Back In The Saddle Part II

Instead of meeting with Inna’s class, today I would be teaching two classes for her colleague, Svetlana. Since I had to meet her at 8 AM, I’d need to get up early, grab breakfast downstairs and meet her out in front. Just as I was about to really dig into my breakfast I got a message over WhatsApp from Svetlana saying she was ready for and waiting outside the hotel. So, I quickly scarfed down my food, grabbed my backpack with my laptop and hurried out to the front.

Today’s lesson was similar to the day before, a discussion about where I was from, American schools and then a PowerPoint presentation. Unfortunately just like the day before, I’d need to do the PowerPoint with only my laptop and no projection. I introduced myself and as I always like to do when I’m teaching in Russia I asked if students had heard of a company called Starbucks Coffee. Everyone’s hand went up immediately. I then asked if they’d heard of Boeing, some students raised their hands others were rather silent. It never ceases to amaze me how students can be clueless about Boeing airplanes, but always click in on Starbucks. Howard Schultz and the Starbucks board would be proud!

Both classes were rather shy! When I asked students questions about the text, or exercise most preferred to stay silent but luckily there were a few who actually did put their heads on the line and attempt to answer the question. I was happy for this, as I hate when I’m in front of a classroom or even online and basically just doing a monologue! Once we finished the lessons I took some time to go around the room and have students introduce themselves. 

My next destination would be my friend Helen’s school, a private school about 30 minutes outside the center. I originally planned to take a bus, but after teaching two classes at FEFU (Far Eastern Federal University) I decided to simply take a taxi. When I asked my friend Helen or Alyona as she is known in Russian, who to call, she told me to go with Maxim. Great I thought! She must have a personal taxi driver named Maxim she likes. I asked how could get a hold of this guy. Neither did I know that Maxim was not a person, but a car hire service like Ubber. However, I’m sure there must be at least a few Maxims there!

Svetlana's class and me

When I arrived at the school Helen was standing right there and ready to pick up my taxi tab. I insisted I should pay myself but she felt because I was their guest she should be the one to pay. I eventually gave in and let her pay. I was surprised as the school was not much of a school, in terms of an actual stand-alone building. Instead it was at the bottom of a block of flats with a small sign on the front that read “New Millennium School”.

I was excited to teach at her school because one of my online students, Alex, attends the school. And as luck would have it the first person I saw was my beloved star student, Alex and he really is a star, the kid speaks excellent English!! It was awesome to see him in 3D and not have to put up with dropped connections and/or fuzzy pictures, which tend to go with teaching over Skype.

Helen brought me into her classroom, which consisted of only about 10 or so kids, mostly middle school age except for Alex who was what we’d call a sophomore in America or 10^th grade or literally Big Man on Campus as he towered over all the other students! I once again started the lesson with a little bit about American life and our schools. Just like I had done with other classes I asked if anyone had heard of Starbucks or Boeing. And again everyone knew of Starbucks and hardly anyone really knew of Boeing. I wasn’t going to try Amazon since it really hasn’t reached Russia yet…….emphasis on yet.

After our little icebreaker we launched into the lesson about the dreaded and evil articles. And once again there was no multi-media option, but since the class was so small I had the students just huddle around my desk to watch the presentation on my 13” macbook watching my power point presentation. I was pretty satisfied with students’ understanding of the lesson and figured it was safe to move onto something else.

Helen's class

I always like to know a little bit about the students I’m teaching so I asked the students to introduce themselves. It was fun to hear who they were and what they were interested in. One student was into cheerleading (something that has just started to catch on in Russia), her sister who sat right next to her said she actually wrote books, another was an artist, and most of the boys liked to do typical boy like things such as riding dirt bikes and playing computer games. Although they were pretty shy (and who isn’t at that age, especially when you’re speaking in a foreign language to a native speaker), they really did an excellent job.

After a full two hours of lessons, introductions and an outline of American teenage life it was time for a group photo. My student Alex who is a budding photographer wanted the whole class to pose for a group photo. However, this wasn’t any group photo, this had to be the most perfect photo ever. Eventually after about ten minutes of trying to get things just right, he finally got everything lined up to his liking, but not without a lot of grumbling and complaints by the rest of us. And with that, my flurry of teaching in Russia was over! I felt a bit sad that it was over, but was grateful I got a chance to teach since it's not every day you get to step inside a Russian classroom and conduct a lesson!

My student Alex and me