FIRST SEMESTER HIGHLIGHTS

Phew! I've finally some time for an entry.  The Ministry of Education has called this week a health emergency.  Flu infection has spread and schools have closed for a week. Therefore, I have plenty of time for the blog.  This coincides with the end of semester.  Both students and teachers have been given a longer holiday before the start of the second term.

Many thanks to 72 grammar school (elementary and juniour high school) for giving me the chance to help out this semester.  I felt like a complete newbie, but it was worth it.  I  now know my way around Dnevnik (where progress reports of the students' grades are entered), which I found really daunting at first.  The Dnevnik Book keeps a record of all grades and notes to head-teacher and parents about the students' discipline and study habits.  I even did some work in Belezhnik (the students' report cards), which is probably quite hard if you have to enter grades in all report cards all the time, as the groups are quite a few. This would probably take up most of your time along with lesson, and test/exam preparation. 

I got a chance to grade some workbooks, no notebooks though, and got an idea of how well students work in class and prepare at home.  It is often surprising that they do quite a lot of work, when you think they're off into their own world, with little interest in the subject, and/or topic discussed.

In terms of discipline: there was far too much silliness. I was told off a couple of times, in local spirited vernacular, for not knowing how to greet students when entering a classroom. I honestly do not remember the entire ritual of Class Stani - Class Mirno! (Class stand up, Class stand at attention!)  To be fair they were a bit slack about it from beginning to end. There were some strange goings on: too much noise from cell phones and ipods, especially after the Christmas holidays; unplanned Christmas dos with silly dancing; inopportune joke telling in loud voices; and improvised singing of local chalga classics.  Sweater fights after tests were a frequent occurrence.  Tempted as I was I did not join in.  Vexed shouting over who's playing what on the CD player, brought in for a simple and straightforward A1 Listening task, nearly kept me from attempting to cover the Listening exercises. I was eventually given the chance to do something academic with their CD player. 
Weirdest of all - a student in junior high school inspired by my presence came up to me and stuck chewing gum in my hair, giving new meaning to the phrase "getting into your hair."  It my have been a critique on my appearance in general, I have been gradually going bald since Mexico.  Possibly this even bothers my students. 

Taking the chance to evaluate our work, we did quite a few tests with varying success, without too much shameless cheating.   Listening tasks were a complete flop, really chaotic and I found it difficult to maintain control over the group. When it came to presentations they were excited at first, then as the deadline came closer they were demotivated and anxious.  They were able to present, in the end, on their chosen topic, but not as easily as other groups.  I wasn´t feeling very enthusiastic about testing their writing skills because I was hoping to give them Dictation.  However, after failing to keep them focused during the Listening exercises, I gave up the idea.  Surprisingly, they cooperated with text translation from English to Bulgarian, but they were reluctant to work on their writing skills in English.  Regardless, their coursebooks ENERGY, written by native-speakers and targeted specifically at Bulgarian learners, provide a lot of material dedicated to written expression.  They need to be encouraged to do the exercises by their instructor, although a balance has to be found.  If at this age (10-12) they don't feel as confident when writing in their mother tongue, they might find their writing deteriorates if they divide their attention between two languages.  As a foreign language teacher, you wouldn't want their writing skills to suffer in their mother-tongue, because they prefer to write in English, or their chosen second language.

In answer to a question I posed in a previous entry, the following teachers still guide and inspire the students: Hristo Botev, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Rayna Knyaginya, Sophronius of Vratsa, Vasil Aprilov, Simeon I The Great, Otets Paisiy, and Ivan Vazov.

These are some quick impressions from the past semester, there are many topics that I'd like to discuss in further detail, in the next entries.

Thanks for reading!