After
returning back from Bratislava, I had to prepare for a four day school week. By
this point in the school year, I had already met a number of the students I
would be teaching. Therefore, this week’s lessons were going to have to be
comprised of more than just making introductions. My colleagues had already
provided me with a number of textbooks for the different sections I would be
teaching, but there was a catch. Most students were still without books because
student textbook rental payments were still being processed. Therefore, I was
going to have to do one of two things. One option was I could make a number of
photocopies of the textbook pages so as deliver verbatim lessons from the book.
The other option at my disposal was to design independent lesson plans, using
the textbooks and other resources as a guideline for appropriate curriculum.
Although I did utilize photocopies for one class, I was more inclined to adhere
to option two as I have never been a strong advocate for teaching by the book.
Additionally, I was still assessing my students’ comprehension levels of
English. Thus far, it appeared that a great majority of the students only
possessed a low level understanding of the English language. I decided it be
much more beneficial to teach lessons that addressed baseline rules of English
as opposed to diving into more advanced material being discussed in many of the
textbooks.
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| Fountain in main square of Nové Zámky |
Nonetheless, I still had to be
cognizant that I was not only crafting altered lessons for students of a
certain skill level, but I was operating in a foreign educational system.
Critical thinking in education is not emphasized as strongly in Slovakia as it
is in the United States. Many of the educators that I have observed rely on
rote teaching and using the textbook as a prominent source for lesson making.
This is not to say, however, that schools in Slovakia do not utilize resources
outside of the classroom. Like many European institutions of higher learning,
my school has become a large advocate of the eTwinning program. This program stretches across the continent
connecting students from multiple countries to work on collaborative
assignments. My particular school has had the opportunity in the past to
communicate and work with students from places like Latvia, Lithuania,
Portugal, Germany, Poland, France, and the Czech Republic to give a few
examples. Nevertheless, most students I come across have become accustomed to
teacher-centered style classrooms. Therefore, I must be willing to balance old
school techniques with student-centered, critical thinking activities. The open
dialogue discussions I have with my students do not yet rival those
conversations held between Socrates and his pupils, but with a lot of patience
I have noted degrees of progress in student comfortably. The following is a promotional video for eTwinning, from the perspective of British students
Although I do not always like
relying on textbooks, there is one source that I brought from the States that
has already proven itself essential in lesson planning again and again. Any
English educator who teaches in a foreign country realizes that their job
description is not to simply teach the rules of the English language. These
individuals are tasked with teaching English as a second language, which comes
with it certain requirements. “ESL Demystified: Hard Stuff Made Easy” provides
a myriad of activities, lesson plans, and language exercises that are all
designed to be effective for non-native speakers. This book not only discuses
grammar, but also vocabulary, clauses, tenses, and pronouns as well. For my
situation, this resource is a perfect fit because I can select from an array of
simpler lessons that better suit my students’ understanding. For example, many
of the lessons I taught during those four days centered around proper
pronunciation. Much as one has to learn to crawl before they can walk, I found
that beginning with pronunciation helps my students feel more comfortable when
they are then asked to read aloud from textbook prompts, or participate in
classroom discussions. Additionally, I
am a believer that classroom lessons should contain some degree of
entertainment so as to retain student interest throughout a lecture. Therefore,
when I covered topics like pronunciation, I tried to over emphasize words to
not only demonstrate the proper sound, but also deliver it in a way that students
will remember. To an outside party, it may be weird to hear from a classroom a
teacher who continually is making a “K” noise and an “S” noise, but at least
students will better remember the differences in pronouncing words like “K-up”
and “S-edar” and “S-ir-K-us”.
Any downtime that I had this week
was purely devoted to studying for the LSAT. Having to learn to adjust to a new
town in a new country is a challenging feat. However, having to learn to adjust
to a new town in a new country while simultaneously preparing for one of the
most important exams ever is borderline insane. I have always been fairly good
at test taking, but the LSAT is its own creature. Like many who prepare for the
exam, the section I grew to dread the most was the Logic Games portion. Given
enough time, I am sure I could eventually solve the various puzzles and come up
with the right answers. However, during the actual test, each section of the
LSAT is only thirty-five minutes long. Thus, time is of the essence and I was
determined to learn as many strategies as I could from the collection of LSAT
prep books I had flown over with. In regards to the analytic and logic
reasoning portions of the LSAT, I feel slightly more confident. Effective
reading comprehension is vital, but I feel that my years on mock trial in
college helped me to better view problems from a particular legal perspective.
There was, however, one event
during my week that did not include teaching or studying. On Saturday, Nové
Zámky was hosting its annual Harvest Festival. One of my colleagues informed me
that the festival would consist of folk dancing, food stands, and above all
else, an assortment of wine tasting. I realized this would be a perfect venue
for me to observe authentic Slovak culture, so I had to stop by if only for a
couple of hours. On Friday, I asked my students if they were also planning on
attending the festivities. However, to my chagrin, many of my students told me
that they had very little interest in going to the festival, and that their weekend
plans were going to be more or less the same old same old. I understand that
not all of my students are natives of Nové Zámky, as my school acts as a magnet
institution for the region. Nonetheless, I somewhat wished that many of my
students shared my interest in experiencing different cultures. Regardless, I
was going to enjoy myself.
One of the first details that
made itself apparent when I arrived at the Harvest Festival was just how
populated it was. The medium sized town center was covered with an array of
shops, tables, balloons, food stands, and a stage. As I made my way to the
front of the crowd, I could smell the assortment of sausages, ribs, porkchops,
and pastries that filled the air. After squeezing my way through the multitude
of patrons, I managed to make my way to the front stage where I saw a group of
children dressed in authentic folk attire. Much like the town itself, this
particular festival celebrated more than just Slovak culture. The dances, the
food, and even the vendors themselves consisted of Slovak, Hungarian, and Roma
(gypsy) heritage. Coming from America, I love seeing multiculturalism in
action. If I were to compare this region with the United States, I would
compare it to states like Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas; regions that include
both Americana and Latino heritages. I enjoyed watching the number of dances,
and listening to the children sing songs of the old country. After taking a
number of pictures, I decided to head back to my house. However, as I was about
to leave, I found myself face-to-face with a parade coming down the main
street. It was an amazing site seeing the assortment of costumes, home-made
banners, musicians, and horses traveling down the quiet street I had walked by
every day. I still had plenty of LSAT studying awaiting me this weekend, but
the festival was a worthwhile distraction. The following is an example of one of the songs that were played on stage.
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