TEFL Adventures: My Reflections on my first year in Russia

Riiiiiiiiiiiing!!! Summer! School's out!

Well, I can at least say that summer is here and school is out. However, I can only imagine the sound of a ringing bell signaling the end of the school year as, unfortunately, our school doesn't have one. Still, a guy can dream, can't he?

Now that the academic year has come to a close, it's time for some reflection time regarding the past 10 months. I've still got another two weeks left on the job for this month as both sixth grade and ninth grade have camping trips, but, for all intents and purposes, my job for the year is finished and summer vacation starts.

In many ways, it's crazy that I'm having my first true period of summer vacation since high school. Every summer at Dartmouth, I was either working or taking classes. As for last summer, I essentially worked a month house-sitting and pet-sitting for my parents before spending the rest of the time prepping for my move to Russia. But now, two months of relaxing *I hope* summer vacation, with 16 days in America.

As for the past year, a lot has happened for better or worse:

• GOOD - I no longer need glasses or contacts as I had LASIK surgery in December. It feels great to not have to worry too much about vision problems. 
• BAD - But I will need reading glasses when I reach my mid-40s. I just hope they make me look smarter than I am.
• GOOD - I've become much healthier the past year with plenty of football matches, basketball games and morning exercise. I'm slowly returning to the physical fitness I had in high school.
• BAD - The injuries I've occurred during said physical fitness training. This includes one set of bruised ribs, a couple of bruised knees, some gashes and twisted ankles.
• GOOD - I've almost completely overcome my addictions to Diet Coke and Kraft macaroni & cheese.
• BAD - I've substituted my Diet Coke addiction for a coffee addiction (about 5 cups a day). Also, I miss certain commonly found American items such as mozzarella cheese that is either extremely expensive or hard to find here due to sanctions.
• GOOD - Forming either friendships with work colleagues or at least becoming cordial with each other. We can hold conversations but they're limited by my ability to communicate in Russian.
• BAD - Work drama... but thankfully the three main people that caused said work drama are all gone.
• GOOD - Acquiring a lot of experience planning and teaching full 45-minute lessons. It's taught me over time how important attention to detail is. (I had a lot of it in high school but this attention decreased in university.)
• BAD - Sometimes wondering if my students ever actually retain the knowledge. The stronger ones do but the weaker ones seemingly don't. Still, it's a challenge to try and overcome.

I should probably end this list at five good things and five bad things. I could go on for a few more bullets but I imagine you'll get bored over time. As an aside, I am thinking of buying an oven in order to prepare some of the oven-using recipes I learn about and watch via Gordon Ramsay's and Jamie Oliver's YouTube channels.

I am looking forward to next year though. I'm supposed to be going on a study trip with our new students to the Crimea in late August to early September. While there, I'll be teaching my own small English lesson program (about six classes for 30 minutes each). When we return from the Crimea, we'll resume classes as normal.

Regarding English clubs for the different grades, 10th grade will focus on preparation for international exams like PET (Preliminary English Test), IELTS/TOEFL (International tests for universities) and so on. 7th grade will prepare for their education trip to England in April, so they'll be learning about English culture, cuisine, history and so on. As for 5th grade, that has yet to be determined. But considering their elementary level of English, it will probably be something on the funner and easier side.

As always, if you have individual questions for me, go ahead and write me as my summer will be on the slower and more relaxing side once I return from America. I'm not planning on traveling very much between late July to when I leave for Crimea. Consequently, I'll be living in cafes (*cough-cough* Starbucks *cough-cough*) and trying to finish one of my many novel projects. Since I haven't contacted any publishers with any of my storyline ideas, I'll probably just self-publish through Amazon's self-publishing Kindle service. Wish me luck! I hope I have one, maybe two, full novels finished by the time my summer vacation is over.