February went quickly, didn’t it? After the weekend of birthdays I had a
flurry of other projects to plan for, like the weeklong English
speaking event California Days as well as my spring break trip. That as
well as figuring out my plans for the next year (a source of unending
worry, as it seems).
But the spring break pictures will have to wait, because I have to
backtrack to California Days first. Since August, the teachers and I
have been talking about–and then later planning–an English language
event at the school. These are school-wide events that involve student
participation in various projects, presentations, and even music.
Previous years have been Irish Days, Australia Days, and though 2013 was
already planned to be New Zealand Days, they changed the theme to my
state, California, since I’m… from… there. It felt really weird for a
single American state to be the theme for the whole event, but I
consoled myself with the fact that California is actually bigger than a
lot of European countries. Also, we got to focus on a number of really
great things I miss about home, like California literature and Bay Area
culture.
The beginning of the week started with the ol’ regular classes, but
on Tuesday my CA bud as well as guest of honor, Grace Osborne arrived to
Nachod, where she stayed with me in my flat. There we hurriedly put
together our presentation on California. Wednesday we got up bright and
early for the beginning of the students’ presentations.
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| Piled up on the stage |
Okay, so at this point I feel like I should explain the cheesefest that
makes up half of the title of this blogpost. I’ve lately been teaching
the younger classes, making my way from the oktavas down to the quintas
and quartas. Every month, the students become a little more shy, a
little more eager and attentive, but mostly just plain cute. I’m not
gonna lie: the most memorable classes I’ve ever taught are the ones
during which the first lesson I first walked into a room and witnessed
terror in their eyes. Not due to my disciplinary skills (admittedly, I
have none), but due to the fact that I am American. And also a few years
older than them. And (perceptibly) taller than (some of) them.
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| So little! |
So while a lot of their presentations carried similar themes (Hollywood,
the Walk of Fame, famous Californian movie stars), it didn’t matter
because it was so endearing just to hear them speak.
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| A couple of primas talking about Hollywood |
And why they’re
cute isn’t because the students are unintelligent – Grace and I got to
listen to an impromptu concert by some very gifted prima students–it’s
just that their intelligence is packed into such a small physical space
(aka, their height and miniature clothes) that there were some times
Grace had to tell me to stop saying how cute they were.
But still, they are and I can’t help it.
I still attended some regular classes on Wednesday, but the beauty of
being a teaching assistant is that I just continued the Californian
spirit by playing trivia games with the quintas. Afterwards I took some
of their pictures. I have to say, this class is not only hardworking but
makes me laugh.
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| FCE students yeah! |
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| Really good students! |
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| They wanted me to take a couple of pictures with them. |
California Days ended with two seminars. Grace and I had a postcard
making workshop, where people sent postcards from places in California.
(I got a lot of Golden Gate Bridge pictures out of it.) The last couple
hours of the day were then spent in a literature seminar, where Grace
and I got to hear some Ginsberg-esque masterpieces from the older
students.
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| Writing on the piano. | | |
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| My mentor Zdena talking to a student. |
By the end of the week I was completely spent, but again full of
tenderness for all the people at my school. And also for Grace, who was a
real trooper and woke up at 6:30 in the morning with me everyday. I
should also make a shoutout to Andrea and Jakub from the Fulbright
Commission, who trekked all the way over to my gymnazium to see the
students as well as give study abroad presentations to the septimas and
oktavas.
Overall, it was a lovely experience and probably will be one of the best
memories I have of my Fulbright teaching experience thus far!
This article is taken from the blog of Trisha Remetir, 2011-2012 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in the Czech Republic.
