who did this?

Found two dumptruck worths of trash on my morning run route
in no way a safe dumping ground
just well hidden from any onlookers
a narrow part of the road through the forest
made it hard to go around with a swamp on one side and undergrowth on the other
pisses me off
makes me sad
come on Ukraine
think about the future


yesterday confronted some kid who just threw a can on the ground
he obviously hadn't even considered what he was doing
it was just habitual
he responded 'of course i'll pick it up and take my can 3 meters to the trash can'
"без петан" (without  a question)

First Goal of the Season again

and again
a cheep rebound
but i was in the right place
following the shot, even if it was out of defensive instinct
just glad i didn't put it over the bar as so often happens in from 5 meters out


Snow has turned to rain
achilles hurt too much to run this morning
did some yoga instead
but forgot when I was supposed to be breathing in and when out

got to school early
clocks still said 7:05 because the time changed yesterday
but that first hour went too fast as usual
and I still didn't have all the things done I need to print out for today when class started

Luckily 4th grade has a test, so I don't need to be there.
So I'm hunting for a printer with ink.
First HIV peer training today. I'm nervous to see if they take it seriously at all

3rd graders need recess

I want them tired out for my lesson.
As it happened today, one girl had her birthday and brought chocolate candy to share with everyone right before my lesson. Talk about sugar rush.

I think the system where the same group of students stays together all day creates some problems. The kids are grouped according to overall school performance, which means each English class has a wide variety of abilities. I have been against tracking in the past, but it is clear to me now that a competitive atmosphere spurs learning (to an extent) and huge skill ranges kill competition. If I was a perfect teacher, I would be able to design lessons where the stronger students help the weaker, but that would require all new class rules, different seating, etc. Even then, the weaker students need to learn how to read, even if it is a struggle, and stronger 6th graders don't seem to have the patience to wait for a weaker classmate to slowly read a passage. Group reading activities focused for these student's who don't yet read well bore the stronger students.

I propose a complete reorganization for at least the older grades, where they have their individual schedules, and may go to a high level biology class and a lower level English class. Now I see some students who I inspire to work harder on English, but they are stuck amongst students who do not want to work harder, and since I cannot simply teach my lessons to a few students, I get bogged down with motivating, exciting and disciplining and those who had some hope sit quietly at their desk, having already done all that I have asked, and stare out the window while I explain for the third time the task to a boy who is convinced that he will leave school, work in the factory, marry, have kids, hang out with his friends on the weekends and make ends meet even if he never makes enough money for a car or to pay for the tests and the bribes necessary to send his own kids to university. Plus you can buy a degree anyway. So why work in school to get good marks in order to attend a university where again they can't pick the classes they take and half the professors just read from their notes in order to get a degree which nobody believes is real?

Still snowing...

I guess I don't really need springtime. Bring it on windy snow from Poland. See if I care. You can't catch me because I'm the ginger running man.

I'll try to attach some photos from my HIV prevention training.

How do I describe my peace corps service in few enough words to fit on a resume?

Task Lists and Due Dates

I have so many things to do each day that every day has its own task list.
My goals and objectives are located in many different spheres that without a list, I would forget somthing.
Today, now that I've finished teaching and lesson planning, I'll write an application for students to apply to my ecology summer camp, then update my resume, then type my student's letters to america, then start an article for the cross cultural guide for our Ukrainian counterparts, then a paragraph about lessons learned in teaching safer sex practices in very religious western Ukraine, then well, that's probably all the time I'll have before my Ukrainian tutoring, so the other half of my list will get carried over to tomorrow. Tomorrow I must go to Lviv to get my summer camp preparations there going and copy a booklet "I want to conduct trainings" (produced by unicef and in the Russian language) for my kids, get some cool STI posters from the reproductive health center and meet with the non-profit that wants me to support their river health project in my region.

So what am I doing writing in my blog?
Procrastinating, something I've avoided recently, but feels needed on this day of neverending snow.
It has snowed quite often for the past month. I wonder when spring will come. Back to work...

HIV prevention Training of Trainers

My HIV prevention trainings of trainers on February 27^th and 28^th were successful except for one major flaw. The teachers and students who attended the training are still not ready to conduct trainings on their own. But I am working to continue their education in presentation techniques because all the teachers agreed that this sort of presentation is needed and very useful. It is very difficult for them to conduct an interactive training based on activities and discussion rather than lecture because they have never done it before. Even in university few student's are exposed to true academic discussions and I haven't heard of any doing interactive multimedia presentations. So, I will present some positive and negative points that arose during my trainings.

 

The students were very enthusiastic and open minded.	The trainer from Kyiv arrived two hours late.
The teachers were knowledgeable and willing to discuss.	One teacher said that educating kids about condoms is not part of our culture.
One boy decided he isn't ready to have sex.	One person on said that they will not always use a condom with new or casual sexual partners (post training questionnaire).
All participants showed a greater tolerance of people living with HIV and less fear now that they are sure how the virus can be transmitted.	Most people still would keep their distance from a HIV positive friend.
Everyone learned more about condoms.	Some 10th graders weren't sure what ejaculation is.
Everyone agreed that the training was really interesting and useful.	Nobody wants to conduct these type of trainings on their own despite agreement that the curiculum as it stands is not sufficient.

I want to go plant tomatoes, and not sit in school working anymore today

Whoa, lots of work. I had collected a whole bookcase of books to read after my free time this summer only to realize now that I havn't finished a book in over 2 months.

I should report about how my HIV prevention training went, but that feels like work because I actually have to write up an official report. So when that is done, I'll just attach it and post it on my blog.

I'm starting to get all my teaching materials organized and in a way that my co-workers can take advantage of years of American lesson plan writing in Ukraine. I have collected lessons from many volunteers who have developed their own or modified lessons from earlier volunteers.

Spring is coming, storks have started returning in pairs from Africa, and the snow is melting.