Another Day, Another Dram

It's Friday morning, and we are going to do three lessons today: third grade, sixth grade, and eleventh grade. I hadn't realized this but the younger kids get English lessons three times each week. Seventh grade is when it's reduced to twice/wk. I think it really makes a difference, as the kids in those classes participate so much more eagerly. Certainly, there's something to be said about the enthusiasm of elementary school students, but it's more than that.
I didn't get to teach the third graders earlier this week because the principal had them taking a writing test that no one knew about ahead of time. It's not like the school has email or even a PA system. The teachers don't have mailboxes or much access to computers. I haven't seen a printer, and there is no xerox machine. Every classroom has a small chalkboard, maybe 30% the size of my whiteboard, and there are only little nubs of chalk.
When Sara asked me to bring school supplies, I prompted her to be more specific because I really didn't know if she meant chalk and pencils or flash drives and dry erase markers. I brought a lot of materials she is happy to have, but I wish I had known more before I came about the specific teaching environment. I would have brought chalk and pencils.
Today I will do the lesson with the third graders that I had planned for Wednesday. I hope they like it. I am using the vocabulary they were working on Tuesday. I'm going to have them pair movements with the words; there are two purposes I have in mind, reaching the kinesthetic learners and making class FUN. (That does not seem to be a priority here, and I just don't get it.)
With the sixth graders, I am going to have them act out a dialogue they learned for homework. Since it's between a mother and son, I am going to bring in a shawl and handbag and have the mother be in costume. Again, a little silliness never hurt anyone. Then we are going to continue with the pages in their workbook, and I am still brainstorming how to make it more interactive. I do my best thinking over coffee, and it's almost time for the water to turn on!! Yay! (My sleeping schedule is totally off; it's hard to tell since these blog posts are time-stamped on LA time, which is 12 hours behind.)
The eleventh graders are going to build on the lesson we began Wednesday. I gave them each one of the "WHEN/WHERE/WHO/WHAT" charts that my seventh graders filled out. (The kids chose five random times during an average day and wrote where they would be, with whom, and what they'd be doing. BTW, my kids are totally awesome and adorable, and I learned more about them from reading these charts--like who has ballet practice and who plays club soccer; I'm telling you, I don't know how these busy seventh graders manage to keep up with their schoolwork! They are amazing!! The teahers here really liked the charts as well, and were particularly horrified by two things: first, going to school as early as 8:00am and staying as late as 3:30 is positively inhumane to them and second, too many of my students are allowed to have "terrible hand-writing"--they don't realize I weeded out the worst hand-writing!)
I handed out highlighters and had the eleventh graders highlight all the words they understood. It was great that they had times as reference points, and my students embellished their charts with drawings, which was extremely helpful. Still, the students struggled to comprehend. They did, however, really like trying to figure it out. Then I had them practice using "similar" and "different" by writing sentences comparing their lives with my kids'. This was a struggle. Finally, I handed out blank charts for them to fill in--part in class and part as homework. A boy, who had been trying for the first half of class not to be engaged, broke down and went in search of someone who would loan him a pen or pencil. I gave him one of my green pens and he seemed very surprised to have the teacher solve this problem; it's true, I'm an enabler of the disorganized...!
Sara told me after class that she was very surprised that everyone was writing, and she thinks the idea that the papers will come back to LA to be read by my students was very motivating for them.
Today, I will build on the chart activity by having the kids write dialogues (based on their workbook reading called "The Changing Face of Television") using the W-words.
This teaching language thing is totally new to me. Except for grammar, I'm not used to his, but I'm catching on. And here's a shout-out to all the Oakwood language teachers whose classes I've observed and who've shared what they do in class. I'm doing my best to channel Susanna...!
Okay, fingers crossed there's water and I can take a shower!

Thursday

Sara does not have classes on Monday or Thursday (only private lessons at home) so we did not go to school today. Instead, we had time to go to one of Vanadzor's art museums. I really enjoyed it, especially the sculptures. I'm afraid I did that thing I do at Oakwood where I experience life through the lens of my camera (definitely not Buddha's idea of being present in the moment) but I will be present in the past when I look at the pictures in the future! : ) BTW, the museum has no rule against flash photography, which shocks me.
We also took some time to look at shoes!!!! Armenian women are super fashionable, and I'm drooling over some of their shoes anytime we walk down the street. I didn't find a pair today that I couldn't live without, but I plan to treat myself to one pair of shoes from here.
OMG, all of the food today was so delicious! Of course I've forgotten what it was called. I try to write things down--the only way I'll remember, but I don't really want to takes notes at the dinner table! There was a toasted flat bread with some kind of meat-paste smeared over it. We folded it like a taco, which is pretty much how it tastes--I was thinking that all I needed was some Taco Bell hot sauce from Dave Loveland's desk drawer (all the Humanities teachers rely on his stock of condiments). There was also an incredibly tasty soup--comfort food--made with tan (water and yogurt) and corn and cilantro. Shat hamova! (Very delicious!)
My German is getting better and better each day. Ara and I communicate in German since I don't know Armenian and his English is limited. I of course have forgotten much of the vocabulary since it's been 15 years, but it's coming back to me as he and I talk. Then we laugh that I came to Armenia to (re)learn to speak German!
I have to say, Armenian is very difficult for me. There are so many sounds that we just don't make in English--rolled R's, guttural H's, and more I can't find words to describe--and many things that are one syllable in English are, like, twelve syllables in Armenian! OK, that's an exaggeration, but a simple "thanks" is five syllables here. I can't even begin to tackle "thank you very much"! I rely on a big smile to express my real gratitude. And that is overflowing!

Sara and I have definitely evolved from host-guest to true friends. We discuss life and work and family very intimately and frankly, and I find that her sensibilities are very much in sympathy with my own.
And we laugh so much that we cry. Most of the laughter comes from failed attempts at communication. For instance, Sofi is addicted to one of the apps on my iPhone, and when Sara made her surrender it to me today, I did that annoying thing adults do to kids and said, "What do you say?" She looked at me blankly because she of course doesn't know English (she's 5), so I prompted her with "thank you" and she said "huntrem" (you're welcome) and walked away.

I also made a huge faux pas--luckily it was received as a hugely funny one--when I told Ara at his birthday party (while he was wearing a crown) that he was the king, but I pronounced the word for "king" with a K instead of, well, whatever letter it was supposed to be. Sara explained that I had told him he is "what people do in the toilet."
Oh goodness, and the toilet paper incident today! I had to ask Sara for toilet paper because there was none in the bathroom. She started to change the roll and was having difficulty pushing the holder through the center of the roll (there is no cardboard tube in the center). I had interrupted her in the kitchen, so I said, "I can get that; you don't have to do it for me." She looked at me skeptically, and I'll admit I got a little attitude and said, "I know how to change toilet paper--I'm not incompetent." So she shrugged and went back to the kitchen.
After five minutes of struggling and pretty much destroying half the roll, I finally had to admit defeat. The Armenian toilet paper won. Apparently, in Armenia, I AM incompetent!

It takes me an eternity to unlock the front door of the apartment. I'm sure all the neighbors think I must be trying to break in because why would someone with a key take so long and struggle so much and burst forth in such frustrated epithets?? I do find the whole experience so funny. I'm waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out with cameras and reveal that I've been punked. It's a real lesson in humility.


I'm so excited for tomorrow morning: there should be water for a few hours after seven o'clock. Yay! Shower and coffee!

In the Classroom

Tuesday I observed three classes: third grade (which is the first year of mandatory English), sixth grade, and tenth grade.
The tenth graders were reading the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. They were going through it quite quickly, and no one was asking questions. At first, I was really impressed with their reading level. There were some comprehension questions after the poem but not many volunteers to answer them. Those that would volunteer struggled to make simple sentences in English, and needed a lot of coaching in Armenian.
It became clear to me that the state-mandated curriculum for tenth graders assumes the kids are reading and comprehending at a wildly exaggerated rate than they actually are. Not to mention the fact that of all the things a fifteen-year-old who goes to America might want to communicate with others about, I'm guessing Kipling is not high on the list.
I agree with Sara that the books are stupid, to use her word. Her biggest problem with the books, however, is that they aren't arranged logically and do not teach grammar in a way that she, as a language teacher, thinks makes sense.

Although she got through a few pages of the book and is on-track with state expectations for curricular progress...many of the kids were lost and at least 25% were wholly checked out. (To be fair, 25% understand English pretty well, but even native speakers struggle to understand Kipling's poetry!)
The system is arranged so that kids have Armenian classes right from first grade, like we have English classes. In second grade they begin Russian and in third grade, English. To accommodate this in their schedules, students have Russian and English twice a week for forty minutes. Russian is clearly useful in this part of the world; whereas, English is not so much because they have almost no opportunity to practice. Nonetheless, I think kids should have the option of choosing either English or Russian and studying the one language four times each week.
Continuity with a foreign language is so important. I remember taking a Hindi course that met for four hours every Saturday. Having the intensive day was awesome, but my life was totally Hindi-free until the next Saturday, and most of what I gained one week was lost by the next.

The School Library

However, I understand that teachers (in a small school, in a small city, in a very poor area that has yet to recover from the 1988 earthquake) aren't really able to effect a revolution and overthrow the government's education plan. But I think there could be solutions in the classroom.


When I taught the tenth graders on Wednesday, there was a three-paragraph passage about Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo. The first paragraph actually said, "When we think of brotherly love, two names often come to mind: Vincent and Theo Van Gogh." How absurd!!! Um, yeah, those two names have absolutely never come to my mind, no matter what I was thinking about.
I realized that trying to get the kids to understand each word in each paragraph was a ridiculous endeavor and would take all of our time, so I pulled out a few phrases that I thought represented the theme of the essay. We read the sections that contained those phrases--probably about 1/3 of the essay. I skipped the second paragraph in its entirety. Then we used those phrases to construct our own sentences. In my mind, this was more useful than tediously trying to struggle through a confusing heap of irrelevant facts and vocabulary.
I'm not sure Sara really thinks I covered those pages (it's true that I cheated), but perhaps I can bring her around to my pedagogy when we discuss it at length this afternoon as we plan for tomorrow's lessons.
I will blog about the lessons with the sixth and eleventh graders in a separate post. Must get ready for the day--which should be quick since I missed my "water window" and can't shower.

Dari dache a so (or something like that)

 Last night was Ara's birthday (I have to interject here, BTW, that I don't actually know if Sara's husband's name is Ara or Aras. I thought Aras at first--this is also the name of an important river in Armenia--but it doesn't sound like that when people talk to him. Plus, it doesn't help that Sara calls him Aro, as a pet name I think). *I have since confirmed his name is Ara.
Many friends and family came to the house to celebrate.
Sara told me that in Armenia, it is not the custom to invite people--you just know that they will show up. I have rarely seen so many plates of food on a table. So many, in fact, that they had to stack plates on top of each other.




Since it was a special occasion, they made barbeque. They had the meat marinating in a back room for a couple days (the back room is unheated, so it is like an extra refrigerator during the winter, and it is still cold enough that they can use it). 


Sara also made a cake completely from scratch and decorated it so beautifully that I would have insisted it was from a bakery. She has so many talents!! After the meal, I found that she is an excellent dancer. They turned up the Armenian music and we all danced. Armenian dance is similar to Indian dance somewhat in the arm and hand movements. We also joined hands in a circle and danced around Sara and her husband; it was reminiscent of a Bar Mitzvah!


During the meal, I discovered that another Armenian tradition is LOTS of toasting. The patriarch of the family--Ara's father--toasted at regular intervals. Each toast was to honor one of the people at the table. By the end of the meal, which took a couple hours, he had made a speech for all of us, including me. He welcomed me into their family and wished me future happiness, which here translates to finding a husband to give me children. Sara also wished this for me in a toast my first night.
Oh my, everyone is surprised and sad for me that I do not have a husband and children! I have told Sara--and it has become a favorite story that she likes to tell--that I do not need a husband because I have my MacBook; at night, I sleep on one side of the bed and my MacBook has the other. When she told this to her aunt, the aunt asked me--and Sara translated, "But can it give you children?" I replied, "Of course: iPhone, iPad, and iPod!" Now that is added to the story when Sara tells it. BTW, she has to tell the story often because my marital status is generally the second question people ask when they meet me. The first is where I am from. The third is how much do I love Armenia and will I stay here forever. Of course I respond that I love Armenia--it's true--but I am also honest about the fact that, no, I will not stay here forever!
Today I taught three classes, but that will be another post.

I love the internet!

It's pretty funny that I needed to google this in order to have coffee this morning, but there's no Starbucks and no coffee maker....http://www.ehow.com/how_4806981_make-armenian-coffee.html

The Universal Language of "Too Slow"

Tigran is in second grade. His family refers to him as the grandfather (Papik--or something like that) because he always has such a serious expression on his face.
He is my new BFF.
I taught him the sequence: Gimme five. Up high. Down low. Too slow! Then he taught his sister, Sofi. The video is messed up for some reason...but you can get the general idea.

First Day/Night/Day/What Time Is It, Anyway????

After 11 hours on the plane from LA to London, a 10-hour layover in Heathrow, a 5-hour flight into Yerevan, a 2-hour car ride to Vanadzor, and a 12-hour time difference, I really don't know which way is up. I do know that my Armenian hosts are very wonderful. Sara and Ara have two beautiful children, Tigran (second grade) and Sofi (Kindergarten). Sara is a great cook and stuffed me with lots of home-cooking. Ara makes his own wine. He kept refilling my glass, so I kept drinking it. It tasted like...like homemade Armenian wine. Ara does not speak English, but he lived in Germany for a time, so he and I use our limited combined German to communicate. When we run into trouble, we yell for Sara to translate. The one thing I definitely understand is that he loves to joke and is usually not serious. Of course this means we get along very well. Tomorrow is his birthday, so Sara made a cake from scratch.
Taking a shower today was quite an adventure. The water is only on for certain hours of the day, and it only gets hot for little spurts and then goes cold again.
It rained on and off all day and was very overcast. At one point in the early evening, we had a hail storm: very beautiful!
Tomorrow I visit Sara's school for the first time and will interact with kids in sixth and tenth grades. Kids here have English class twice a week for forty minutes each time. They also study Armenian and Russian. Of course, all three of these languages are written in different scripts.
Sara says that it is difficult for her students to be motivated to perform well because most cannot afford to go to University. And even if they do, there are still not many jobs. Sara's husband is unemployed, as are her cousins whom I also met tonight. Sara does everything she can to make enough money to provide for her family, like teaching private lessons and applying for grants such as the one to host me, but life is a struggle.
I feel very fortunate. More later.