Peace Corps Volunteers have what are called primary projects
and secondary projects. PCVs in Macedonia have one of two primary projects,
working as a TEFL volunteer in the schools or as a Community Development
volunteer in local opstinas (local government) or with local NGOs.
Outside of the primary project, PCVs often have quite a few
secondary projects. Some of these projects are Peace Corps based, others are
local projects done in the PCVs community. I have already started on several
secondary projects and I know there will be lots more to come, especially since
I don’t have as much work going on at my school right now. The five projects I
have been working on so far are briefly detailed below and of course I included
several photos from my biggest project, the National Spelling Bee.
National Essay Contest:
Every year Peace Corps puts on a English language essay contest for students in
7th-12th grade. This year’s topic was “My Life, My
Passion”. I read and judged essays in January and next year I am one of the
coordinators for the project.
Camp GLOW: GLOW
stands for Girls Leading Our World and it is an English language leadership
camp for girls. This year I will be working as a counselor for the 10-day camp
in July. GLOW is a worldwide camp put on by PCVs and Macedonia has the best
camp in the world. From this, I am hoping to start a Club GLOW in my town to
get the girls here to be more involved in leadership activities in their own
community.
Young Men’s Leadership Project (YMLP): This is the boys’ version of Camp GLOW focusing on
developing the leadership skills of the young men here in Macedonia. I will be
teaching environmental education at this camp in June/July. Perhaps the largest
goal of this camp is to work on bringing ethnically diverse young men together
to show them that they share far more similarities than differences. In order
to make this camp happen, however, the group is still looking for funding.
Through the Peace Corps Partnership Program, they are asking for donations from
friends, family, and anyone who wants to help support this initiative. I told
the guys organizing the camp I would put a plug for donations on my blog, so if
you would like to help support YMLP camp, click here to donate.
Gradinka: In
addition to working at the primary school in my town, I help out at the
Gradinka or daycare/kindergarten one day a week. Some of the children there are
working on getting a basis in English before they enter school. While there
have been some challenges as the methods of teaching are quite different than
the USA, it has been interesting work.
National Spelling Bee:
This has been my largest project so far, which is why I put it last since there
is a lot to write. This year PCVs with the help of some local partners
organized the 3rd annual National English language Spelling Bee. I
served as a committee member this year and next year will be one of the
co-coordinators for the event. We just held the National Bee this past weekend
and it was quite successful. Over 800 students in grades 5-12 from around
Macedonia came to Skopje to compete for a chance to be the best speller in
their grade level. Prior to the National Bee, PCVs and a few Host Country Nationals
(HCNs) held approximately 60 qualifying bees in cities, towns, and villages
across the country. In order to receive an invitation to compete at the Bee in
Skopje, students had to spell 10 words correctly at a qualifier.
I held two different qualifiers for my students in 5th-8th
grade and had 95 students show up, which blew my mind. The English teachers had
told me they had a few kids, but I never would have guessed that many. Of the
95 students who tried out, 21 of them spelled their words correctly and were
able to compete in Skopje. My kids were so excited, nervous, and determined.
They studied hard too. After the qualifier we had what I jokingly referred to
as Spelling Bee Boot Camp every day after school for a week. At the Boot Camp
sessions I would give them words and they would write them for me. We practiced
for at least two hours every day, with one or two days being four hour practice
sessions.
Then this past weekend, on April 7th, we held the
National Bee in Skopje. 92% of the kids who qualified attended the event, which
is phenomenal since many had to travel several hours to get to Skopje only to
incorrectly spell their first word. This year we were fortunate enough to have
not only our Country Director come to the Bee, but also the U.S. Ambassador to
Macedonia. It was really cool that they both were able to attend because the
committee had put a lot of time into the event and it was great to have their
support and hear their feedback on the event. I am pretty sure National
Spelling Bee is the largest Peace Corps event in the country as well, as we had
over 4000 students participate at some point or another and probably 300+
teachers. I can tell that this project will be where I focus a good deal of my
energy.
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| Practicing words with a student |
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| 5th graders at the qualifier |
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| Some of the 7th graders who qualified to go to Skopje |
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| One of my 6th graders who is phenomenal at English |
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| Two more 7th graders who qualified |
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| Students trying to qualify to go to Skopje |
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| My first 5th grader to qualify |
| The National Bee, April 7, 2012- University American College, Skopje |
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| Registration was crazy! |
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| One of my students thinking hard about his word |
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| A 5th grader from Kamenica |
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| Gotta love the tongue- necessary for thinking |
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| The US Ambassador to Macedonia graced us with his presence |
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| Part of the committee this year |
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| We found a few more committee members, but not quite everyone |
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| The 2013 National Spelling Bee Committee Chairs |
