Teaching

Above is my school's people in the Regional Olympics which were held in Batsumber this year. The spring in Mongolia is kind of this funny time full of holidays and competitions which makes consistent anything difficult (my type A personality has shifted a lot more towards type B due to necessity here!) So my main responsibility besides teaching my regular classes this past month has been preparing these 10 students to participate in the English Olympics. All school subjects in Mongolia have Olympics in the spring that both teachers and students in each grade participate in, and all schools take it very seriously. the English Olympics consist of a written test which includes everything: listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, etc. Then a speaking test, for this we had students describe pictures. So on March 19 we had these Regional Olympics in Batsumber, at which a fellow PCV and I were the speaking exam judges. The purpose of the Regional Olympics is to be a practice for the aimag Olympics which are this next Tuesday. So I am actually in UB right now and will head to the aimag center tomorrow, as I will be judging the speaking again with some other PCVs. I was really proud of all my students at the Olympics, Batsumber took first place overall :) I wish I could eloquently convey to all my students how all that hard work they put in, and that their personal improvement was why we as a whole could get a high enough total score to win first overall. Sadly though I think my students who didn't get medals focus on only that, and so do the other teachers, losing sight completely of the point, that they now know so much more English then they did when we began preparing, and unlike the majority of the students in their class, they can actually communicate in English. That is the whole point. Before the competition they asked me if I thought they could get medals... I told them of course I think you can all get medals, but I don't care if you do. They gasped!! and I said, to me the point is you are learning English. We have had many discussions together about why they want to learn English and in these discussions they all say numerous reasons for why they need English in their lives. So I reiterated that that is what I am trying to help them with; they said they want to learn English, and that is what they are doing right now, that's the point.

I have been thinking a lot about education and being a teacher lately, and for a lot of reasons. I have been reading all about Governor Walker and what's happening with teachers and school budgets in Wisconsin. So some days as I'm walking home from a 10 or 12 hour day of school knowing when I get home I need to get my ger in order, make some food and then sit down and make sure I get everything prepared for the next day of teaching in order. And I love this because I love teaching. So sometimes on these walks home I can't help but just get frustrated that it seems like right now in Wisconsin some of these law makers don't understand 'the point' and again forgive me for not being eloquent at all with what I have to say, but they are simply missing 'the point.' I feel like there is a fair amount that should probably change with education in America, and I try to keep myself informed about these things and want to always learn more. I spent my senior year in college making art about inequalities in our education system. Having taught the past two years in Mongolia though I can now look at education in America and education here a bit comparatively, and in general I think we are doing pretty well in America. So when I hear about possible school budget cuts it upsets me. Oh no problem, we will just put a few more kids in each class, teachers will just take on teaching a few more classes... Well I have taught classes of 40 students here, I have seen more teaching with no preparation beforehand than I care to, and if I can be completely honest, it doesn't work, and it is not in the best interest of the children learning. So when I hear about eduction being devalued and teachers being told they need to make sacrifices too, I can't help but just think, man this guy (these guys) are missing the point. Students deserve to have the best opportunity to learn provided to them, yes we have budget problems, which I'm not even pretending to be well-informed about, but there simply has to be other solutions than drastically cutting education funding.

I have been trying to get all my information in order to hopefully apply for some teaching jobs for next fall and I stumbled upon this quote, "You must convince adolescents that being educated will enhance their lives." Teaching in Mongolia there are some days I leave class and think, wow, that was a good class... I think I was convincing today that this English stuff is worthwhile and the students seemed to have a lot of fun too! Good work Allie! And then there are plenty of classes where I wonder how much more each of my fourth graders would learn if the class size was cut in half, and some of these little boys would have the expectation in their head that they too actually need to listen and do the work I am saying... or wonder how my tenth or eleventh graders can possibly think they have 'earned' any grade other than a D (I am told no F's) when they have done no work the whole quarter, they don't even have an English notebook to show me as they stand in front of me saying, "Allie bagshaaa, a 65..." but this all gets me thinking about the whole system here and I wonder if I should bump everyones grades up, or ditch teaching any grammar at all, and instead just try to get these students speaking using the English they do know. I was talking with one of my friends Mongolian friends who is a teacher the other day and she asked me how education in Mongolia and America differ. I said the biggest difference is probably in America we are a lot more private with each student in terms of their grades and all that. In America (at least I hope, or as far as I know) a teacher would never announce a students good or bad grades aloud as a way to glorify or shame them. A teacher would never call a student stupid or intentionally embarrass them. Students aren't subservient, rather they understand figuring things out and messing up is part of learning, and they can always learn more because it is the teachers job to facilitate this, it is not something they either have or don't. Now there are so many great and kind teachers in Mongolia so take everything I say with a grain of salt, but at the same time the education system here is transitioning and there are a lot of old ways that are all too prominent, at least in my experience.

Anyways, concluding this entry that was all over the place... I guess my point is just that I think education is very important and being a teacher provides people like me the opportunity to be one of those influential people in a child's life... and I can't understand why anyone would want to do anything but support teachers and education.