Zoe’s Grant


Blog

Primary School Classroom Construction Hey, does anyone remember a couple of years ago when I asked you for money? It wasn’t really for me, but I was still asking and it made me happy. Well, I’m asking again and it will make me happy once more if you’re able to give. [pe2-image src=”http://lh5.ggpht.com/-vC5xM7Py6Ok/Up8w-Sq0p4I/AAAAAAAASZ0/MDW-Y5wTaBI/s144-c-o/IMG00302-20130926-0935.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/111197070419838127380/20131204#5953531079128557442″ caption=”” […]

December 4, 2013

Another Year Ends, Looking Forward Now


Blog

It’s been a year now since I last looked back. I think I’ve come a long way, both physically and mentally. Any year I can say that is a good year, if you ask me. In the first half of the year, I spent much of my time working with students to prepare them for […]

January 1, 2013

Learning Not Cheating


Peace Corps

There are a lot of things about the Ukrainian school system that I just don’t understand because I grew up in the American school system. Things are done quite differently and it makes me wonder why. For example, the Ukrainian system of grading is on a 12 point scale where the American system is letter […]

September 20, 2012

Owning the First Day of School


Peace Corps

I talked to Jeramie yesterday and it sounds like she had an awful first day back at school. If not awful then at least not ideal. Apparently she had to deal with the same kinds of things we had to deal with in earlier years, but she’d thought she had helped her school past them. […]

September 4, 2012

Highlights of Teaching


Peace Corps

For the last two weeks of summer, I was asked to work with some of the students one-on-one to prepare them for the National English Olympiad. It’s been fun, and I’ve talked about my approach to teaching already. Today, I want to share the first week results of my method. While most of the time […]

August 24, 2012

Teaching One on One, Again


Peace Corps

School has me coming in this week and next week to work with some select students. There’s a handpicked group of six or seven they want prepped for the English Olympiads well in advance, and while I’m still here able to help. While I certainly could argue and put up a fight about having to […]

August 21, 2012

Varying Mentality


Peace Corps

Maybe I’m off my rocker, but students in Ukraine today tend to have a different mindset about school than I did when I was their age (cue fade into flashback). I had a thought-provoking chat with one of the teachers at school today after our class decided they could collectively show up ten minutes late […]

March 20, 2012

Turning the day around


Peace Corps

Today started out as a pretty crummy day for me. I’m not quite sure why. I woke up tired, but I’ve been tired all week; I even managed to accomplish more of my new daily exercise routine before I left for school. I had been getting too tired to go on during the previous few […]

September 7, 2011