So What Do I Actually Teach And Do Here?

Good question! I’m still trying to figure that one out for myself. The administrative types at Isikkent won’t really tell you what’s happening or what you’re doing unless you specifically ask. I found that out very early on.

Since there are only about 4-5 weeks left in the semester before we have a 2 week vacation, they decided not to put me in any elementary English classes on my own right away, though according to some I would have been teaching solo in front of a class of wild, riotous 8 year olds starting last week- talk about throwing me to the wolves with absolutely no training or orientation! The plan is to have me teach 2nd and 3rd grade English class eventually, but for right now I’m just assisting other teachers in those classes, trying to lessen the stress and burden put upon them since two of their dissatisfied English teachers ran away under the cover of a mid-October night.

I’m co-teaching a middle school Is Bilgesi (pronounced Ish Bill-ga-see; it’s supposed to be a fun or interesting activity class) on Journalism and Newspaper Reporting with my roommate Maddy to some of the 6th and 8th graders. We came up with the idea and the syllabus on our own. So far, it’s been fun, and the kids seem to be into it. We’ve taught them about the various sections of a paper, how a newspaper is run from day-to-day, journalistic integrity and ethics, how to conduct an interview, etc. We’re hoping to publish at least few issues of our own school newspaper with these kids- the class runs till the beginning of March. We’re also going to show them some movies set around or about newspapers and journalism to mix it up a little, so we might be watching The Paper, His Girl Friday, All The President’s Men, or The Insider over the next few months (I was shocked to learn that we’re allowed to show R-rated movies (for language, obviously) to middle-schoolers without a hitch).



Now I do have some classes I teach all by myself, and one of them is called Integrative Arts, which I teach to all of the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Each grade is split in half, so I have 6 classes in all. The class being integrative arts, I was told I could teach them anything that had to do with the arts- music, film, theater, anything you can imagine that falls under the auspices of “The Arts,” so I had 100% free reign on the topic. I was already doing theater and acting with a drama club class, so I decided to teach them about Jazz Music. I’m using all the stuff I learned about Jazz from my freshman year Swing Era music and history class at Harvard. I still have all the music with me, which is the crux of the class, obviously, and I’ve been able to find some great resources for teaching the basics of jazz, blues, and swing to middle schoolers.

I’m totally on my own for this class, and nobody’s checking up on what I’m doing, so the curriculum and the lesson planning is all up to me. Last week I taught them about musical instruments in a jazz band, how jazz came to be, and where it started. Today we learned how to count music, and continued by going over the 12 bar blues and the ever-popular 32 measure AABA structure, with plenty of musical examples for illustration.

Now, who knows if any of it’s actually sinking in, but I did a quick review of what we covered last week and as a class they were able to recall most of it. This is supposed to be a light, non-academic class for them, so they don’t take it very seriously and none of them even come to class with a pencil. And lest we not forget, I’m teaching all of this in English while Turkish is their primary language! If you thought Spanish class was hard in high school, instead of just studying the language, try taking an entire class on a different subject in Spanish. I know I’d have a terribly hard time with it, and I can empathize with these kids sometimes. Some of them have great English skills and are more or less fluent, while others struggle to construct a complete sentence, so the range is far and wide.

All things aside, I really like having the freedom to instruct on any subject I want. If I’m teaching something I’m very passionate about, like music, I hope that can come across to at least some of my students and get them genuinely interested in the subject, whether it be jazz music, theater, or wombat taxidermy. Putting the lesson plans together is time-consuming, but I’m discovering how resourceful I can be and I’m learning more about whatever it is I’m teaching.

In addition, I have also been out in charge of compiling, editing, overseeing, and publishing a yearbook for the 8th graders and the entire school. Isikkent has never put out a yearbook before, and they have unreasonably high expectations, so who knows how it’s going to pan out. At first it was something I thought I could do on my own with Microsoft Publisher, but then I had administrative members actually wanting a yearbook put on DVD, complete with finely edited video footage set to song. Ambitious? No, I think ludicrous and borderline impossible is more like it. Who knows how this project is going to pan out- it’s not like I have extensive yearbook publishing experience or anything to begin with. I fear it could get a little hairy down the road, especially with the lack of communication between administrative members that I’ve witnessed already.

On top of all this, I am teaching a weekly English Dramatic Arts class to some of the middle schoolers with the best English. I have 18 8th graders in the class, which is a lot to handle on my own, and believe me, “drama” is their middle name. The ultimate goal of the class is to put on a play or musical at the end of the year. The drama teacher before me, who left, was planning to put on an un-edited, un-abridged version of The Mousetrap with this group. Now, that was a little ambitious for this group, plus that play only has 7 parts. Last year they put on a heavily edited version of Grease, performing only 3 or 4 songs and clocking in at a brisk 60 minutes, including the intermission. All the kids are in this class because they want to act, and he chose a play with only 7 roles; the other 11 who weren’t class were going to be relegated to Tech. Well, I wasn’t about to crush some kid’s dreams of performing by making him press play and stop on the CD player instead. I brainstormed for a while and consulted a few people, and finally the show hit me- A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.

I’ve never directed a musical before, and I’ve certainly never had to direct 18 adolescent and pubescent middle schoolers, but Forum seems like a good show for this group. I’m a fan of most of the songs, and it’s the kind of play that still would make sense if all the songs were cut out. Once I get the script in the mail from my dad, I’ll have to sit down and do some serious editing- there’s no way anyone in this class is going to remember the amount of dialogue a role like Pseudolus has. I’ll pick the 4 or 5 songs I like the best, and the rest will just be swept under the rug. If for some reason I don’t have enough roles for everyone, I’ll just have to add in one or two of my own. Time to get creative. I have plenty of experience adapting plays, but I never thought it to be preparation for fashioning a middle school play for Turkish kids. Just goes to show you, you never know what life’s going to throw your way.

And did I mention I only get 80 minutes a week with these kids? If we’re going to put on a play- and not just a play, but a musical with singing and dancing, there’s going to be some serious after-school rehearsal involved. Oh, fun fun!