School stuff.

Every class between 2nd and 8th grade takes English, although not every student takes it. (German and Russian are also available, although I think English is the most popular foreign language.) My counterpart and I have split the classes down the middle, although she comes to all of my classes, and I do not go to hers. I appreciate her presence, as she can translate for me when I get stuck and the students are definitely more intimitated by her than they are me. It doesn't help that there is basically no way for me to discipline the kids: the concepts of detention and suspension are unknown here. So teachers just scream at the kids to be quiet and hope that they obey.

Anyway, things are going okay so far. Oddly, the fourth graders seem to be the most "fluent" in English. Of course, they aren't fluent at all, but if I ask them "how are you today?" I'll get back "I am fine! How are you?" as opposed to the blank looks I would get from my seventh graders.

My counterpart teachers almost entirely in Bulgarian, rote from the textbook. I know why she does this and I can't really blame her: her English isn't really good enough to make stuff up on the fly. I try to diverge from the text sometimes and make things a little more interactive, but my counterpart sometimes intervenes. She's told me that the book stuff is what the kids need to learn to pass certain exams, and that's why we teach from the book. My point is that the book is rather dull and if I teach them actually how to speak English, they'll do well on the exams anyway. I mean, no one taught me to speak English from a book (well, unless Good Night Moon and the Sesame Street Dictionary qualify), but I'm pretty sure I would pass the exams.

I'm trying to set up some elective classes for conversation, as well as an after school tutoring program, where the kids can come in and get help with homework maybe once a week. We'll see. This is not the easiest job in the world.