Day 308: Week one of English Teaching

My first week of teaching English in Romania is officially a wrap. It's really satisfying to have finished a full week, but it's also a little sad to think that a quarter of my time here is already up, with only one more week until I switch schools and host families. 

This week has gone pretty much as well as I could have hoped. Monday was certainly a low point: I was tired from my first day of teaching, I was really confused about what was going on because I don't speak any Romanian, I was lonely because I wasn't able to meet up with the other student teachers, and I just really wanted to call my mom but I couldn't find an app that would let me call phones.

The thing is, after last year in Quebec, I've learned that adjusting to a new place is hard. I know that I'm likely going to feel miserable for the first few days. And that's okay, because now, one week on, I'm so glad I came. 

My host family is great. They have a large house on the edge of Suceava, so I get my own room and bathroom. The food is amazing- we've had shrimp and calimari, homemade schnitzel, goulash, stuffed pastries, and, of course, plenty of Romanian traditional dishes. My main problem is knowing how to politely decline food because I'm already way too full!

As for the teaching, it's been better than anticipated. I was a bit upset because I was allocated my last choice of group, 9-14 year olds in the afternoon, when I wanted to teach 15-18 year olds in the morning. However, when I first walked into class, I discovered that my students are mainly 13-16, and their English is fantastic. They're young enough to be pretty enthusiastic (I was worried about a 'too-cool-for-school' attitude, but it hasn't been a problem) but old enough to be taught at a fairly advanced level. 

The teaching isn't really conventional classroom style. I don't give them workbooks or expect them to memorize lists of irregular verbs. Instead, the point of the summer school is to have fun in an English-speaking environment. Most of the lessons are much more like games, and if the students aren't enjoying a particular exercise I don't drag it out. I don't make a concrete lesson plan for the day; instead, I come to class with a list of games and choose whichever one seems to flow naturally from the mood in the classroom. As a former homeschooler, who worked one whatever subject I felt like at the time, I love this more organic approach. 

The school also puts an emphasis on learning about other cultures. Tuesday July 1st was Canada day, so I showed up to school in a big Canada hat, showed the kids photos about Canada on my iPad, and passed around some Canadian money. Since that was my first Canada day ever out of the country, I was so happy to share the occasion with my students. 

On Friday, instead of our normal teaching hours, we held a ceilidh (a Scottish dance, pronounced Kay-lee) in the morning. Since the other teachers weren't as keen, I got the job of 'calling' the ceilidh, meaning I would teach the kids the steps and then yell them out while they danced. I was impressed by how fast the kids caught on, especially the little ones, and I'm looking forward to next Friday's last day of school ceilidh party. 

Suceava itself isn't the most interesting place to spend a month- it's not a touristy place at all, so there isn't much for us to other than sit in pubs and enjoy the cheap cocktails. The weather has been fairly cool for Romania, which I'm quite happy about, as it's been consistently mid-20s. I was worried it would be ridiculously hot, but instead it's been pretty comfortable. 

I'll write more about Romanian culture later. For now, I'm off to visit a monastery with my host family, then tomorrow I'll hike up a mountain with the other student teachers. After a week of teaching, this weekend will be a fantastic holiday. 

Who Teaches a Homeschooler?

**Before I start this blog post I just wanted to have a little party... I finished the second draft of my research paper on Milton's similes last night, and it's 2500 words long citing 12 different sources, and yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. It's not done yet by a long shot, but at least I've got it to a point where it's not a complete disaster. :) Anyways, on to the real blog post.**

One of the main questions I get is “Who teaches you, your mom or your dad?” For years my answer would have been ‘my mom’, since she stays home to teach us while my Dad goes off to work at the university. For all my highschool years, however, my mom did very little teaching. Basically, I learned everything on my own.

The math program I used for grade school

How would this work? There are so many programs written especially for homeschoolers. We used Apologia Science which came with text books, dissection kits, instruction clips on a CD and an answer key to make it easy for parents to mark the tests. My English and History courses were written for homeschoolers, and my math was from Singapore.

At the beginning of the school year I’d sit down with my mom and pick out all the books I was going to use throughout the year. Then I’d make my own rough schedule so I’d know how many chapters I’d have to do every month to get finished in the year. Normally I actually stuck pretty close to this schedule and most of the time I was done school by April or May.

Grade 10 Biology

When I tell people this, about how I basically ran my own schooling, the most common response is “I couldn’t do that.” I don’t think that’s true. What’s so much harder about teaching yourself than learning from a teacher? I’ve heard so many horror stories about bad teachers who make no sense or who grade poorly. Learning directly from books eliminates that problem. As for deadlines, you make your own, and if you have trouble keeping them then your mother will just have to remind you… This can also be a good thing because it teaches independence in preparation for University.

This isn’t to say that homeschooling is for everyone. I know a lot of smart people who went to school and are doing well in University (much better than me, in fact.) Homeschooling is not always a superior choice. However, it’s always a viable option. I believe that everyone is capable of teaching themselves.

The Problem of Evaluation

One question that a lot of people asked me when I was homeschooled was, ‘Do you get grades?’ For most subjects I’d have to say no. I simply worked through the material, learned it and moved on. Even for Science, which did come with tests, I’d learn all the material and then take the test. Partly because of this, my marks were all above 95%, even on a subject which wasn’t my strong suit.

Now, before you accuse me of cheating, I want you to think for a second about the purpose of school. Why does the government force children ages 7-16 (I believe those are the compulsory ages in Canada, sorry if I’m wrong) to go to school? To educate them. To let them learn. Getting a 95% on an exam is not the purpose of education; it is only the method that teachers use to evaluate their student’s learning.

Apply this to my Science tests. The test mark isn’t proof that I’m so much smarter than a public school kid who got an 80%. Maybe if I had been in public school I’d only have earned a 70%. The point is not the mark. What counts is that I learned the material.

The problem with our education system is that grades very often don’t reflect the actual knowledge of the student. I recently earned a relatively low mark on a history midterm. I’m not going to post the mark here, but let it be said that it’s the lowest mark I’ve ever received and I was not happy with it. I had studied really hard for the test and I thought I knew the material quite well. I learned a lot. Even though the mark was still a pass, it was a letdown. Then, when I went to see the professor I learned that my poor mark was actually one of the better ones.

After hearing this, I started thinking about what the mark really meant. The professor was evaluating my learning through 25 multiple choice questions. It’s likely that this evaluation was wrong and I actually deserve a better grade. But does it matter? A mark is someone else’s idea of how much I learned. The evaluation can be accurate or it could be way off, but either way, I know how much I learned. The purpose of schooling is to learn. Yes, I’m upset because of the low mark, but I know that in the long run that doesn’t matter. I’ve learned. I’ve grown. And that’s what’s important to me.

How I got into University

The new student center

For most people getting into University is pretty straightforward. Homeschoolers, however, find it a little bit more difficult since most of us don’t have marks and we might not have worked through specific courses. Throughout my highschool years I had a specific Science (Apologia) and Math (Singapore) curriculum but everything else was pieced together from various sources. This makes it difficult to convince a University that I had completed highschool.

This is how I ended up in University half a year early. It’s not the traditional way of doing things, but I know more and more homeschoolers who are trying this method and it certainly worked well for me.

UPEI has one of the only vet colleges in Canada

Last fall (September-November 2010) I took one course from UPEI. Getting into one course is relatively easy. I simply met with the Dean of Arts, bringing along a couple samples of my writing. He was a very agreeable man and let me into UPEI as a part time student without even looking at my writing samples! The course I decided to take was a simple Introduction to Literature course taught by a wonderful professor.

During this course I read two books of Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. My professor was teaching a third year course on Milton the next semester, and she kindly allowed me to take it despite my age. Since I had been admitted into one course and I had no real plans for homeschooling in the next term, I decided that I might as well try to go to UPEI full time. I don’t actually want to go to UPEI for my full University career, but being a full time student will make it much easier to transfer somewhere else.

Cass Building, where my Dad works

My dad (who is a math professor at UPEI) talked to the registrar several times. I made up a small (four page) portfolio showing the courses I had done in highschool, as well as all the extracurricular activities I am involved in (drama, writing, dance, volunteer work…etc…). The registrar took their time reading this, so when courses started I wasn’t actually enrolled as a student yet. I went to class anyways, just hoping that they’d let me in. Two weeks into the term, on the deadline for registration, the registrar finally got back to me. I was in!

Now I’m in my seventh week (the home stretch!) of full time University, and I love it. I’m taking two English courses and two History. English is my favourite, but I’m thinking of doing a History minor. My midterms are done, which is great, and I didn't do too badly.

The Main Building at UPEI

For all homeschoolers who want to get into University and don’t want to spend forever compiling a transcript and doing SATs, I’d suggest taking a course as a part time student and then getting your status switched to full time. Doing a course is a great way to prove that you’re capable, and you earn a credit at the same time. I admit that I had an easier time getting in since my dad teaches at UPEI, but I believe anyone can do it. I know of at least three other homeschoolers who’ve done the same thing at UPEI in recent years. A University’s registration rules may seem strict but what they really want are students who are capable and willing to work. Any homeschooler who is coming up to graduation and wants to get into University should consider taking a course part time in their grade 12 year.

Welcome!

I am Elanor Lawrence, a Young Adult author currently seeking representation. In publishing lingo, that means that I haven’t been published yet but I’m seriously working at it. I also love acting and I write and direct my own plays as well as take Musical Theatre classes. I’m seventeen years old and was homeschooled for most of my life, but now I’m in my first semester of University. Hopefully in four more years I’ll end up with an BA, majoring in English. Right now I live on Prince Edward Island (Canada) and go to UPEI, but hopefully next year I’ll head over to the University of Western Ontario in London, ON.

Jesus is my savior, and I try to do everything for him. While I often fail at that, I pray that he will use me for His glory. This blog is part of my effort to live for him; everything I write on here will be from a Christian perspective. My book/movie/music reviews will all have a section dealing especially with the religious themes in the art. While I will try to be understanding of other people’s views, I will not compromise my beliefs.

What will I be talking about? As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I will have reviews of books, movies and music, as well as keeping you up to date about my writing and the road to becoming a published author. I’m a member of the website inkpop.com, and occasionally I will feature users or project from that site, as well as writing tips that I’ve learned from critiquing over 400 stories. I’ll have a column of interesting facts that I learn at University and the scoop about how I, as a homeschooler, got into University in the first place. I might talk a bit about modest fashion trends, and tell anecdotes from life on the Island and my experiences in the arts community of PEI. All in all, this is going to be a blog with a lot of different posts.

My schedule for the first while:
Tuesday: Book Review
Thursday: Writing Series (How to Create Interesting Main Characters)
Saturday: Life of a Homeschooled English Major on Prince Edward Island

Feel free to comment; I’d love to hear your thoughts about anything I post. If you have any questions, or would like me to address a specific issue, then let me know and I’ll do my best.

Thanks for reading,
~Elanor