2nd September

2^nd September

School has started! The new English teacher has yet to arrive, so I won’t hold my breath for her. And the timetable won’t be finalised for another week at least, so an end to the chaos of today is something I also won’t be holding my breath over that either.

Although things have only just started, I feel a small sense of foreboding. And that is that while I and my students will enjoy the next two years, I won’t achieve that much for the long-term, which is the primary purpose of my being here. There is so much about the school system here that just seems designed to add hurdles to, frankly, everything. No timetables when school starts, no set rooms for subjects, no giving of grades lower than a C (a 3 here), money spent on electronic whiteboards that no one knows how to use (and intermittent electricity) while there aren’t enough text books, top marks for the kids of teachers and local dignitaries etc. -

But then I have to remind myself that I didn’t come here to change the Kazakh education system, only the English department at my village school and the local English teachers.

So far, I have tried to implement a few ideas that will hopefully make the English department run smoother. 1stly, WE WILL MAKE LESSON PLANS! Yes, we will actually think about the lesson to be taught, before entering the room. This is of course a massive step forward, as up to now, the teachers have just walked into the room and continued teaching from the text book (while is not only pretty bad, but also not owned by a good number of the kids).

In line with that, and in order to make the whole thing less scary, I am trying something that I picked up working for ECC in Japan. That is that, if there is a lesson plan made for a level/age etc, the same one can be used by every teacher! So we have three 5^th form classes, but we only need 1 lesson plan, as the national curriculum is pretty strict on what needs to be taught and when, there is little room for creative freedom. Which suits a fixed lesson plan system perfectly. Therefore if the lessons plans for the 7 forms can be split up amongst the 3 teachers, with my help, it means less overall planning, and a more uniform level of teaching as well.

That’s the plan at least! We will see how those two plans go, and if they allow even more to happen in the future. As I will be here for two years, I HOPE SO! I have 16hours of class time I have to do each week, in a team-teaching role, so as an added motivation to lesson plan, I have linked the amount of help I will provide, with the amount of planning done by the teachers. Lets see if some of the motivational factors I learnt at A-level Business studies are actually true.