One Down...

This past week was my first week of school. I feel a sense of accomplishment writing those words, not because I did anything great, but because I survived. And because I accomplished small victories like communicating to the school librarian about the textbooks I’ll need and successfully reviewing past, present, and future simple tenses with my 12th graders. Such accomplishments are significant to me because I very rarely knew what was going on this week, let alone why. Feeling clueless is par for course for any new job. Throw into the mix a completely new set of cultural norms and a language which I don’t really know yet (not to mention the fact that some students and teachers at my school primarily speak Russian, not Romanian), and I was one lost soul.

Somehow I managed to show up to the right classes, do a little bit of teaching (usually with no prep time), and—I think—successfully hide my fear. I also managed to learn quite a bit about education in Moldova. The following observations aren’t true of every school in the Moldovan public educational system, but they are reflective of my own experience:

• There is no set schedule for the first (and sometimes even the second) week of school. Teachers find out in the morning what classes they have for that day and their times. Moldovan teachers have perfected the art of going with the flow.
  
• Students have no textbooks the first week or two of school. This is also often the case for new teachers (myself included). For some classes students have to buy their textbooks.
  
• Unlike many American middle/high schools, students only have a certain class, such as English, 2-3 times a week. There are 6 periods in a day, and school is done by 1:30.
  
• Most students start learning English in the 2nd grade and continue to study it up through 12th grade.
  
• Moldovan teachers get paid by the hour. So the more classes they teach, the higher their salary. My workload will probably be about half that of my fellow teachers.
  
  Here’s hoping that my second week will be just as enlightening but slightly less exhausting!