2.09-6.09

I haven't had a chance to post this week until today as I haven't found a place to buy a splitter for the internet connection. So here is this exciting week:

2.09.07: I went this morning to All Saints church for liturgy (see here) where the few Americans that I know attend. After liturgy I had lunch with one of them and two of his children after which we went to Detski Mir (children’s world) to buy some school supplies. Detski Mir is a giant toy store comparable to, I’m guessing, Macy’s. Inside there is a quite old carousel complete with lions, horses and balloons. I walked around downtown for a while after that. A lot of parts of downtown are still blocked off after the festivities yesterday and there were still hundreds of militia around. I had planned to meet a friend in the early afternoon at a certain metro station (common locations for meeting people) and it turned that there was a birthday party. I met more people from Young Rus (MR) and we celebrated until late into the night. The celebration included eating and drinking, playing the guitar and balilaika and singing, walking around Izmailovsky Park and playing badminton and volleyball. I gave many interviews so was able to practice my Russian a lot; only a few people know very much English at all (and they don’t often use it) so I was forced to use my brain. There was lots of communal singing through which, it seems, I became a member of the group, a “Marusist” (the combination of Molodoy (young) and Rus). I’d heard from various people over the years that I look very much Russian but it was reinforced many times tonight (so hopefully I won’t have to worry too much about hassle from the militia). Another comforting fact is that when I asked someone what it seems like when I try to speak Russian he said that it really doesn’t sound too bad and that it doesn’t blatantly show that I’m American (which, of course, could cause problems).

A few pictures from the party:















I forgot that I had video capabilities until the end so this was all I got:


3.09.07: So today was the first day of teacher training. We first had an introductory session in which we did the typical games for getting to know each other and the basics of what our work will be. The teacher trainer basically gave us material as if she were teaching so in this manner we went over various points of grammar and teaching. For part of our training we have to observe 3 different classes and write a small report on how the teacher taught. I was scheduled to do one of mine that day after our training and as I was supposed to actually teach the next day I was happy about that. However, when I went to the classroom I was to observe the teacher informed me that she was giving a test so there wouldn’t be any teaching involved. So the other teacher that was to observe and I simply left and walked around the neighbourhood for a while figuring the different directions out. I headed back to the apartment and decided to walk some around the neighborhood. Getting a grip of neighbourhoods in Moscow is difficult as the blocks are generally very large. So I walked down a street away from my apartment and thought I might go around the block. Well the next street turned out to be 1km away... So when I got there I thought I might as well keep going so I turned and walked probably another kilometer when I came to the next street which ended up curving away from my apartment; I realized then that I could either walk a really long way around or turn around so I simply turned around. When I got back my flatmate and I ended up watching the Simpson’s movie (not particularly good) and I worked on my Lesson Plan for the next day.

4.09.07: As I had to teach this day at four o’clock that was what I thought about the whole day. Of course, I was nervous about teaching but more nervous about being able to stretch out what I was supposed to be teaching to 45 minutes. All I had to do was a listening exercise, a game and a writing assignment. The good thing was that our trainer actually went over everything with us and helped us plan our lessons. We taught in groups of three and split up a short chapter of a book, one section based on reading, one on grammar/pronunciation and one on listening/writing. We had another teacher trainer sit in and review our teaching who in the end said we all did alright considering we know nothing about what were doing. The hardest part in mine ended up being what I hadn’t thought much about because I thought it would be the easiest part: the game. One person was supposed to have picked a job and the other person was supposed to ask what they were required to do for this job such as “Do you have to get up early?” The problem is that one could as such questions all day without figuring out some obscure job that someone picked... Then with no guesses or solutions it was a bit awkward trying to move on to the next part... But over all it went well and I think the students actually learned something. After our teaching the trainer gave us feedback and then I had my first observation. I observed a teacher that has been teaching in Russia for many years so that aspect was good, however, he was teaching a pretty high level which I don’t know if I will even be teaching. We were first introduced to the class and said something about ourselves which for me turned out to be a hassle as the girl next to me latched on to the fact that I had studied literature (she skipped the part that it was Russian literature) and was writing me notes asking about American literature during the lesson. (A common occupation during class is writing notes or text messaging...) After the second question I wrote that I would tell her later about what American lit. I actually had read so she wrote back saying it was so boring simply going over the grammar questions... The teacher included the other intern and myself in his class by having the students use us as resources; they were discussing idioms and puns so they asked us when they had problems.

5.09.07: More training today...grammar and lesson planning. The next day I would be teaching so I started reviewing the lesson: the third conditional. I spent several hours after training in the teacher’s lounge trying to work on my plan but it was pretty much useless as the other teachers were talking and distracting in general. It wasn’t really a problem though as I was there more to waste time before meeting someone from MP that evening. So I met up with said Marusist at 7 and we walked around several boulevards and talked (I had to get used to talking Russian again as I hardly had since the weekend). On the way home I randomly saw through the window in the next car a fellow intern... I also saw three deaf people...quite interesting.

6.09.07: Training... So we had a very good explanation of the conditionals, which was quite apropos as I taught the third conditional today; well it didn’t turn out the best when I taught it. As before, there was too much “TTT” as they call it “teacher talking time” and not enough “SS < > SS” (student to student talking). However, it when pretty well I thought. We had out review by another teacher right after class so that is always helpful. We are supposed to teach everyday next week so I should learn how to do this teaching thing. Nothing else interesting except that Saturday I’m going to the futbol match of the century (so it’s not really, I just want to make Colonel K and Parmajon excited).