First Day of School

The first day of school in Ukraine is always September 1st, which is actually a holiday called День знань (den znan), the Day of Knowledge. The first day of school looks a lot like the last. All the kids line up according to form and speeches by the directors and important officials are made, some doves and balloons were released, and a child sang. Then, the students were dismissed to their "first lesson" which really is just a meeting with their lead teacher and then they went home. My school was also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the opening of the school, so there was a concert in our House of Culture building. It was mostly a commemoration of former and present teachers at the school, along with a performance group singing traditional Ukrainian songs. It lasted three hours, and most of the kids left early (well, of the ones who actually showed up).

I'm fairly certain I will be teaching the 5th, 6th, 7th,  9th, and 11th forms, and possibly helping out with the 2nd form (the first year they start learning English). I'm pretty happy with this schedule. Last year, I taught the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 10th forms so I'm keeping a good portion of the kids I've worked with before. I won't be teaching my least favorite classes from last year, now 8a and 8b, though I may try to do a club for the few kids who are interested in learning. I think I'll be co-teaching the 9a and 9b classes with my other English teacher, which will be nice. The only other hiccups right now are new books were ordered for a few of the classes but they haven't arrived yet so the students don't have books, and there's not a set schedule yet of when I will be teaching all of these classes. I'll probably just have to ask everyday what I'll be teaching the next day and go with the flow.