So I'm a Teacher Now..?

So this was an interesting week- my first week as an English teacher. Right. You might be wondering:

'Do you have any teaching experience?' (Nope)
'Aren't you supposed to be doing Community Development and not TEFL?' (Yes)
'Who would be crazy enough to sign up for a class that you're teaching?' (No idea, but too many)

To give a little background, during my PST site visit back in November, it was pretty clear that the mayor and citizens in the municipality had a strong interest in holding adult English classes once I got settled in here. It didn't matter whether I had teaching experience or not, they just wanted English. So with that noted, we eventually started advertising (flyers around the villages) my existence and the fact that I was going to teach free English classes. I even got a реклама at a recent community forum. But despite that, I had no idea how many people were going to show up. In the week before starting classes, we had two meetings in Obleshevo and Cheshinovo (a nearby village, 5km away) to meet with those interested. We had around 12 show up in Obleshevo and roughly 16 in Cheshinovo. I was happy with that. I might even avoid having to break up people into groups and make my job more complicated, since I had already agreed to hold classes Monday-Thursday from 6-7pm.

So this past Monday, we started class in Obleshevo. 16 people showed up, and the majority knew at least a bit of English, so I felt like communicating wasn't super difficult. My host parents Silvana and Venco even made it, so that was pretty cool. I suppose I can practice English with them at home too, assuming they continue to feed me and let me drink their rakija. As far as my teaching, well, it's going to take a few tries before I get the hang of it. I started really basic, going over the alphabet and introductions, but I got the sense the material was way too easy for most people. As I spend more time with them I should be able to adjust more to their abilities. At the same time, there are a few people who did not know any English. I might have to work two different lessons each class period, and it could be feasible with the small numbers. Needs more thinking.

The following day, I started classes in Cheshinovo. I was told that there might be more people at this class than in Obleshevo. Well, yeah. 45 people wrote their name on the sign-up sheet. Including like 8-10 kids. Not adults. Not part of the plan. Despite cramming all those people into one classroom, it wasn't a total катастрофа, but it was not what I expected either. While it's hard to tell kids they can't come to class because it is for adults, it needs to be done for several reasons. One, they're already getting English classes at school. Two, I don't know what they're being taught in their English classes at school, and what I'm teaching could be at odds with that, and Three, I can't have 45 people come to every class.

For Wednesday, I was back in Obleshevo and it was probably my best class day of the week. Partly because I had the students слушатели (thanks dedo) play a matching memorization game (thanks PST) for about 25-30 min and I just walked around the room making sure they weren't cheating. But better than that, I ran out of material with about 15 min left, and decided to wing it and it worked. I closed the class by giving them an opportunity to use the question words I introduced and ask me anything they wanted. Big surprise, they wanted to know if I was married, how old I was, how many girlfriends I've had, etc. Very Macedonian questions. But overall it was decent. I think I do much better with the smaller group (about 16 again) than 45. Then again, who doesn't. 45 practically requires a lecture hall, stadium seating, and a really awful Powerpoint presentation.

Finally, I wrapped up class on Thursday in Cheshinovo and it was literally the same number of people, only this time I think half the audience members were kids. Not high school kids but 8-year-olds. Went about the same as Tuesday, though I had some help from a really nice guy named Goce who speaks nearly fluent English, and was home temporarily in the village while waiting for a visa to go back to Iraq. Works for DynCorp as a security contractor. So anyway, I managed to get through material I planned to cover (Where are you from? I'm from...) but my desire to get creative with such a big group was pretty low. Just getting everyone to do something simple like practice a phrase with their neighbor was a struggle. I'll just have to see how things go. If the kids are banned from attending (so mean, i know), the numbers should be more manageable and then I can focus on figuring out what the adults know and design the classes better.

Overall, it was an interesting week and probably the most 'stuff' I've had a chance to do since I've been at site. I also gave a presentation to the mayor and some school directors about our small grant program. So it was a busy week. And busy is almost always better than being bored.