Future Leaders of the World 8th and 9th Graders in Eskisehir

 

These are my students(Teacher Jerry)

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This is mixture of all 4 classes, but there are some really bright and talented kids in these groups.  I will say they like to talk and play as much as they like to study.  Today though I hit on an idea to have a student teacher from the class with me on each lesson and I think it will really help.  Each class has three lessons with me each week and that means we will have 3 student teachers per week per class.  These 12 will get special attention from me and also help me translate the assignments into Turkish, which seem to be a big issue with many  of them.  I have some talented musicians and a fine artist in one of the classes.  Learning the 70 names is going slowly, one of my students whose name is pronounced Jon said he noticed that if I did know a boys name I just called him Jon and it seemed to work.  This was not intentional, but maybe part of my answer for now.  No such luck with the girls though.  They like class games so any ideas or experience out in blog land will be appreciated.  We are working with creating a game called “The great game of learning English”  we are going to make up the rules during Sept and Oct and start the competition between classes in Nov.  Carol promises more on her kids this weekend.

Monday morning

I have a few minutes before we leave for our van to start another school week.  We’re taking cookies to school to celebrate getting our residency permits.  Bought my first pair of Turkish shoes, only 30 TL (turkish lira), this weekend and Jerry spent time getting our internet more established.  Sometimes everything comes through fine and other times it doesn’t “stream” very fast.  He thinks he has it figured out.  More about the students this week.  Jerry is trying to set up a pen pal program with some of our granddaughters class in Tucson.  Could be fun.

Being a Teacher what a concept!

Well school has started for real.  This is Teacher Jerry talking.  I have 4 groups of students, two 8th grades and two 9th grades and teach each 3 hours per week.  Sounds easy enough, but there is going to be a lot of prep and lesson planning to go along with the curriculum for their text books.  Not to mention grading homework.  Most of the kids are wonderful and really anxious to learn, but not all of course. There is a wide range of understanding or lack thereof in their English so I will have to work to span the range and still keep it interesting for all of us.  The books are really fun for me, because the topics cover the whole range of the worlds issues, history, math, etc.  They key is going to be a consistent discipline in the curriculum and the classroom.  I have had to get tough with a small group in one class and it looks like it may get even tougher to be fair to the other kids who do want to learn.

I took videos of each student pronouncing their name and telling how many years they have studied English and will watch them to learn the names and show them to entertain the students.  But even more entertaining will be the video of me trying to learn and pronounce the words I asked them to teach me.  They have all ready had a ton of laughs with this idea and it will continue since I have such a bad ear for language and I promised to video me practicing the vocabulary.  It will help me learn faster, but I will suffer the humiliation and hope it will be worth it.  I will get group pics next week. I already have a new and finer appreciation for the profession. I want to see the new film about education in America. Waiting for Superman. Who knew they would make a film about me so soon.

Kent Park Pics what a place to play

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We’re now officially teachers

It was such a busy week that I’ve missed blogging for a few days.  I was preparing for all the different levels that I am teaching. Now we’ve both had our first classes so I’m a little better oriented.  I’ll let Jerry blog about his experiences.  For the most part it was great, the kids are wonderful and don’t know quite what to do with a teacher that doesn’t speak their language.  You should see the pantomiming that goes on when they try to convince me they have to go to the bathroom right after their ten minute break. I’ve said yes a few times because I’m not really sure whether they are “conning” me or not and I don’t need an accident in the classroom!!!!  Classes are 40 minutes long with a ten minute break after each class.  Not hard to tell when it’s break time, the students watch the time down to the second.  There isn’t a bell so everyone just has to be on top of their schedules.  We meet our van at 7:30 and get to school about 8:00.  Classes start at 8:30 until 4:30.  We’re home by 5:30. .We don’t have any classes on Friday so today we are off, not sure if that will last or not.  I have 9 classes which took me all week to prepare for.  I also go into some of the other classes to see how the other teachers handle their classes which has been very helpful.  Now for the response to the “for the most part”.   One of my first grade classes is quite difficult to manage.  As soon as they figured out I couldn’t understand what they were saying some of them decided they could talk or do whatever they wanted.  I was relieved to hear that it wasn’t just me.  The other teachers are having challenges with this class.  After several attempts to quiet them down I went on with the ones who wanted to learn and finished the lesson.  I’m going to suggest that the other English teacher who has the class and I team teach in that room.  There are 24 kids and when you start checking on someone’s work you can lose control quickly.  Hopefully team teaching will help.

The kids are all at different levels with English.  Some grew up in English speaking households and are very good speakers.  Sedefsu, the little girl I met last weekend, speaks great English and was my “helper” in kindergarten.  Her mother, Sibel, loaned me some great books to read to the class.  Even though only a couple know the words that I’m reading they can understand the story with the pictures.   I’m going to try Dr Suess’s Green Eggs and Ham next week. 

The other news is that we got our residency permits yesterday.  We can officially stay in the country until next Sept.  That was an important part of working here.  Otherwise we were only on 3 month visas.  The weather is still beautiful but we can tell fall is coming soon.   We have a week break the middle of November and we’re trying to figure out where to go.  It is a very important Muslim holiday so we’re thinking of going to Italy even though the weather won’t be great.  We can fly out of Ankara which is only an hour and a half away. 

School Started

Carol is just one of the kids at lunch

All the kids and the parents ready for another year

The kids did a fine job of getting school off to a proud start

Well a lot of Pomp and Circumstance but the the real thing started and Carol had her first 5 grade class and she is off and running in her new career as an elementary school teacher.  She did really well and is still very enthused.  I on the other hand don’t start classes until tomorrow morning and am still not officially a real teacher, but tomorrow I dive in at 8:30 with my 8th graders.

Roger’s links take a look

http://http://www.sundialpress.co.uk/RED%20DIE%20Questions%20&%20Answers.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/Albions-Dream-Roger-Norman/dp/0385305338/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1284869301&sr=8-1

“Awesome” Weekend

We  experienced more of the Turkish hospitality this weekend.  We met Roger (English), his wife Sibel (Turkish), and their charming 6 year old daughter Sedefsu (Turkish name,  Christine, English name .  She just turned 6 yesterday.    Roger and Sibel both teach at Anadolu University. We met them at a Japanese tea garden on the University campus for drinks.  Because they had a lot of food from Sedefsu’s birthday party they invited us back to their home.  Everything is within walking distance for us or at worst a quick tram ride.  They have a lovely 4th floor apartment near the University that is very new.  The food, just happened to be vegetarian, which was perfect for us and all delicious.  We had a quinoa dish, several different types of breads and desserts and way more food than we could eat.  Sibel’s mother had made several of the dishes.  Roger is a writer and has worked on over 25 special projects for the UN.  He has great pictures from India and Africa and has worked in many places around the world.  We borrowed one of his books which is  a fantasy along the theme of the movie Jumanji with Robin Williams.  He wrote the book before the movie and it seems to me that he should have got credit for the movie but unfortunately, he didn’t.  Jerry will add the links to his Amazon site and the book site later.  Sibel is a professor of cinema.  The classes deal with the history and themes of films.  Apparently there is quite a film festival in Eskisehir in May.  I’m looking forward to hearing more about their careers and experiences. 

In addition to their home they own an acre of land about 20 minutes from downtown where they have have planted tomatoes, corn, potatoes, onions, fruit trees, and walnut trees, etc.  We drove out to their garden this morning (Sunday) and picked fresh tomatoes off the vine.  We have some to enjoy this week.  You can’t imagine the difference in taste from the tomatoes in the grocery stores in the U.S.   Sibel fed us more delicious leftovers.  While Sibel and Roger watered their trees and plants Jerry and I climbed a nearby hill with Sedefsu.  The views were wonderful and we ended up coming down the hill into a little nearby village.  There was a herd, if that is what they are called, of sheep walking through the village. 

We  ended our Sunday with our friend Diane seeing the new George Clooney movie, The American.  If you haven’t seen it, don’t.  It was pretty worthless.

         

Work Permit

 

We spent two afternoons this week working on getting our official residency card which will allow us to apply for a work permit.  It is quite a process and thank goodness the school is helping us.  Evrim, one of co-workers went along with us and the contract manager from the school so she could translate.  You go to some official office and get a # which then allows you to get a residency card in order to stay in the country past the initial 3 months on our visa.  After you get the # you go to the Foreigner’s Office to get the official residency card.  We think everything is going well!

Our dinner with the couple from England was moved to Saturday which was fortunate since most of the teachers in the school went out to dinner last night (Friday).  We enjoy the opportunity to get to know our co-workers better.  Several of the teachers were born and raised in Eskisehir but Evrim is from Ankara and Merve is from Izmir.  They are both experiencing work experiences away from home for the first time.  Merve’s boyfriend is visiting from Ankara (they both went to school there)this weekend and they invited us out for a drink last night so we could meet him. Would you believe we knew a bar to suggest as a place to meet!  He was a wonderful guy who spoke some English.  He was willing to practice with us.

Today (Saturday) we gathered our laundry to walk over to the lady who runs a laundry.  With sheets we had two loads which will be 12 TL which is about $8.00.  That’s washed, dried and folded.  Worth every lira.  We actually had a cleaning lady this week too.  Those who know me would not be surprised.  She did a great job for about $30.00.  Again, worth every penny.

This may be “TMI” (too much information) for some of you, but we have really liked having a bidet on our toilet.  It’s pretty standard in Turkey.  Some of the older restaurants and government offices still have Asian toilets which are on the ground.  Not my favorite bathrooms and I avoid them whenever possible.  Restaurants get points for having “regular toilets” which all have bidets.Always enjoy comments or e-mails. Hope everyone is doing well. Here is Carol getting some help from the German Teacher on how to get her school scarf tied. Then Carol with a couple from our team. Dressed for the big picture shoot.  More pictures soon, but here are the top admin people from school.  They

have all be working very hard to get school started this year.    More info later about each. 

 

Busy Week

We’re continuing to learn  more every day about our teaching duties.  Basically we are the “skills” teachers and the other English speaking teachers who are Turkish are the “main” teachers.  Essentially that means they teach grammar and we concentrate on speaking.  I may have mentioned this before but it’s not unusual for people to understand English but won’t or can’t speak it.  Since they can’t fall back on Turkish in our classes the hope is that everyone will practice their speaking.  I’ve been pretty impressed with the curriculum so far.  Jerry is already planning his lessons using the computer video technology.  I’m sure he will be a hit.  I’ve been observing the orientation sessions for the kindergarten and first grade this week and I must admit I am a little anxious about working with the little ones.  They are a bundle of energy.  I’ve been spending time looking at ESL websites for kids and reminding myself how to sing the Hokey Pokey, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and a few other easy songs that emphasize language.  More next week after I’ve actually taught a few classes. 

Jerry met a family today who was enrolling their 5 year old in kindergarten.  The husband is from England and the wife is Turkish.  They lived in London for quite awhile but wanted to raise their daughter in Eskisehir.  He said it is an undiscovered gem.  We’re looking forward to going out to dinner with them Friday night  and learning more about our area.  He also confirmed that there is no expat community.  It was also nice to hear that they picked our school, Ted Eskisehir Kolegi for their daughter.  He said the school has a good reputation in Turkey.

The school picks us up on the corner 3 minutes from our door at 8:15.  Most of the teachers get picked up which is a nice benefit especially since we don’t have a car.  The van makes about 5 stops after picking us up and there are probably 7 or 8 people on the van when we get on. We get dropped off about 5:30.  So far the days have gone quickly. 

A Warm Welcome

We had a delightful Sunday yesterday.  We spent part of the day on a long walk to Kent Park which is beautiful.  (Sorry, we forgot the camera) The trees and flowers are beautiful but they also have a man made beach for swimming.  The weather has turned a little cooler so no one was swimming but I can imagine it’s very busy on a hot summer day.  Then we had a very warm welcome from one of our fellow teachers, Ayse, and her husband who invited us to their home for baklava  and another delicious dessert and Turkish tea.  They have only been married for a little over a month so we were honored to see there wedding CD’s and pictures.  Instead of a rehearsal dinner they have a 4-5 hour dance in the evening attended by just the women.  The men are off doing their own thing.  Ayse had a beautiful white wedding gown and a 400 person dinner on their wedding day.  Guests who want to give gold or money but typically not presents.  They don’t have a registry for wedding gifts in Turkey. 

They also have a beautiful apartment right in city center that is on the second floor of a very long time family home. (I can’t remember how many generations but it’s been a long time). It had been modernized and was beautifully decorated.  We were quite impressed.  Her parents live downstairs part of the time but they have a farm about 20 miles away now that they are retired.  In addition they kindly walked over to our house and helped install our wireless.  We had a modem hook up but the directions for wireless were in Turkish and even Jerry was confused by them!!

They also have a car and took us to an all purpose store to do a little shopping.  (Jerry is becoming quite the handyman around the apartment.)  We ended the evening by going to bar street, yes it really is bar street, for a drink and discussion mostly about her husband’s CPA business.  (Unfortunately, I failed how to ask how to spell his name so I’ll ask soon and add Ayse’s husband’s name to a future blog. All in all, a very very nice day.

This and That

I always think of things to post after I post so I’m going to write an olio of things about Turkey:

1. I love that that halls in our apartment and other places are on motion sensors so the lights only go on when you step out the door.

2. Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way. Cars rule the roads but people still walk everywhere.  You just sort of stand in the middle of the road when you’ve made it half way across and wait for the next break in traffic. 

3. There is a high police presence, but there doesn’t seem to be much crime at least that we can tell.

4. Fathers are very involved with their children and older family members seem very respected.  Lots of families out eating ice cream and just enjoying the beautiful weather.

5. Students are back to start college at the two big universities here so there is even more activity on the streets.

Hope all of you are doing well.  Have a great Sunday.

Ataturk Museum

Yesterday we walked around the old, mostly restored, Ottoman section of Eskisehir and then went to the museum that is all about Ataturk who was the leader in the early 1900’s who is given credit for modern Turkey.  I know I’ve mentioned him in earlier blogs but since the museum was all about him we really got how much he meant to the people and the world.  there was a big poster, in English, with glowing comments from almost every world leader about Ataturk and what he had accomplished in Turkey.  Some of the people quoted were Eisenhower, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Churchhill, and the list went on and on.  The museum was mostly pictures of him.  He never seemed to smile but he had a very commanding presence.

We’re finding lots of interesting things to eat now that we know our way around a little more.  Baked potatoes with peas, corn, spices, yogurt and some other sauces I can’t describe are delicious.  Some cafeteria style restaurants have a lot of vegie dishes, and we love the pides which are long pizza type flatbreads.  We’ve found several good soup places and of course, there is a lot of bread served with everything.  So far the walking has kept the weight off.

I went searching for a black jacket to wear for special days at school.  You can find very cheap clothes here all the way to very expensive.  The jacket was about 99 TL  which is about 70 US dollars which is more than I wanted to spend since I will hardly ever wear it but that seems to be the best I can do on that type of clothing.  The costs of things are interesting.  Some things like our apartment I think is very reasonable, movies are about the same as the states but the theaters are nicer here.  Food varies depending on where you go just like the states. 

Life from the 6th floor in city center (is it Paris or is it Eskisehir?)

Bridge 12 looking  from our balcony

water taxi

 

More river views

 

As you can see from the pictures we still have a long way to go with our decorating but we get a few more things each time we’re out.  I think I mentioned earlier that we needed to buy something to hang clothes in.  With our limited wardrobes it works fine (see picture 4 below). Our kitchen is functional if you don’t want to cook and those that know me (Carol writing but Jerry feels the same way) know I don’t do much cooking and will probably do even less in Eskisehir. There are so many good restaurants that by the time we bought cooking utensils, pots and pans etc we probably would spend less going out.  Jerry took the bedroom picture before the bed was made but we decided to leave it in.  We bought single beds because I don’t think they have king and we’re definitely not use to doubles!!  It’s still warm enough at night that all we need is a sheet but we did buy our blankets yesterday to be prepared for a change in the weather.  The woman sitting with me on our balcony is the only other American that we’ve met in Eskisehir.  She’s the one (Diane) who has been so helpful with getting set up.

 

 

We’re off work now until Monday.  It’s the Bayram holiday, end of Ramazon (I thought it was Ramadon but they use Ramazon here).  Yesterday the streets were packed and everything was open.  Today is quiet and only some of the stores are open.  People spend time with their families and give out candy.  Not sure what to expect for the rest of the weekend.  On the last day of school (Tuesday) before the holiday there is an very nice tradition where all the teachers gather and the owner of the school gives his best wishes for the holiday.  Then everyone goes around the circle wishing everyone a good holiday with lots of double cheek air or double cheek kisses. It actually went on for a long time with circle moving almost like a virtual motion machine.  Then we got on our bus for the ride home.

We had thought about going somewhere with the time off but we enjoy hanging out here enough that we will probably just “hang out”.  Can you believe I said that!  There’s another 5 day holiday in November so we’ll probably plan on something then.

Life is very good and we are starting to think about what I’m going to do in our classes.  We have a curriculum but I want to keep learning as much fun as possible.

You want pictures you got pictures

Many of the blog followers have said they need more pictures and I (Jerry) know it is a thirst for the true art being created here by my raw talent. 

But I am going to but them on anyway. We start with our trip to Ankara and the wonderful museum.  I didn’t find out that I was not supposed to use a flash until the end, but as you can see I got payback for breaking the rule. These pics don’t begin to do justice to the ancient story being told from 3000 B.C.    Hopefully you know you can click on each picture and enlarge it.

 

 

Here we began our climb up to the old city of the Citadel.  The steps were well worth the effort.

 

 

Just a few more shots around our new home of Eskisehir.  Statues and parks all over the city along with beautiful mosques.

 

 

Now we come to the new work place for Carol and Jerry. As you can clearly I am the token male in the English and Foreign Language Department

 

1 A Team at work on lesson plans           

2  Melda and Carol                                     

3   Evrim                                                 

4  Evrim and Ayse

 

 

5 Merve and Evrim

6  Merve, Evrim and  Ayse

7  Gokce 

8    Carol with Turkish Coffee

 

 

9 Carol and Melda laughing it up as always 

10 Aysel our non English Foreign Lang. Dept          

11  Esin                                   

12Visiting teachers to our department

 

13 Melda hard at work                 

14 Carol and new tech.  CD Player      

15  Our team without Aysel                   

16 Again and Again with the token male

17 In the back row next to me is our new boss Serife

 

We are having a blast and the team is wonderful as you can see they are all young and youngerrrrrr. The headings don’t publish  the same as the show in the editor sorry.