Lilly started collecting money from our students this week for a Language World Map Project in our classroom.

Kind of out of nowhere, but awesome all the same.

Hey Tumblr Land!

     My name is Kim. I am a Las Vegas native, UNLV graduate, and I am serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine until June 2013. I have been living and working in Ukraine for just over a year as an English teacher in a village school where I work with kids from 6 to 17 years old.

     Many people wonder why volunteers are sent to Ukraine, I mean it is a developed nation, right? Well, in a lot of ways, yes, but in many others it is still being developed and working its way out of a Soviet mindset. After all, Ukraine as an independent country has existed for only 20 years and has many obstacles to overcome. Peace Corps has been invited to Ukraine by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Youth and Sports to work in schools throughout the country to help teachers develop their English teaching skills, use technology in the classroom, and to work with Ukrainian students in schools to bolster their English capabilities and knowledge. In order for a school or organization to receive a volunteer, they must apply for one. That is how I came to be a Volunteer in my little village.

     I teach in a cute little village located in southern Ukraine on the coast of the Black Sea. It is big enough to house one school with around 225 students, a kindergarten, a library, a church, a cemetery, and a few small shops scattered about. If you walk down one of the four main roads, you will likely encounter chickens, geese, or turkeys walking around as well as cows and goats tethered in green fields or on the side of the road as they get their fill of food. It is also perfectly acceptable to walk down the center of these roads since there aren’t many cars to worry about. While working in such a beautiful, small village is rewarding, there are drawbacks to this kind of life. Due to problems in governmental operations and the large-scale nepotism, schools in Ukraine are far from being equally funded. Oftentimes, village schools lack the same access to money and resources that city schools enjoy. This leaves a huge gap in the knowledge and opportunities between the students who grow up in villages those from the cities. This discrepancy is especially noticeable where English knowledge is concerned, despite the fact that students take classes in the subject from 2nd grade until their high school graduation. It may not seem important for Ukrainians to learn English, but knowing it provides invaluable opportunities for those living here, such as finding better jobs, as well as work and study abroad opportunities. 

     I am fortunate to work with an amazing Ukrainian English teacher who speaks remarkable English. She is such an asset to our school and students, but despite her strong command of English and my assistance in the classroom, we struggle to teach most classes. Where does the struggle come from? For starters, we don’t have enough books for all students, which means that not everyone can study at home or even complete their homework. In one class of 15 students, we have 1 book. In another, we have 20 students with only 8 books. The books themselves are also deficient—they are full of grammatical mistakes and antiquated vocabulary and notions. Secondly, all Ukrainian-made English textbooks are written in a series which corresponds to each grade, thereby building upon itself year after year. We use books from three different authors which means that our students don’t have this “building” opportunity that is supposed to be incorporated in their curriculum.

     So why am I telling you all of this? Because I need your help. I have written a Peace Corps Partnership Grant so that we can buy new textbooks for ALL students at my school in addition to a sufficient number of Ukrainian-English dictionaries for the classroom, and the school’s first bit of classroom technology. Part of the PCPP grant is that the community contributes to making the project happen. In our case, both the village administration and the graduating senior class will be donating laptops to accompany the projectors and Smartboard that we plan on buying with a portion of the money. By incorporating technology into the classroom, we hope to create more engaging lessons, which will ultimately allow us to complement lessons by utilizing more outside, authentic resources in the classroom.

     You can contribute to this initiative by helping me fund this grant. All money goes directly to the implementation and purchasing of items for our school, and it is 100% tax deductible. Every little bit truly does count. I also ask that you help me spread the word about this project by reblogging this. It is incredibly difficult to make the needed connections from overseas to find donors, so any and all help on this front is very much appreciated!

All donations can be made directly through the Peace Corps Website at: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=343-309

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this,

Kim

But seriously, pretty please reblog this. I know the tumblr community can help make this happen for my village.

russiangrammar:

паси́б

[pasib]

thanks (short for спасибо, can be used in IMs and chats)

спаси́бочки! спаси́бки!

[spasibochki! spasibki!]

Thanks! (but mainly used by women)

I’m not gonna lie, I love to tell people спасибочки (mainly my counterpart and teachers at school). I get laughs because it is kind of random and cutesy, but I was really amused when my local produce lady said it to me one day.

Then there is the uber-American version used between PCVs: spaseebs!