back to school- a teacher

8/11/2019 Back to School- A Teacher

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Albin Skenderovski

Tale of an Adventure

There have been many tasks I've undertaken in my life. I have done difficult things

throughout my life, and I thought this would be one of those. This assignment I was given

by my professor, it seemed very difficult at the beginning. I was supposed to go back to

high school or elementary school, and observe how classes flow nowadays. I was afraid I

might not be accepted by the students, that I might not be able to accomplish this due to

my different social life. And I've never been more wrong in my entire life.

I decided to do this with a friend of mine, I thought that we could help each other out

if we ran into any problems along the way. Our first day was on a Monday, I have not

gotten up so early in the morning in a long time. To be specific I have not gotten up so

early in four years. It was very cold, and my car barely started up. I was very emotional

that first day, it was because I was going to go back in my high school days. Days that I

cherish very much, and also because I was embarrassed a little bit. Anyway we got to the

school and stood in the hall for some five minutes, until our professor saw us and came

greetings us happily. She also teaches us in college, and used to be my professor in

second year of high school. We exchanged a few words and the bell rang, it was time to

go to class. This was the Albanian section of the school, and upon entering the classroom

we were thought to be inspectors. They thought we were there to observe their studying,

and maybe change their grades. Here we thought that we should be a little scared and

embarrassed, but it was the other way around. But to get things back to normal, we


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introduced ourselves and they were so relieved. It was early morning, and the lesson

started off with the teacher asking for homework, they were so sleepy and she skipped

on to asking some questions about the previous lecture. We could not believe how good

this feeling was, instead of being students in high school, we were something more. This

is how it is going to feel every time we teach, this is amazing. I remember the lesson

being about Jesse James. He was a rebel, who resembled Robin Hood in his actions. I

remember it because I studied the exact same thing in high school. To be honest a little

bit, students nowadays do not appreciate the professors enough. She was so active all the

time, and all they did was say a word or two and get back to silence. There was a song

about Jesse, they read it a few times, and found some unfamiliar words. Words which the

teacher wrote down on the blackboard, and one by one translated into Albanian. One

other thing that I found interesting was the time. Back in high school I remember the time

being so, so long, and here it seemed like forty five minutes turned into twenty. Anyway

we finished with the first class, and onto the second one. I do not drink coffee in the

morning but the excitement from the first class got me awake instantly. All I was saying

to the teacher was how good this thing feels, and she was defending her students by

saying, it is a little early in the morning and they do not feel like studying yet. The next

classroom was in the first floor of the school, and we went there but along the way got a

few stares by the students, I guess they were all wondering what we were doing there.

After all we do not look like high school students. I had some confusions whether it was

first year or third year this next class, but when the teacher started teaching the same

thing with first asking for homework and Jesse James song I was certain they were third

year. There was a CD player involved, but either she could not get it to work or it was


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broken. The song about Jesse James was still to be read by the students. It sounded like a

country song, and it depicted his life and how he got murdered by his friend I think. I

also forgot to mention a part of both of these classes, where Groucho Marxx was being

studied. Everyone has read about Groucho and his story. He was very poor and had many

brothers, one day he decided to take out a girl to the cinema, however he did not have

enough money for popcorn and tickets. The girl asks for popcorn, and on the way home

he flips a coin to decide who is going home with the train, he left the girl alone. He took

the train and she had to find a way home. He was eleven I think, that is the only thing that

justifies him. But what is interesting, the girls in the classroom thought that Groucho was

right while the boys thought the girl was right to never speak to him again. For the first

time, girls defended a boy and boys defended a girl in a very conspicuous situation.

Among other things the past tense was discussed at length, it was used in the text about

Groucho, and they were asked to give a few examples of their own. Of course she

explained a little bit about it first. I was very amazed by the involvement of the students,

they were very active and participated almost in everything. Except for this one guy who

kept looking at his cell phone, maybe wondering when is this going to end. The lesson

was coming to an end and I was already looking forward to the next one. It was another

third year and everything went along as planned. She asked about the previous lesson,

asked for homework and started a conversation about Groucho again. We did not see the

books in the first lesson, however when got a glance at them this time. What hit me in the

eye immediately was a picture of Jesse James with a five hundred dollars award on it

saying "Wanted". I remember it from my high school days, but I do not remember the

song, maybe my teacher at the time skipped it. The CD player was working here, I do not


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know how but it was working. The guy singing the song sounded a lot like Johnny Cash,

and I really liked it. Apart from this everything went on exactly like before, and after

lunch break we were going to observe the teacher giving a lecture in first year. Now

unlike previous classes where they were practically forced to speak, here they were

raising hands without being asked. They were more interested and we could see that from

the beginning. My friend and I were mistaken for inspectors, and being first year they

immediately got uncomfortable, then we introduced ourselves properly and everything

was normal again. They were asked about the previous lecture, but I did not gather what

it was, I was busy writing about them being uncomfortable. Anyway the lecture was

about will and going to. They were given brief explanation about the tenses, of course

keeping in mind that these things were spoken about in elementary school, but very

shortly. After that, she tasked them with differentiating between will and going to in

simple sentences, these are very similar except for in certain situations. Then there was

another exercise, with the help of the CD player this time. The lesson soon came to an

end and they were given homework, it included five examples of the usages of going to

and will. In the next classroom we and including the teacher got in the class a bit late, and

the revision from the last lesson was skipped. It was the last lesson for the day and the

students looked a bit worn down, and not so engaged in the lesson. Everything was the

same here too, of course I am talking about will and going to. It is amazing what

consistency the teacher has had, being able to keep up with the schedule with so much

going on in her life, it is truly amazing. It was the last lesson with her that day, and were

to meet again soon, but this time with the Macedonian section. I will get back this later

on. Now I have to give insight of my adventure in elementary school. To be honest, it


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was interesting going back to high school and experiencing what I experienced. But, this

was different, this was more fun. The school was in Velebrdo, a village high in a

mountain but not that high, it was not very cold up there, or maybe it was because of the

fact that there were no clouds in the sky at all. There teaches a great friend of mine, and it

is the reason why I decided to have my teaching lesson there. It was not a big school it

looked more like a big house, with so much warm hospitality. We got in and what do we

see, fifth grade students greeted us, while still keeping their heads glued to the text in the

book. Our friend first said, kids this is inspection are you prepared for today?- And then

he corrected himself saying, these are my best friends kids, do not worry you are very

good at English anyway. He then told us that he had inspection, a week prior to our visit.

We took out our notebooks, and from that moment on I just kept being amazed by these

kids. How much of English they have understood, they were going through time and

guessing the time on a watch. My friend gave me the book and said, come on Albin

listen to them and tell me if they are right or wrong. Not a single kid was wrong in their

answers, to give positive reinforcement I got up and shook the kid's hand saying "Bravo".

The approach our friend had towards them was unlike any other I have seen, they were

friends and the age difference was really big. To make them even happier, ten minutes

before the end of the lesson he gave them a game. They were writing animals on a piece

of paper, and in pairs they were to guess who has written what. If they guessed three

times right they were winners. They all guessed right, and were all winners. I just could

not believe it, I could not believe myself. I kept saying that to my friend, and he said

back, wait till we get to third grade. I did not think It could get more interesting. But I had

to wait, and we had another fifth grade class. We stayed in the same room, the kids just


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switched. And there came the other class, what do I hear the same amazing bright kids as

before. But these were not them, they were other kids. My friend has truly done an

amazing job. His approach and method of teaching must be amazing, I said to myself I

got to ask him about this. But I was to do it on the way out, at the end of the day. Now,

the next class came in, they were fifth grade too, equally good, but they did not have the

same lesson. They had missed a class on Monday that week, and started off with

something different. It was a reading and translating exercise, the teacher is reading and

they translate sentence after sentence. I really have no words to explain this, they were

very good, I have met students of higher grades even high school students with less

knowledge. They reminded me of myself when I was younger, full of will and power to

learn English, I still am that way but not exactly that way. Not just translating, there was

past tense used in the text. They got through it, and in the following exercise they had to

put verbs in past tense to make correct sentences. I thought that they would need a lot of

help for this, but I was wrong again, they went through it easily. Their lesson ended too,

and another group of kids came in, they were third grade. This was the class my friend

said was going to amaze me even more. He was not wrong, upon entering I could see

their enthusiasm on their faces, they sat and immediately took out their homework. It was

a short song translated into Macedonian, they all got to read it both in English and

Macedonian. After each reading and translating they got excellent marks on their hands

written with ink. The teaching was done partly in English with the other part of course in

Macedonian. There were a lot of reading and translating exercises, with the last one being

about adverbs of place. My friend was pointing to things physically, and the kids were

telling the correct words in English. Imagine these were third year, elementary school and


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the knowledge they had was unexplainable. To show their dedication, my friend told us a

prank they pulled on one of the kids. Apparently they got together with the teacher as

well and agreed that, the next class when the teacher asks for homework they show him

something totally different when in fact they did not have anything to do for homework.

But this one kid who missed a class, asked on the phone a friend whether they had

homework and they told him, No, we do not have any homework. So when he gets in

class and the teacher asks, show me your homework, they start opening their notebooks

and he just keeps saying to his friend: Aha, you tricked me, aha, I asked you for

homework and you said No. The other kid denying that he had asked him anything, and

he had started crying and talking whilst crying. He cried for his homework, with a missed

class beforehand. What do high school students do about homework, they make excuses

and then have no idea what the teacher is talking during a lesson. Homework is very

important, and my teacher friend has made that very clear to these kids. Anyway, we had

a switch again, but a big break was had. Then in the room came two colleagues, both

teachers. They were very friendly, and welcomed us dearly to their school. We had a long

conversation about the bad situation in our country, the politics, the lying and everything.

They made tea for me and my friend, it was a bit of a cold day and a tea was very good

for us. After the break was over, another third grade group of students came in. The

lesson went along the same as the previous, there were some less interested students, but

not because they did not like English. No , far from that, they were a bit embarrassed and

uncomfortable because of me and my friend. They finished a bit early, and got to play a

game of day and night. When the teacher says night, they put their heads on the table, and

when he says day, they raise their heads up from the table. It is a very interesting game,


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and what is even more, he was saying day and night in English. Now we again got

another group of students fifth grade students again. They were working on a text from

which they extracted all the unfamiliar words, and wrote by themselves on the small

whiteboard. The teacher then translated all of them. And they were tasked with writing

sentences with these words but for homework. Everything was great in this school,

except for one thing, the conditions were not very good here. They had a computer, but it

did not have internet connectivity, the rooms were not that big. However, despite these

things, the hospitality both from the kids and the teachers there was amazing. I was

awestruck, so was my friend and we kept telling that to ourselves. Something else that

was great there was the time, they did not care when is the lesson going to end. I guess

that is why the time was going so fast. And we were already on our way home out of the

school. Outside though I had to ask my friend, what was his secret. And in these words I

told him: "Buddy, this here is amazing, what you are doing is awesome. How did you get

them to learn so much they are still kids?"- To which he replied: "Albin, it is not like in

our time, the teacher is a teacher and the student is a student, here I am their friend and

they are mine, that is why they want to learn so much. That is why they like my lesson so

much, every time they enter they enter a classroom with a bigger friend of theirs, and

they are not afraid to ask anything about anything. It is a great atmosphere for learning,

and you saw that by yourselves". He was right, one hundred percent right, we exchanged

a few more words and the time came for us to leave, because we had lectures in college.

What an amazing trip I had that day, not only did I get to visit my friend, but I witnessed

a miracle as well. What is even more I saw the beauty of the nature that surrounds

Velebrdo and the other villages around there. And that is how my adventure to


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elementary school ended, I was going to come back here soon for my teaching lesson, but

that will be a different day. Now, the part that I promised with the same professor but

with the Macedonian section of high school. I complained a bit in the beginning about

getting up early in the morning, but this day I had to drive there early in the morning by

myself. It was so cold that my car barely started up, and I could not hold the wheel for

more than ten seconds. But, it soon was over as the car got warmed up a little bit, and the

air conditioning cleared up the windshield. I got there again with my friend, we decided

to do this together, as it was going to be more interesting and we could share thoughts

and insights. We got in the first classroom, and the lesson started off with homework. It

was about Past Continuous, Past Simple and Present Perfect. They answered some of the

exercises they had done at home, of course under the professor's observation. What was

interesting here to point out, that one of their exercises was about Hamlet's story but

written in a modern way. One sentence was simply this: "Hamlet called his mother on her

mobile phone". It seemed funny to me, as we at college were just studying about

Shakespeare and his Hamlet. Anyway, this lesson seemed as a revision of tenses, as they

had many exercises about difference of usage between Past Simple and Present Perfect.

Finally the professor was shown respect in a classroom, they were very silent and only

talking when an exercise or a text they had to read was up. There was an interesting text

on weddings called "Wacky Weddings ". It was about weddings taking place at weird

unusual places. Something like, a mountain or a coral reef and maybe underwater.

Something interesting was happening in this class, they could not pronounce the word

"irregular". They kept saying "ajregular", it was a bit funny, an entire class with the same

problem. This lesson ended, and to keep things short, the next one was the same, even


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with the same problem, mispronunciation irregular. It was strange, and the teacher

decided to change that. Successfully, she did and she told them not to take for granted the

words they learn at school. She advised them so sometimes look up the words as

someone may know them wrongly. The final two lessons with her were with third year

students. The most notable thing that they mentioned, was a text which included tips on

saving the environment. It was called "Addicted to Cars", and it immediately started a

debate on whether people should use bicycles more often, instead of polluting the

environment with cars. And I have to mention the funny excuse, about two guys. When

asked where is your homework, he said I forgot that we had English today, while the

other upon being asked where is your book, he said I forgot it home. Kids these days,

they crack you up. Anyway we finished with her for that day, and were looking forward

to our final day at high school. It came soon enough, but it was with a different professor,

he taught me for three years back in high school, and we knew each other pretty well. It

was a lesson in fourth year, and with a projector. It was a project on cancer awareness, he

kept advising the students to thank God everyday for being alive and well. I really liked

that, people nowadays are so busy, they do not take some time to thank God. He paused

the project to ask the students to write down a list of symptoms, and a long list it was.

After the project was ending, he put on display another project depicting the positive side

of life and the many things we have to be thankful every day. The next lesson went

exactly the same. And finally, our last lesson of observing, we were with first year

students and interested how they study under my favorite professor's guidance. And to

our misfortune it was a revision, but it was good enough and we somehow helped the

students a bit with our presence. Upon our departure the professor gave us a few advices,


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advices that I will never forget. Especially, because they were coming from my favorite

professor.

An amazing tale, an amazing adventure, what can I say to justifiably explain how I

was feeling during this period. At first, my friend and I thought this was going to be very

difficult. But, it was amazing, we took an epic journey from high school to elementary

school then back to high school. And all the warm receptions we got. In the elementary

school, then in high school, we were greeted by a group of professors, some we knew

some we did not. For the first time we felt like something more than just students, for the

first time we felt like we were someone's colleagues at work. The professors there said

that, they are looking forward to having us there one day. And one thing, one thing I

could remember the students in high school saying about us: The teacher introduced us as

her students, and there for practical purposes, one of them said that one day we will take

her place, her response was "I am glad that students like them will replace me". I will

keep this line with me forever, I was very honored to be at that place that day and hear

this. I got some experience and insight into teaching and being taught but through an

adventurous, epic journey and I am glad I was the one controlling it.

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