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The Odyssey of a Seahawk: |
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The Odyssey of a Seahawk: |
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5 Jan - 29 Jan Krásna Zima!!! (that's "beautiful winter" for you English speakers!) |
5 January 2000
Needless to say, spent the day reading mail, catching up
on news, doing laundry, letting "the girls" (Sona,
Dana, and Barbora) know I am back.
6 January 2000
Quiet day alone (as if I need it!!). Prepping lessons for when
school starts. Writing, reading.
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7 January 2000 |
10 January 2000 11 January 2000 12 January 2000 |
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13 January 2000 In the other half of 4.D, we again listened to music. In 3.D, as it is a long class, I used one of the activities I am going to use next week with everyone else. First we listened to some music. Then, I had the lyrics to "The Sound of Silence" and "Eleanor Rigby." For each song, I cut each line, mixed them up, and gave each student a couple of lines. Then, I played each song and while the songs were playing, the students had to listen and unscramble the lines and put the lyrics in order (Internet lesson plans are a wonderful thing). There was relative chaos in the room when this was going on--it was great!! We had to listen to each song a number of times, but they were successful. One of the best lessons we have had yet. We did the same thing in both sections of 2.D. Dana walked in to tell me something when the last class was doing the lyric scramble, and I saw her eyes get a little wide (remember, I said chaos--kids were running all around the room trying to get their lyrics straight), and then she laughed. It was truly a great day. Only two kids absent for conversation class. We watched the Important People video. These kids are real thinkers--probably the most intense class I have. They are really bright (when they are here!), and I thoroughly enjoy talking with them. There are many Jozefs in this class, so to distinguish among them, I have taken to calling one student "Joey Z." So now the other Jozefs call each other by their respective names: Joey B and Joey D. It is hilarious!!! |
| 14 January 2000 Did lyric scramble with 3.A today. A game. What a surprise! We had a great time, though. It really is a challenge for them (for all the students, not just 3.A)--to listen to the song and put the lyrics in order; it is kind of tough, especially when there is some unknown vocabulary (which we of course proceeded to go over). In conversation we watched the Important People video. Rather uneventful. I cannot believe that this week is already over. 15 January 2000 16 January 2000 17 January 2000 18 January 2000 |
19 January 2000 |
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20 January 2000 Still snowing. SnowSTORM, actually. Great!!!!! In 4.D we played "Famous Person Guess Who." I have a list of about 60 famous people throughout history, from all areas, and students, divided into pairs, have to describe to their partner this person, without saying his or her name. At the end of the class, the team with the most guesses wins. They have ninety seconds to do this. We were able to play three rounds. It is actually a really hard game, as they have to describe this person, obviously, in English. In 3.D, we played vocabulary grab. In vocabulary grab, we review the vocabulary from some songs, I tape the words onto the board, and the students have to listen to the song and they have to grab the word from the board when they hear it. The class is divided up into teams, and they have to grab the words relay style. The team with the most words wins. The catch is, you have to listen to the song carefully and grab the word right when you hear it, not after. They did really well, and the teams got most of the words. We did the same in both sections of 2.D. In the last section of 2.D, we had a spontaneous snowball fight! It was utterly fantastic. |
Finished the 20th century topic--thank goodness, although this one was rather interesting, at least for me. I am not sure what the students would say.
Read about all the films at Sundance this year. I cannot believe I am missing all of these movies. I am going to be plopped in front of the VCR for the next year catching up on everything I have missed. Talked to Mary Beth and Wito tonight. We usually talk on Thursdays, and it is great. It feels like I am not an ocean away from them and that we are at Wild Wings laughing about nothing!
21 January 2000
Played vocabulary grab with 3.A. The vocabulary was pretty
difficult, but they were troopers. I tried to use songs in which
you could decipher the lyrics--Crash Crash Test Dummies, Sinead
O'Connor, Foo Fighters, The Beatles, and, because they (and I)
love them, the RedHotChiliPeppers. The students did their
presentations in conversation.
After school, I went to the gym with Barbora. It is so odd being the one that people stare at instead of being the one who is staring. We speak English, obviously, and we are always getting stared at. On the way home from the gym, I saw a HUGE crowd at the church, so of course, went to see what it was. I hear, "Julie!" so I turn around and Barbora, Lucas, and Jan are there (Sona's daughter and Dana's sons). I asked them what was going on, and they said, "Church." So I went to Mass with them. Apparently, this happens EVERY Friday. It is a Mass specifically for young people. It was standing room only, and really, really nice. I am amazed that this many teenagers go to Mass on a Friday night.
22 January 2000
I was going to take the bus to the Billa (supermarket) today, as
they are the only store that sells ground beef. I missed the bus
and was late for Barbora's house. So I decided to do something
foolish and take the car. So I started to dig the car out of the
snow. I had not even been pathetically digging for three minutes
when Janko, Dana's son, was right there helping me. I asked him
if his mother made him come over and help (Dana can see my flat
from hers), and he looked offended and said, "No, I wanted
to!!" I love this kid!!! Made lunch at Barb's today. Before
he left, Josh gave me a box o' Taco Bell! So I brought that over
to Barb's (she lived in Canada and had experienced Taco Hell, but
her husband never has) and we had tacos for lunch. It was a lot
of fun. Then went to Mass with Sona and Dana. They go to a church
up the road every Saturday night with their parents and then stop
by their parents' house for cake and tea. So I joined them this
week. Their parents are so nice--her father is an English teacher
at the university in Ruzomberok and their mother is one of the
sweetest people I have ever met. Their father showed me pictures
of their trips to Morocco, Spain, and Yugoslavia--incredibly
beautiful.
 Dana and Valent on the way to the cottage |
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23 January 2000 24 January 2000 |
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| A class teacher is an elaborate homeroom teacher. The
students of each class (remember there are 20 classes:
1.A through 1.E, 2.A through 2.E, 3.A through 3.E, and
4.A through 4.E) have this teacher for all four years of
their gymnazium career. This class teacher is responsible
for keeping DETAILED records on each student--basically
the teacher is the registrar, attendance office, and
guidance office rolled into one human. Every time a
student (or teacher for that matter) is absent, they must
have a stamp from the doctor (or dentist) in the student
book each student carries on their person, to prove that
they were absent for a valid reason. The class teacher
must keep a record of the absences for each student
(there are about 35 students in each class) in his or her
class book. The class book travels from class to class
with the students (with one student being responsible for
its whereabouts and that it gets back to the class
teacher at the end of the day). Along with the absences,
the class teacher must make sure that it is signed daily
by EVERYONE WHO TEACHES THAT CLASS. So every time I see
that class, I have to put my signature next to the
absences in my class, AND in another section of the book,
I have to write what I did that day in class and my
signature. If there are any discipline problems (very,
very rare) or special cases, notes have to be made in the
Katalog, or what the individual student section
of the class book is called. THEN, when the marking
period comes to a close (they only do grades twice a
year, January and June), every teacher who teaches that
class has to put the students' marks in the appropriate
place in the class book. As I have five conversation
classes with a mixture of classes, I had to write in
three out of five third year books and all five of the
fourth year books. My class is not graded, rather it is
pass or fail (and the only way someone fails is if they
miss 25% or more of the class sessions), so I had to
write absolvoval for the boys if they are
passing (and neabsolvoval if they are not) and absolvolva
(or neabsolvolva) for the girls. If students
receive neabs, they have to take oral exams with
two English teachers and their class teacher until they
pass!!! Also, these kids are so intrinsically motivated,
they HATE to see anything negative on their papers, so
this keeps their motivation to do well high. So, after all of the grades have been entered by the individual teachers, the class teacher has to double check that everything was entered correctly, THEN the class teacher has to transfer all of this information (attendance, excused and unexcused absences, and grades) onto a form that goes to the administrators, who then type the grades into the computer. Next Monday (Jan. 31), the students will receive their printed out grades and then there is a concert (rock concert this time!) they will attend to celebrate the end of the semester. Then the whole process starts all over again! I was told that at the end of the year, the grades are not printed out on the computer, but the teachers have to HAND WRITE them onto an official transcript for university. Of course, not every teacher is a class teacher (20 class teachers, a faculty of 50), and non-class teachers do not have anywhere NEAR the amount of record keeping we have at HHHS, but when it comes to doing grades and we just sit in front of the computer and bop those babies in, it seems much easier. So that is how I spent my morning and some of my afternoon between classes. Today I had 4.C. I have confirmed with Judy Munchmeyer that we are going to do e-mail exchanges with this class and her English III PIB class. Allison is already writing to one of my students (YAY!!). The only problem lately is that Internet is down, the school is changing providers, and apparently it is taking a couple of months to do so!! So, the letter writing project is on hold for the moment. We played "Famous Person Guess Who." I think it really does help their conversation/pronunciation skills. They know the people and can describe them in Slovak, which is strictly verboten, but they have a hard time in English. It was a lot of fun, though. In conversation, I had to leave the students in the classroom alone for half the class while I finished putting the grades in the class book. The students knew where I was and I left them with an assignment. Of course, the assignment was not finished when I returned (I did not expect it to be!), and some kids were playing in the snow when I walked out the door toward the back of the building (who can blame them? the weather was cold (-13 degrees Centigrade [8 degrees Fahrenheit]), crisp, and sunny today--absolutely beautiful). But they went back inside with absolutely no prodding, and we of course did not finish the lesson, but instead they asked me about some slang words and phrases a student got off of the Internet. I cannot repeat what these slang words and phrases were, but suffice it to say I would make a pretty good Slovak sailor now!!!!! Had Slovak lesson with Vlado today, as he has to put his grades in his class books tomorrow. I get so frustrated with myself when I don't understand something, or want to go faster during the lesson (no, me impatient??). But everyone has commented on how my Slovak is improving, so I guess it must be doing some good. I hate speaking, though. I feel like an idiot. I can understand a lot, but feel all tongue tied and flustered when I am asked to speak. I can imagine how my students must feel around me. I would probably feel more at ease speaking Slovak with a non-native speaker, but I feel like a moron when I speak here, making rudimentary sentences in the wrong tense and the wrong case and using the wrong prepositions!!! But at least I am trying . . . It really is such a cool, intricate, and lyrical sounding language. |
| 25 January 2000 Walked out the door this morning and immediately had ice cubes up my nose. Not to be gross, but the gunk in my nose literally froze! It was so cold that the first breath I took this morning actually hurt my throat, like a little knife sliding down my trachea. After the shock of the first breath, the air felt crisp and fresh. A beautiful day--sunny and cold. 3.D Tuesday. The girls! (This is a class that concentrates in languages and this class happens to be all girls.) This is also the friendliest, nicest, most attentive, helpful, enthusiastic, did I say nicest? group of kids. Actually, this applies to every class at any given time. I have been asked to co-lead, with Barbora, a group of students for the Slovak Association of Teachers of English's annual "Drama Days" competition (10-15 minute one-acts) on 21 March. Not being one to turn down a) working with theatre, and b) a good dose of competition, I readily agreed. There was also a notice posted about a Model UN competition in Zilina from 3-7 July 2000. The competition will be conducted in English, and I would love the chance to experience it here, so I readily agreed to sponsor that too. NOW I feel like I am home!!! So, I recruited both the Drama Days and Model UN participants from both sections of 3.D. The fourth year students are almost finished with school (amazingly), and the third year language students are perfect for these projects. I think I was a wee bit more excited than they were at first, but by the end of class, everyone had signed up to do something, even if it was research for Model UN or costumes for the play. So the entire class was spent planning our time and signing up students. Martina was a great help, I read the letter first in English, and she then read it in Slovak. And then the ever-challenging Tuesday conversation class. Today eight out of seventeen students showed up. Every boy was absent. I suspect a little visit to the pub. The girls, of course, had no idea where they were (cha!), so we went ahead with the lesson anyway. Finally finished 20th Century Changes!!! On to Shopping next week. We had a talk (I would not say interesting, but at least it was a conversation) about scientific discoveries and advances in the 20th century, and I should be over it by now, but these students are so AWARE of the world around them, political, environmental, scientific, social, economic--the whole spectrum. Dana is going to the travel agent for me today. She is a goddess. She is checking into airfare to anywhere! We have a nine day holiday in a few weeks and I want to go somewhere . . . anywhere exotic. Actually, I am torn between staying here in Zilina and going someplace far away. Then I think, when am I ever going to have the chance to do this again? So I think going away is going to win. Thailand, Egypt, Greece, Kenya, Tunis, Morocco . . . the possibilities are endless. The only concern is airfare. I can't wait to see what she says tomorrow. If Dana decided that one of the mountains in the Big Fatras needed to be moved, she would find a way to do it! And she wouldn't do it in a pushy way--she would make the mountain WANT to move for her, she is that nice! Dana, Sona, and Barbora are amazing people; they have been so kind to me and so helpful, I only hope that one day I can be as kind and helpful to someone in the same way. Frighteningly obsessed with the new Red Hot Chili Peppers CD. Listen to it all the time. Until the next musical obsession comes along. 26 January 2000 In conversation today, we talked about, of all things, pubs! Going to the pub after school (the "school" pub is called Nosorozec, or "The Rhinoceros"). We were comparing how people spent their leisure time at the beginning of the century with how they spend it at the end of the century, and most of the class admitted to spending at least "some" of their leisure time at the pub. The drinking age here is 18, and many seniors are already 18, so it is not (in their case) a legal issue (although many 3rd year students [and I guess 2nd year, too] go to the pubs). I am just fascinated with how mature they are. 27 January 2000 Went to another concert tonight. My favorite conductor, Karol Kevicky, conducted, and during the first half, we heard selections from Handel, Tschaikovsky, Ysaye, Part, and Sevcik, and after intermission we heard Bach (my favorite). And the first piece was something in D minor (my favorite key) for piano and orchestra. Beautiful. 28 January 2000 I noticed something today. I don't know why I hadn't noticed it before, but it there it was. The oddest thing about doors here. Only one is ever open. No matter if it is the post office, the Tesco, the cinema, any given shop or office (including my school), one ONE door is ever open. Either one or one of a pair (like the Tesco--there are two double doors, but only one of the two are ever open). I have no idea why, and no one can seem to tell me why. Just thought I would mention it. 29 January 2000 |
