Back to School...

Somehow it has gotten to be the middle of September and my second year as a TEFL volunteer is beginning. I seem to be saying this a lot, but I can't belive how fast the first year went! It seems like just last week I was walking nervously to school from my host family's home for my very first day of school in Azerbaijan. How can it be that September 15, 2008 has already rolled around?

In the days before school started, I debated whether or not I was going to go to my school's Day of Knowledge ceremony. There are no English lessons on Mondays, so I had no real need to be there. But, in the end I decided to go. Unlike last year, I got to hide in the background, talk to a few of my students and take pictures. No celebrity Jane sitting on stage, and I didn't have to congratulate anyone on behalf of anything! After the ceremony, I checked the timetable to see when I would have to be at school to actually teach, and went home. I'm glad I went - it is a nice way to start the school year. And the Day of Knowledge is such a part of Azeri culture to me, I think I would have regretted missing it.

Ay my school, English classes are only scheduled Tuesday through Friday. Somehow, the lessons I am teaching ended up just being Wednesday through Friday. I think I must be one of the only people on the planet to have a four day weekend every week! It won't last long - in a few weeks I'll be starting up clubs on Mondays and Tuesdays. But, they never really seem like work, so it'll still feel like a pretty easy schedule.

This year, I am teaching four sections of the seventh form and two sections of the sixth form. Plus, I'm probably going to be working with one little group of second formers - which will either be adorable and awesome OR way too much for me to handle! I love the idea of working with the itty bitty ones, but I'm not sure I'll have the patience for them! We'll see how it goes. Most of the likds I am teaching are my students from last year or kids who came to Camp Jane. It is really nice to be working with these kids again - they are enthused and eager and really wonderful.

I am starting the new school year determined, positive, and enthused. I only have one year left - I want to make the most of it. I know that there is a lot that will still be as frustrating as it was last year - there are just some things I'll never be able to change, no mattter how hard I try. BUT - I do see things I have already had an effect on, and hopefully that will continue this year. I am determined to make the classrooms I work in a better learning experience. And, hopefully, that will rub off on my counterparts (I do see glimmers of it already) and it will carry over both into the lessons that I don't teach with them this year and in the years to come when I'm not there anymore. Hopefully. I know I'm gonna try my hardest to make that happen.