Let’s start back at Tuesday. Narzullo picked me up after school and we went over to his mosque. They had refinished the basement and made classrooms and I had wanted to see it. It really looks nice how they’ve arranged things. They even have table tennis tables for the kids to play. I sat in on the Arabic lessons again. Narzullo prepares the dialogue in English language letters for me. So I’m able to read the text, but can’t decipher the Arabic words. It’s a very difficult language.
Wednesday in school we did and experiment with eggs. We tested raw eggs to see how much weight they could hold. They finally broke when I placed a board across four of them, put a chair on the board and put my heaviest kid on the chair. The kids loved it, of course. Anything that makes a mess is a fun experiment for them.
But the kicker yesterday was when the boss’s assistant came in and told me I was signed up not only to do a PowerPoint presentation on bicycle education today, but tomorrow I should present a master class on teaching English. I had a few choice words with her about her never having discussed this with me. When she stood there and insisted that she had, I kicked her out of my room because she was making me very angry. After discussions with the boss, it turned out that a master class in English wasn’t even necessary. I was steamed. Don’t stand there and tell me you discussed something with me that was never, ever even mentioned!
But the evening was fun because we went out to play table tennis again. I still can’t beat anyone, but I’m certainly improving and the exercise is sorely needed.
Today was the big day. I had timed my presentation and it was 12 minutes long, well within the 15 minute limit the boss told me I had. So, I teach class this morning, then Matthew, who is also presenting, and I get a taxi out to the conference hall near the airport. We had to go through the airport terminal and over the sky walkway to get there. We finally find people from our school who directed us to the right lecture hall. Azat made sure they had downloaded my PowerPoint and then we stood around and met some people from the Netherlands who were also presenting. Floor had been told she should prepare an hour-long presentation. When she got there, she was told a quarter of an hour. And this was representative of how the entire conference went. The made. Matthew go first because they had screwed up Floor’s PowerPoint. As Matthew is presenting, they turn his video on its side and leave the audio off. Not an optimal situaton. Then Floor gets started but they still cut her short. Then came two Russian presenters who were not bad. But THEN came the stinker. She told how she takes her children to Egypt and Greece and Bali so that the kids can learn first-hand. Hmmmmm, let me think. How many elementary schools can afford to send their classes to Egypt or Greece or Bali? Then she proceeds to show 20 minutes worth of pictures from these “excursions “ that look like home videos of her summer vacation. What a bore.
I followed her. I got off to a good start, the clicker was working on the Smartboard, I was about halfway through my presentation and the moderator says I have two minutes more. So I had to cram 6 minutes worth into 2. Then there was supposed to be a panel discussion, which never took place.
So, I worked intensively on this presentation for a month and didn’t even get to present it fully. I know I won’t get roped into that situation again! But I’m glad I have the presentation because it might prove to be helpful in other situations.
Tomorrow’s Friday. Yippee. Then next week is a short week because of International Women’s Day. I’ll take it.
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