Hoe, sickle, stick

I’m really enjoying teaching my 12-year-old students (7^th graders) here at our new school in Almaty.  In our system of international schools we use ages instead of grades because students are coming from so many different school systems around the world that use different grade ranking or numbering systems.  This alleviates a lot of misunderstandings among parents about their kids being placed in the correct classes.

The kids, generally, are very eager to learn and challenge themselves.  I love this because it was totally me when I was their age.  I think I’d drive my teachers nuts by giving them a lot of extra work to review.  Mrs. Wood’s world studies travel itinerary assignment for one country turned into an epic round-the-world journey annotated with current exchange rates for the countries I’d be in, visa requirements, and alternative flight and overland connections.  Spanish homework would be also done in French to make it more of a challenge.  I can identify with many of my students.

I teach two sections of three different classes, reading, writing, and cultural studies (history), plus a homeroom.  There are about 40 12-year-old students in total so I see each of them three times a day and I think we’ll really get to know each other.  In reading and writing we’re doing poetry units.  In order to get to know each other better, we’re writing personal narratives in the form of a vignette.  They have picked an event from their lives which they think has made them into who they are today and tell what they learned from that experience.  It has been interesting.

In cultural studies we’ve been learning about hunting-and-gathering societies and the agricultural revolution and the changes farming brought to societies around the world.  One of the technological advances that came about during this time period was the development of tools for farming, including sticks, sickles, and hoes.  “What’s a hoe?” one Russian student asked out loud, shattering the silence of a whole class reading.  Okay, in America, in just about any classroom I’ve worked in, this would summon hysterical laughter and possibly even initiate a volley of personal insult on each others’ mothers.  Here in Almaty, in my 12-year-old class, not a snicker.  Eyes were on me, “Yeah, what’s a hoe?”

"What's a hoe?"

“Ah, it’s a tool used in the garden that you can use to dig a trench to plant seeds.”  Not being an artist, I did my best to draw a hoe on the whiteboard.

“Oh!  I know that,” said a Hungarian student.  “My grandmother has three of them in her shed.”

A Kazakh student added, “We used a hoe this summer at our dacha to plant vegetables.”

Gotta love it!  The students were making text-to-self connections.  In their 12-year-old way, they all wanted to tell a story (lessons can easily get sidetracked by the number of stories these kids like to share with each other).  They were giving examples of the use of the tool.  And there wasn’t a single reference to “street walkers.”  (Brooke's students at her old school in Oakland could, from their classroom windows, see prostitutes working on International Boulevard.  The students even had nicknames for the 'regulars', and knew when any one of them was having a 'good' day!)

These kids are great.  I do miss my students in Oakland though and am happy that many of them send me emails keeping me updated on the goings-on at my school there.

We're enjoying how social everyone is here.  There's a gathering nearly every night at someone's house if you want to get out.  We've gone to game nights several nights this week.  On weekends, there are lots of outdoor events like hikes in the Tien Shan Mountains just a few minutes out of the city.  It's all very supportive and friendly and we're having a great time.