What it's like teaching in a Mongolian public high school

No, I'm not an expert. My experience is limited to three short years teaching 9th-11th graders English as a first language and English as a second language. I've been teaching in a Cambridge Laboratory school which just means that we prepare our students to take the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams. It was a challenge as I did not have much training in what to expect in the Mongolian classroom. There are many resources about Chinese students so I was taught a lot about what to expect in a classroom in China. Forgive me, but that was a waste of time.

My very first day

The first thing that surprised me (for some stupid reason) was how normal the kids were and how much more they reminded me of my high school days instead of what I'd learned about the Chinese high schools. I had been told that Asian students are very respectful of their teachers and that the classroom would reflect the honor/shame culture of their society. While there was a degree of truth to this, it was not as present as I expected. At first, they were all very respectful but after a while, the bloom was off the rose and they fell into their different roles (from very smart and attentive all the way to this is challenging for me and I don't want to try anymore so I'm going to play) same as my own high school days. Most, however, were fairly respectful, especially for hormone infused teenagers.

Sports Day. Competition is fierce and calls for war paint.

About half of the students I taught were already very familiar with the English speaking culture. They love our music, films, TV shows (I have a friend who credits the show "Friends" with teaching her English) and even those who weren't familiar with our culture knew our basketball teams and players well. Side note, I got into a cab the other day and the driver could barely say two words in English however he was able to start listing all of the basketball teams. Randomly. "Lakers!" "Miami Heat!" "Chicago Bulls!" And when they asked where I'm from and I reply "Dallas", they know where that is and respond with, "Mavericks!!!"

I often brought clips from TV shows, movies, TED talks, etc. into the classroom which they often enjoyed. 

I've looked out of the teacher room window and have seen the little ones playing hopscotch or keep away. Games such as tic-tac-toe, hangman, rock/paper/scissors (they have their own version) and the like were played everyday. Other similarities include having those students who can't seem to keep their eyes open (my teammates and fellow teachers began offering those students coffee which is why I called them "coffee pushers"), students who try to get the teacher off topic, students who know English so well that they are bored to tears and students who don't have a clue what I'm saying. Students who stare off into nowhere, students who doodle on every assignment, students who can't seem to stop poking each other, students who decide to take their pens apart and get ink everywhere, and students who can't sit still to save their lives (Me: What are you DOING?" Student: "Sometimes I just get the desire to flail my arms about.") And of course, we have problems with getting the students to unplug themselves from their smart phones and tablets - it's like pulling teeth, as if we're asking them to tear a member of their bodies off: "I'm so sorry, Teacher! I'll never play with my phone in class again. Pleeeeeeeeeeezzzzzz give it back!" I just look at them and say dryly, "That's what you said yesterday."

There were a few unexpected and lovely differences though. For the most part, they wanted to be friends outside of class. There were many times when I had scolded a student for misbehaving in class but then afterwords, I'd get a "Hi Teacher!" and a smile in the hallway later. Another fun thing is that when I would invite them to my apartment for a pizza and movie party (you can do that here), they would come and have a great time! I don't ever remember wanting to go to one of my teachers houses. Most seem to want a relationship outside of the classroom and I've been honored by some of them as they've entrusted me with information about secret crushes, dreams, frustrations about family, peer pressures, etc.

Christmas cookies. Always a hit.

Here are a few tidbits for anyone thinking about teaching in Mongolia:

• It's considered rude to point at someone, at least with one finger so if you need to point to one of your students, try to do it with your whole hand.
• I would have students point to their noses and ask if they could go to the toilet. I later realized that they were going to blow their noses as it's considered gross to do this around others.
• As is typical with Asian cultures, cheating is seen as helping. They honestly do not see why we think it's so wrong and I was under the impression that the other Mongolian teachers weren't sticklers like we foreign teachers were.
• Where we say the teacher "gives" the test and the student "takes" the test, it's the opposite here. The student "gives" the test and the teacher "takes" it. This can be confusing: "Teacher. When are you going to take the test?" "I'm not, you are. Oh wait."
• All students wear uniforms with small differences depending on your school and grade.
• They just recently added a 12th grade - up until this year (2015) students graduated after 11th.
• They LOVE performing and at least once a quarter will find a reason to display their talents to each other and the teachers. Singing (both pop and traditional Mongolian songs), dancing (same), acting, and playing instruments (mainly Mongolian instruments).
• Other huge interests include robot building, chess, sports day, soccer, basketball, anime, Japanese horror films, pizza and chicken.
• We celebrate "Teacher Appreciation Day" and the students will perform for us and give us hugs and gifts. It's a good day.

Teacher Appreciation Day 

This is one of the gifts I received one year! One of my very talented students drew this picture of me.

• The Mongolian culture is a very touchy-feely one and I often looked up to see students holding hands, arms around friends, playing with each other's hair, sharing the same chair, etc. There were days when I had to say things like, "Jake! Get her hair out of your mouth."
• They very much believe in things like evolution and global warming and yet I've heard many of them talking about believing in ghosts, aliens, mermaids and the like as well. Sounds like high school to me.
• They are in the crossroads of not only childhood and adulthood but also in a culture that seems to be rapidly changing. They are choosing whether or not to hold on to their grandparents traditions (only just reclaimed in the last 30 years when Mongolia declared their independence from Russia) and being very attracted to the English speaking culture.

• The education system here LOVES to give exams and mock exams. At least once a quarter, it seemed like we were giving exams in addition to the regular tests over what we were teaching in class. 
• Teens can't drive until they turn 18.
• It's very rare, but teachers are allowed to punish students in a physical way such as hitting them with a belt. 
• I gave all my classes a point system where they could earn points for good behavior and lose points for bad behavior. Once they hit certain goals, they were rewarded with games, a movie in class day and finally a pizza party. Most responded very well to this system.

Make your own pizza party with some of my 11th graders last year.

• I don't know this as a fact but I believe that most, if not all, of my students have been exposed to terrible abuse, alcoholism, abortion, incest, abandonment, sex trafficking and more. There are organizations set up and being set up to bring these issues to light and provide help but work like this can be slow going and this culture does not yet embrace sharing difficult personal things. There were many times when my students' pain was obvious and I regret not being able to help more than lend a listening ear. 
• They all believe that if they learn English well, their future will be better. Many dream of going to an English speaking country for University and then coming back and making Mongolia a better, stronger country. 

Some of our graduates last year. Precious.

A few 12th graders who graduated last year celebrated Christmas with us. Mainly for cookies I think...

Braiding hair.

My 10th grade pizza party this year.

Students in their traditional Mongolian deels playing their traditional Mongolian instruments called Morin Khuurs.

If you are planning on teaching in Mongolia, I will tell you that I found these kids to be very bright, clever, and warm. Things like apologizing for your mistakes, holding them to a standard, allowing them laugh and joke, allowing them to voice their opinions, etc. make a big impression on them. You can actually show them that you care and most of them will respond favorably to that. I'm leaving the Mongolian classroom feeling very lucky and honored to have been a part of it.

The Grade Book

This is my grade book.

It's called a "Teachers Journal".

It's all in Mongolian. 

The purple post-it note says:

"Do not make mistakes!

Don't use correction tape."

You can only write in blue ink.

I've written in pencil.

I've made mistakes.

I've used correction tape.

I'm fairly certain most of what I've written in it is wrong.

For those non-teachers, this is the book where I'm to record all my students, every one of their absences, all my lessons, all my assignments and grades. It's tedious work, especially when you're out for a few weeks. It's really easy to fall behind, which I've done miserably. To make things worse, some of my classes have been changing almost constantly and I'm still not sure how to record them accurately. 

I've made tons of mistakes. I showed my headmaster and she said, "Oh noooooo. This is not good." Pause. "It's ok, I'll just tell them (the people from the Ministry of Education) that you're a foreigner and didn't know better."

Soooo true. 

I wonder if that excuse will work even though they've explained it to me, clearly, several times now?

I love being a teacher…but not really.

To be honest, being a teacher was the one thing I knew I didn't want to be. I'm a teacher today because I felt guided to be one. But in reality, I don't like it…
yet.

I like my students - in fact, some of them I just want to pick up and say "YOU ARE ADORABLE!!!" Others, I just want to pick up and throw out of the windows - the only thing that's stopping me is that they are 15 year old boys and so unless they threw themselves out, it wouldn't work ;)



I hate lesson planning and all the paperwork that is involved. I hate being a meanie when there are discipline issues. I hate failing students that I know are really trying.



So I won't just be pooping on being a teacher, I'll share some of the things I love. I love when students do well and they are excited about it. I love when everyone is paying attention and trying. I love when they get it right when I was expecting them to get it wrong. Those things make it seem like I'm not wasting their time or my time!

I found this article entitled
"The Hardest Job Everyone Thinks They Can Do" (warning, there is a teensy bit of language)
and gave myself some slack. And thanked Him for all the teachers I've had.
And for letting me be a teacher.

I misspelled what?!

"Teacher, you misspelled ‘English.’" 

I looked up and saw that I had indeed left out the “L” in English when I wrote it on the chalk board. 

Ooops. 

“Hey, good for you! You caught the on purpose mistake!”

This is how my first day back to school began. A laugh was needed as those days had been chaotic at school. My class schedule changed no less than five times before my first class began and is still not completely set in concrete. Who I’m teaching and what I’m supposed to teach them has also changed multiple times – making lesson plans has been difficult lately. But I’m loving it! I love being back, catching up with my returning students, fellow teachers and getting to know the new students. 

My view from my kitchen window before we got snow.

It’s beautiful right now in UB – sunny and in the 40’s and we've gotten some snow so the mountains are white again. My Mongolian friend, Oyuna, mentioned that they are expecting a colder winter. I looked at her and said, “COLDER winter?!?! As in colder than -51 C (-60 F)?!” She looked at me with an apologetic face and asked if I had a warm jacket. My Mongolian friends are always looking out for me – when I’m sick, they offer me vitamins, when something goes wrong in my apartment, they offer to call my landlord, when the weather turns brutally cold, they scold me if I’m not wearing enough layers. The climate is very cold but the people are very warm here.

My mom's dog, Huck, thought I put the
 quilt down for him to try out.
He approved.

The Lone Star Quilt that my incredibly talented Aunt Nancy has made to help raise funds is still incredibly adorable and we have given away almost 100 entries in exchange for donations! If you would like to donate ($10 per chance) and get your name in the drawing, please click on the link to the left under the picture of the quilt! We'll be drawing a name in October/November - this would make an excellent Christmas gift!!!

To laugh or cry?

Tuesday was my first day as an ESL teacher to real live Mongolian students! I have been preparing for this day for almost two years and can't even begin to tell you all the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into this journey - not to mention all of the support I've received from family, friends and supporters!

So I walk into my classroom and my lesson plan (that is planned down to the minute) is quickly interrupted by the head English teacher. She takes up about 10 minutes - 10 precious minutes. I take a deep breath after she leaves and begin my lesson. About 10 minutes later, I realize none of the students have their books. I begin to panic as 3/4 of my plan involves the book! I take another deep breath and start to "wing it". At their break, I go to the sink to wet down the "erasure" (a rag) and the water sprays down my front which makes it look like I have bladder issues! And of course, I end the class slipping on a cord - thankfully I catch myself and don't fall but it was enough to get a few more giggles.

I have decided to laugh and have hopes that it will get better and things will go smoother the rest of the week. Either way, I had fun despite the curve balls!

I got them to speak in English to each other - SUCCESS!!!

"Gotta go BACK, BACK, BACK to School Again"

This song from Grease 2 has been playing in my mind off and on since I found out I was going to take some Wheaton University classes. Not the best film but for some reason, one of my childhood favorites. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at all tempted to dance just like the "kids" in the picture above whilst singing this song on my treks around UB...

My company just celebrated our 20th year teaching in Mongolia with a big celebration which was filled with lives that have been  drastically changed by our English teachers!!

Here is a picture at one of our celebrations - this is Brad who is our country director and his wife Ruth.

The Mongolian Government is so impressed by our excellence in teaching that they have asked us to provide more teachers in more schools all over the country which, of course, allows us to touch more lives!

In order to maintain this strong relationship between our company and the Mongolian Schools, we teachers are now required to have a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification. I have been accepted into Wheaton College in order to take the necessary courses this summer so that I can become certified before I begin teaching in the fall. Arrangements have been made for us to travel to Beijing this August where several Wheaton professors will be waiting to teach us these courses for three weeks.

A few weeks ago, we received several assignments that are due by August 1st - 6 books that need to be read and assignments on each. While singing old Grease songs, I've tried to awaken old college study habits to get these done by July 10th (because my mom is coming for a visit - YAY!!). With an unseen grace, I have 2.5 assignments completed even though we are still required to keep up with our Mongolian language lessons and other commitments - it's been busy but it's all good!!

However, the cost of this certification was not included in my original financial profile (as these changes happened shortly after I moved here) and I now need to raise $3,900. Through several very generous donations, I already have $900 raised and a few others have committed to give a little extra in their monthly support! If you would like to help meet this need, I would be very grateful. All you need to do is click on "Partner with me financially" under the heading on the left entitled "BE CREDITED WITH CHANGING LIVES IN ASIA!" My last name is Kitchens by the way, you'll need to know this when giving. Yes, just like the room with an "s" on the end :)

By the way, if you haven't seen Grease 2, I want to leave you with an image that gives you an idea of what you've been missing...

It's been a LOOOONNNNGGG ten days!

I and the other newbies here have just finished our first teaching opportunity here in UB, a ten day teaching practicum. We had about 40 Mongolian English Teachers (all women) come from all over the country on their Spring Break type of vacation (some traveled over 20 hours by bus - which means they were cramped in like sardines the entire time) to study English from actual native English speakers.

Along with tons of new vocabulary (including fun words like "bummer" and "gold digger"), we taught them new teaching structures designed to make learning English more fun and to give them (and their students back home) more opportunities to practice speaking.

So for the past ten days (March 23-April 2 with one Sunday off), my days looked like this:

• Wake up about 6-6:30am and finish getting ready for the days activities. 
• Leave for the office with my teammates about 8:30am, print off vocab words/pictures, stories, cut/tape/glue questions, take a deep breath, drink my energy drink and head to the school around 9:30am. 
• Teach from 10am-1:15pm with Barb.
•  1:15-2pm have a conference with our main teacher about things we need to improve on, things we did well and questions we may have. 
• 2pm-3pm have lunch with my team and not talk about teaching at all. 
• 3pm - 4pm-ish,walk home, try to catch up on dirty dishes, laundry, stare off into nowhere for a few minutes, return a few emails and then back to working. 
• 4pm-ish until about 8pm work on the next days activities with Barb, Duke and John and grade homework.
• 8pm - 8:30pm, have a snack and Skype. 
• 8:30pm - 11pm, continue working on homework and practicum activities. 
• Then try to sleep.

Two out of four us got sick by the end of this schedule - I think I caught the flu and maybe an upper respiratory infection. I'll have a picture in my newsletter coming out soon (if you're not on my newsletter list, email me your physical address).

It was a great experience despite the busy schedule and illness - I learned a TON about teaching, got to meet some great Mongolian English teachers and was taken very good care of by my team members! After a few days off and some medication, I feel great and am ready to start back with my Mongolian language lessons!

Why am I moving to Mongolia?

Before the summer of 2010 I would have told you that I did not want to be a teacher nor did I have any idea where Mongolia was located...nor did I care. My plans for my life did not include either one of those things however, I've often learned throughout my life that Someone else has different plans...

Summer of 2010, some friends of mine announced that they would be moving to Asia to help teach young pastors how to lead. Everytime they spoke about Asia and the opportunities to impact many lives, I got goosebumps and was moved. My heart began to be excited about what was happening on the other side of the world - Asia has never been an interest of mine so this surprised me. After several months, I began to take these alien thoughts to my Father and soon realized that He was throwing me a curve ball - the biggest of my life so far! The more I talked to Him, the more I felt lead to research and my heart changed towards Asia and became more open for big changes.

I contacted a sending agency and was accepted into a program that would allow me to move to Mongolia and teach English in a University in Ulan Bator - the capital city in Mongolia!

I am in awe that I would have the opportunity to go to this country and impact the lives of future leaders in Asia. The more I learn about this country and their people, the more I can't wait to get over there and begin my 2.5 year journey!

I invite you to partner with me and be credited with changing lives in Asia. While I do my part in moving to Mongolia, teaching, cultivating relationships, etc., you can partner with me financially. I will keep you up to date with newsletters, emails and of course, this blog. Please click on the link to the left of this blog page "Partner with me financially" to learn more.

As I begin this journey I hope to use this blog to keep everyone informed on how the Father is working in my life and in Mongolia. I will be writing updates as I deal with the daily struggles and rewards of planning and serving in Mongolia. My hope is that this blog will show you how the Father is moving and that you will be a part of this every step of the way!