The school day

This week has turned out to be a great week for me in terms of getting started with my classes. Since I wasn't here on Monday and had to miss most of Wednesday for the paperwork, I have not been assigned to take on my classes by myself yet. Instead, I have shadowed the teachers in their classes when I have been available and have met the students.

I will work with four English teachers: Edit, Istva'n, Do'ra and Marianne. All are very nice and eager to help me. Edit is my liaison, Istva'n is the lead teacher for the languages, Do'ra was the liaison to the English teacher 3 years ago and is now married to him, and Marianne is a tall gal from the Ukraine who really pushes her students.

We have grade levels 9-12 and within each grade level, there are groups A through E, with the A students being the least studious and the E students being the more driven. This is a technical/professional school focusing on IT, marketing and economics. The marketing and econ students take more language classes than the IT students. Each of my classes is just a portion of the group within the grade level, so for instance, I have 12E two times, but each time it is just half of the whole group in order to keep the class sizes down. Most of the classes are between 12-17 students, although one of my classes has 23.

The 12 graders must take a school leaving exam, and I will be assisting in conducting the oral portion. So the whole year is focused on working with the students to build their vocabulary and ability to discuss and reason within certain topic areas. These include taking a vacation, asking directions, discussing the environment, going to the Dr., renting a flat, looking for a job, etc.

Some of the lower grades will also take an exam to receive a certificate, but this is their choice - however they will still have to pass the school leaving exam their last year. So, these same topics are introduced and practiced at the lower levels as well, just not in as much detail. I could see a distinct difference in the younger learners than in the more experienced ones.

I will have one group of absolute beginners twice a week. They already know the alphabet and some vocab and some basics such as my name is...., how old are you.... etc. With this group, I will follow the topics of their main language teacher more closely. My role in all of this is to do the conversation pieces. The main teachers intro the topics, and I then work them over trying to get the students to speak!

I start on my own with my classes on Monday. I feel very lucky to have had this intro time as from what I can tell, many of us "teachers" are just thrown into it.

The students for the most part are polite and seem eager to learn, although within each group you can certainly see the weaker students. I have seen students with piercings, spiky hair, heavy makeup, etc., but for the most part the general student population is very clean cut. Today was the first day that I had a student with a piercing on her lip, and I have had over 100 students so far.

The school day starts at 7:45am and consists of 45 minute lessons, with a 10 minute break between each one. Teachers do not necessarily a class each period. Lunch is at 1:05 to 1:30, then the last (7th) period of the day is from 1:30 to 2:15. I only have 2 first period classes and 2 second period classes, so I don't have to start too early. My week gets more intense later in the week. On Monday I have 3 classes, with the first not until the 3rd period and the last before lunch, Tuesday, 2 classes, Wednesday 3 classes, Thursday 6 classes and Friday 5 classes, with the last class being 6th period with 23 boys in the 11b group (not much drive). So that is 19 class periods, but there are two groups which I have twice.

The classes are in one of two buildings connected by a nice courtyard with the cafeteria and the building my apartment is in. The classroom size is rather small but we have white boards to use instead of chalkboards which is great. I don't see much technology available in the classrooms - less than in Hodmezovasrhely, but they do have a language lab that the students use for self-directed learning about once per week.

Think that is it on that topic!