School House Rocks

The American teachers at Tisovec began reporting for school this past Monday. This week we have been inundated with school policies. We’ve met our Slovak colleagues. We got up at 4:30am to travel to Martin to have blood drawn and x-rays done so that we can receive health insurance in Slovakia. We’ve even been assigned offices. Life has been busy!

While the students will officially begin school this Monday, regular classes will not start until the following Monday (September 7th). This means that we have a little over a week to begin preparing for classes. Life is about to get busier.  

EGT, the Evanjelicke Gymnazium at Tisovec, is a five-year, bilingual high school. During a student’s time at EGT, he or she will learn academic content in both Slovak and English. At the end of a student’s fifth year, he or she takes the Maturita which is a state-legislated “leaving exam.” The Maturita covers everything the students learn in school –science, mathematics, literature, religion, history – and is given in oral and written components in both English and Slovak. As you can imagine, teaching fourth and fifth year students at EGT can be fairly stressful.

Yesterday, the American teachers finally received their teaching assignments – and I could not be happier with my classes! My schedule may seem confusing (I think I am still a little confused!) but here goes nothing:

I teach two sections of 1st year English five days a week.
I teach two sections of 2nd year Religion once a week.
I teach two sections of 3rd year Religion once a week.
I teach two sections of 4th year Religion once a week.
I teach one section of 5th year English Writing twice a week.

First and foremost, I am excited to be teaching all five years of students! This means that during this semester, I will have well over 200 different students. I’ll let you know the exact number once I get rosters.  
  
With regard to my classes, I am happy to have first year English students. I am excited to be teaching a beginning level of English --- in fact, during my study in ESL, I spent the most time teaching level one and two learners. I am also thrilled to be teaching writing. I love to write, and I enjoy editing papers. I find the writing process particularly fascinating – especially as it pertains to non-native speakers. The only surprise in my schedule was the religion classes I will be teaching. When I was appointed to this missionary position, I was told that EGT did not need any religion teachers. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I will be teaching THREE religion classes! Woo-hoo. I can’t wait!