Downtime?

Teacher’s report back to school on Monday the 17th and the students will return in September. So I’ll find out real soon what is expected of a teacher during the pre-season.

The summer progressed exceptionally fast. As I try to figure out what I did for the last five weeks, I am having a difficult time accounting for extended periods of time. I traveled to Kavardaci for two days to assist Maggie with her Wackey Wednesday activity. I spent three days on buses to and from Skopje when I had my dead computer brought back to life. I spent four days in Dojran making sure my colleague Phil survived his last week there before he transfers to Bitola where he will actually have something to do. I spent some days in Skopje, picking up supplies and visiting Najstar (The Oldest) Michael and conducting business at the Peace Corps Headquarters. I’m not sure if my In-Service Training and Habitat For Humanity days in Veles fit into this time period, but let’s just say they do as it will help me account for some of the time I am trying to account for.

The rest of my time has been spent in Probistip. While my days start at 6AM and end between 10 and 11, Probistipians seem to begin their outdoor day at 5PM and end at it at about 1AM. Their need to get a good night’s rest, having gone to bed at 2AM, getting up at 9 or 10, eating breakfast then, with a large lunch at 3 or 4, followed by a nap until 5 or 6 with dinner at 8 or 9, somewhat limits my daily contact with my neighbors. Macedonians are a very industrious people and are always busy. It’s just that I don’t see many of them in my neighborhood during the hot weather because of my North American circadian cycle.

I have spent a great deal of time researching and preparing materials and Power Point Presentations for various officials to be presented when the new school year begins and the summer funk has faded. The internet and my Epson printer/scanner/copier have been indispensable in helping me document the information that I will present.

For the English classes, Alexandra and I have created award certificates which we’ll present to last year’s deserving students to hopefully motivate this year’s students; we’ve established an account with ThinkQuest which will enable students to create websites on the school’s computers while working with students from America and around the world; we’ve planned a seminar for the other English teachers in Probistip, during which we can share some successful methods that we tried last year; and we’ve established a state of the art English classroom with scavenged materials and donations.

I am working on a compilation of games and activities for Physical Education classes and translating them into Macedonian for the teachers in grades 1-4, who must teach PE to their classes, and for the PE staff at the school who must follow a curriculum dating back to the Yugoslavian days (read mostly football). (N. B. Whenever I say I am translating something into Macedonian, I mean I translate it, take it to my tutor Jasmina, and we work on re-translating it into something a Macedonian can understand. After I retype it, she rechecks it once more for spelling and typos. It’s a tedious process but I am seeing improvements each month. Hopefully at the end of two years, I will have a resource that can be distributed to schools throughout Macedonia.)

On the last day of the school year Alexandra and I met with the Director and she was very open to our suggestions regarding establishing a Student Council; an after-school detention procedure to hold students accountable for their in-school behavior; an emergency evacuation procedure that would require more than the one current exit for the entire school; a infusion of "patriotic behaviors" that would entail having at least one Macedonian flag displayed at the school and singing the National Anthem on Monday mornings. I’ve put together all the materials, so implementing these ideas won’t require much work.

Four girls from Probistip were selected to attend a Peace Corps sponsored camp this summer called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and I promised them I would help them establish a GLOW Club at the High School in the fall. Jasmina has agreed to be a mentor, and I’ve gathered materials for this project.

I put together a Power Point Presentation for parents and teachers (in Macedonian, mind you) which addresses the question of “Are Our Children Eating Well?.” The answer to this question is “NO,NO, NO!” The children’s breakfast diets are atrocious here and the presentation just raises questions and an awareness of the problem.

I am planning on an informal meeting with the new mayor to offer my services to improve the English language versions of the Probistip website and work with any of the businesses in town that produce brochures with English. I would volunteer to work with whoever does their translating to make the material more understandable to any English reader. Many of the travel brochures, websites, and town documents that I have read in Macedonia need a a lot of polishing. I also prepared some materials to share with the mayor and his staff that would educate them about how a small town government works in my home town in Massachusetts. It would open up the opportunity for me to learn about how things are organized here in Probistip.

Other projects that are in the planning stages include a Women’s Health Fair; a unit on Health and Human Reproduction (HIV-Aides Awareness) for the high school students; an Ultimate Frisbee League; an after-school jump rope team; a horse-shoe pitching league for the pensioners; a Knock-Hockey production line; a muffin distributorship; a plant that makes and distributes ice; a pie, cookie, donut and crumb cake addition to the limited selection in at least one of the bakeries in Probistip; an English language conversation group at the Culture Center for residents who want an opportunity to practice their English; a Skype-buddies group between students at my favorite school in America (Blanchard Memorial) and students here in Probistip, so the they can learn about each other and practice their English speaking skills.

Exactly how many of these activities will ever come to fruition remains to be seen. It will be challenging, yet fun trying to implement them. Many of the ideas are new here and require changes in attitude. Education and a solid marketing strategy are essential. So I am always on the lookout for the 20%’s like Alexandra and Jasmina who are open to new ideas, are willing to think outside a somewhat small box , and are willing to take part in implementing some of the changes. Onward!