Mondays

I think my schedule for Mondays is finally set (for this semester at least). It is the same with 6A (8:25 - 9:10), 5V (11:20 - 12:05), and 12 (12:15 - 13:00). However, today I also sat in on the student parliament at 1:10 and taught 2 sessions of 1st grade (15:00 - 15:35, 15:45 - 16:20). This all adds up to being away from my apartment from 7:30 - 5:00. It was a long day but it was nice. It's an enjoyable afternoon.

To fill you in on the student parliament, here are a few of my observations from today. First off, they were very welcoming to me as a citizen from a democratic nation and welcome new ideas I may bring to their parliament which was nice. Since today was the first meeting of the new school year there was a lot of "housekeeping" type duties to fulfill. The student parliament is made up of two representatives from each class 5 - 12 grades. This adds up to roughly ____ students. Each week a different student is selected to be the secretary for the meeting so that more students get a chance to fulfill the job; however, there is still always a vote for the position. Today they voted on who was to be the President for the school year along with the 2 assistants to the President. From six nominations, three people were selected by a show of hands vote. The top three ended up being all girls with the President being from the 11th class. The students were excited which was good to see. Though these meetings are usually once per month there is another meeting next week. There will be a few representatives from different youth organizations there to present what they have been doing and give my school's parliament some ideas (or at least that is what I think is going to happen). 

After student parliament I had a snack and went to watch some of the 5-8 classes practice Horo. Horo is the name for the traditional style of dancing in Bulgaria. There are many different dances and most all have a specific song that goes with the particular dance. It was fun to watch some of my students in a different atmosphere and they're pretty good. The fifth graders are just learning what the eighth graders are trying to perfect but it was fun anyhow. The way the class is set up is that all of the older students are on the floor practicing and facing the choreographers while the fifth class is behind them on the stage watching and dancing along to learn the dance. I took lots of photos and I've added some below in case you're interested. I'll try to video a practice session sometime in the future. 

And for the first graders, our first day together was a lot of getting to know each other (and me remembering their names). Our question and answer of the day was: What's your name? My name is _______. Most of them got it fairly well, but definitely after some practice. The main vocabulary words for the day were apple, yes, no, hello, and goodbye;however, we also ended up doing tall, short, fat, thin, cat, and some random words they seemed to know. It should be a fun time with them as they want to learn, have lots of energy, and are in a small group. Teaching a foreign language in a small groups is so much more fun as the kids get to speak so much more! I wish all my classes had around 10 students, the amount of things we could get done would be amazing. Until next time here are some photos:

Some yummy pizza bread from the supermarket:

 Up close on this deliciousness:

 The student parliament:

 Dance Practice:

Again:

 The first graders, group one:

Having some fun: 

 The 1st graders, group two:

 More games to get them speaking (and moving around):

And Popitsa:

Peace, Love, and Literacy.