TEACHING!!!

I have a purpose!

There is a reason I am here in Georgia, and it feels good. I went into school today with a whole bunch of books and posters that were taken to the library. I was directed to the Principal's office where it seems she doesn't speak any English. We exhaust my Georgian pretty quickly. From there, we might have sat looking at each other until one of my co-teachers arrived, but once again, it was Yiddish to the rescue. She told me in Georgian that she didn't something English, something doich. I decided to try and said “ikh shprek a bisl doich”. She got very excited and we talked a little more in German/Yiddish. I think she was so excited to communicate that she didn't notice that I was not speaking the same language. I was trying to speak German rather than Yiddish, so that might have helped. Anyway, I was whisked off to my first class, full of 6^th graders. They were pretty excited to have this American co-teaching their class. Nana, their Georgian teacher, started off the class with a little Q and A. The students had to ask me questions in English. We moved on to their homework; I need to brush up on my grammar terms. Nana told me they were working on something and I just started at her going, uh oh. It ended up working out though. They were working on a new chapter, so there was new vocabulary. I helped them make up a story about a treasure map and what they do with the treasure after they kill/lure away the guard bears. They decided to give the money to the poor. Very nice. After that block, Nana took me upstairs to the teacher's lounge. There I found out that I look like a Georgian. Every teacher thought I was a former student there to say hello to a teacher, but they could not remember me. Some even thought I was a current student in the wrong place. Either way, the blank stare I gave them in response to the rapidfire Georgian was enough to convince them that their first assumption was wrong. Another teacher would laughingly tell them that I am a new English teacher from America.

I only have two classes on Mondays, 6^th graders first class, and 2^nd graders last class. The 2^nd grade is taught by Taso, whose mother is a geography teacher at the school and whose daughter is in this class. The class is full (and I mean full, about 36 kids) of really cute and really excited to learn kids. I helped demonstrate a dialogue, I wrote in their notebooks, how to make a G and g, and I watched them sing the ABCs, as well as say words like Apple, Cat, Dog, and Egg. Good times. I am exhausted and that was only two classes. Tomorrow I teach four. The third teacher I will be working with is Nino, and she has been helping me out since last week's meeting with TLG. All in all, I have three great co-teachers with very good English to work with for the rest of the year. All the other teachers had varying degrees of English, but I told them as I have told everyone else, teach me Georgian, I'll teach you English.