When I was in Ozurgeti last, I purchased 21 very cool matching notebooks…one for each student in the 6th Grade (Level 6). We’ve been using these “Special English Notebooks” as I call them, all week. But here’s how we started: For this class, I’ve challenged them to complete the Level 2 English World book in [...]

Every school day I’m bombarded by kids all saying “hello. how are you.” Some of them try to kiss my cheek (the common way to greet each other here) or shake my hand and some of them want to give me food or candy or gum. Today however, was extra special. One girl handed me [...]

I’d like to offer everyone a realistic impression of my time here in Georgia and that means there will be good things and less-than-good things. This is one of the latter: The most frustrating part about my time teaching in a Georgian school so far has been the constant change in schedule. We are already [...]

I went to town (Ozurgeti) today to pick up: 10 huge poster boards, 21 notebooks, 30 pens, 2 glue sticks, a jar of sweeties, and string. My weekend project is to make ACB charts (some have numbers, verbs, colors, etc.) which I will then hang on the walls in the classrooms. (This will also add [...]

Yesterday, Toma and I completed another private English lesson and finished the entire chapter 1 in his book (it’s about 10 pages)! Again, my contract states I have to teach the household 3 hours a week, but because Toma is such a bright student and so eager to learn, we will probably spend much more [...]

The FLEX program is a Georgian program that sends 50 students to America for one high school year. This opportunity is available to any Georgian student in the 9th-12th grades who pass exams, write a letter of intent, gather letters of recommendation, and most importantly pass an English ability test. Those lucky 50 students live [...]

My walk to school each morning it’s too terrible….unless you’re wearing boots with heals…then it’s treacherous! I unfortunately forgot to wear my sandals for the walk to school…so I got to play slip and slide in the mud before work today. It’s amazing I didn’t twist an ankle. (I wonder if “walking to school” is [...]

Well, today was the first day of many more to come. I was told to be ready by 8:30, and of course we actually left at 8:15….I think I’m getting the hang of this be-ready-by-a-certain-time-but-we-are-actually-leave-before-then thing. So we arrived at the skola before everyone else. Soon bus loads of students arrived and there was hustle [...]

Today we had our official meeting with our regional representatives and co-teachers. As a side note: it took us two hours to get from Shroma to Ozurgeti because we had to keep stopping and waiting for others to arrive (this trip usually takes 10-15 minutes), so I finished the book I was reading during this [...]