Written by
Jadon
Well, we
have lived in Prague for a month, and we are doing very well.
It
occurred to us in the last few days that many of you who casually follow our
blog or our Facebook accounts would probably like to know more details about
our school and our classes. Well you are
in luck! This blog post is for you!!
The name
of our school is Gymnazium Arabska (both of those words have accents on the
last ‘a’, which I don’t know how type on my American keyboard). The term Gymnazium indicates that the school
is somewhat prestigious, and that all of our students had to apply and be
accepted before they could attend.
Our flat
is about a 12 minute bus ride from our school—only two stops—and there is also
a tram line that will get us almost all the way home from school with only a
few extra stops. So getting to and from school is quite easy, which is a welcome
blessing.
In the
Czech school system, teachers do not have their own classrooms. Instead each
teacher moves around for each new class, similar to how a university teacher in
the United States would. This means that instead of a classroom, both Brittany
and I have our own offices, though we each share our office with two other
English teachers. Fortunately, we do each have our own desks, so we can spread
out all our stuff. Because we are always changing classrooms, we are getting
our exercise doing extra sets of stairs—our school has four floors—and we are
constantly checking our schedules to make sure we are headed to the right
classroom.
Another
aspect of being a roving teacher that we are just starting to learn is that
each classroom is different. Some classrooms have whiteboards, others
blackboards. Some have projectors and screens, others have no media capability
at all. I had one classroom today equipped with a Smartboard—which I almost
wrote on with my dry erase marker… The point is, if you are planning to show a
Powerpoint with pictures of the various landscapes of the United States, you might
have to change classrooms, trade with another teacher for the hour, etc… You
get the point. For the most part, however,
there is always a work around.
As for our
specific classes, both Brittany and I teach 2nd, 3rd, and
4th years (sophomores, juniors, and seniors). We each have 5 classes
for each year, that’s 15 classes in total for each of us! However, we only see
our 2nd and 3rd years once a week for 45 minutes (which
is not very long, though we are getting used to it), but our 4th
years we see twice a week. So we each have 20 classes to teach a week, but only
four preps. This means that we don’t have a lot of class planning to do per
week, but we do have a lot of remembering to do. After you have taught the same
lesson 5 or 10 times, it is really hard to remember what you have said to whom,
and what you haven’t. It is also hard to remember names when you have 206
students—Brittany has 214—and you only see some of them once a week.
But all
our students have a really good handle on the English language already, and we
are enjoying teaching them.
I’m sure I
left some details out, but seeing as this post is quite long already, you’ll
have to ask about anything else you want to know in the comments section.
Praises:
-We
continue to feel more at home here in Prague and at our school.
-We found
a delicious Mexican restaurant close to our church (Mexican cuisine isn’t very
common here).
-Brittany
planned our first excursion into Europe (Paris) over our first school break in
October!!!
Prayer
Requests:
-In
October we start a Bible study, Czech lessons, and begin our responsibilities
with the English Drama Club at our school. So, prayer that we don’t
re-overwhelm ourselves in a few days.
-I have
been asked to tutor three boys after school in English, and that will also
probably start in October.
- Brittany
will be working with three of her female senior students outside of class.
Taken during some of our sightseeing last weekend overlooking Prague |