The Prom

As in many schools in the USA and probably world-wide, the 8th graders had their Prom to celebrate their completion of studies at the primary level. Next year most would be studying at the high school here in Probistip, some taking the college route and others taking the vocational route. Some students would opt to go to schools in Stip or Skopje or some other city in Macedonia.

The Prom was a well-anticipated event, as expected, and the students talked about it for months prior to the scheduled evening. Many girls made their own dresses and were extremely fashionable in their choice of attire. Not unlike the girls in the States, their selections were influenced by television, movies and fashion magazines. The boys dressed in their finest which for a 14/15 year old boy meant sans suit or tie – Prom casual we would call it. The students didn’t come as boy/girl couples, only as classmates, so 100% of the graduating class attended.

A crowd of onlookers gathered outside the hotel where the event was being held to watch the 72 bedazzling students arrive. In Macedonia, the 6:00 PM arrival time on the invitations meant that things would begin to get started at 6:45 and such was the case when the photographers began taking photos and videos to record this cherished event. Many of the students seeing that I had my camera, asked to pose for pictures, some of which I posted on this blog.

When the photo session was over, everyone moved inside to their tables. The band then began playing dance music so that everyone could begin dancing the Oro, the traditional Macedonia dance. The thing about the Oro is that it goes on forever, in this case 90 minutes. The songs change but the dance steps remain basically the same. Almost every student danced and sang for the 90 minutes before the main course was served. And credit to the band which enthusiastically played the whole time. Meanwhile, salads and beverages were on the tables.

After the main course, the Director and the three home room teachers presented awards to the most outstanding students. They also recognized two staff members who had retired the past year and they presented me with a beautiful oil painting (still wet) of Lee and me done by several of the students.

Then the music turned “modern” and the students danced and sang to every song for another 90 minutes. They knew the words to every song and unabashedly sang along while they danced. I had the opportunity to show off some of my dance moves that I had picked up over the course of time and the students and staff were duly (or dully) impressed (the letter “L” makes a big difference here).

The evening ended around midnight and I was told many of the students continued the festivities on the plaza until about 2AM, despite having class the next morning at 7:15. Surprisingly (to me) most of students did come to school, even though it was a challenge, I’m sure, to wake up. Those that brought a USB were able to get a copy of all my photos to post on their FaceBook site, if they were so inclined.

It was a very well-planned and very well-executed Prom. The students’ behavior was exemplary. There were no fights and no cliques and no one left out of the activities. The students really enjoyed each other’s company. Well done! Well done! (Be sure to check out the photos.)

Stuff on SharePoint

This blog is mainly FYI to the PCV’s in Macedonia, both TEFL and CD. My Close of Service (COS) is rapidly approaching. It’s hard to believe that I have been in-country now for almost 33 months. I thought it would be a good idea to make my fellow volunteers aware of some of the resources that I have posted/will post on the Peace Corp’s SharePoint site. Regardless of whether they are a TEFL or involved in Community Development, some of the material regarding Secondary Project ideas or Networking may prove to be useful. I presented a portion of the material at the MAK 15 In-Service Training in April.

Posted on SharePoint-Macedonia is a Power Point Presentation (PPP) in Macedonian and English (M&E) on “Why Our Students Need Dictionaries” that I presented to the School Superintendent and Director in my attempts to convince them that a dictionary is an essential tool in learning a language. There is a PPP in English and Macedonian entitled, “Are our Students Eating Well” that I put together to point out the poor breakfast eating habits of many Macedonian school children and the detrimental effects of drinking sugared drinks and the causes of osteoporosis. Both of them resulted in the Superintendent taking some positive steps in addressing both issues.

Also posted is a PPP presentation, “A Classroom Teacher’s Expectations” in both Macedonian and English that we used at the beginning of the school year to educate our students on expected classroom behavior. It proved to be a very effective tool in reducing classroom management problems. The students adjusted their behavior patterns once they knew and practiced them. We occasionally review the presentation with the students to reinforce what they already know and may have “forgotten”.

There is a Fire Drill Checklist (M&E) that I put together which delineates the responsibilities of the fire chief, the school director, and the classroom teacher when planning and conducting a building evacuation plan. Fire drills in schools are unheard of in my community, so this checklist helped convince some officials to address the issue of a safe school evacuation as well as insuring that exits at indoor public gatherings are unlocked and unblocked during events.

There are a few posters in Macedonian that we designed and posted around the school to educate staff and students as to the proper way to “Cough and Cover”; Stop, Drop and Roll; and on how to conduct the Heimlich Maneuver. There is also a poster on limiting the amount of sugared drinks and the fact there are 13 teaspoons of sugar in half liter bottle of cola. These posters proved to be effective tool in bringing about an awareness of these topics. Why not conduct a town-wide campaign?

There is a PPP, Sowing Seeds, Successful Practices, that shares the successful strategies and resources that my counterpart, Alexandra, and I were able to implement in the classroom. Some of them enabled us to challenge the more advanced English Language students and some of them enabled us to provide alternative materials for the students who need more time to learn. The presentation contains only visuals (it was produced with the idea that I would explain each slide) but for the most part, the slides can be understood.

There are copies of three different classic stories that were adapted for reading by multiple students or for casting a play. They were adapted by a friend of mine classicacts.net so she should be sent a courtesy e-mail (crmgates@comcast.net) if the material is used in a public performance. She has given her permission for in-classroom reading to Peace Corps Volunteers in Macedonia. The adaptations make the readings fun and understandable for TEFL students.

There is a chart (M&E) that summarizes the amount of class time spent each year by teachers completing the required information in the Dnevnik (The Big Red Book) and the amount of time students wait while it is being completed. I shared it with the teachers and the director at Nlkola Karev and they were somewhat amazed about how much teaching time is lost over the course of the year.

There is a reference page to a software program that can be used by those responsible for completing the class and teacher’s schedules at the beginning of the school. We installed the program at our school and it saved countless hours of pencil/eraser adjustments. The program contains algorithms that can modify the entire schedule when the most minor change needs to be made.

I noticed when I first started observing the students in the classroom, that when a discussion was being held on any given topic, that it was quite common for more than one person at a time to be speaking, that comments were interjected while someone was trying to make a point, and that the noise level made the entire discussion quite chaotic. There is now a poster on the wall regarding “Rules for Conducting a Classroom Discussion”. We point to it when discussions begin to get noisy to remind the class, but it’s not always followed.

There is a memo “Suggestions for Managing Student Behavior” that I shared with the school Director and some of the teachers. It briefly discusses the need for students and staff to know what the school rules are, that they must be consistently enforced by all the teacher, and that there must be consequences for failure to follow the rules. These suggestions might seem obvious, but my observations proved otherwise. The school director addressed the issue.

There is a file “Games For English Class” that I put in PDF booklet format. I just copied a file that was already in the Peace Corps online library and repackaged it. Most of the English language teachers in Probistip have used it.

There is a PPP on “A Model Classroom” that illustrates the approaches that Alexandra and I took to turn our classroom, an unused chemistry lab, into a classroom that has the tools and the environment to more effectively teach English.

Finally, there is a file “The Best PE Games in America” which has the rules for Kickball, Speedball, Capture the Flag, Knockout and Ultimate Frisbee. I translated the rules into Macedonian (with a LITTLE help from my tutor) and distributed them to all the PE teachers in town and primary class teachers at Nikola Karev. The students loved the games when we played them during my after-school sports program but the PE teacher here seems reluctant to introduce any new activity in his classes. Maybe someday.

(No pictures attached to this blog)