So You Want to Join Peace Corps

This video has been circulating among PCVs, mostly because it's incredibly accurate. 

You can watch it here.

Quote of the Day

"Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers."
-Josef Albers

Thanks to my friend Lisa for this.

Belated Birthday

I was invited to my landlord's the other night for a belated birthday dinner. It was my landlord, her friend and her friend's husband, and another friend who is a teacher at the kindergarten.

We ate soup, cutlet, and cucumber salad and did toasts, and ate cake with tea. Then they sang some traditional Ukrainian songs to me, and the dude went and watched tv while I listened to the three of them gossip in very quick Ukrainian. It was wonderful.

Also, my landlord gave me a coffee cup with kittens on it. It's very cute, and one of the kittens is incredibly creeptastic and I LOVE IT.

Grump.

 Not as creeptastic.

February 23

Happy Men's Day!

My regional manager visited my site today and he mentioned that today was Men's Day. I told him I hadn't noticed anything unusual at my school yet. Then, this happened:

 Water races. The kid winning is one of my 10th form students.

 The great sport of arm wrestling. What better way to prove your manliness?

One of my 7th form students arm wrestling a 5th former.

There were also challenges of intellect, who's tallest?, and another thing I didn't understand. I didn't get pictures of those though.

Yay!

My landlord told me I was part of her family tonight. It was awesome.

She was also less than thrilled when she found out this past Thursday was my birthday. I think she said I'm coming over tomorrow or the day after and we're drinking wine...

I intend on bringing cake.

Quote of the Day

“The exhibition at Auschwitz no longer fulfills its role, as it used to,” he continued. “More or less eight to 10 million people go to such exhibitions around the world today, they cry, they ask why people didn’t react more at the time, why there were so few righteous, then they go home, see genocide on television and don’t move a finger. They don’t ask why they are not righteous themselves.”
-Piotr Cywinski

You can read the whole New York Times article here.

Teaching

I work at Mezhyrich Secondary School #1, which has about 350 students from the 1st to 11th forms - basically the same as grades in the states. Secondary School #2 is just down the road, but I think it's much smaller. There are two English teachers in my school, plus me.

Education in Ukraine is a bit complicated, and I mostly know about how the general secondary schools work. Students must attend at least through the 9th form, at which point they receive their General Secondary Education diploma. If they attend through the 11th form, they receive their Full Secondary Education diploma. It's also possible to attend a variety of other schools, such as lyceums, technicums, gymnasiums, vocational school, and college, and post graduate options can include university, institute, academy, and conservatory.

Right now, I teach the 5th, 6th, 7a, 7b, and 10th forms, each three times a week for a total of 15 classes, each lasting 45 minutes. My classes follow this format: warm-up, presentation of new material, practice of new material, application, and summary/review. Almost all Ukrainian students start learning English in the 2nd form, so in theory all my students have been studying English for a few years. Unfortunately, mostly due to budget and resource restrictions and the teaching culture in Ukraine, many of my students really struggle with basic English.

First, the textbooks range from ok to absolutely awful; respectively, Karpiuk, Nesvit, and Plahotnik. I've come to appreciate working with Karpiuk after working just with Nesvit and Plahotnik the first few weeks. Nesvit contains wordy, overly advanced readings and activities that like "Read the following poem and discuss your reaction to it with classmates." (Not gonna happen.) Plahotnik is mostly having students translate sentences and there's no presentation of grammar items. Karpiuk is more current, has more level appropriate readings and comprehension activities, and is usually a little more interactive (or I can easily adapt it to be interactive). Textbooks can be out of date, contain errors, and there's not always enough of them for students. They're also based on British English.

Second, teachers' level of English can range from excellent to almost non-existent. Sometimes, schools just need someone to "teach" the subject.

Third, the teaching attitude in Ukraine is teacher-centered instead of student-centered. The teacher is the one doing most of the talking during lesson. There's not much encouragement of free or creative thought. There's a lot of repetition, memorization of words, and translating. Ukrainian teachers are very quick to correct (sometimes before the student even actually makes a mistake) and also may just give the answers to students. Students not performing well is seen to be a reflection of the teacher not doing their job adequately, so it's better for students to do well on tests by helping them. Also, asking a class if they understand something I've just explained is useless because they will always say yes, otherwise they're saying I didn't do a good job of explaining and they can't do that.

I don't think I will ever understand how the schedule works. It seems to change radically sometimes, and at the last minute, and I never know why. If I'm lucky, my counterpart (one of the English teachers who I work with) tells me if we're changing classrooms or lessons, and I've also found the kids to be semi-reliable with information about changes too. And when the bell rings, that seems to be the cue that students (and teachers) should start heading to their classrooms, not that class is starting (to be fair, my classes seem to be a little better about this, maybe because I try to start as soon as the bell rings). Ive come upon groups of students in the hallway and asked them if they have lesson now, and they say yes, but that their teacher isn't in the classroom because they're drinking tea or they're just not there. There are no substitute teachers: if a teacher isn't at school, his or her lessons are canceled. Students can also come and go from school as they choose.

I'll post about each of my classes later with more details!

IOU...

An epically long post about what I'm doing here (you know, the teaching thing).

This weekend. It'll happen. I pinkie swear.

Ponder This

(Click to enlarge)

This is from The Economist. You can view the graphic here.

I will write more about this later...

If You Feel Like Being a Peach

I would be completely stoked to receive any letters, cards, or postcards...

But if anyone is feeling especially generous, the following is a list of things I wouldn't be opposed to receiving in a care package:

- Flavored instant coffee
- The Economist or National Geographic magazines
- Masking tape (for some reason, tape here fails to adhere things together)
- Colored tights
- Gummy Bears
- Dark colored headbands
- Books you have laying around that you think might interest me; in particular:

• Persepolis
• The Communist Manifesto
• Wuthering Heights
• The Borderland (about the history of Ukraine)
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed
• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout
• Anything about Ukraine, or the Голодомор/holodomor (the induced famine in Ukraine)

I Wish I Had Better Internet to See This

“The history of Egypt begins today. Egypt is like camel meat: It takes a long time to cook, but when it does, it’s sweet.”
-Hisham Ahmed, 22 (NPR)

Package Guidelines

You can send me packages at the address listed below, but please follow these guidelines to ensure it gets through customs:

PC Ukraine Administration strongly discourage you from using express mail services (such as DHL, FedEx, TNT, UPS, EMS, etc.) when sending mail to Ukraine. The new customs regulations provide for mandatory customs processing of all express mail sent via these services, regardless of the declared value.

United States Postal Service (USPS) is believed to be the most convenient way to send mail from the U.S. to Ukraine; if the declared value does not exceed $200.00 and the total weight is less than 50 kg, then you should be able to get your mail at your local post office without having to pay duty fees. It is also necessary for the shipper to apply the following statement: "Goods for personal use.”

Please keep in mind that customs officers are authorized to change the declared value of mail. For example, if 10 baseball bats are sent to you and the declared value is $199.00, a customs officer may increase this value to $250.00, and you will have to pay duty. 

Please do not indicate anywhere in the address or on the package that it is for official use or project related (i.e. Peace Corps or Youth Development Project).  Remind the sender to use your basic address with no additional titles or modifications to the address.  In such cases, Customs workers can identify the package as “Official” and require the recipient to pay a fee.

Ukrainian Customs Law does not allow medicines, money or jewelry to be sent across the border. Parcels containing these items CANNOT be cleared through Ukrainian customs and will be sent back. 

It is allowed to bring foodstuff across Ukrainan border ONLY if it meets the following conditions:

- not more than one box/pack per one kind of foodstuff;

- all foodstuff weight should not exceed 2 kg;

- total value of it should not exceed 50 EUR;

- food should not be raw - it must be canned or cooked or otherwise prepared;

- it should be factory packed.

My Mailing Address

I was told I can get my mail sent to the school, so here is my address:

51473
Michelle Fehribach
6 Pereulok Shkilnyy
Mezhyrich Village
Pavlogradski Rayon
Dnipropetrovska Oblast
Ukraine

51473
Мішель Ферібакь
6 Переулок шкільний
Межиріч Село
Павлоградський Район
Дніпропетровська Область
Україна

Rumor has it, mail with both the Latin and Cyrillic address gets processed quicker so please put both. Think of it as a learning experience...

And letters would be much appreciated :)

Also, I found it really funny when I translated my school's street and realized it's called "School Lane". Sometimes, things here are very literally named.

I Was Useless Today

All I did was sit around my house, snuggled into my mummy bag, drinking coffee and reading random blogs that I haven't looked at in months.

I justified my (in)actions like this:
1) My iron immunity finally cracked and I've been battling a cold this week. I blame the school children: they are germ incubuses wrapped in a cute exterior.
2) I usually don't do anything school related on Fridays anyway, though I usually hand wash clothes or clean up.
3) I needed a little contact with the English speaking world.
4) It's cold and snowy.
5) My school let out early (I guess I did do something, I taught three lessons). I took it as a sign from the universe to just chill out.

Hoary Frost = Іній

School Wall Decorations

 First floor wall. House plants are common in Ukraine.

 Close up. And no, the clock doesn't work.

 For the math kiddies.

 Traditional Ukrainian garb.

 She takes up an entire wall.

 These fairytale triangles run the length of the first floor.

Also, on the first floor.