Traveling of course opens doors to seeing the world in different ways, but it also opens doors for seeing yourself in different ways. People sometimes choose to travel or live abroad when they know they need to make a change in their lives or when they want to become a different person. I had tons of changes forced on me in the past year, this is definitely a turning point in my career and life. But I don't want to be a different person. I do hope I will be better at a few things that I am practicing on this trip. Of course I want to be a better student. In some of the courses I took in the past year, I felt like- and was told- I was not a deep enough or critical enough of a thinker. Language learning and grammar in particular is different than the kind of work we were doing in the ESL cert classes. I'm focusing on grammar here and need to memorize the patterns and structure, like formulas, as well as just practice using them.
Considering my previous experiences in small intense groups- in peace corps, and in Vermont, and at work- I planned to work on - decrease-- my gate-keeping behaviours, and my usual time-keeping behaviours. This was immediately thwarted by the program director who made me a group leader for the teacher contingent of our group. They do not need a leader anyway. Basically, I had to try not to lose anyone in Moscow on the tour. So I was counting and "keeping" all day.
I am easing into a "follower" role as much as I can.
The first week was a hard shift into focusing on my own learning and not worrying about planning and scaffolding for the whole group. I'm not the teacher here, I just get to plan for myself. However, it's hard to be a caring person and not notice when someone else, who can't speak the local language, might need help. It's also hard to be around young people, the age of students I have taught, and not actively engage them as a teacher. Some of their parents are younger than me, but in this group we are peers, learning and studying together.
However, the teachers in the group do need to create a lesson plan. So we will be mentally in the teacher role as we design Common Core standards-based lessons about this Altai Krai area of Siberia.
The teachers are mainly from Geneva area school districts, so I looked forward to meeting a whole new group of engaged educators. And that is working out well. Stay tuned for some lesson ideas from Altai Krai from our team.
