Monday, March 14, 2011

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, no really.

I can't put my finger on a specific reason today was such a great day so I'm giving it to the weather. It was a beautifully sunny day here in Sliven. I actually enjoyed my walk from school to the grocery store and then back to my place. Plus, as I'm writing this my cats are sitting, staring out the window, watching the men play football in the school yard. It is extremely cute. I knew I had to blog today in case tomorrow is a different story (which is very well could be). All my classes went pretty great today. Eleventh grade was especially interesting as we did something new. 

For a bit of background on the assignment I gave the 11th graders today I have to start with yesterday. I spent most of Sunday cleaning and organizing and came across a great deal of paper garbage. I came across the copy from Peace Corps with all the snapshots of us volunteers and knew I should do something with the faces instead of just throwing it out. So, I decided to cut them all up (just faces, no names) and glue one photo on enough pieces of paper for each of my 11th graders, and then some. The task for the students today was to look at the photo and then make up information with the following questions:

1. What is his/her name?
2. How old is he/she?
3. When was he/she born?
4. Where is he/she from?
5. Where does he/she live now?
6. Is he/she single, dating, engaged, married, or divorced?
7. Does he/she have any children? If so, what are their names and ages?
8. Does he/she have any brothers or sisters? If so, what are their names and ages?
9. Does he/she have any pets? If so, what are their names?
10. What are his/her hobbies/interests?
11. What is his/her daily routine?
12. Give an interesting fact about this person.

It was a great way for me to see their creativity and writing capabilities as it involved a lot of everyday, useful information. Plus, it made it a lot more fun for me to grade them (reading about people I actually know). Some of the information came out pretty hilarious. 

After school this afternoon there was a dance competition between the choreography students at my school. They danced in pairs and were judged by my counterpart as well as our school Principal. It was very fun to watch, here are a few clips for your own enjoyment (though it was couples from 5th to 12th grade I have only included the top 3 pairs):

11th Graders:
Sorry, the video was somehow deleted instead of uploaded, on my computer and the blog. (They 11th grade pair is in the back of the Improv videos below.)

12th Graders:

12th Graders:

Then the 3 couples had to improvise to 3 different songs:





And this is how we killed 10 minutes waiting for the judges to tally scores and sign certificates:


Finally, I ended the day with 1st grade. I let 16 kids come today instead of the usual 12 which actually went pretty well. For a teacher who speaks little Bulgarian and students who speak relatively no English we work things out just fine. The video below is how we ended things today (they may not know right and left, but they are learning the body parts). The video's a bit crazy but hey so is our class.


Once again, I would like to wish the Peace Corps a happy 50th Anniversary. And congratulate the Peace Corps Bulgaria Family on a wonderful 20 years. PC Bulgaria just received the Presidential Medal of Honor. Plus, there is a photo display near the National Theater in Sofia from now until March 27th to show what volunteers are doing here in Bulgaria. Here's an article for your reference:


 For all of you who haven't seen it I also wanted to share the poster that was created by Shepard Fairey to celebrate this important anniversary.


If you're not familiar with Shepard Fairey I've included a few links below. The poster's style may look familiar to those of you who have seen the poster of President Obama that was also created by this artist. 


Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity. 

No comments:

Post a Comment