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 Textbooks can be out of date, contain errors, and there's not always enough of them for students.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!