Final Reflection

I am not sure I even know where to begin on my final reflection. I have been putting it off for over a week and I would be remiss if I did not complete it. This trip has forever changed me. It was my first time in over 20 years, where I was alone and the only two labels I initially carried were "Joe" and "teacher from Vermont." It was also the first time visiting a country where I did not know the language. Thanks to my travel cohort of 11 other teachers and the leadership of IREX's Claire Breedlove, this trip was wildly successful. It showed me how to do international travel. I am now ready and I have the confidence to travel to new places on my own and/or with my family and friends.

I lived in the moment. During my entire time that I was away, I lived in the moment. I appreciated and took advantage of all the situations that were presented to me. I tried to take in all of the sights, sounds, and smells. I was able to ignore the minutia of life and just appreciate the world. Now that I am back home, I am working on living in the moment.

I can get by with a simple "Hello" and "Thank You." I did not learn as much Georgian as I would have liked but learning these two words showed my appreciation of their culture. People were more than willing to help me out when I made the attempt to speak their language.

I am very lucky to speak English. Regardless of where I was, there was always someone around who spoke English.

Only knowing one language made me feel stupid. In my travels, I came across many people who spoke more than one language and some that were able to speak four or five languages. I wish that learning language was more of a priority in this country.

Teachers in Georgia complain about the same things that teachers in the United States complain about: lack of resources, not enough time, not enough pay, not enough time, poor parenting, etc. At the end of the day, all teachers still go to work and care deeply about their students.

Good teaching is good teaching. While I was in Georgia I saw schools that had limited resources, but I also saw some amazing teachers doing the best with what they do have.

Georgia had beautiful nature and history. There was something amazingly peaceful seeing churches and castles that were over 2000 years old. The nature of Georgia is absolutely gorgeous. I would go back to Georgia just go hiking/camping in Borjomi National Park.

I love visiting cities, but nature is much more relaxing and spiritual.

Athens, Greece was a nice stop on the way home. Seeing the Parthenon, watching the sunset, and visiting the ocean had a magic all its own. There is something special about walking the streets where there is over 2000 years of well documented history.

While traveling, I found that blogging and emailing my family, was very therapeutic. It helped frame my thoughts and gave me a sense of where I came from. I am very appreciative that this blog will serve as digital scrapbook of my experience.

I will travel internationally again both for pleasure and for work. Some possible destinations: Iceland, Finland, Spain, Peru (Machu Picchu), and of course I will take advantage of opportunities that will send me to some place new.

Meeting the Teacher and Students of Akhaltiskhe #5

Mitlon Bear, Me and the 4th Grade Class

Milton Bear, me and the 8th Grade Class.

The teacher:

Today I had the opportunity to watch an amazing teacher. After all of the talk about how the education system here in Georgia is very tradition stand and deliver and memorize rote facts, I saw a teacher that promoted group work and presentations. Students were doing group work, giving presentations and seemed very engaged and happy. It reminded me very much of the work that I see teachers do on my house. I even had to laugh because she was correcting students on putting words on presentations that they did not understand. I have heard Ms. Endres give the same critique to my students numerous times. I was also very impressed with the content the 8th grade students presented on their favorite TV shows and the 7th grade students presented on environmental issues. This may be my American ignorance, but I was shocked to see them presenting on environmental issues. At the end of the lesson, the teacher gave an impassioned plea for bike lanes in Georgia to help cut down on green house gasses. And given the way people drive in Georgia, I would be very hesitant to get on a bicycle and ride the streets of Georgia. Another thing that was impressive was the vocabulary of the student explaining such complex issues in a language that was not their own. I could not envision any student in Vermont giving the same quality presentations in a language other than English.

 


The students:

The students were awesome. They were very courteous and curious. They asked me about my favorite TV Shows, DC vs. Marvel, and music. During the 8th grade presentation about TV shows here were their answers:

In order of most popular:
Flash (3)
Georgia X Factor (2)
Shadow Hunters (2)
Teen Wolf (2)
Harry Potter (2)
Georgia Dancing with the Stars (2)
Once Upon a Time (2)
Prison Break
Grey's Anatomy
Shannara Chronicles
Arrow
The Legends of Tomorrow
Umaru
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
Flat 18 (Georgian Sitcom)

Sometimes they watch the shows in English and sometimes they watched them dubbed in Georgian.

Another thing that was interesting is that one 7th grade class asked for my autograph. I felt like a celebrity of sorts.

Below is a video of Happy Birthday and part of a presentation on Harry Potter.

8th Grade Art Work

8th Grade Presentation

4th Grade

4th Grade

Miton Bear and 4th Grade eating Salt Water Taffy from New Jersey

Student Presentation on her favorite band. Look familiar?

Milton Bear 4th Grade

Introduction to Akhaltsikhe

I had a wonderful welcome to Akhaltsikhe. Our host teacher Lela was awesome. She met us at the hotel and we walked over to her school. The students were all buzzing with excitement when we walked into the building. There were a lot of big smiles on their faces. We visited with the director of the school, visited some of the classrooms, and watched a dance class. After the tour, we went back to our hotel room and had lunch. We then went on a quick visit to Rabati Castle. (We will be visiting Rabati Castle tomorrow to get the full tour and for dinner). Afterwards, we had a nice chat with Lela about education, her experiences, the fact she know four languages, Georgian, Russia, English, and Ukranian. Her daughter is a high school exchange student in Texas. The conversation then turned to the importance of travel and coming back to you homeland to help improve it.

We also talked at length about women's role in Georgain society. In Georgia, the cultural expectation is that women serve the men, stay at home, cook, and clean etc. This expectation is beginning to change in society and Lela is a great example of someone who has bucked the trend.

Milton Bear at Rabati Castle. He is looking forward to visiting the school tomorrow.

The Dancers:

Pictures:

Lela in her 8th Grade classroom. The students stay in the same room and teachers move to different rooms.

The school's entrance.

Dance students.

The American Corner

Queen Tamara

View from the castle. I love the mountains.

Wendy, Lela, and Me at Rabati

Georgians love their cakes and I do too.

Public School in Tbilisi

Outside of the school.

**Be sure to view my Instagram Account to see students in action in chemistry, reciting the alphabet, and at recess.

Today I went to visit a public school in Tbilisi. It was very eye opening. On the outside of the school wall there was a bunch of graffiti. When I went inside, parts of the school looked like any other school and other parts where in disrepair. Throughout Tbilisi, it is not uncommon for the outside of the building to look run down, while the inside of the building is well kept.

I visited a 10th grade chemistry class and we walked into see a few elementary school grades. There were a few things that struck me, when we walked into the classroom, all the students rose from their chairs to greet us. When students spoke in class they needed to rise to address the class or the teacher. 

In the chemistry class, they were worked in groups to mix different chemicals to make the colors of the rainbow. It was cool to see the periodic table in Georgian and other science posters in Georgian. Can you understand what they are saying?

Video:

Periodic Table.

Recess/Gym

Stage/Theater

These are pictures from the elementary school. They did not look too different from our elementary school classrooms. The elementary classroom where all just redone. It was really nice to heart them count to 10, recite the alphabet, and tell us their name. 

Georgian Education

In the morning we had another presentation by Tiko (pictured above) She presented us with some information about Georgian Education. We followed that up with a presentation from a panel discussion from the Ministry of Education. We met with Natia Joakhadze, Head of of National Curriculum Department, Tamar Kitiashvili, Advisor to Vocational Education, Nona Popiashvili, Consultant at Teacher Professional Development, and Nino Udizilauri, Education Officer at Millennium Challenge.

These were the big take aways from the presentation.

• Students go to five 45 minute classes
• Students go to school from 9:00 - 2:45/3:00
• In the winter, the school day is shorter due to how cold it is.
• Most classrooms have a wood stove to keep the classroom heated.
• At 9th Grade students can choose to continue education or go on to vocational training.
• Parents choose what students will do.
• Student has very little choice in education.
• Students who can afford it go to private tutoring
• Most teachers take on private tutoring to support their income.
• Teacher get paid 500 GEL or approximately $250 per month.
• State assigns books and curriculum.All schools are centrally mandated by the government. All decisions about curriculum come from a central office.
• Discipline is an issue at school.
• All schools are controlled by a central government.
• State assigns books and curriculum.
• Smaller ethnic groups are allowed to maintain their own language in education.

At the Minstry of Education we learned:

• Georgia is just starting on Inclusive Education
• Most teachers teach in the a Soviet Style of Teaching: Rote learning and teacher is the center of the classroom.
• Average age of a teacher is 49.
• A quarter of the teachers are over 65.
• There is a big push to get more girls involved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math education)
• Girls are discourage from STEM careers both from parents and teachers.

My research question is What is the role of the community in education? This was the answer I received:

• Schools have to follow framework
• The central office asked for input from parents, teachers and school boards, many did not respond to the surveys given. This is a result from the Soviet Era where everything was mandated by the central government.
• According to the panel, they are working to increase input from local communities especially around vocational schools, where they want input from local businesses.

Georgian History, Georgian College Students, U.S. Embassy

I had an interesting day learning about Georgian Culture and History. Here are some of the interesting facts.

• New Years is bigger than Christmas. On New Years Santa Clause comes to your door with gifts. It used to be a snow man that came to the door, but now Santa comes.
• On New Year, the first person who comes through your door is very important because that person will represent the type of luck you will have all year.
• On your birthday it is your responsibility to make your own cake. Everyone comes to your house and you host a Supra (a party). This must be held on the day you were born no moving the date for convenience. So if your birthday falls on a Monday you celebrate on Monday.
• The biggest birthday is on your Golden Birthday - when the date you were born matches your age.
• Easter occurs in May. It is a very religious holiday.
• On Easter people go to their loved ones graves and have a small Supra. This is similar to Dios de los Metros
• On Friday before Easter you dye eggs red.
• You give people even flowers for good events and odd flowers for sad events. 
• All police building are made with glass to show transparency. This was done in 2003 with a new president who fired all police officers and replaced them with new ones to end corruption
• All 18 year olds must join the army.
• David the Builder was the greatest king who reigned over Georgia's golden age in 11th-12th centuries.
• The first European's were Georgian.

The above picture is of Ivane Ckheidze, Lela Okromelidze, and Sopio Nadiraze. They were above of the FLEX program which is an exchange program that brought these students to the United States for a year in high school. I was very impressed with all of the students. They were very inspiring. Lela, in the middle, has accomplished more in her short life than I have. She is on her way to becoming immunologists. She is working to cure Visceral Leishmaniasis, black fever, which is the second leading killer to malaria. Sopia, on the right, is working towards a degree in archeology. The two woman face an uphill battle as many women are not expected to be in these fields but due to their experience in the US, and more importantly their hard work, they have been afforded many opportunities. 

When asked to compare Georgian and U.S. schools, they said that they liked the amount of choice offered in US school to pursue their own interests. They liked that Georgian schools had more of a community and friendly field. One thing they did not like about Georgian schools was that there was too much testing. They also mentioned that in Georgia that there is an expectation that you go to university. If you do not go to university you will not get a good job.

Teachers use Facebook a teaching tool and to set up learning groups.

There perception of US students is that they are good at procrastination and that they do not take advantage of all the opportunities given to them.

I would love to bring a student from Georgia to Milton through the FLEX program.

U.S. Embassy

In the afternoon, we visited the U.S. Embassy where we got a security briefing and learned about the different education programs they offer.

The flight to Munich

Before the flight, I met with the other teachers. I found out that Milton is very small compared to many other schools. In Reno, Nevada, there high school is 2000 students and they only have two computer labs. In Raleigh North Carolina, there school is over 700 students, three times the amount of Milton's Middle School.