What am I Even Doing Here? (part I)

My mother informed me yesterday that I haven't updated by blog in awhile, I guess she is right. Despite my lack of updates I have been mulling over what I could write about for quite some time actually. When I was back home for Christmas I met up with a lot of friends and family who were interested in what I have been doing for the past 22 months. However, since I wasn't able to catch up with everyone, I thought I would also share my answer to- "So, what do you even do over there?"

First, in Peace Corps parlance there is what we call primary and secondary projects. Peace Corps works in 6 different sectors of development- Agriculture, Environment, Health, Education, Community Economic Development, and Youth in Development. In Georgia we have two programs: Community Economic Development and Education. I was assigned to work in the Education sector (side note however, I was originally turned down an invitation to serve in Nicaragua in the Community Economic Development sector). The purpose of Peace Corps Georgia's education project is English education. This aligns with the goals of the Georgian government and is part of the reason why Peace Corps was invited to set up operations in Georgia. (Have you browsed the PC Georgia website?)

Meet the wonderfully symmetrical Georgian flag

As an English Education volunteer (EE) I have been assigned to a local public school where I am expected to co-teach 18 lessons a week with the school's English teachers. I am also assigned to work on professional development by planning lessons with my counterpart teachers, discuss classroom management, multi-level teaching strategies, and assist them in any work they might be doing to advance their careers. In all this takes about 25-30 hours a week.

This is my school originally built in 1902

Specifically, I work at Poti Public School #1. There are 6 English teachers in my school and I am currently co-teaching at least one class with each teacher. I have lessons with the 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.  The school is 1st-12th grade and there are just under 700 students and about 50 staff members. Class sizes are on average 25-30 students and lessons are scheduled for 45 minutes. With the first lesson starting at 9am and the rarely used 7th lesson ending at 2:50. Students have a different schedule each day some days a class is out by 12:30 other it could be later. Most students are done by 2pm though. When a student first starts school they are assigned to a class and then they stick with that class for the next 12 years, so the students in a class tend to become each other's friend groups. In a large school like mine a single grade can have multiple classes, and although the students are the same age and go to school together I am often surprised by how separated they still are socially from what they call their parallel class.

Some of the English teachers I work with

In addition to the regular teaching duties, I have also worked with one of my counterpart teacher to write a grant, which was approved, to update our computer lab and do some technology trainings with teachers and students. With the grant money were were able to buy new tables and chairs, portable speakers, a wife router, adapters, a printer, and 5 new laptops. It has been a great improvement for the school. Soon we'll be starting our trainings and hopefully get teachers to use more technology and interactive methods during their lessons.

The computer room, all you can really see are the tables that I bought. 

That is a pretty decent rundown of why my primary assignment work is like here in Georgia. It is nice to have a regular reliable work load so that there is some semblance of routine in my life because when it comes to the rest of what I do things tend to get scattered and a lot less reliable.

All of the work that a volunteer does outside of their primary assignment is known as (you guessed it) secondary work or secondary projects. These is where there is a lot more autonomy and flexibility for volunteers to really customize their work to fit their interested and desires. This is also an area where I have picked up a lot of work and opportunities.

First, there are the community projects that I have committee myself to on a more or less regular basis. On Mondays I meet with the Access Club and we have a 2 hour lesson focused on learning English but really heavy on American culture and values. The students I work with are at a fairly high level of fluency and we try to do almost all of our work in English. Some of our recent lessons have been a discussion of holidays, human rights, watching La La Land and writing the ending before watching it, improv acting, and more. These students are great to work with and it is fun to be able to take the teaching beyond grammar and vocabulary.

Randi and Archil the two constants of our American Club

Next, on Tuesdays I help run our weekly American Club. When we first arrived in Poti Randi had the idea to create a weekly club for any youth in Poti interested in English or American culture to come and learn. We have recently celebrated Valentines day, practiced creative writing, had many conversations on current events, played games like: what if, telestrations, and bananagrams; and the youth have started giving their own presentations each week. Club attendance has fluctuated a lot over the past year and a half, but it has been a fun project to keep going.

Dima learning how to play Candyland 

Finally, my last regular project isn't much of a project at all. I live a few blocks away from a small children's home/orphanage and I have made it a habit to go and spend time with the kids in the evening when I have free time. The are all students at my school and love when I come to play with them. After my Christmas break I brought them some new games and they have had a blast. We usually work on some English and they always have a million questions about America and just about everything else under the sun.

Just playing a little game of Santa :)

Aside from some one and done projects like our trash pick ups and whatever new project Randi needs help on- like dressing up as Santa Claus, that is a pretty good summary of my work in Poti. However, that is still only half of what I've been up to in Georgia. Don't go anywhere (besides to the next post) because there is a part 2 to all of this.