Happy Holidays folks,
Time to update this one from the LAST holiday I posted about, Thanksgiving.
After thanksgiving I had a conference in Kobuleti (about 30 minutes from Batumi) at a fantastic hotel called the Georgian Palace. The rooms were nice and all, but what really made it grade A was the fact that it served bacon in the morning. Real bacon! I hadn't had this since I left America, and it was wonderful to experience it again. It was like running into your best friend on the street that you haven't seen in ages and realizing how much you really missed them. And then being ripped apart again, knowing you wouldn't see then again for at least 20 more months. Dang it.
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| Plate full of Bacon. I had to take advantage of the situation. |
We talked at the conference about doing grant writing, which I'm excited to do in order to help my village and community. The problem is coming up with a solid idea though; most of the things that would really help are more expensive than the $3,000 dollars or so that I'll be able to receive through USAID. But hopefully working with my counter part teacher and director I'll be able to find something that will have value.
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| My counterpart teacher Irina and I working on our project |
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| Working with some other PCV's and their counterpart teachers on Project Design Management (PDM) |
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| Being that guy who turns a serious picture into a calendar spread |
Now I've been back in school teaching for a bit at my site, and I've been trying very hard to combat the culture of cheating that they have here. Whenever we have tests I just get super pissed that the kids here will just tell each other what the answers are, and look on other peoples tests. I have gone so far as to make 5 different copies of tests, talk about the morality of cheating (basically that it steals time from the smart kids) and how it won't help them get into university (the kids have to take a national exam to get in, which doesn't allow cheating. At least so I'm lead to believe). I also patrol the class like a hawk and take kids tests who are cheating and give them a grade of "1". Here in Georgia a "2" is the lowest grade possible, on a scale of 0-10. so to get a one brings them great shame. I get some some bad looks, but I honestly don't care. I even told them "Hey, I know you can't help yourselves but to cheat, so why not at least try to be creative about it? if I can't tell you're cheating then you've at least learned something".
A lot of it has to do with being brought up in an education system that doesn't promote creativity and originality Most of the "learning" is done through strait memorization, not application of concepts. It starts at a young age I found. I taught the 1st grade class three words the other day, and asked them to simply make their own drawings of each concept. I helped them out by drawing on the board. Okay, I know I suck at drawing, but the concept at least gets across.
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| Davinci I am not. More of a Dali. |
And then I went around to look at their drawings......
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| Cat Rabbits are awesome |
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| Hmmmm.... |
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| Trend? |
So yeah all 15 drawings looked like this and that's what I am trying to change which is tough when most of their classes aren't designed to promote creativity. But hey if it were easy, Peace Corps wouldn't be here.
