ABCs & 123s: An Introduction to a Georgian Education

gamarjoba everyone!

I’ve just finished my first official week co-teaching in my village’s small school!!  I’m exhausted from the week and think I’m on the verge of experiencing my first cold in Georgia as I sit here sniffling and coughing.  I’ve been thinking about this blog post all week and I’ve been making mental notes of things I wanted to tell you all about because there are many things to share both good and…interesting to say the least.  I’m fortunate to say that I only work three days a week and have Wednesdays and Fridays off.  My school splits their day in half where the 1st grade and grades 6-12 come in the morning and the rest of the kids come in at 2pm when the others leave; so my days are long and filled with back-to-back classes, but I’m pretty happy with my schedule overall.  I’m co-teaching alongside Nino in the 1^st and 6^th grade classes and working with Margo in the 2^nd-5^th and 7^th grade classes (TLG places volunteers in 1^st-6^th grades but since I have nothing else to do besides sit and drink coffee in the teacher’s room during the 7^th grade classes, I’ve offered to help her out.  This is also the class that my host brother Luka is in.).

My School!  We have about 200 students total.  There are 10 classrooms (hence the need to split the day to fit the kids) and it's not really big at all.  Also, that's my host brother Luka in the corner!  And, those are two of my students: Tamuna is in the red shirt and Mari is in the yellow.

The first day of classes definitely proved to be a little bit of a culture shock to say the least.  We began the day with a little gathering on the front lawn where I think some awards were handed out to several good students but seeing as I can’t understand much of what is being said around me, I have no idea.  After that classes began and with it being the first day and all there wasn’t much of a plan for what would happen in each class, so Nino, Margo and I just walked into each class and basically winged it from there.  The kids are all really cute (especially the first graders, oh my gosh!) but definitely have an unknown source of energy hidden somewhere that makes them loud, rambunctious and crazy; they’re definitely a lot to handle, especially when I can’t speak their language and my co-teacher is trying her hardest to control them using Georgian.  Ultimately we didn’t do much in any of the classes that day because neither the teachers nor the students had any books so there was a lot of reviewing the alphabet, numbers, pronouns and other random English concepts.  There’s a definite disparity in terms of knowledge of English within each class which was interesting to note even on the first day.  By the end of the day, I was pretty overwhelmed since so much of what I experienced was different from how I was educated in the United States.

The next two days of school were better since Margo, Nino and a few kids had brought in books so we could adapt some activities from those.  This week I mostly just observed the teaching and learning that was going on, but I did get to lead a few activities including playing an adapted version of BINGO with a few classes on the blackboard.  This coming week I’ll be able to do more things in the classroom now I’ve become more accustomed to how things are run here and will be able to insert more interesting activities than just reciting the alphabet five times as a class.  Although Nino and Margo have varying degrees of English knowledge and fluency, they are still young and not set in the past Soviet ways of teaching and seem really eager to hear all of the ideas I have swirling around my brain that don’t necessarily follow the textbook like they are used to.

Here’s a small smattering of some of the most interesting observations thus far:

No, Lady Gaga hasn’t come to the village, it’s actually just me: Since coming to the village a month ago, my local celebrity status has grown as I meet more people or as more people hear about me.  Villages in Georgia don’t need things like Facebook to keep track of the gossip around here, including the comings and goings of an American girl.  Now, that school has started, I think I’m the most popular girl in the school (not to brag or anything).  As far as I know nobody has whipped out a camera to snag a picture of me (I think) but the kids at my school sure do like to stare as I walk down the short halls with my teachers to my next class.  They whisper to each other as I pass and sometimes even smile and say “Hello.”  They wait for me to pass their houses so they can join me on the walk to school each morning even though the only thing we can really say to one another is “Hello!”  And they love just saying “Hello!”  I’ve lost count how many times in a day I say this word to my students!

Cell Phones: Yes, cell phones.  I haven’t touched on the topic of cell phone culture in Georgia yet, but it’s pretty interesting and definitely worth sharing.  I’m almost sure everyone in Georgia has a cell phone whether you are rich or poor.  But the most intriguing things is that the cell phones in Georgia don’t have voicemail.  I’m not sure how this was overlooked or if it has something to do with the cell phone companies here, but it simply doesn’t exist.  So, when the phone rings, it’ll keep ringing until you answer it or the person just hangs up.  It doesn’t matter where a Georgian is, what they are doing or who they are with, they are going to answer their cell phone.  They could be in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of dinner, or you guessed it, in the middle of teaching a class of 2^nd graders and answer the phone if it rings.  And if for whatever reason you don’t pick up the phone the first time, Georgians keep calling back until you do.  My co-teacher’s phone rang the other day in class, and I had to step in to lead whatever activity we were doing while she took a minute to take the call.

Lack of Resources: Unlike the elementary schools in the U.S., in Georgia (and in other countries) kids have to buy their own school books each year.  But, many of the children in the villages come from poorer families so sometimes the sacrifice is made not to purchase school books for the year, or they will use an old book from a previous student where all of the activities are already completed.  As if this isn’t detrimental to teaching enough, the school itself is also a bare-bones building that can’t provide many resources itself other than a blackboard and some desks in each room.  They don’t have an extra supply of paper or pencils to provide for empty-handed students and I’m forever thankful that I brought my own chalk here (I have yet to see any at the school other than what I bring each day).  The lack of resources available at the school will definitely make planning and executing activities a little more difficult, but I’m looking forward to the challenge, especially if I want to eventually teach in an inner city school at some point in my future (a lot of the lack of resources is the same here).

Disparity in levels of English knowledge and comprehension: I’ve already touched on this a little bit, but it’s amazing to me how some kids in the classes will be really good at English and then others can’t remember the alphabet.  And, each year the students have to buy the next level English book regardless of if they actually successfully learned anything the previous year.  For example, the 2^nd grade class bought the level 2 book for this year, but Margo is insisting that we still use the level 1 book since they can't remember much of what they learned last year.  To me, it seems like a waste of money on the part of the families to buy these books when their kids aren’t ready, but the government mandates a new level each year for the students as they progress in school.

Disregard for lazy kids and inclusion of special education children in the mainstream classroom:  One major difficulty I’m foreseeing already is the inclusion of special education children and lower levels of English knowledge in the same classes.  My teachers have already pointed out a few kids in each class that they call “lazy” and who really don’t act like they even want to be in school.  It doesn’t look as though teachers have gone out of their way to make any of these situations better or to help the kids learn on a more individualized basis.  I’m not exactly sure how my teacher and I will work together to make sure everyone learns (because I know I'm not going to just stand there and ignore little "lazy" Giorgi) but it’s definitely different than Special Education programs in the U.S. and the prevalence of tutoring and other means of assistance to help kids who’ve fallen behind in classes.

Soviet techniques of teaching including memorization and copying:  Some of the favorite activities of my teachers include reciting various English concepts aloud or making students write down things from the chalkboard numerous times.  One of the main reasons why native and fluent English speakers were brought into the country was to update the style of teaching English in Georgia.  A lot of the methods which remain were used during the Soviet times and aren’t the best methods of learning a language.  And, it doesn't help that many of the students don't see English as a means of communication  yet but rather English is just a language they are forced to learn in school.  I’m excited to use some techniques that I tried out when I tutored for America Reads and just other creative things I know I’ve done in my many years of schooling to learn various concepts.

“Mas! Mas!”:  Students here love to answer questions posed by the teacher (even if it's incorrect).  They raise their hands and shake it back and forth while shouting “Mas! Mas!”  It’s a shortened form of the Georgian word for teacher “mastsavlebeli” (think must-have-the-belly and you can say it too!).  They then jump out of their seats to answer the question (they must stand when they are answering commands/questions in class).  If it’s one thing that’s cool to see every day in class it is the enthusiasm these kids have for answering questions and getting them right.  I haven’t given out any of the stickers I brought with me, but I think they’ll love those too J

Now, none of the stuff I’ve mentioned here is necessarily surprising to me since I think I scoured every blog and article I could find about the Georgian education system before I came here.  However, it’s definitely crazy to experience it all first-hand and to see how these differences have affected Georgian students throughout their education both in English and other subjects.  The differences between my lifetime of education and the typical Georgian education are pretty stark and really threw me for a loop after experiencing my first week here.  I know that a lot of the craziness can be attributed to the back-to-school madness experienced everywhere during the first week, and I’m anxious to see how next week will turn out.  Many kids will (hopefully) be buying their school books this weekend, and I’ll have some time to reflect on some activities I might want to try out and be ready for school again on Monday.

More stories to come!
Love and miss you all back home!
Kelsey