Back again

Sorry! I haven't updated in awhile. I've been on the move again. I went to an education conference in Krakow, Poland followed by a visit to my godparents in London. Both were absolutely amazing, but I'm exhausted now! Six plane rides in seven days. Yikes! I am now back in Stara Zagora and settling back into my routine. My students had a free period last week while I was gone and some were a little overwhelmed by the idea that they have to work now that I'm back again. Luckily, they're all bright kids and will get right back into the routine. I have assigned my eleventh graders a 2-3 page essay on White Fang. They were horrified. Apparently, the thought of writing three whole pages is ludicrous. I have complete confidence in them. More so than they have in themselves, apparently. What a lot of them forget is that they wrote a 1-2 page essay for me that they did not do any research for. Add in a little bit of research, and 2-3 pages becomes easy as pie. I don't understand that expression, by the way. Pie is not all that easy. It's not as difficult as, say, a souffle, but it's not exactly a baked potato either.

Speaking of pie, Thanksgiving is in two days! I am having a few of my fellow teachers over tomorrow night for a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner of roasted chicken, corn, and roast pumpkin. Plus, I'm considering attempting some traditional Bulgarian salads (Mlechna - a yogurt and cucumber salad and the ever present Shopska salata - cucumbers, tomatoes, and cheese). I'm having my Stara celebration a day early since I will be on a bus to Sofia Thursday night. I'm headed to Sofia in order to attend the Sofia opening of Harry Potter as well as the Fulbright Orphan Thanksgiving. A bunch of us Fulbrighters are getting together for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. I'm bringing pumpkin pie and white wine. I left a bunch of baking supplies with a friend in Sofia. So, all I have to do is roast and drain some pumpkin to bring with me on Thursday, and I'm set. Ellen is making the crusts, and I'm providing the filling. I'm capable of both, but we decided it would go much faster if we teamed up. That way, we can crank out two or three pies instead of just one. I'm so excited!

I'll be posting my photos and stories from Poland and England either today or tomorrow. So, keep an eye on things. :)

Halloween in Veliko Turnovo

Finally, my long awaited post on my Halloween trip to Veliko Turnovo. VT is a town about 120 km north of Stara Zagora, but it takes between three and four hours to get there because it's on the far side of an enormous mountain. Hillary lives an hour south, and we managed to make it onto the same bus up into the mountains. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive, and there was snow!!!!!!!!!! I love snow from a bus window. When I don't have to wade through the slush and be freezing. :P

Snow from the bus window!

Veliko Turnovo is the old capital of Bulgaria. It was conquered in the 1300's by the Ottoman Empire, but you can still see the remains of the old fortress. Hillary and I admired it from a distance the first day but waited to explore it fully until everyone else arrived.

Near the old fortress

There were several run down old buildings that had this crazy beauty in ruin.

Olivia, Laura Y, Dena, Kate, and Amanda showed up that night, and we had dinner and then went to the house where the Peace Corps Volunteers were staying. We got to meet a lot of them, and they all seemed fairly nice. It was nice to see some Americans again, and it was nice to be able to meet them in a relaxed environment before the Halloween party the next night. Saturday morning, we all woke up and went to tour the fortress. It was awesome! I love playing in old ruins...

Entering the fortress!!

An amazing view of the mountains.

That night, we all got fancied up and headed back to the PCV house for our Halloween Party. It was a lot of fun, but it made me miss the States like crazy! I can't wait for next year!

I was one cute Pippi Longstocking!

Making Raggy Balls

I'm making a blanket. For several reasons. One - I'm freezing in my apartment. It is actually colder in my apartment than it is outside some days. I've got a little space heater, and as long as I stay right next to it, I'm warm enough to survive. But it's only going to get colder from here on out. Hence the need for another blanket (I already have four piled on my bed...). Two - I need a project. I go insane if I have no long term projects. And while I love the long term project that is teaching, I also am looking forward to a project outside of grading papers and watching all six seasons of Bones. Three - my mom sent several crochet patterns with me, and I would feel guilty if I did not make at least one of them. Especially since my mom has already asked if I've used any of them yet. Four - I've always wanted to make a blanket, and I have all the time in the world to do so this year. See? Four great reasons...okay...four decent reasons to make a blanket.

So, a blanket it is. But it is not just any blanket. It is a raggy blanket. AKA it's a crazy design that has loose bits of yarn that hang out of it making it look kind of like shag carpeting. Anyone who knows me well knows that I find shag carpeting fascinatingly awesome. So, a raggy blanket is perfect for me. But before I can make a raggy blanket I need to make raggy balls of yarn. For the past two nights, I've been cutting approximately 1964 yards of yarn into one yard segments. Then, I started tying segments together so that I end up with balls of yarn that alternate in colors and have loose ends sticking out. Altogether, I will end up with around seven balls of raggy yarn. So far, I've made one and a half. It will be spring before I complete this blanket... If I freeze to death this winter, go ahead and cremate me. At least that way, I'll be warm. :P

Note: I'm not actually in danger of freezing to death. Please don't panic and call in the National Guard. My mom sent me thick, fuzzy Halloween socks, which are keeping my feet warm, and I just dress in lots of layers. All is well. Speaking of Halloween, though, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! I will post about my Halloween experience soon! Hint: it was awesome.

Why can't I sleep???

My school operates on alternating shifts. Ninth and tenth grade meet in the morning, and eleventh and twelfth grade meet in the afternoon. Every month, the shifts switch (9 and 10 switch to afternoons, 11 and 12 to mornings). Problematically, I teach ninth grade, eleventh grade, and twelfth grade. So, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I have class at 7:30am, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I don't have class until 1:30pm. As a result, my sleep schedule is completely screwy. Actually, I can't really blame the schedule. In theory, I could just wake up every day at 6:30am (AKA the crack of dawn), and then my schedule would be fine. The problem is that I'm a night owl. And I don't like falling asleep until 1am at the earliest and sleeping in till at least 10am. Why did I decide to become a teacher again?.... Anyway, I've been alternating my sleep schedule in all sorts of screwy ways. I don't have a consistent bedtime or waking time. So now, I can't sleep. And I need to wake up by 6:30am tomorrow to catch my bus to Veliko Turnovo. Oh, ps. I'm going to Veliko Turnovo for the weekend to attend a Halloween Party thrown by the Peace Corps Volunteers to Bulgaria. I shall be dressed as Pippi Longstocking. And it shall be a grand, grand time. If I can fall asleep sometime in the near future... I've lost track of my point. Sorry. There was a point to this post, I think. Maybe. Okay, probably not. Which is a sign that sleep needs to happen. Night y'all!

They're not fang marks. I poked myself with knitting needles.

I went to Romania this past weekend with my lovely friend, Ellen, her roommate, Kristin, and our friend Byeong-Hun. Romania has been my dream for years. As some of you may recall, I initially applied for a Fulbright in Romania. When they called and asked me to switch to Bulgaria, I was completely fine with the change, but I still wanted to make it to Romania while I was here. And I have. And it was more than I had ever hoped for.

Breakfast in Bucharest

I took a bus to Sofia Thursday evening, and then we all boarded the bus to Bucharest at midnight. At 7:30am, the bus driver pulled over on the side of a random road in Bucharest and told us that this was the last stop for Bucharest and everyone had to get out. Needless to say, we were extremely unprepared for this outcome since we had expected to arrive at an actual bus station. Luckily, an English-speaking Moldovian boy around our age befriended us and helped us navigate the city a bit. With his help, we managed to make our way to Gara de Nord, the train station. From there, we caught a train to Brasov and then a bus to Bran, where we visited Bran Castle.

Our first view of Bran Castle as we got off the bus. I made it!

More than a little excited to see the castle...

Bran Castle is the castle on which Bram Stoker is said to have based Castle Dracula even though Stoker never saw Bran Castle, and it is possible that he did not really know anything about Bran Castle. While Bran Castle was not the primary home of Vlad Tepes (the man that the Dracula legend is based on), there is evidence that he used the fortress during his raids into Transylvania. Contrary to legend, Dracula (Vlad Tepes) is not from Transylvania. Vlad Tepes lived in and was the prince of Wallachia, but he frequently made forays into Transylvania. The castle is now set up primarily to display the furniture of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie of Romania, the rulers during the start of the 20^th century, but you can also see some of the older pieces of furniture and remnants of its previous owners.

Awesome view of the castle on its cliff. You can tell it was a fortress.

One of the rooms inside the castle. Check out the bear!

After our amazing day at Bran Castle, we returned to Brasov to spend the night at the Rolling Stone Hostel. It is by far the best hostel I have ever stayed in. We had two private double rooms for the night, and the owner of the hostel, Diana, helped arrange a driver for us for the next day. The driver took us to Sinaia to see Peles Castle, and then he returned us to Bucharest in order to take the bus home to Sofia.

Peles Castle

Peles Castle was an absolutely amazing place to visit. It was built in the 1880’s as a summer home to the royal family, and each room is decorated to the theme of different countries. There is a Turkish room, a Florentine room, a French room, etc. Each is magnificently decorated with items from those countries as well as replicas made by master artists. And the best part of all is that the entire castle is covered in hand carved wood. The walls are all works of art as the wood is shaped into statues and designs. The entire castle was one of the most beautiful and intricate pieces of art that I have ever seen. Only one of us could take pictures inside (you have to pay to take photos). So, I can’t show you photos of the interior until I get a copy from Ellen. But you can see just from the outside how intricate and amazing the whole place is.

A view of the gardens

The inner courtyard with amazing wood detailing

Ellen and I at Peles Castle

After Peles Castle, we returned to Bucharest and caught the 4:00pm bus home. That’s right. We spent only 33 hours in Romania. But it was an amazing 33 hours filled with beautiful fall leaves, amazing castles, and great company. I can’t wait till our return trip in the spring!!

Kicking students out of class

I am going to write several blogs today to try to catch you up on the past two weeks!

As a teacher, I generally believe that removing a disruptive student from class is a mistake. It teaches them that when they act up, they get to leave and not have to sit in class anymore. Basically, it makes life easier for the teacher but does very little to change the behavior of the student since, in some ways, it is a reward for them. Generally, it is far more worthwhile to figure out what it is causing them to act up and then deal directly with that issue. Unfortunately, I have learned, that is not always an easy thing to achieve. My ninth graders are currently giving presentations, and I have one particular class that likes to give presentations but does not like to listen to presentations. I also have a slightly nerdy girl in that class who gets picked on a lot because she is always the first one to have a comment or answer to my questions. Her group presented last Monday. I have a boy who sits in the back of the classroom and continually shouts out comments in a mix of Bulgarian and English. As long as he is not disrupting other students too much (I know, how much is too much?), I ignore him and let him blow off steam since he generally directs his comments at the presentation instead of just talking to other students about something else.

During this girl's presentation, however, he was more disruptive than normal. The presenters were talking about men vs. women, and they had written men on one side of the board and women on the other. The boy ran up to the board and wrote "and (the girl's name)" next to the women side of the board, implying that the girl did not naturally fall into that category. Standing nearby, I quickly erased the phrase and told the boy to head back to his seat. He sat down but continued to shout out comments. Since most were somewhat relevant to the presentations (he mostly shouted out a defense for men), I let them slide. Then the girl made a comment about men being prejudiced against women and trying to hold them back in society, and the boy yelled out, "You just say that because you're a stuck up bitch." While I normally do not believe in removing students, I think that this case was an exception. I refuse to ignore a terrible insult directed at a girl who is already the subject of insults. While this would be what one of my college professors called a teachable moment in which I could begin a discussion of why the boys feel the need to talk in that way and why society believes that this is acceptable male behavior and the inherent irony of the boy insulting the girl while she was talking about society trying to hold back women, but I only had 8 minutes left in class, and the student presentation was not finished. So, I very calmly stood up (the same college professor would note that standing while the student is sitting is an assumption of a position of power and authority), turned to the boy, and told him to leave my classroom. He apologized and asked to stay, but I told him that he had crossed the line and needed to leave for the rest of the period. I have mixed feelings. I hate having to remove a student, but I can't really see what other options I had in this situation. I refuse to yell at a student because it is ineffective and a waste of class time. What should I have done?

Worst Blogger Ever

So, I'm officially the worst blogger ever. Sorry guys! Every week, I make a resolution to do better and blog more, but so far, it hasn't been happening... But as the week begins yet again, I resolve to do better and blog more. :)

I have mixed feelings about the week I just finished. I am working with my students on a number of different projects. My ninth graders are giving oral presentations, my eleventh graders are studying American poetry, and my twelfth graders are holding a debate to sentence a murderer either to execution or life in prison. So far, eleventh grade is my favorite. This is probably due to the fact that I love literature, and it is my favorite thing to teach. Or it could be due to the fact that my eleventh graders are always open to whatever I bring to class. I have a theory on this. My students seemed to have been raised in an environment where the teacher teaches and the students take notes and occasionally participate. My eleventh grade classes are the closest I have to this system. I don't teach while they take notes, but I am working with tangible "knowledge" that they can acquire. They think that learning the names of poets and working to interpret poetry is a worthwhile task for an English class. It is "facts" instead of just discussion, and they can use their skills in interpreting poems on tests that they will take. My ninth and twelfth graders are a little freer. Both are supposed to be discussion classes, but I rarely bring to class discussions based on tangible knowledge that students perceive as school worthy. My ninth graders seemed to be confused as to why we would spend two weeks holding discussions on the various types of stereotypes and the way stereotypes are used in the media, and my twelfth graders told me that school policy doesn't affect them after this year, and so, they don't need to talk about it. Students are taught that school is a place to learn certain types of information. They rarely think of it in terms of skills that they learn or new ways of approaching material. Instead, they think primarily in terms of what knowledge they are picking up.

So, I've been trying to find ways to engage my students in the discussion classes. The problem so far is that one subject engages some of my students while others are left completely bored. And I have far too many students who never attempt to participate, whether that is because they are bored or because they see no need to participate unless forced or extremely interested. Unfortunately, those who do not participate are often the ones with the weakest language skills (probably another reason they don't participate). They could benefit from practice in the language. I think I'm going to have to move to small group projects. The ninth graders are doing presentations, which they seem to like (although they don't always pay attention to other peoples' presentations). They like the form of it, though. It is something they have done before, and they understand it. I think that my twelfth graders will be moving into a project on the concept of utopia. The idea is to talk about the meaning of utopia, possibly read part of Sir Thomas More's Utopia, and then have them work in groups to design a utopia. It might be something they actually become interested in and invested in. At least, I hope they do. When you only see your students once a week for forty minutes, what is the best course of action? Try to engage those who are least engaged, or just try to engage a majority of the active students and continually move forward, leaving those who are reluctant behind? What is the third option?? It is a difficult question and a difficult situation. It is times like these when I wish I saw my students every day. Actually, I wish that often. Especially when they continually forget assignments because they haven't seen me in a week or two...