Seasonal Greetings

The first two postcards are new, and the others I got at an antique shop. They're from the 1960s and I'm having a difficult time giving them up.

I may be in a village but I'm only 4 hours from Odessa

I'm grateful that my regional center is Odessa, considered by some the most cosmopolitan city in Ukraine. I don't go there too often other than to catch a train or do paperwork at the bank. When I'm in Odessa, I typically bolt from one stand to another in the bazaar district, getting foods that aren't available where I live or is much cheaper than in the village. It was nice to spend some time in the city last weekend with some friends, acting like a tourist. We had some amazing food and saw a ballet. The production was quite good, better than anything I've seen in Kyiv. I took a picture of the inside. The theater felt vaguely familiar, then I read an excerpt about it's construction and realized that it was done by the same architect as the Dresden, Budapest, and Vienna theaters which I've all been to. I've gotten around central Europe.



Other highlights this week:

School is really slow in part because we're nearing the end of the semester and testing is taking place. It's been hard to go to school this time of year, acting as a human tape recorder for oral exams. Yes, it's my fault for not finding other things to do at my site, but honestly other than the mornings when I sit at the school, the rest of my days are filled with group and individual lessons.

I get to see my family in a little over a week! It's been something like 15 months since I've seen them and I can barely wait to be around people that I don't have to explain myself to.

I think "teeth" is one of the ugliest words in the English language.

Here, there are a lot of people born around December 8th, which I find kind of funny because March 8th is Women's Day. I hate Women's Day, it's a poor excuse at gender equality that includes giving the women in your life flowers and then the same women spending the whole day in the kitchen preparing a feast. I like to think that December 8th babies were conceived in an old spirit of socialist camaraderie.

Hobbies

So I'm tracing some clip art to use on a lesson on hobbies and came across this image for woodworking. I just had to share it.

I'm so behind the times.

I came across this video and really wished I knew more about things like this film, Pesnya vsegda s nami (Пісня завжди з нами). I wish they showed things like this on Sunday afternoons instead of repeats of reality shows, it would bring my landlady and I closer.

Every Website Ever

I'm cleaning out my bookmarks a bit and I thought I'd share the websites I use most often for lesson planning. I can't imagine teaching ESL without the Internet.




100 Best Youtube Channels for Teachers features ESL teaching techniques and videos on common topics.

ABCTeach is a membership based site but offers a lot of free early elementary materials. I highly recommend their readers and worksheets.

About has basic information on any aspect of teaching English as a foreign language.

Academic Earth has video courses from universities.

A to Z Teacher Stuff is a basic sight for elementary teachers, features links to sight words and word-game generators.

Agenda Web links to the British Council and has a lot of audio material.

Awesome Library has the basic of basic lesson plans and all that other stuff that makes early childhood education teachers a tad bit scary.

BBC English probably has everything you need, including great podcasts that enrich basic ESL themes.

Boggles World ESL makes teaching young learners so much easier.

Breaking News English has thousands of edited news stories along with audio and video.

BridgeTEFL has videos on teaching.

Building a Better Teacher is the article that spurred all the education debate in 2010.

Bus Songs, you can never underestimate the power of "The Wheels on the Bus".

Children's Music Archive has lyrics and activities.

Conversation Questions has discussion questions by topic.

Curriki is good for phonics and grammar.

Dave's ESL Cafe is where every classroom game originated.

Dyslexia and Foreign Language Learning, I wish I would have had this article from the beginning.

E-Books Directory has children's and audio.

Education World has some ESL resources, especially good for teaching groups of adult learners.

English Club is poorly arranged but has good time-fillers and fall-back plans.

ESL 4 Teachers is a link of a link of a link.

ESL as a Second Language Podcast

English Teacher Melanie for listening.

ESL Teacher Talk has the latest on ESL methodology.

ESL Flashcards is good for clipart. I also recommend tracing a few of these images every once and a while and building a visual library for your school.

ESL Flow has everything you can ever dream of, especially if you work with low to intermediate students.

ESL Galaxy has worksheets and games.

ESL Gold is great for supplemental material and building your own units.

ESL Kids has flashcards and other clipart that is easy to trace.

Express Publishing isn't a free website but I've bought a few of their books and am really happy with them.

FunFonix is a lifesaver for young learners who have fallen behind or have recently switched schools.

Genki English has ESL songs.

Good Teaching Top 10 is a list of cliches of good teaching but it's helpful for reviewing your weaknesses every once and awhile.

Inclusive Education for children in Ukraine is a website that connects people that work with special-needs in Ukraine.

Kids.gov is a portal to all things related to the government.

LessonPlanz for young learners.

Library of Congress covers all the basics of American history and culture.

MacMillan Business

MES English has tons of images and ideas for using the communicative method.

Minnesota State Colleges has links to other sites, especially good for one-on-one learning.

Michelle Henry is a French website of ESL materials. It is easy to adapt to the textbook.

Moving Forward has links to teaching blogs.

Musical English Lessons masks grammar by teaching pop songs.

Munseys has free e-books and a children's section.

National Endowment for the Humanities has lesson plans by subject.

One Stop English is a membership site but often has free downloads.

Outline of US History has a lot of downloads in different languages.

Songs for Teaching makes Raffi seem like an underachiever.

Speak Read Write covers these skills for ESL.

Teach Children ESL has chants and rhymes.

Teacher Tube offers strategies and links to Powerpoints.

Teaching ESL is a complete teachers' kit.

TEFL has some worksheets.

Tell Me More is a basic English Club packet.

The National Right to Read has a lot of resources on how to engage students and on phonics.

To Learn English has placement tests and at the bottom of the page is almost every topic you would need to cover in secondary education.

Topics Magazine has articles written by non-native speakers. Good for generating in class project ideas.

Ultimate Camp Resource is good for songs and team challenges.

Using English has a lot of material that can be adapted to textbook activities.

Holodomor

This time of November Holodomor memorial services take place throughout the country. Holodomor translates to "death from hunger". Holodomor was the artificial famine that occured in Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union from 1932 to 1933, somewhere between 2 and 10 million people died of starvation. It's officially been recognized as an act of genocide, though internal sways towards denouncing as well as supporting the Soviet Union have not cemented this issue within Ukraine. In recent years, several trials have taken place to decide how to depict the history of the Soviet Union and Stalin. As I've stressed before, history is critical for Ukraine and affects how it reacts to all challenges and forward steps.

Being in Ukraine for the past year, I've heard a few stories passed down from generation to generation about the famine. About family members who were lost, old friends becoming traitors, silos full of grain that couldn't be touched, journeys trying to escape and bodies spread along barriers fencing out peasants from the cities. A symbol of Ukraine is grain and bread formed into elaborate loves called korovai. In a sense, bread is sacred to Ukrainians and Holodomor has increased its meaning. During Peace Corps training we were told never to throw away bread, it could be one of the most insensitive things we could do. Another way I think the past has shown through is in the generational gap's approach to food. Never mess with a babushka trying to feed you, the idea of hunger is one of her worst enemies. On the other hand, as everywhere else, young women feel the pressure to be thin and I've witnessed too many times to count young girls refuse to eat. It's rather frustrating when you're the guest and they keep on shoving food at you but at the same time they're completely unaware of how their daughters are chronically skipping meals. The idea is still foreign to their older relatives.

The causes of the famine are controversial, from weak harvests to poor management and Stalin's campaigns of collectivization. During collectivization, grain was sent to the cities and abroad to finance industrialization. Ukrainian nationalism was squandered. As stated at holodmorct.org:

1932-1933
The Soviet government increases Ukraine's production quotas by 44%, ensuring that they could not be met. Starvation becomes widespread. Secret decrees are implemented that allow arrest or execution of any starving peasant found taking as little as a few stalks of wheat or a potato from the fields he worked. By decree, discriminatory voucher systems are implemented, and military blockades are erected around Ukrainian villages preventing the transport of food into the villages and the hungry from leaving in search of food. Brigades of young activists from other Soviet regions are brought in to confiscate hidden grain, and eventually all foodstuffs from the peasants’ homes.
Stalin states of Ukraine that “the national question is in essence a rural question” and he and his henchmen determine to “teach a lesson through famine” and ultimately, to deal a
“crushing blow” to the backbone of Ukraine, its rural population.


This past summer I listened to an EconTalk podcast about Nikolai Bukharin, included below are the tapescripts about the event:

14:12

In the late 1920s, Bukharin and Stalin spar over the collectivization of the farms, over the Kulak policy and the Ukraine. Most interesting part of the book for economists and political scientists; points out the clear relationship between violence and non-market allocation. Stalin did not like the peasantry--Marx had already warned against the peasantry. He thought the peasantry should give what he called "tribute" to the city. Bukharin and Stalin sparred over this term "tribute." The way to get this tribute would be to the prices of agricultural products very low, because in Marx you finance industrialization through some kind of surplus. So they were always considering from where the surplus was to come. Stalin said the surplus was from agriculture; the peasant must pay for industrialization and we'll make them pay by setting the price very low. Stalin and his cronies went about establishing a monopoly of grain purchases. Any economist will tell you that if you set the price low--and it was set even below the cost of production--no one is going to sell. Therefore, when the prices were set low, peasants stopped selling. Stalin would declare a grain collection crisis--political action of the peasants aimed against Bolshevik power. It wasn't economic, not just responding to incentives--it was anti-Soviet activity. His only choice, therefore, was to send the militia, secret police, party volunteers in the countryside and take grain by force. Confiscation. This is where he and Bukharin parted company. Bukharin in the early years belonged to a group calling themselves left-Communists, even more extreme than Trotsky; but then Bukharin had an epiphany at some point, which was the result of observing the success of the new agricultural policy which was based on private agriculture and private trade, that you are going to destroy agriculture and social cohesion if you place this burden on agriculture. So Bukharin argued that we have to have a private agriculture; have to let the market set prices; in this way we can avoid force in the countryside. So, this is what they were arguing about--in the Politburo, in the Central Committee. Learned from reading the transcripts of these meetings was they all understood what the game was about. At one point, thought they just didn't understand basic economics. Now I see they understood very well that you have a choice between voluntary exchange through markets and the application of force. That is what clearly split the two.

18:46

The Kulaks--5 to 7 million or so--what's the best estimate of the people who died? Hard to say; this is where our statistics are weakest. The official numbers are several million; several million deportees, high rates of mortality among the deportees. There weren't many executions during this period. Jail was the punishment of choice, 1930, 1931. Most of the victims were victims of starvation during the deportation. They were sent into remote areas of Siberia and Kazakhstan with no means of support. Also, in the area of the grain belt itself there was no food to eat. Looking step by step. First came collectivization and de-Kulakization--the deportation of all your good farmers. This created chaos in agriculture--bad harvests, and bad weather. Debate amongst scholars as to whether it was bad weather or mistakes or deliberate. Didn't they have 70 years of "bad weather" between 1917 and 1987? This was particularly bad; large numbers of deaths; between 5-10 million people died. A lot of debate, deliberate or not; Stalin wasn't particularly fond of Ukraine, which was where most of the deaths occurred. My own reading is that Stalin understood that if you lost that many people, you could actually lose Ukraine, so at one point he said, This is dangerous; We can't lose Ukraine. He tried a little bit to make matters better, but much too late. Also denied those in famine reasons the natural equilibration, which is to leave. So, road blocks were set up; you couldn't get on a train; they caught you and sent you back and you died. Terrible; there was a lot of cannibalism. Bukharin, who had already lost the political struggle, in 1930-31, traveled through Ukraine and saw he had no stomach for this. He came back and told Anna's father--his wife's father--who was his best friend, If this is what the Revolution brings, we should have had no Revolution. He'd seen starving children. Point about the old Bolsheviks: one of the prized traits that Stalin and his associates valued was being tough--not having any sympathy, having a strong stomach. Bukharin did not have this strong stomach.

While hiking this summer in the Georgian mountains, my friend and I stopped to have a lunch break and were then later joined by a group of Germans. One of them happened to be a producer of documentary films who focused on Russia and former Soviet states. When he found out that we were living in Ukraine, he mentioned that he'd been wanting to make a film for a long time about the connection between Albert Kahn, the German-born architect famous for designing industrial Detroit, and the grain shortages. According to the producer, the USSR had hired Kahn to revolutionize industrialization, building over five hundred factories at an enormous sum. The factories were funded by the grain exports. Briefly looking online, there is very little literature about this connection, and being that I'm obsessed with the skeletons of industry left throughout the Rustbelt and the former Soviet Union, it's definitely a tale I'd like to hear.


Last time I was in Kyiv I picked up a copy of The Harvest of Sorrow by Robert Conquest in the volunteer lounge. I haven't read it yet but I'm wishing I had done so by now so that I could properly outline the topic.

Upon a day Apart

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, the promise of being around people that understand you better than you do yourself without the pressure of Christmas or other holidays. In college, it was the saving grace from schoolwork, allowing me just enough time away to avoid turning into an essay-writing zombie.

This year was a lot harder than I expected it to be, being alone. Yes, I could have made it a lot better by doing my job as an example of America by sharing this holiday with my site but I didn't have the willpower to do so. There were no five minute gaps in the lessons where I could talk about it with my students. I dared not create a meal for my host family because any previous attempts have ended in ridicule (too spicy, it should look like this despite not knowing that I known what I'm doing...) and outside of my budget. I did however attempt to make a pumpkin pie, one for myself and one to share at the school. Unfortunately the crust on the one I was planning to share turned black within twenty minutes of putting it in the oven. I don't know what's that about. Since I've found that presentation is more important than substance here, I figured I'd save myself the embarrassment and just claim it for myself. Good thing because once my landlady came home and saw the piles of it in the fridge (a medium sized serving bowl) she freaked out about how much there was and how such a thing as pie from pumpkin can't exist. I guess I should have tossed half of it to the chickens to avoid suspicions but I really wanted it too. It's quite good, though heavy on the organic. I don't think I'll make a lifetime switch to carving and boiling my pumpkin anytime soon.

Peace Corps was nice enough to give us the day off at the last minute. I didn't feel like traveling over ten hours so that I could be with a few other volunteers for a meal since I had responsibilities on Friday at school. So instead I had a regular 8 to 6 with plenty of breaks made less depressing through the hope of being able to catch family online in the evening. Unfortunately, my Internet was down so I ended up doing a combination of work preparation that required little thought while tearing up to self-imposed sad music I associate with family vacations of the past. I think the entire day I ate an apple and a piece of pie. Yes, it was quite pathetic.



I do have a lot to be thankful for this year. All the generalized cliches run past me; thankful for being here and having this opportunity, thankful for people that support me through this exercise of always feeling out of place. I'm thankful for learning how to live on less than $2 of spending money a day (I don't count rent, heating, or my Internet bill). I'm also extremely thankful for (mostly) running water, Internet, and an inside toilet. Perhaps that's a low blow, but honestly having weekly electricity and water cuts has taught me just how distant I am from what supports me daily.

This is where I want to be today.

Courtesy of Justin Waldron

NYTimes, For Poor Russians, Blond Hair is a Snippet of Gold

I appreciated this article in the New York Times about poor woman in rural and central Russia selling their hair that will be used for extensions by the wealthy. The article mentions Ukraine several times. I don't know anyone who has done this but it wouldn't surprise me.

I often catch myself off guard, thinking that the standard of living around me is fine. Sure, it's not the same as what I grew up with but basic needs are being met. Then, I read something like this or hear about schemes to steal firewood and realize just how narrow my scope is. When the weather is nice I often walk around my village. Sometimes I take out my earbuds, surprised how my sound barrier warps what I'm taking in; makeshift electric wires, outhouses, children in holey itchy clothing having races with tire parts or dropping stones down into a well. As the author of Blood and Milk once put it, "poverty has texture," that's one reason why Western outsiders find beauty in it, romanticize about it. The attraction towards viewing daily struggles as a study is something I struggle with, perhaps because identifying with the people is too painful. I feel stupid in their presence, amazed by the solutions (and lack of solutions) made to address needs.

A Little Lost, Sometimes Found

I've been avoiding writing lately. Not quite sure why, perhaps a fear that I've lost the ability to communicate meaningfully. I fear my brain's lexical ability and dexterity is below average and on the brim of full capacity. With the utterance of a new word in Russian or correctly using Ukrainian zaps a GRE worthy word out of my short term memory space. When I type, I have to keep on backspacing because I'm writing phonetically. I feel stuck in limbo at site, not moving forward intellectually or in my relationships. The past few weeks I've been trying to think of new ways to quantify what progress I've made as a volunteer in my village. Yes, looking for results isn't easy and it's naive. Comparing myself to other PCVs and what they've been able to achieve is both motivational and a reason why I constantly question my role.

I'm proud of what I've been doing outside of my site with working groups and special events. In KO, I've done little outside of the classroom. That is, if I'm in a classroom. Lately, my lessons have been canceled left and right and it's hard not to take it personally. The worst is that for the past two weeks my school has been preparing for the visit of the oblast's education commission. Despite how top-down this society is, surprisingly the commission only goes to one rayon in the oblast every year, and since there are 25 in Odeska, the commission hasn't been to my school in something like 24 years. I can go on a rant about this easily. Instead I'd rather focus on my school's obsession with making cosmetic changes. I still don't quite understand why my school's administration felt so threatened about this visit, no one can explain it to me. If anything, they should be more worried about putting on airs around me. Someone said that Ukrainians love to treat their guests and because the commission is our guest, we must stop everything to treat them as such. So, a lot of shouting matches went down about the arrangements of plants and posters. Instead of lessons, students were out in the school yards raking and sculpting dirt, having sledding races by pulling each other around the school on old sweaters they use as mops. I got to say, I was impressed by how well put together the school looked. Displays that haven't been changed in 15 years were stripped down. Photo displays were added in all the corridors, making me feel less like I work in an aquarium.

I also blame this visit on my lack of starting anything new at the school. The grant I was working on all of September and October has evaporated, partially due to my lack of communication but more so because I can't find the support within the school to make anything sustainable. Everything here is a week by week fight, and anything that isn't of dire need in the present is pushed back further and further. I've learned to push for what I want, but often I don't think I'm in the place to do so. I'll take a few more days to assess whether or not I can have any side projects within the school during winter. If not, I'll enjoy having a little free time and put my effort towards tutoring and upcoming commitments.



Here's some photos of my school in the anticipation of being visited:

The lobby, sometimes student's art is up here. On the back wall there is a schedule of student events. I had no idea most of the stuff listed went on, despite asking all the time. I guess I should thank this inquisition for the streamlining of information within the school community.

A new addition to our school, shiny mass produced Silk Road pictures. The art of taste (and scale) is something that I'll never comprehend in this culture. I can't tell if it is original or a poor interpretation.

My favorite Mendeleev poster EVER.

The lovely girls of the 6th form.

In Ukraine there is a separation of the state and religion (religious freedom) but it is blurry.

Lastly, I read an article from The Economist (raging Saturday evenings) and I loved its opening line:

GERMANY’S eastern neighbours have long memories and short fuses.

Happy Halloween!

so much better

This week was just what I needed. Thanks to the traditional school year, Ukrainian schools typically have three large breaks (at least a week) three times a year for fall, winter, and spring. This past week I enjoyed doing absolutely nothing along with getting some things done that I've pushed aside for way too long. I even lucked out with the weather, the first few days were rainy and miserable, leaving me with no other option other than staying in my room. It did finally get nice enough for some outdoor socializing. I really lucked out in that my host family went out of town for the week, leaving my landlady in charge of the store. I had the place all to myself during the day. I forgot what silence was.



Last weekend I had Adopt-a-Cluster, which is where current volunteers visit trainees and share experiences. My friend Whitney and I traveled to a decent sized town in the Kyiv region to meet with out trainees. I've got a lot of hope for them, I was really impressed with what they want to do as volunteers. It was fun to be in a position of power, telling about where I live and how I adjusted in order to be effective in my community. I like to comment when explaining to people that aren't on the "inside" (not that I'll ever be) that Peace Corps staff is so politically correct that they can't answer anything specific. Meaning, as trainees, we're dying to know anything about where we'll be living for the next two years. Because everyone's experience is different, Peace Corps refuses to generalize. With that, the staff has the responsibility of always being both professional and positively supportive so a person in training is left with questions that can't be answered by present company. Though my partner and I had planned activities, it ended up being nearly five hours of the two of us commenting about our experiences. Our trainees seemed perfectly happy to just listen to us, thankful to hear another side of the story.

Adopt-a-Cluster weekend felt like a completion of a circle for me. It's hard to believe it's been a year since I was in their situation. Currently Peace Corps Ukraine has a policy where we can close our service a month before the two-year mark. Because of this, the people that I had in Adopt-a-Cluster are preparing to leave and saying their final goodbyes. It's weird how many of them will be gone in less than two weeks, leaving the group I swore-in with as the "seniors" of TEFL.

I'm a little upset how quickly my service is, I've got so many project ideas that need more time.





I'm anxious about this week at school. I've said yes to too many little things and now I've got a series of tutoring sessions every day. Yes, it's my fault. I still have elective lessons with each class but they rarely work in the end because the schedule changing and the students refusing to stay (even though their day was just shortened by up to three less lessons). This means that I sprint around the school looking for keys to unoccupied rooms. Sometimes these lessons are effective, but they're often taken over by misbehaving boys. I hate yelling and being physically forceful, but this approach is one of my only remaining options with them. I'm so tired of being underappreciated by the students during class time. Instead, I now have to tutor a lot because of so much wasted time on discipline. I'm disappointed in how little they're progressing and tutoring at least lets me see some results. I'm also tired of seeing students on the street, gasping while loudly whispering my name (I can hear you!) and then giggling. Come on, it's been nearly a year. This game has got to be old by now.

With tutoring, there's a complete disconnect between me and the people I work with when it comes to time-management. As a generalization, I've discovered that if I'm not physically in the presence of someone in my village, they automatically assume I'm doing nothing (they certainly don't ever work from their homes). And, since I don't have a husband that I have to feed and water, I must be really, really bored. Therefore, they're saving me by telling me what to do. I've got to say no. I've got to say no many times in a row and with force. It's one of the things I hate most about this culture, the need to put on a show because otherwise I'm not taken seriously. Then again, everything is a show for my students.

Fear the Pumpkin

Courtesy of NPR

Scoop Up an Ice Cream Ball in Every Color

This evening I'm thinking of gift ideas for my host family and close friends that my parents can hand over to me when we meet up at Christmas.

Before looking through coffee table books on Ohio and the United States, I scrolled to the bottom of my Amazon page to find this thing to the left, a Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker. For some reason, this item really intrigues me as far as imagining it in Ukraine. There are two main arguments that I can think of as to whether this product would succeed in Ukraine. I wouldn't be surprised if the marketing team has considered Eastern Europe, as I'm sure there are warehouses full of them. Russian channels on satellite often feature As Seen on TV products, orders that weren't sold out for Christmas 2003, remember the sonic ab massaging belts?


Argument One: Ice Cream Ball will sell in Ukraine

This country is obsessed with everything being "domashny"(homemade) when it comes to food. It has been drilled into the mind of every citizen that homemade, chemical free, and organic is the way to go. Yes, it is nice that Ukraine is very forward thinking when it comes to the quality of food, but why this is is less expected. For one, the general public is truly afraid of genetically modified products because of the media. I sat through a school assembly where the students were told that if they had genetically modified tomatoes, they would grow pig tails. Everything is labeled "without GMOs" even the water. It's always a delicate blend here between what's actually good and healthy versus myth.
Second, home products are considered safer because some packaged products are known to cause illness. I'd rather get yelled at for wearing a light jacket on a chilly day than face the consequences of someone going through my trash to discover a sausage wrapper or some Kraft cookies. Therefore, Ukrainians would go crazy over the fact that it is "homemade."


Argument Two: Ice Cream Ball won't sell in Ukraine

It's so superfluous. We're talking about a public that hasn't changed much in their habits when it comes to food preparation for hundreds of years (when it comes to villagers). It looks like too much fun. The kids will break it by kicking it too hard. Ice cream, though delicious, is only edible for approximently two months of the year. If you eat it outside of July and August, you will indeed get a cold and possibly die.

Language shapes the way we see

This afternoon I skimmed the article "How does our language shape the way we think" by Lera Boroditsky at Edge. It's insightful and points to some topics I hadn't thought about that haven't been mentioned in other articles that have been published recently. I especially liked its focus on Russian and English.

In the Peace Corps office, it is common for staff to speak in the language that they think best describes what they are trying to express, jumping in conversation from Ukrainian to English to Russian. Volunteers do it as well, but to a much smaller degree. Often I want to stress a word for its connotation; some examples being awkward, exciting, pathetic, and ignorant. I don't know the proper equivalents, the dictionary definitions don't do justice. I never want to be a translator. There's too much power in tone.

Nationalism Versus Citizenship

Democracy is not based on nationalism it is based on universal suffrage, Citizenship and representative governance.

The sooner the political debate in Ukraine can begin to focus on Citizenship the sooner Ukraine can put and end to division and move forward as one nation. one state with a reverence for human rights and democratic values.

From Ukraine Today

Get Myself Into It

It's Sunday night already? I'm starting to think I stare off into space for exceptionally long periods of time unconsciously because there's no way I should feel this overwhelmed by my responsibilities for this upcoming week. I've just got to respond to a pile of correspondence, resubmit a grant, co-host a teaching workshop and teach and tutor this week before meeting some trainees while enjoying fall break. I'm looking forward to not doing anything for a few days but embroider and play with cows and goats.

This Week's Highlights

This week has been rather slow in regard to metaphysical discovery:


Getting Heat
Ukraine has been hit by a cold wave which is unfortunate when one has central heating. With central heating, the heat comes on once a year and goes off once a year. Really efficient. Luckily, I have a stove at home so I'm not subjected to subfreezing temperatures at night, but up until Friday my school was really cold. I felt a tad ridiculous wearing two pairs of tights, long underwear, and my coat during lessons in early October. The rumor was that the government would turn on the gas October 15th. I don't know why our school broke this hearsay on Friday. I like how one PCV put it:

When I think about it, I imagine a crotchety old Russian man sipping from a vodka bottle and playing chess alone in a basement deep underground gets to decide when to lift the lever that supplies Ukraine with heat.


Being Surrounded by Fatalists

With the heat discussion, as usual, there was a lot of unbearably loud chitchat in the teachers' room, the mecca of my cultural integration. In response to someone saying that Kyiv has heat because it has to, it's the capital, an older teacher said, "Все равно, скоро конец света." (all the same, soon is the end of the world). For some reason, I found this really funny. I constantly feel like the bright eyed and healthy grinning female lead in a 70s Woody Allen film, a steady pessimistic commentary marking my every move. One thing that I'm worried about with my eventual return to the states is that I'll be less proactive when it comes to decision-making and problem-solving. Here, I''m surrounded by a mentality of predetermined fates that is slowly wearing away at my ability to demand and expect something to change.

Kreschatik After Dark

Strolling the main street in Kyiv on weekend evenings makes countless hours traveling worth it.

Teacher's Day

The first Sunday of October is Teacher's Day in Ukraine, another one of those holidays from Soviet times. It was interesting to see from Facebook status updates how different schools celebrate the day. From the looks of it, some schools really play up the Soviet aspect by dressing as Pioneers. I liked the one status update that said that the 11th form was teaching all of the classes for the day and that the teachers participated as students during the lessons; throwing airplanes, answering cell phones...

My school was really tame. A little too tame for my liking. Though there was talk of going to a bar in the evening, either it fell through or I was left behind. AND there were no cognac shots in the teachers' room, which I took as a given for such a day. I guess I should be thankful that my school is dry. In the morning, students greeted their teachers with flowers and chocolate, individually wishing us health and a good year. I'm constantly taken aback by the generosity of people in my community. There's this one group of boys, eleven and twelve years old, that make sure to present me flowers on any occasion. They make my heart melt.

At school, the classes were shortened. Older students taught younger students while the teachers hung out in the teachers' room. I kind of wished I could see what was going on during these classes but watching the satisfaction of the teachers sitting back and gossiping became my entertainment.

In the afternoon, there was a conference of teachers from the entire rayon. For about an hour and a half, there were some speeches by the administration and awards for new teachers and so forth. I didn't always understand what was going on, I have this problem that's gotten much worse in Ukraine of not paying attention when someone is speaking, especially when it's in Ukrainian. I did learn a lot though, the one speaker was very candid about the children in the rayon. I now know that there are about three thousand students in my rayon and roughly three hundred and fifty teachers. I now know where the dormitory/orphanage is for at risk youth (not in the rayon center where I live) and some of the work social services does (which I didn't think existed in my rayon). After the conference, a folk ensemble performed for an hour. I, and I think most people, had no idea this was going to happen. It was amazing, really good singing and dance moves that make me wonder if the origins of break dancing can be traced to sixteenth and seventeenth Hutstuls. It was a world class production.

Signs made by classes to celebrate Teacher's Day

Bukovynian folk group from Chernivsti entertaining the teachers of the rayon.

Yet another round of flowers attained this week! Don't make fun of me, I took this picture this morning after waking up. All of these flowers are from students' gardens.

Roses from my birthday in their final bloom. Love living in the south!

Delicious Dinner. Celebrated Teacher's Day with these, though I could barely finish them. There's definitely something different about American food and its calorie content.

Earlier this week each class was invited to make a exhibition of gifts from the harvest. The best part was that afterwords all the apples, pears, and grapes were put in the teacher's room.

Gifts of Autumn from the 4th Grade

Lastly I'd like to include some photos from an evening walk:

A Campaign without a Platform

For a couple of months now I've been wanting to share some of what I consider weaknesses of the Ukrainian school system. It's hard to put into layman terms what differences I see on a daily basis without great explanation. This is just a summary of roadblocks I face that shed light on the complexity of education reform in Ukraine. As a teacher, it's difficult to ignore injustice and take small steps towards a healthier model, but that is not my place. For a better introduction to education in Ukraine, I recommend the "Reform Strategy for Education in Ukraine" report provided by the United Nations Development Programme.

The topics summarized are in no particular order.



The Schedule

Every school day is different. In the States, it is common to have a schedule that repeats itself daily (math first lesson, biology second lesson...). In Ukraine, every day of the week has a different schedule and from what I can tell there is no attempt at making it beneficial for the student or teacher. For me, it's especially difficult because I often have the first class of the day when students aren't fully awake or I have students towards the end of the day when they have no self control. Because of this, my ability to be productive in the classroom is even further weakened.

With not having a repeating schedule, there is no rhythm to the day, meaning that students are in a constant abyss of not knowing what's next due to the changes to the schedule. Unlike in the States where there are substitute teachers, if a teacher isn't at school there is no class. I'd say on a typical day three teachers are missing school. Because there can be no class periods without teachers, the entire daily schedule must be picked apart and stitched together. I honestly can't recall a single day when the schedule went as planned, always resulting in uncomfortable shouting in the teachers' room and dozens of confused faces not prepared for class.

My school's schedule last March

The Classroom

I've gathered that it's not universal, but at least for my school, students stay in the same classroom all day from the fifth to the eleventh grade. Each classroom is typically a cabinet for a particular department, containing the materials for that subject. Students have chemistry in the Ukrainian literature room if chemistry is not their classroom. In turn, this means teachers carry around all their equipment with them from room to room and since I'm especially prone to visuals, I really look like a bag lady.

Because students don't switch rooms, when I walk into a classroom for a lesson I'm intimidated. I've entered THEIR space. There is no visual environmental clue that tells the student that this is the teacher's space and it's time for the teacher's class. With that, I have no ability to rearrange the room or where students sit in order to change the preordained dynamic, thus limited my chances of ever really gaining control of the classroom. Classroom management is really hard.

Also, in the school, student classrooms aren't divided by halls into grades. Meaning, a first grade class is next to an eighth grade class and they share a closet. Classes are not divided by strengths either, so if a student falls behind he or she has little chance of ever catching up. These students move towards the back of the classroom and are shut out from the learning process.



Incorporating the Bologna Process

Education is political. In Ukraine, especially so when factoring in constant divide between Western integration and Soviet nostalgia. With every administration, the criteria changes and the people who decide what children will learn are more likely than not in no way connected to education.

In much of the 2000s, Ukraine was attempting to strengthen systems so that they could be in line with European standards. This meant that a lot of outside and foreign methods were introduced and abruptly implemented resulting in miscommunication and disillusionment. With the current administration, a number of processes that were adapted are being reversed to what they were like during the Soviet period. For example, to make Ukraine's education more European, instead of an eleven year system (in my opinion really only ten), it was to become twelve years. In order to do this, the curriculum was slowly changing to allow that extra year (to be implemented in 2012). This past summer, the government decided to go back to an eleven year system. In talking to people about this, the only people that expressed resentment to me were western educated. In talking to others, they found twelve years to be a waste. One of my favorite responses was a woman who commented that she couldn't imagine what students would do for an extra year. She, in a jokingly manner, said that teachers would have to deal with husbands and babies in the classroom. This could be a whole other rant on the disconnect between cause and effect and the missing block I've grown up knowing as "prevention."

Classes are still often conducted in the old style, where there is only one right answer and self-directed learning is nonexistent. Teachers lack the training to be innovative and often fear being challenged by their students. Lifelong learning is a foreign concept. Everything is down from the top down. The federal government dictates what students will learn and the oblast hands out textbooks and stamped curriculum. A school has no voice.


School Subjects

Currently, Ukrainian students have eighteen subjects; 18 different classes a week. I can't even name them all: English, Ukrainian, Russian, Ukrainian literature, foreign literature, algebra, geometry, physics, biology, world history, Ukrainian history, philosophy, ethics, health, chemistry, economics, information technology, physical education....The subjects are taught in a vacuum, not connected nor interdisciplinary. Because of this, students are lost as they take in a lot of unrelated information that they more likely than not memorize out of context. A class's schedule is not tailored to it's needs, meaning that if students are especially weak, there is a possibility that in one day they will have three science classes and two math classes. It's quite cruel, given that teachers have very little say in what they can teach during a lesson since that's mandated by the Ministry. Therefore, a class must move forward reading Tolstoy despite the likely possibility an entire row of students still can't read. Learning disabilities are also a foreign concept. In general, I feel that there's a surface to everything a teacher does but little depth and context. Students are completely lost and have no way of connecting what goes on in the classroom to their lives. This is in part a failure on behalf of western institutions that implemented changes, miscalculating how ideas would be misinterpreted (in part because Ukrainian students spend less time in class than most other European countries).


Incentive

Students can't fail a grade. It's sad to say it, but why study if you're going to receive a diploma in the end no matter what? It's sad to see how some of the worst aspects of the old system have joined some of the worst aspects of pro-capitalistic one. My students won't work unless they know they'll get something in return (well, there are a few that do it because they like school). It's also difficult to have games in the classroom because they are uber competitive (really sore losers). Students have very little risk, except when it comes to totally being shut out of having a future. Thankfully most parents push them forward. They also push them towards fields that will be profitable (knowing English and math) and away from those that are part of the public sector (medicine and law).


Cheating

Our PC manual summarizes it best:

This is a huge issue in Ukrainian classrooms. Kids help each other out. That’s universal. But in Ukraine, due to the all-for-one mentality of Communism that was the ruling ideology for decades, kids help each other out even more than American pupils tend to. On the other hand, most Ukrainian children don’t consider sharing homework answers cheating. They think it’s helping. It’s up to you to explain to your pupils what constitutes cheating.


Cultural Differences

What I find rude is completely normal. It's typical for students to talk during class because it's what their parents do during concerts and teachers at meetings. My students' cell phones are sacred. I can't take their phones away from them despite how annoying they are and disrupt the classroom because if I do, the students will protest to a degree that is unbearable.


Village Schools

There is such a large difference between the resources of city and village schools that I don't even notice them anymore. School children are inadvertently being divided into the privileged (rich urban) and the unprivileged (rural poor). This means that often students from rural schools can't qualify for higher education or training because they don't meet basic requirements due to a lack of opportunity.

Grading

The grading system isn't objective. It's an odd scale (1-12) that isn't based on percentages and is totally chosen on the mood of the teacher.




This is not meant to be harsh. This is one sided. Looking back over what I've written I can see places where I can rebuttal and explain why things are the way they are. It's not black and white or good versus evil. Change takes time and Peace Corps is a vital element towards allowing Ukraine to discover it's own inner modern response to a skill-based post-industrial economy. Please comment if you'd like a clarification. If I have the time I'd like to expand on all the subtopics.

Meaningless Milestones

Today marks one year in Ukraine (well, minus that one week in Georgia)! I've been thinking about this jubilee a lot lately, trying to figure out how time is relative to me. Yes, in many ways it does feel like a year, but thinking about getting on that plane in New York seems not quite that long ago. In Ukrainian, Ukraine is Україна, meaning it's a feminine noun. Ukraine is treated as a female, referred to as a motherland. I've been thinking about my relationship with Ukraine as a same-sex partnership, using sexist stereotypes in an attempt to classify what she means to me. She's beautiful and has so much potential that's being thwarted by an old system. She's passive aggressive, pretending everything will continue on the surface despite what catalogues of yesterdays has piled upon her. She puts up with an abusive relationship because history defines her identity; who she is.

Yesterday was my birthday. I celebrated Saturday evening with fellow volunteers, walking along Kyiv's main streets. On Sunday, the actual day, I spent most of the daylight on a bus back to site. I was okay with it, it was nice to stare out the window and have an excuse not to do anything. At school today, I was greeted with flowers and many "Happy Birthdays." Birthdays are a very big deal here. I'm glad mine was rather low key. Limited toasts. The school gifted me with a journal and in the afternoon I treated them to a cake I picked up in Kyiv at the country's most famous bakery. This act definitely won them over.

I want to thank Midway for the card shower I got! The post office workers think I'm really something special. I'm guessing I receive more mail than anyone else in the village.

Where is Sara From?

I'm getting closer to a hundred percent. I swear.

Where have the days gone?

I'm sitting at my desk, thankful for sleeping in a bit, a successful grocery shopping blitz this morning, and dreary weather that won't distract me from things I have to get done today. I'm amazed how fast this month is going by. Thoughts of personal side projects and carelessly spending time with the family seem impossible.

Currently at school, I've only got about 15 classes per week but because of the way the schedule is arranged and my desire to work with students after their lessons I'm at school almost everyday from eight till four or five (which for Ukrainians is very unusual and for Peace Corps volunteers even more so). After the school day, I sprint off to get errands done, since most places close before five. I allow myself a little cooking break and ibuprofen cocktail after so many hours of shouting before lesson planning and grant writing. I've got one week to streamline a USAID proposal that's swelled to over forty pages. Once that's turned in, hopefully I can get a few other smaller grants in by the end of next month and start working on other things including country-wide commitments I've been pushing aside. Just to clarify, I'm not complaining, I love being busy and I'm aware how much my concept of time and productivity has changed here. I have a lot less to show for what I've been doing than I'd like to admit. Also, I use this as an excuse for not responding to emails and other things. I PROMISE I'll get on that in a little over a week from now.

Other ramblings, I now have a posse of girls that get way too excited every time they see me and bombard me with hugs and requests for English games. It's really hard to say no to them. I got this card this past week, awesome. At the bazaar today, the tomatoes were lackluster, which is a sign that I've got to eat as many eggplants and peppers before my only choices are carrots, potatoes, and beets. Luckily, my landlady has been canning a lot (I help her when I can) so we'll have something this winter, even if it's pickled. I want to expand on food and the surging prices of energy sometime soon. It's going to be an interesting winter and I'm thankful that I will witness it from the comfort of a steady stipend and the promise that if things get really bad, Peace Corps will subsidize for us. The first picture is the garden outside of the school. If you go back a couple pages you'll see pictures of when it was sown. Ukrainian earth is quite magical in how anything grows here splendidly.

There's so much I'd like to share but for now I'll just take notes for later. If you happen to have an awesome granola/power bar recipe that can be applied to Ukrainian limits (finding ingredients and price) please let me know. Typically, I make oatmeal bars with raisins and sunflower seeds. Next weekend I'll be in Kyiv so I'll make a quick supermarket run to see if protein powder exists in this country. The school day kills me. I really miss the convenience of picking something up, including a Starbucks Doubleshot. Convenience isn't something that exists in the village, partially because it comes with a higher price tag. The youngest kids have lunch so I might start doing that because the snack stand white flour rolls and sugar cookies aren't cutting it.

Off to copying and pasting!

First Bell

V. was kind enough to pose with me after a full morning of growing-up.

Arriving in late September last year, I missed the First Bell tradition. I can confidently report that it is very similar to Last Bell, only the ceremony was a lot shorter and the students seemed mellower in comparison. In this part of the world, there is the tradition of starting school on the first of September, also known as "Day of Knowledge". On this day, across Ukraine and similar countries students and teachers gather in a courtyard to welcome the new school year. At my school, a flag was paraded around to the national hymn, a few words were said, some awards handed out, a couple of presentations, and a senior student circled around with a first grader while ringing a bell. After the ceremony, there was a first lesson that is open to parents. Typically, the lesson goes along the theme of Ukraine (history, poetry, famous Ukrainians). I watched the first grade's first class, which included a bunch of introductions and a cake. After the "school day" my host family gathered for a lunch, where I tried and failed to explain why champagne shouldn't be drunken like shots.

M. and V. These amazing girls are the granddaughters of the woman I live with.

First Grade's First Lesson: It's more packed than a PTA meeting.

With all the smiles and hugs First Bell left me in a good mood for the rest of the day. The previous week, I'd gone into school every day for a bit to say hello, see if there was any news, and try to arrange a meeting with the director. Every time I left the school I felt like I had less of a purpose, a series of dull conversations that never allotted room for me to express changes I wanted to make. Working with colleagues here is an art. As volunteers, it's beaten into our heads the importance of integrating into the community and that developing relationships takes a long time. We joke about being on "Ukraine Time," a neither here nor there state of ignoring schedules, poor customer service, and overall resistance to change as the country is in a never-ending state of transition. "Ukraine Time" is especially hard for newer volunteers that are wired to value output and efficiency. In the first part of service a tactful experiment takes place of finding the right combination of patience and persistence. I'm still working on mine. The week before school started, I was sure I wasn't going to ever find my balance in regard to being an active member of school. I often feel like a glorified substitute teacher. I have to find out what is going on by asking, otherwise I'd never know. I don't have a shelf, table, or even a chair in the school. This is compounded by the fact that the class schedule hasn't been finalized for this year, to the extent that teachers don't have any idea how many lessons they'll be teaching because of last minute changes made to the curriculum at the federal level.

My worldy possessions (educational materials) piling up in what limited living space I have.

Having that moment of confidence and feeling like I'm a member during First Bell encouraged me. The following day, I finally got the meeting I was waiting for. To be honest, it was more of a walk-by. In any case, in that five minute conversation I got the basis of a grant cemented and a classroom I can share with another teacher. I'm wondering if feeling sorry for myself led to this quick takeover. Or if it is my sly ability to read cultural relativism. In any case, I'm glad to have hope for having some sort of impact this school year.

In other news, I still don't enjoy jogging. I'm trying. To substitute, almost every evening I go for a walk. I often end up in fields that I probably shouldn't be in, like the one in the picture below:

It may not look like much, but this is my home for two years.