One month teaching in Moldova!.

October is here and the 1st marked my first month teaching English here in Moldova which was followed by Teacher's Day on October 5th. On the Friday before Teacher's Day as I arrived to school, there was a bunch of students standing on the steps and they applauded as I walked into school. They then gave me a certificate on behalf of the 12th grade students and a little thank you speech in English. It was soo cute and unexpected. (They did it for all the teacher's that day when they arrived to school, not just me.) Later, my partner teacher told me how we were going to pick a student who would teach all our classes on Tuesday because on Teacher's Day, the teachers don't have to do a thing. Wow! After a few minutes thinking about our best students....we picked a girl in the 10th form (grade) to teach the classes. On Monday, we gave her the lesson plans and explained to her what she had to do and wished her luck!

On Monday night, I got a text from my partner teacher (Tatiana) saying that she wasn't going to come to school until 1pm so we could plan for Wednesday's classes.....I later learned that a lot of teachers don't even bother coming to school that day. I got up on Tuesday and as I was getting ready for school  my host sister gave me flowers and a box of chocolates. Very cool! I decided to text Tatiana and ask her what to do since she wouldn't be in class....do I just sit in the back of class and watch the student we chose teach the lessons...or what? Luckily she texted me back because she said that I should just sit in the teacher's lounge with all of the other teachers. If I hadn't got her text, I would have just gone to class and sat there and I'm sure all of the kids would have wondered what was wrong with me. So I get to school, go to the teacher's lounge and there is a nice little spread with coffee/tea set up, cookies, chocolate and fruit. Students would enter throughout the day to give their teacher's flowers and some of my students came in and presented me with flowers and kisses on the cheeks. I enjoyed some tea since it was quite chilly and later decided to run to the market down the road to buy a phone card. On the way....I saw a group of teachers who apparently did their shopping and were heading to their houses. It was soo strange to me that they didn't have to show up at school if they didn't want to. Oh well....I'm glad I was there to get my flowers. :)

On October 7th I held a meeting after school to see if kids were interested in joining an English Club at school. I made a little sign up sheet and brought with me some stickers and Chic-o-sticks to give to the students who showed up (not a bribe at all! Ha!). Two of my 5th grade students showed up 30 minutes early! Lol....I guess they were really excited about joining the club. I had a good turn out...the youngest girl was in the 2nd grade and the oldest was in the 11th grade. The 2nd grader's mother asked me how much the club would cost, and I explained to her that it would be free because I am a volunteer and am not allowed to take any money for my services. 

I was hoping there would be more students from the lower grades and older grades so I could split them up and do a club with the younger kids on Tuesdays and one with the older kids on Thursdays.....but we only had around 15 students so it looks as thought we are going to stick to one group. I asked the students what they wanted to get out of this club and told them what I wanted to teach them. I want to show a movie once a month, in English with Romanian subtitles (fingers crossed that I can download them), teach them about holidays and traditions in America, play games with them, like Uno or Phase 10, and teach them English of course! I just want them to have fun and have an interest in learning English....after all, the student who come to the club would do so on their own free will, not because they have to like class. 

During the week...I got a lot of students who heard about the club through friends who wanted to join. I am only teaching 8 classes so I there a lot of students who I don't teach who want a little piece of the Americanca. Our first "official" meeting