on; no, I can't type as fast in Ukrainian as I can in English...not yet, anyway, but I've gotten much better at it). Currently I'm listening to a choir from Kyiv singing hymns in Russian (the current one is "We praise Thee, O God"); I'm excited because I've known pretty much every song they've sung so far, but a teensy bit sad that they're in Russian and not Ukrainian and I know the Ukrainian versions better. Guess I'll have to break out my Russian hymnal and practice.

Please keep the Yukhemets family in your prayers--I called Nadia this afternoon to see if I could go over and do laundry and she told me that Viktor is taking Valera to Kyiv for a couple weeks for treatment on his eyes (he doesn't see well but neither does he like to wear his glasses). So both prayers for them traveling and for Nadia with the other nine kids at home. And Nadia suggested that another day--any other day--might be better for me to come over. :)

~*~

Update on where I'm at these days, life-wise:

Basically, I'll be around Balaklia (as far I know) until the last week of August, when I head out west for COS (Close of Service) Conference for PC, where I'll get to see everyone who's left from Group 29 and get info about finishing up my time here.

I start teaching at the beginning of September, which is also going to be a busy month, company-wise, as Brandi's coming to visit me for a week or so, plus another friend from college might be visiting (more on that later if it actually works out).

My official COS date is December 13, and I assume I'll be coming home around that time, give or take a few days either way for the best deal on plane tickets (PC offers either a ticket to your home airport--Grand Rapids, not Lakeview!--or money for you to get your own ticket; it's usually more cost-effective to take the latter) and if Jason and I can time it so I could fly into Chicago when he's on his way back to Michigan from grad school in Wisconsin and drive back together (tickets are much cheaper into O'Hare than into any Michigan airports).

Then, I have Christmas and adjusting-back-into-US-life time, which will probably involve trying to spend time with lots of people and finding a car and learning how to drive in Michigan winters all over again. My current plan is to live with my parents for a few months and substitute teach (one could say I'll be joining the family business, almost). After that, I'm looking into going to grad school for my Master's in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), most likely back at MSU.

So where does that leave me right now? Studying for the GRE, which I'm hoping to take in Kyiv in September. I took a practice test yesterday before I started reviewing, just to give me a sense of where I am, and, to no one's surprise (I expect), my verbal score was pretty high and my math score was not bad, but fairly mediocre, because I haven't even though about most math beyond the absolute basics since senior year of high school, and definitely not since statistics class in my first semester of college. So that's August's major plan: study for the GRE (in between neighbor kids coming over to play cards, which keeps happening).

appropriate both for my students and for me

"The Learner’s Task"

Some say it isn’t any fun
to imitate another’s tongue;
while idioms and turns of phrase
can often baffle and amaze
the novice who must learn their ways.

Loquacious speakers seldom pause
to rest their ever moving jaws;
and so the learner simply gapes
as useless input fast escapes--
these speakers might as well be apes!

Nor can one recognize the words
that stampede forth in growing herds
arranged in patterns quite opaque
and grammar strange enough to make
it clear that there’s been some mistake.
(Such is the learner’s sorry stake!)

But lest the learner, in dismay
abandon hope, I haste to say
that there remains one certain way:

To learn a language, girls and guys,
you simply have to memorize.

~Keith Slater

yesterday, today, and this summer

Once again, posted a day later than I wrote it because Blogger wouldn't let me post. Not sure what's wrong with Blogger...

Yesterday was fun. I didn't have anything going on at school, so I hopped the 11:50 elektrichka to Kharkiv after making photocopies for my lesson today. When I got into the city, I went second-hand shopping at the store I went to a couple of weeks ago, but this time I actually had more than 15 minutes to look at and try on things. I found three books, all more-or-less mediocre but in English and quite cheap, and three shirts--two tank tops (one is white with a teal flower and the other is pale blue with some Old-West themed writing and design) and a light purple dressy summer blouse with embroidered flowers on it. All together, I spent about $15, which is a bit stiff for used clothing over here, but it's all really good quality and I needed some more summer tops.

After shopping, I hung out with Mike, who was also in town. We sat on the cement steps near the opera house and talked, complete with beverages (I found bottled lemon iced tea!). Later, we were joined by Marie, a French girl who's been studying at a university in Kharkiv for the past year but is going home on Thursday. I was planning to take the 6:50 train home, but we went out for supper and the pizzas we ordered took FOREVER and showed up less than 10 minutes before my train would have left. So I just took the next train. (Yes, Tif, the infamous 8:20 out of the main station!) The pizza was pretty good...pepperoni and red pepper slices. The crust on the edges was REALLY good, crisp on the outside but chewy within, and with a good flavor, but in the center it was too thin and the pizza was a bit greasy. But overall, good.


~*~


My summer plans are being formed, and I'm amazed how quickly my calendar's filling up.


Now-End of June-ish: Praktika at school


June 22-July 6: Tif's visit


July 14-July 29 (tentative, pending application approval): working as an assistant at the Summer English Intensive Program at Donetsk Christian University. I'm really excited about this opportunity. I was looking up evangelical weddings in Ukraine the other night (prompted by Yula's upcoming wedding), and ran across a mention of DCU. At the time, I thought that one of Nadia's cousins who I'd met at New Year's had studied there (it turns out he actually studied at a Bible college in Dnipropretrovsk...I knew it was something with a "D" in southeastern Ukraine), so I checked out their website and found the summer program. They still have a few slots open for workers, and I cleared it with PC, so hopefully everything will work out!

Early August (no definites, many possibilities): Brandi's visit? / Crimea with the Ys? / Lithuania with Kathryn? / Odesa with the oblast girls? / Krakow on my own? We'll see...

August 26-30: Peace Corps COS (Close of Service) Conference in L'vivska Oblast. Scary how soon all of that's coming up...

September 1 (most likely September 3, since the first is a Saturday...but you never know here): School begins again!

~*~


It's funny...I was not at all thrilled about working at praktika (summer school), but several PCVs have said that they're sort of jealous of me because I have something going on right now...they're bored. At least two people were like, "My school doesn't include me with anything like that." Mike also added that no one tells him when staff meetings are and he's not expected to show up for them...if I don't show up to ours, the director grills Nelya about my whereabouts and then I hear about it from Nelya that I really do need to come.


And I've been having fun. It's more laid back, and I'm not teaching every day. Half the time, I come, check papers for an hour, and go home; and yesterday, I got the day off. But today, I did music with my 10A form and we had a lot of fun. The kids complained about the music choices--"When are we going to listen to music that's popular in Ukraine?", but they had fun. And I picked several songs that they were at least slightly familiar with. I didn't, however, include rap or heavy metal, which is very popular, because a) I don't have any, b) you can't hear the words, which defeats the purpose, and c) the English-speaking artists that are the most popular here tend to have very profane/vulgar/obscene lyrics, which aren't appropriate for school.


Our playlist today:


"Honey" by Tina Karol
"Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones
"Oxford Town" by Bob Dylan
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" by MadHeads XL
"The Great Lakes Song" by Lee Murdoch
"Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer

a week's reprieve

Current Mood: annoyed by lower back pain and internal discomfort
Current Music: "Strawberry Wine", Deana Carter

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Anyone know where this quote is from without using Google? (I'd add that it was one of my favorite poems when I was six or so, but that really wouldn't help most of you except Mom...and it would get me some weird looks.)

~*~

Okay, so apparently having Internet in my apartment doesn't make me post on my blog more. I have a good excuse, though. Today was supposed to be a rayon-wide teachers' seminar where I presented two "open lessons" (i.e. I teach, my children are angelic and clever, and thirty-some people stare at me), so I was doing heavy-duty prep work. As it turns out, the seminar got postponed until next week because no one had thought to let the teachers know about it until Monday, and it might not be a seminar after all, but only the inspector for foreign languages and literature coming to watch me (Nelya says that she's a foreign lit teacher, which basically means Russian lit, and that she doesn't know English...neither do my director or my vice-principal, who will also be watching). And apparently if it's a seminar, someone has to give a presentation on theoretical material (hopefully not me). The director seems to have a big grandiose idea about how she wants this to go, but no one (Nelya, me, vice-principal, other vice-principal who is also an English teacher) seems to know what it is. The solution to this seems to be everyone telling me how I'm supposed to be presenting, what I'm supposed to be doing, and everything I've forgotten. I occasionally try and stick in my own ideas, but have resigned myself to the conclusion that this really has nothing to do with how I teach.

For those of you who are interested, the lesson topics are the life and works of J.K. Rowling (11a) and youth organizations in the English-speaking Ukrainian Diaspora (8b). And I did get to pick my own topics, based on the curriculum available.

~*~

The best music I've found since getting on the 'Net...Laura Bates and Brandon Foote are a folk/bluegrass duo who are apparently connected with Riverview now and sing in one of the worship bands. They just released an album, Jubilee, recently, and four of their songs are up on MySpace. I really like their sound and also how while the songs on the site aren't "Christian music" like you'd hear on Family Life Radio or Smile FM, they operate within a Christian vocabulary and mindset, which I almost like better. Currently debating whether to try and order Jubilee trans-Atlantic or just ask for it for Christmas.

TEFL

From EnglishDroid.com, the Maxims of English Language Teaching (my favorites are in bold):

1. If it moves, teach it. If it does not move, put it in the resource files. If you cannot put it in the resource files, switch it off.
2. The success of a classroom activity is in inverse proportion to the time and effort spent preparing it.
3. Most activities take longer than planned, even when you allow for this in your plan.
4. The best lessons happen when the Director of Studies is not present.
5. If the lesson seems to be going well, you must have overlooked something.
6. If they do not understand, try again, then give up.
7. If a language point is really not worth teaching, it is not worth teaching well.
8. A bad teacher blames the students. A wise teacher blames the previous teacher.
9. An activity in the hand is worth two in the resource files.
10. Do every listening exercise and you will never need to cue the tape.
11. Faint heart never taught TOEFL.
12. He that laminateth materials and storeth them shall reap the benefits thereafter.
13. He that preppeth not is a genius or a fool.
14. Hi-tech, lo-learn.
15. If you are late, the Director of Studies will be in the corridor.
16. If you are late and the Director of Studies is not in the corridor, you are late for a teachers’ meeting.
17. If you phone in pretending to be sick, the following day you will be sick.
18. Other teachers’ students are prettier.
19. The photocopier will jam a minute before class. (Or you could work at our school, where we haven't had ink for the copier for over a week...)
20. You will usually be one handout short.
21. The recording is always on the other side of the tape.
22. Whatever interests the teacher will bore the students (and vice versa).
23. Better jobs in other schools are advertised the month after you renew your contact.
24. How to identify the type of class you are meant to be teaching:
If students are looking bored, it is General English.
If students are looking bored and wearing ties, it is Business English.
If students are sitting in silence, it is Conversation.
If students are looking desperate, it is English for Academic Purposes.
If students are running around screaming and damaging the furniture, it is a children’s class.

I find these hilarious (and mostly true!)...you might have to be an ESL/EFL teacher to truly appreciate them, though.

and they continue to get sick!

The obligatory flu update: yesterday we had, if I remember correctly, 96 students absent and at least 10 that I know of that went home during the day. Nelya and I canceled our 10th form class in the afternoon, because only 3 students of 20 were there and it was last period. But we STILL haven't announced a quarantine. One of the teachers told me this is because not enough kids have doctors' excuses that they're actually sick, since many parents just treat their kids at home (understandable, because a) who wants any medical expenses, and b) who wants to drag their sick kid out on public transportation to the hospital?). So we'll see what happens...

Am currently in Kharkiv on a trip to buy tickets for (yet another) trip to Kyiv. This time it's for a meeting to start putting together a training manual for PCVs who will be working with younger forms. Apparently the latest group of TEFL PCVs felt that their training was inadequate...and they got more Young Learners info than I did! At any rate, it should be a neat project, and it means I'll be in Kyiv on my birthday! I'll have to celebrate somehow, I suppose...I bought a ticket for a later train home than I usually take (which will only get me to Kharkiv, and then I'll take the elektrichka) in hopes of finding PCVs to go out to dinner with.

Other than that, no real news.