Laura and Erkegul, the English teacher from Darin and a friend of mine. Erkegul was actually a French major in college but she's one of the best English teachers in Olgii.
My students, the 11th grade team from Darin.
Explaining something :)
Making new friends while preparing for the competition.
Yesterday and today we had the 2nd English and General Knowledge Olympiad, where 9th, 10th and 11th grade students from nine schools around Olgii competed in English usage, general knowledge, math, and computers. A lot of effort was put into the competition and without the help of Laura and Agii (English teacher and a good friend of mine), none of it would have been possible.
I was only part of the initial planning/brainstorming session for the math and computer sections of the competition but I was very involved in the planning for the English and general knowledge section. I also served as the host/announcer, which was fun. Ashlee, Lauren(Olgii Fulbright scholar and eagle hunter extraordinaire), Botagoz (Olgii's English methodologist) and Marjan (from World Vision) served as the competition judges. Each of Olgii's nine schools, six public and three private, sent teams of four students, one team for each grade, 9th, 10th and 11th grade. After giving a brief (many entertaining and creative) team introduction, the students were quizzed on general knowledge questions covering geography, science, history, and other topics. English usage sections included grammar, vocabulary, idioms, and proverbs. There was also a performance section, where teams and individuals sang songs, rapped hip hop lyrics, and some included dance routines.
Between sessions, students in the audience were given the opportunity to answer sample questions and were awarded books if they answered correctly. The students put a lot of effort into preparing for the competition and Laura and I were very proud to see teams of students, that we had taught and prepared, do very well. The students, especially the girls, are very competitive and there were emotions running high when the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners were announced. Quite a few of the students were in my classes last year and some are in this years' as well, so it was interesting seeing them all competing. I was very proud of them, especially my 11th grade girls, many of whom I met when I first started teaching in Olgii. :) I know that they have bright futures ahead of them if the continue to work hard and apply themselves.
After the competition was over, Agii and I were both pretty exhausted and drained. The power was on and off all day today, delaying the competition and making people restless. Despite the delays and two pretty long days, I feel like the competition was a success. The students really seemed to enjoy it, many students earned prizes, all of the students got free books, and certificates were raining from the sky (Mongolians/Kazakhs love cerfiticates). Agii and I went to dinner and had a beer, discussing the days' events, talking about what can be improved upon for next year, etc. Agii is a rare breed, a smart, hard work teacher who genuinely cares about his students, his community, and wants to make things better. Him and I have some long term plans that we feel will really help Olgii out, which I will elaborate on further in a future post.
Besides the English competition and preparing for Laura's upcoming English teachers' seminar, there wasn't much going on this past week for me. Nurbol is in UB and will hopefully be purchasing and shipping the computers for the learning center tomorrow. IF things go as planned, next week we'll be setting up computers and buying the rest of the furniture for the new center. I'd like to have it open and available for students to use before April if possible. I think with the current funds and resources available, it's going to be a great place for kids to spend time, study, use the computers, and feel comfortable and safe. I'll try to post some more pics from the competition up next and possibly a video. More to come. :)
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