Conor & Kacey: School Activities

I decided it's about time for an update of my school activities. I apologize that this is such a long time coming. Things are continuing to go well and I love the kids I work with. I teach all grades - 1st through 8th - with all six English teachers, to all four ethnicities. For the younger grades (1-4) I accompany the English teachers to their normal classes and team teach, however this year we decided to try something new for the older grades, which we have found to be very effective. Fifth through eighth graders attend optional classes after school to improve their English and the teachers stay after to assist with the classes and learn new ideas and teaching methods. We play a lot of games and do interactive activities to get the students to talk in English and communicate with one another. These classes are also mixed ethnically and for most of them provide the only opportunity to interact with a peer of a different ethnicity than their own. The students love coming and often arrive over an hour early in anticipation of that day's class. I am asked daily, "Kacey, do we have the course today?", even though they know the schedule by heart. Their English has improved dramatically and their creativity has blossomed. Although the year has been filled with all sorts of projects and activities, I will highlight a few major, successful ones.

One of the biggest projects the teachers and I took on was the designing and writing of a Small Project Assistance grant sponsored by the Peace Corps and USAID. These grants can be written for up to $3000 and must involve capacity building and sustainability. The English teachers and I saw a need for the enhancement the students' overall English skills, in reading, writing, listening and speaking and we identified the need for a school library and the attainment of English language books as the students only had access to English print from their text books. We developed the idea of books on CD to provide students the opportunity to hear native English speakers read books and give the students pictures to support the text as they listened. Our application was a success and we were awarded the full amount asked. Through this we were able to purchase bookshelves, CD players, CDs, a digital recording device, books, library software, and much more. The school also provided to the project through the creation of a new room (by dividing a room formerly used as a cafeteria), paint, brand new chairs and tables. Almost all the books have been read by myself, Conor and other Peace Corps Volunteers and have been burnt to CDs that were placed in the back of the books. Students now daily have the opportunity to improve their English through the "English Language Resource Center". We hope to continue building upon this project by attaining more books and other English language teaching and learning materials such as music, computer programs and classroom visuals.

Fourth graders listening to books on tape

After school classes with 6th graders

Another activity we are just finishing up is the "World Map Project". This was a project first started by Barbara Jo White, a PCV in the Dominican Republic, '87 - '89. Peace Corps Volunteers work with students or other host country nationals to paint maps on the walls of schools, culture centers or other public buildings. The World Map Project encourages students to expand their world view, to become aware of and learn about geography, and to foster curiosity of other places, countries, peoples and cultures. The art teachers in our school have been a huge help in this project and I'm very grateful for them! Our map will hopefully soon be surrounded by flags from different countries across the globe. I'll post a picture of the final product.

Our 'almost' finished project

Another PCV here in Macedonia had the great idea of organizing a national spelling bee, which will take place next Saturday. Prior to this however communities had to have 'regional qualifiers'. I organized one in Tearce as well as Tetovo and nine students in each bee passed and will compete next week. They studied words for almost a month in preparation and it was almost possible to touch the anxiety and tension in the room as the students waited for their names to be called. The best moment of the day came when a fifth grader (the youngest age) spelled her last word correctly and hugged me without letting go for several minutes, repeating "thank you" over and over. She's the smallest girl in her class and I smile now every time I see her, thinking of her reaction to "Congratulations...you spelled all your words correct!"