School Visit

The above images are from the opening day ceremony. The gentleman on the left is Mr Constantin "Ticu" Paidos. On the right are some of the teachers. The tall woman in the center allowed me to visit one of her classes yesterday.

I arrived at Mihail Eminescu Collegio at 8:50 Am. In the teachers room I met with Camelia, an experienced English teacher and teacher trainer in Iasi. She was kind enough to invite me to one of her intensive English classes. Generally classes have about 30 students, but for intensive study the class is halved and divided.

We climbed five flights of stairs and arrived panting outside of classroom 244. As we entered the 6th graders shifted nervously and whispered to each other. I don't think they have many American guests.

Camelia silenced the class. "Now today we have a guest. Ignore him. He will be invisible. I want you to be yourselves. Do not be shy." With that she waved an imaginary magic wand over me and indicated with an "abracadabra" that I had vanished. Despite her efforts, many of the kids continued to eye me nervously.

"Now," she began. "How are each of you today?"

Most students simply responded that they were either "good", "very good", or "great".

One girl confessed to being sleepy. Another replied, "I don't know why, but I feel excited today. I know it is Monday and I should be sleepy. But I am not. I don't know why."

Finally one girl in the front row smiled broadly and said with great flourish, "I am in love!"

The teacher said, "Well. That is your secret. We don't need to know more."

The class then proceded to review the uses of the simple present tense. "Tell me class. What is something you always do when you come home from school?"

"I always eat something." "I always take a nap", "I always take the dog for a walk." One studious young lady in the back row said, "I always do all my homework." To that the girl who was in-love snorted and said, "You are crazy."

All in all I was very impressed with the level of English of these young students. I had the opportunity to visit a 10th grade class who were revewing for an upcoming exam and a 5th grade class that were reading a riveting tale about the adventures of "City Mouse and Country Mouse". Today I will return to the school to discuss training issues with some of the mentor teachers.

Pa Pa