A New School Year

Here in Macedonia, the school year begins on September 1st. The teachers have been required to come to the school building since August 10th because the Ministry of Education requires them to do so. This is the way it has “always” been. So with almost three weeks to prepare for the opening day, the class schedules should have been established, teachers’ classes should have been resolved, textbooks ordered and packets assembled to be given to the students and everyone, one would think, would be ready to hit the ground running.

But such is not the way we do things here in Macedonia. True the teachers are present three weeks prior to the first day but since there are no professional development sessions, no team planning, and no new materials to prepare, the time is used to socialize. On August 31st, school directors have a teachers’ meeting at which time the goals (without teacher input) of the new school year are dictated to the staff, teaching assignments are proclaimed, the date of arrival for recently ordered textbooks from the Ministry is approximated and plans for the first day’s schedule are revealed.

It will take about three weeks before the final class schedules are set in stone as teachers who are not fortunate enough to have twenty classes (full-time) will be attempting to locate open class times at nearby towns and schools. Quite often the number of classes a teacher is given relates directly to his/her political party affiliation or her/his relationship to the mayor or other public officials (make note of my politically correct use of his-her/ her-his). Teaching ability and academic knowledge are not necessarily a critical factor in the employment process.

The school year begins somewhat chaotically with multiple classes assigned to the same time slot, with teachers not knowing how many or which classes they will teach and with some students lacking textbooks. But that’s the way we do things here. Everything will eventually work itself out and by October, it will be smooth sailing.

Alexandra and I are looking forward to continuing our quest to teach English with such resources as supplementary English reading materials, dictionaries for all students in the classroom and very soon, the Internet. Since Alexandra has her own classroom, she can organize it to her own standards, store teaching materials, display student work on the wall and take personal pride in its appearance. Most English teachers in Macedonia must travel from class to class, bringing only those materials which she/he can carry – a textbook and a piece of chalk. This greatly limits their opportunities to be creative and employ teaching strategies which address the different learning styles of the students.

Nikola Karev Primary School (NK) where I teach usually houses grades 1 through 8. However, this year, in order to alleviate crowding at the high school, the first year students (freshmen/freshwomen) are going to classes at NK where there are extra classrooms. This eliminates the need to have double sessions at the high school, where in the past few years, first-years attended a second session from 1-6 o’clock.
The students, dressed in their new finery, fully rested and having grown so much in two and one half months, like students everywhere in the world on the opening day of school, were pleased, excited and anxious to be back with their friends and a familiar environment.

Without the need for double sessions, I was always advocating a LATER start to the school day – from 7:45 to 8:00, 8:15 or whatever. So this year, without the need once again for double sessions, the starting time for school was changed to 7:30, fifteen minutes EARLIER than the previous starting time. Not exactly what I as advocating for. The fact that this earlier starting time requires the already sleep-deprived children and teenagers to awaken a quarter of an hour earlier and presents the teachers with an even less attentive first period class, did not factor into the decision. Most importantly to me, it points out to me my need to reevaluate of my advocating strategy.