Survival of the Fittest

The name of the post makes it sound more dramatic than it actually is, but I survived my first week of teaching!!!

Okay, it was three days. But it was hard. This definitely is not going to be a breeze. Teaching the lessons isn't to complicated (unless my kids are rowdy), it's coming up with my own ideas for lessons. Here's what I've done so far...
Paper Snakes
Balancing game
Paper Octopus
Pop sickle stick Harmonica
Simon says

Harmonica

So far I have three classes that I teach, but after Parent's Day it will only be two.

I teach two 1st grade classes which will be combined after we know which kids are actually going to do the catch-up program. I'm alternating between classes for right now. Overall, I have around 12 kids in each group. So once the classes are combined, we're expecting a little more than half to not sign up (due to the level of child/parent interest and high cost). Their program is called "catch-up" because most kids start our program in Kindergarten. So we are helping them "catch up" to their classmates who are already in the program.

After Catch up, I team teach a class in the Kindergarten. We have around 12 kids on the roll (ususally 9 show up). After Parent's Day, we think it will be around 8. Between Catch up AND Kindergarten, there's a potential for me to have 3 Masha's, 2 Sasha's, 2 Fyodor's, 2 Andrey's, 2 Nastya's and 2 David's. (Not to mention all my kids have awesome Russian names)

Oh yeah! I forgot to explain Parent's Day. Once school starts, all the kids eligible for our program (aka all the Kindergarteners, all the 1st graders, etc) come to our classes for a week or two. Then their parents come and see if they want their child to do it. Our Parent's Day is next week. I'm teaching at a school nicknamed "Prof." It's their first year working with ILP. So any prayers sent our way would be much appreciated. :) 

Changing subjects, Russia is amazing! Here are some tidbits of my life this last week...

I use the metro every day. The trains could use some updates, but I would leave the stations just the way they are...

Kievskaya Station

Russians park their cars wherever they want and however they want...

Those cars are parked in the space splitting the lanes going into/out of a roundabout.

Yes, this is normal.

And last but not least, the FOOD. Russians eat A LOT of starch. Potatoes, pasta, bread, etc. But they're very creative in the many ways they prepare it! I eat lunch at school and breakfast and lunch at home.

Soup, Salad, Juice! The carrots had little pieces of mandarin oranges/ in them. And the soups are usually seasoned with dill.

On Tuesday (9/9) we had cake!

Borscht (soup), cucumber salad, chicken and buckwheat, and juice :)

First time having Blini

It's the happy Russian middle ground between pancake and crepe

Sometimes my kids bring me pastries during snack time. They're the best. 

Yogurt!

Hopefully this post was enlightening. Russia is amazing and I love it here! For those of you following my host family situation (the lack thereof), still no news. But I'm hoping to to get a host family within the next or so... hopefully. All is well here in Moscow.

Paul (пол)