September 30, 2011 - March 30, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Being Sick Abroad...
...is no fun indeed! It all started last Wednesday with an annoying dry cough. Before I could blink, I was in full "feel-like-death" sickness mode. I never got really sick back home, maybe the occasional head cold, but no body aches or fever. But here there are bugs unknown to my foreign body, and so they are in turn foreign, wreaking havoc on this poor PCV's immune system. There's been a battle raging inside me for over week now, although I think the tide has finally turned in my body's favor. I'm still not 100%, but I got through grading the Aimag English Olympics yesterday (Thursday, March 29) and will join my sitemates (and our soumer!) for pizza and much needed social interaction tonight.
My downfall was going to my TOEFL class and Speaking Club last Friday. I was completely incapacitated when I got home. Saturday and Sunday I reverted to a child, wishing my mother would appear to bring me soup & Jell-O (and some better drugs!). I writhed in bed, fighting the chills while sweating profusely and blowing my nose raw. I then made the dreadful mistake of going to dinner on Sunday night when Ambassador Addleton was in town. While I had met and talked with him before, I didn't want to miss him being here. Definitely set myself back with that 4-hour excursion. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I quarantined myself, only leaving the apartment to let Bambuul out (which is itself a cruel twist: it's been lovely spring weather here, weather suitable for long walks and energy burning). I've watched a ridiculous amount of movies and TV. And I've been playing with my new camera, shooting the only subject available to me. Oh get ready for it. More Bambuul pictures:
My downfall was going to my TOEFL class and Speaking Club last Friday. I was completely incapacitated when I got home. Saturday and Sunday I reverted to a child, wishing my mother would appear to bring me soup & Jell-O (and some better drugs!). I writhed in bed, fighting the chills while sweating profusely and blowing my nose raw. I then made the dreadful mistake of going to dinner on Sunday night when Ambassador Addleton was in town. While I had met and talked with him before, I didn't want to miss him being here. Definitely set myself back with that 4-hour excursion. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I quarantined myself, only leaving the apartment to let Bambuul out (which is itself a cruel twist: it's been lovely spring weather here, weather suitable for long walks and energy burning). I've watched a ridiculous amount of movies and TV. And I've been playing with my new camera, shooting the only subject available to me. Oh get ready for it. More Bambuul pictures:
Furminator + PediPaws = Best Groomed Dog in Mongolia!
Thanks for the new chews, Grammy!
Nom! Nom! Nom!
This is her shame face because she ate the whole chew in 10 minutes.
She was so good while I was sick, napping by my side.
Longingly looking out the window, but Mom's too sick to go for a walk.
I haz an ich.
Hangin' out in Mama's lap while Mama reads a book.
Oh hi Monkey!
Thanks for the new chews, Grammy!
Nom! Nom! Nom!
This is her shame face because she ate the whole chew in 10 minutes.
She was so good while I was sick, napping by my side.
Longingly looking out the window, but Mom's too sick to go for a walk.
I haz an ich.
Hangin' out in Mama's lap while Mama reads a book.
Oh hi Monkey!The Aimag Olympics were pretty much a bust for my school. Our 9th grader took 18th, our 11th grader 11th, and the two participating teachers took 12th and 22nd. The Ministry banned 10th graders from taking the 11th grade test with only about a week's notice. My school's replacement was a weak contender to begin with, in addition to minimal prep time. My 10th grader Altanshand (the 11th grade city test winner) and I have been preparing all year. It was devastating to say the least. But as a true Wild and Twins fan I'm oft to say, "There's always next year..."
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
ICWC Pictures
Thanks to my wonderful parents, I got the best care package ever today. Included among the many amazing food items was my new camera! Yeay photo-taking capabilities! And the dress I'm wearing was in the box too.
Munkzaya (in white) is my 7th grader. She took 2nd place among 7th graders. Altanshand (in black) is my 10th grader. She took first place among 10th graders and her essay was one of 5 "Judges' Choice" essays. She's also the one who won the 11th Grade City English Olympics.
This is Nyamsuren. She is an 11th grade student at School #5. She always comes to Speaking Club and Film Club so we've gotten to know each other a bit. Her essay took first among 11th graders, and was also a "Judges' Choice."
Monday, March 19, 2012
Let's Speak English
Today I was the sole judge for the 5th grade "Let's Speak English" competition. Five teams (one from each class: 5a, 5б, 5в, 5д and 5г) of six to eight students participated in six rounds of various English "challenges."
The kids started the competition with the first three verses of B.I.N.G.O.
Round one: Each team got a topic, wrote a "paragraph" then one person read the paragraph aloud.
I'm sure I was doing something very judgy while the students were writing.
Reading what their teams wrote.
Round two: One member of each team drew a short text then read it aloud.
Each text was only 3-5 sentences.
Round two: One member of each team drew a short text then read it aloud.
Each text was only 3-5 sentences.
Round three: Four members from each team got 1 minute to write as many words as related to a randomly drawn topic (ex: food: apple, meat, milk, onion).
Round four: One member from each team chose a picture and talked about it.
Three of the five teams blindly chose the same image.
I learned a lot about this family!
Round four: One member from each team chose a picture and talked about it.
Three of the five teams blindly chose the same image.
I learned a lot about this family!
Round five: Charades, kind of. One kid from each team drew a noun then gave clues or acted it out for their team to guess.
They only got 30 seconds, hence my watch-watching.
Working out a clue...
Round six: AHA! Two kids from each team were asked a question (what color is grass?) and the students had to answer within 30 seconds. Each student was allowed two wrong answers then they were out.
The last two boys standing.
First place winners: 5д.
Second place winners: 5a.
Third place winners: 5в.
All the winning participants.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Songs
Since I am currently camera-gui I haven't been posting much. And of course, there have been a hundred things I wish I had been able to take a picture of (like the drunk guy passed out half in a puddle but still clutching his empty bottle or the adorable roly-poly puppies I followed to work or the hilarity that is a kid avoiding a giant lake of melted snow) which only goes to show that I need to take more pictures once I do get my new camera. So anyway, here's a little something to tide you over: my 5th graders singing B.I.N.G.O. and my APDC ladies singing You Are My Sunshine.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Olympics
Since resuming classes after Tsagaan Sar, I have been engaged in a flurry of Olympics. You see, the Academic Olympics are a BIG deal here. Think the National Spelling Bee, only on steroids. The competition is fierce, the distrust is rampant, and the glory is sublime. The Olympics span all subjects, but obviously for me, it's all English. For weeks now I've been giving practice tests (mostly grammar and listening) and trying to teach test-taking strategies, even adding extra time to my school schedule to accommodate students wanting additional help. I've also been working with a handful of students who participated in the PC International Writing Competition, but more on that later.
So on March 1 each school held their Olympics; technically it's only for 9th & 11th grades and teachers, but 8th graders can take the 9th test and 10th graders can take the 11th test. Based on those results, students knew if they should (yes, should, not could) participate in the city-wide Olympics, held at Khan-Uul school this past Sunday. The overall winners and the winner from each school (regardless if they placed 1st or 60th, if you placed first among all participants from your school, you "won") will participate in the aimag-wide Olympics on March 29th. I've heard non-winning students can pay to participate.
Let me elaborate on the Khan-Uul Olympics process: Participants (and I as the Native English Speaker representative) show up at 8:30am. They figure out what room they're in, and by 9am are expected to be in it. Well, that doesn't happen 'til about 9:15. Next, the tests. The tests are not printed. Rather, one copy of each exam is in a sealed envelope that, at 9:30, a participant from each classroom witnesses being opened in the teachers' lounge. Now the copies are made on "official" paper (the paper had the ubiquitous red stamp on it) and taken back to the classrooms for participants to start. I am finally given the listening scripts to read about about 10am. I start making the rounds to 14 (yes, 14!) classrooms to read the listening scripts. Parched, I finish around 11:30. I then summon any and all available PCVs to come assist with the grading. Yep, all the grading is done by hand. No Scantrons here! Two other PCVs show up and we begin the grading at about 1pm. One teacher from each school is asked to help grade the 9th and 11th multiple choice. We, the native speaking PCVs, will score all the writing. And due to the aforementioned distrust, we, the PCVs, grade everything on the teachers' exams. 193 exams and 3 hours later, we're finished. It's a little after 4pm. I am exhausted. My head is throbbing from reading all the essays (each essay got read and scored twice in an attempt at objectivity). The overall winners got a medal and a cash prize, something that apparently became very messy and contentious when a pair of teachers tied for second and a pair of students tied for first on the 11th grade exam. Glad I wasn't part of sorting that out!
But the fun was only beginning...
For the second time, Mongolia participated in the PC "sponsored" International Creative Writing Competition (ICWC) . It takes place in about a dozen PC countries and aims to improve writing skills, the least-taught skill. So on Friday and Sunday, the official writing sessions for the competition were held. Why two sessions? Because the Khan-Uul Olympics date got changed on us and when we realized no secondary students would be able to come to the Sunday session, J&K added a session on Friday evening. The turnout was impressive really, given all that was going on over the weekend. 48 participants across grades 7-11 and university. The students were given a choice of two prompts and one hour to write a creative essay. 6 PCVs and 4 HCNs with high-level English got together on Monday over dinner to score the essays. Every person read every essay and assigned a score based on a rubric. That's 10 readers x 48 essays = 480 reads. It took just under 4 hours. Exhausted and again with a throbbing headache, I stumbled home.
All that said, I'm actually looking forward to the aimag-wide Olympics. One of my students has a great shot at winning the whole thing (she was one of the two that tied for first on the 11th exam) and going to UB to compete at the national level. I'm just not particularly looking forward to the marathon grading that will follow. And in the next day or two J&K should have averaged out the ICWC essay scores and will announce the winner of each grade level. Those winners' essays will go up against the winners in the other aimags, and perhaps eventually against the other participating countries' winners. And again, I have a student with a real shot at winning not only for Choibalsan, but for Mongolia.
ICWC UPDATE: My 10th grader WON her grade and my 7th grader took 2nd in hers! Woohoo!
I think Bambuul hates me though, having locked her in the living room (couldn't crate her for that long) and neglected her walks and play time in favor of bed time these last two days. Not to mention the extra time at school the last 3 weeks. I can't wait 'til school break starts next week so I can catch up on sleep and puppy lovin' (er, I mean, training, yes, puppy training). But for now, I pray to the coffee gods to spontaneously refill my travel mug. Please!?
So on March 1 each school held their Olympics; technically it's only for 9th & 11th grades and teachers, but 8th graders can take the 9th test and 10th graders can take the 11th test. Based on those results, students knew if they should (yes, should, not could) participate in the city-wide Olympics, held at Khan-Uul school this past Sunday. The overall winners and the winner from each school (regardless if they placed 1st or 60th, if you placed first among all participants from your school, you "won") will participate in the aimag-wide Olympics on March 29th. I've heard non-winning students can pay to participate.
Let me elaborate on the Khan-Uul Olympics process: Participants (and I as the Native English Speaker representative) show up at 8:30am. They figure out what room they're in, and by 9am are expected to be in it. Well, that doesn't happen 'til about 9:15. Next, the tests. The tests are not printed. Rather, one copy of each exam is in a sealed envelope that, at 9:30, a participant from each classroom witnesses being opened in the teachers' lounge. Now the copies are made on "official" paper (the paper had the ubiquitous red stamp on it) and taken back to the classrooms for participants to start. I am finally given the listening scripts to read about about 10am. I start making the rounds to 14 (yes, 14!) classrooms to read the listening scripts. Parched, I finish around 11:30. I then summon any and all available PCVs to come assist with the grading. Yep, all the grading is done by hand. No Scantrons here! Two other PCVs show up and we begin the grading at about 1pm. One teacher from each school is asked to help grade the 9th and 11th multiple choice. We, the native speaking PCVs, will score all the writing. And due to the aforementioned distrust, we, the PCVs, grade everything on the teachers' exams. 193 exams and 3 hours later, we're finished. It's a little after 4pm. I am exhausted. My head is throbbing from reading all the essays (each essay got read and scored twice in an attempt at objectivity). The overall winners got a medal and a cash prize, something that apparently became very messy and contentious when a pair of teachers tied for second and a pair of students tied for first on the 11th grade exam. Glad I wasn't part of sorting that out!
But the fun was only beginning...
For the second time, Mongolia participated in the PC "sponsored" International Creative Writing Competition (ICWC) . It takes place in about a dozen PC countries and aims to improve writing skills, the least-taught skill. So on Friday and Sunday, the official writing sessions for the competition were held. Why two sessions? Because the Khan-Uul Olympics date got changed on us and when we realized no secondary students would be able to come to the Sunday session, J&K added a session on Friday evening. The turnout was impressive really, given all that was going on over the weekend. 48 participants across grades 7-11 and university. The students were given a choice of two prompts and one hour to write a creative essay. 6 PCVs and 4 HCNs with high-level English got together on Monday over dinner to score the essays. Every person read every essay and assigned a score based on a rubric. That's 10 readers x 48 essays = 480 reads. It took just under 4 hours. Exhausted and again with a throbbing headache, I stumbled home.
All that said, I'm actually looking forward to the aimag-wide Olympics. One of my students has a great shot at winning the whole thing (she was one of the two that tied for first on the 11th exam) and going to UB to compete at the national level. I'm just not particularly looking forward to the marathon grading that will follow. And in the next day or two J&K should have averaged out the ICWC essay scores and will announce the winner of each grade level. Those winners' essays will go up against the winners in the other aimags, and perhaps eventually against the other participating countries' winners. And again, I have a student with a real shot at winning not only for Choibalsan, but for Mongolia.
ICWC UPDATE: My 10th grader WON her grade and my 7th grader took 2nd in hers! Woohoo!
I think Bambuul hates me though, having locked her in the living room (couldn't crate her for that long) and neglected her walks and play time in favor of bed time these last two days. Not to mention the extra time at school the last 3 weeks. I can't wait 'til school break starts next week so I can catch up on sleep and puppy lovin' (er, I mean, training, yes, puppy training). But for now, I pray to the coffee gods to spontaneously refill my travel mug. Please!?
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