What Am I Doing?

That subject line is really a question I ask myself everyday for a variety of reasons, but in the context of this update, I mean it in the sense of 'What I actually am doing' over here. At this point I've been at site for a little over 2 months and have gotten myself involved in a few different projects (one might say too many) and have been brainstorming a few ideas for upcoming projects.

My primary responsibility in the community is my teaching. I am teaching 15 classes with 4 teachers which is, to put it bluntly, way too much. There is not enough consistency with any one teacher to really develop a strong relationship and there is not enough consistency amongst the classes due to the fact that I am trying to balance 4 different teachers' schedules. You live and learn; I will certainly be making changes to this strategy next semester.

The not so glamorous truth for an AZB TEFL volunteer is that there is a lot of standing around. I mentioned in a previous email that I have to remember that I am not dealing with Azeri teaching robots; well the teachers are working on learning that I am more than a hugely interactive visual aid. I love the times when I am actually teaching, however it is also the case that often I am like the map on the wall, waiting to be referred to and pointed at. This experience will decrease with time and students and teachers will become a bit more accustomed to my presence as a teacher in the classroom.

Lannea, a fellow PCV, and I are in the middle of our first Conversation Club, which is with 12 10-14 year olds. And is as awesome, funny, and exhausting as you might think a club with a dozen tweens who all speak one language that we don't speak is. We meet twice a week and have a program that is directed at beginners. It is in the Conversation Clubs that PCVs really get to have fun because we get to do whatever we want. In one lesson we taught town and city vocabulary by having them draw a huge map. In another lesson we focused on the emotions with charades. It also allows Lannea and myself to try out some potentially effective teaching techniques. This will last until mid-March, in which we will start another one up.

Every other Saturday I have a Teachers Conversation Club, which is aimed at teachers in Khachmaz that can speak the English language. Teachers continue to tell me they want conversational practice and this is one way I am trying to assist them. Last time we met our lesson was to each describe a good memory. Then we described it just by sight, by sound, by smell and taste, by touch, and by one word. The objective was to focus on summarization and imagination with descriptive vocabulary. I don't know if that was achieved, but it was fun.

Lastly, I'm on the committee for the 2011 Writing Olympics. In late March students from 6th-11th form and University will compete in a creative writing contest. They will have 1 hour to write essays on topics like 'Would you rather be a kangaroo or a butterfly?' or 'What would it be like if army service was mandatory for women, and not men?' Winners are chosen for each grade level. Then, winners from each country (there are 11) have an opportunity to compete in Tiblisi, Georgia for the International Writing Olympics. Its a ton of work but really cool. Look forward to more info about this soon.