First Few Days

We started off the week in Kazakhstan with the August Conference, a three day gathering of all local and foreign teachers from the four Nazerbayev Intellectual Schools around the country. There were 160 international teachers and probably %150 more local teachers, although much of our time was separated, making it hard to tell exactly how many local teachers there really are.

We, the group of international teachers, walked in the first day with varying levels of knowledge about what we are doing here, excitement, jet lag, and experience teaching internationally and here in Kazakhstan. Hungry for information of any kind (schedules, numbers, maps, directories, lists, etc.) and buzzing with introductions, we entered the main lobby of the three story school building right across the street from our apartments.

The first day was a bit of a blur for me (probably because I hadn't been three hours off the plane when they began). Instead of the information we so desperately wanted, the school had prepared a cultural celebration and activity for each of the cities where one of the schools had been built. They took us to each of the "school villages" in turn where teachers from the schools had decorated, brought in cultural snacks, and prepared games and activities to help us gain understanding of Kazakh people. Despite all of our preparations for a frozen wasteland, this particular day in the Kazakhstan was a sweltering 94 degrees outside and I won't venture to guess what temperature it was inside our unventilated "villages". I will say, however, that between the velvet coats we were made to wear at times, the heat, the jet lag, and the fermented horse milk and horse meat, a few of us nearly fainted.



Fun activities and very thoughtfully carried out, but the first day left many of us wishing they had just answered our questions and naps.

The next day was held mainly in an auditorium, also unventilated, where we passed translation headsets back and forth between local and foreign teachers as speech after speech was delivered from some seemingly high-level Kazakh government officials. I assume high level because while they were speaking there were no less than 8 video crews there constantly switching from speaker to audience making us all feel like celebrities. In fact we were photographed like celebs most of the week coming each new day to find a fancy pamphlet had, during the night, been prepared and printed including pictures and descriptions of the previous day's activities. Quite the production... but still no answers to questions like, what will I be teaching?, what is the schedule of the school day?, when will students be arriving?, who is the principal?, what is going on here?

Third day I woke up feeling hesitant to spend another day in the blistering heat listening to a language that was still very difficult to listen to, or possibly two as many of the affairs here are conducted in Russian but some in Kazakh and to me they are one blur of jabber at this point. This day we were split into groups according to subject: Geography, Biology, Math, etc. My subject, called "Project", had no session and every time I asked someone about the course, answers ranged from "I don't know," to "you'll be doing musicals," to "you'll be working cross curricular doing projects like Olympiad," none of which turned out to be true. But there were many good things for me about day three. First, the room I was in was cooler slightly. Second, I happened to sit next to a group of three of the teachers from the pilot program last year who taught in the school I will be in this year. They filled my ear all morning with their experiences, which were surprisingly negative considering that they came back for more. Granted they have all chosen to move to other schools because of conflicts they had in the school last year. Somehow all of their complaints about the school made me happier about being here. Still trying to figure out why that is but it may have something to do with the fact that many of their complaints are eliminated this year because we have a foreign administrator to not only organize but communicate with us as a group and act diplomat between us and the administration and because some of the problems they complained of sounded familiar. There is some comfort in them complaining of unexpected changes to the schedule rather than teachers beating students, kids using plagiarism rather than the black plague virus found in the bathroom stalls.

It was also in this meeting that this enlightening conversation happened.
American man: So, how much of our time will be spent team teaching?
Kazakh instructor: Yes, all of your time will be spent team teaching with the local teachers.
American man: Will the local teachers speak English?
Kazakh instructor: It depends, some of the local teachers speak English and others do not.
American man: So will my course be taught in English or in Kazakh?
Kazakh instructor: It will be taught in both.
American man: So I will be teaching with a teacher who doesn't speak english a course that will not all be taught in English? What language will it be tested in?
Kazakh instructor: The test will be in Kazakh language.
American man: *mutters something under his breath and starts rummaging through his bag, presumably for his passport.

This team-teaching approach is the biggest shock to many of us and will probably be one of the greatest challenges for some. I also think it is brilliant. The best way for foreign teachers to mentor local teachers is to teach along side them. The team teachers I will work with are named Alibek and Dourien. They are both very young, straight out of college, first-year teachers. They are tech-savvy, endearing for their lack of English and experience, and hard-working. They speak enough English for us to communicate but I expect there to be challenges in communication with them throughout the year. But their work ethic and enthusiasm and my experience and enthusiasm will win through I am sure.

More later. School starts September 3rd so for this week we are preparing, meeting, trying to figure things out.