First day of school

First day of school! First day of school! 

Whether that’s a day that you grew up always looking forward to, feeling nervous about, or somewhere in the middle; the first day of school is something that I get to do every year for the rest of my life. This year’s was certainly a special one filled with the promise of a whole new group of students and teachers, in an entirely new country and culture, and in a teaching position I’ve never experienced before (more on this in a bit). 

Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (named after the president of Kazakhstan) are a 10 year pilot project aspiring to take the brightest students from across the country and reshape what education means in Kazakhstan. My campus in Taraz (one of 21 campuses) opened in 2013 and already has 700 students from grades 7 to 12. Out of 1184 applicants this year who participated in a merit based selection process only 44 students were selected to join NIS. These students, as is true of all NIS students, are provided with full scholarship, free uniform, textbooks, food, and even accommodation in the school’s dormitory if their family lives outside the city of Taraz. The country is investing heavily in education particularly in the fields of science, engineering, medicine, technology and journalism. 

NIS

All of the principals, vice principals, heads of department and teachers at NIS are local. So where do I fit in? I am an experienced, native English speaking teacher here to guide, assist, and train local teachers to be able to teach this international biology curriculum in English. This is done through observation and discussion, group lesson planning, team teaching, leading professional development and anything else I can see being beneficial to dedicate time towards. My veteran biology teacher colleague (Deborah from Jamaica entering her 5th year at NIS) and myself are paired mostly with 3 local teachers. Much like Kazakh students these teachers are motivated, dedicated and extremely pleasant to work with. After the first week I’ve been very impressed with the content, language and teaching ability of my new colleagues, as well as their reception to feedback and eagerness to embrace suggestions, and I am very much looking forward to working with them this year. 

Every classroom has a SMART Board, although the instructions are in Russian :s

Class sizes are a maximum of 12 students. This is unheard of!

The grade 11/12 students have an alternate uniform that is a military uniform. Its pretty intimidating from a teacher's perspective.

Think of your first language. Mine is English. Now imagine teaching grade 11 and 12 in that language. Pretty challenging. Ok now what’s your second language? Mine is Bahasa Indonesia (my Indonesian students will laugh at how pathetic this is). Now imagine teaching in your second language. For most of us this would be impossible. Now your third language. Mine is um, Vietnamese? French? Not a chance I could teach in this language. And one more time, which language is your fourth strongest language? Mine might be Spanish based on a few recent pop songs. The local teachers at NIS are teaching grade 11/12 biology in English, which is often their 3rd or 4th language. That is absolutely remarkable and I have so much admiration for their level of communication ability, and how much extra work it is to be able to teach in another language. 

These are some sample notes of how one of my colleagues chooses to be extra prepared for his lessons. He'll read through the relevant section of the textbook taking note of every word he isn't confident with and translate it into Russian. This way during class while he's explaining he can quickly refer back to his translated notes in case he forgets the meaning of a word. 

Back to my students for a minute, the most motivating part of being an educator. NIS students are academically gifted, incredibly respectful, display a high level of initiative and focus, and fortunately for me are tremendously curious to learn more about the foreign country of Canada as well as share many aspects of their own culture with me. As a teacher I pride myself on being a quick learner of names. However doing so here has proved to be quite the challenge. There are many Russian names such as Kate, Natasha, Marsha - no problem at all. But there are many Kazakh names such as Agerim, Nurgissa, Aruzhan, Zhamilya, Zere, Anel, Yana, Ayana, Assem, Assel where the syllables get jumbled in my head (especially when half the names start with A). I have confirmed that the “zha" syllable is pronounced just like “JA!” from the song Despacito. I exercise the fullest extent of my self control not to yell it when pronouncing their names. 

Outside practicing some sampling techniques with the grade 11s... in 35 degree weather

As people, the students are pretty cool. Walking through the hallways is accompanied by a chorus of hellos and good afternoons from an endless flow of smiling faces. Word travels pretty quick when you’re the only Canadian in town so I’ve been approached by many students with “is it true you love hockey?” Of course! “In Canada do you call it soccer or football?” We’re flexible. “Which city are you from? Toronto!! That’s the capital right?” Hmm. Yes, it is definitely the capital of Canada (take that Ottawa!). “Have you tried horse milk yet?” Nope, can’t wait though!

My interactions with new students have progressed from simple queries to invitations and full out challenges. I was challenged to play chess with a few grade 12s. A crowd quickly formed (they love chess at my school) and before I knew it there was a student beside me helping me, followed by another student joining my team only to displace me then lose. Not fair. Next I was challenged to checkers which isn’t even a real game. I haven’t played in 10 years but the student was 12 so I felt pretty confident. He decimated me. It was the finest display of checkers I’ve ever seen. At one point he moved a piece within range of kinging and grabbed one of his pieces from my graveyard and stared me down daring me to make my next move. When I had two pieces left to his ten he extended his hand and said good game. His friends really enjoyed watching what was a very humbling game of checkers for me. And lastly I was invited by a few of the grade 12s to join their Phys. Ed. class to play basketball. At last, a chance at a real activity to earn some street cred.

My last look at the board before I got squeezed out of the game.

Some more delicious samples of Kazakh cuisine and heartwarming examples of Taraz hospitality. 

This salmon and cream cheese salad had hash browns in the bottom. Genius!

I was reading at a cafe drinking from an outside water bottle and the barista brought over a glass with ice and poured my water into it for me.

The following time I was there he even provided some lemon!

On Friday I had to get my passport translated, notarized and take it to the Tax office to get a tax identification number in order to open up a bank account. This involved filling out forms entirely in Russian and waiting for a long time at what is essentially the equivalent to the DMV. 

This is how you write my name in Russian.

We reached the Tax office just as they closed the door for lunch so my colleagues took me out for some local cuisine. I was very excited to try the famous Dunganese dish of Goiro. 

Boy was I underwhelmed to find out it was fried spaghetti. So now that’s Uzbekistan and Dungan (region in Kazakhstan and Kyrgykstan) that claim fried spaghetti is their own dish. 

I was much more pleasantly surprised to find that Manty, which had been recommended to me by some students as well as local teachers was slightly more exotic to my taste buds. 

Essentially dumplings filled with beef

No Kazakh meal would be complete without several cups of tea. Stirring tea in a bowl is impossible.

In the biology department we’re a pretty close group. And the end of the first work week marked a great opportunity for us to go out and celebrate. I arrived with the other international teacher at the restaurant at 8:00 and quickly learned I am indeed still in Asia as the next member of our party didn’t arrive until at least 30 minutes late. Once we’d all arrived, we began leaving the room we had booked for our dinner to go dance. What? Why are we dancing? Its not even 9:00, and we haven’t eaten or drank yet. With the first clear headed first-person observation of dancing in my life I was able to make a few observations. There are a small percentage of people who look natural and confident dancing. There is a much larger percentage of people who look very uncomfortable dancing and spend most of their time just copying the movement of the people who look confident. With awkwardness induced adrenaline coursing through my veins in this fight or flight scenario I decided I would be the person who looks confident and like they’re enjoying themselves. This is very hard to do when you’re a giant and your arm movements look more like massive pendulum swings than a graceful dance move. The only saving grace was that Despacito came on so my smile and energy was genuine. Finally with an unknown signal that everyone else seemed to pick up dancing time was finished (thank goodness) and we went back to our room to eat.

Now eating, that’s something I am pretty good at. And with food this tasty and time spent getting to know my colleagues further through patient translations between Kazakh, Russian and English it was turning into a very enjoyable evening. 

Famous rice and meat dish called Plov

Tower of shashlik kebab

Spotted, juice box!

Just when I swallowed my last bite and let out a conceding exhale the group made a movement to go dance. What? Dance? Why would we do that again? No, I won’t go. 

Unfortunately this round of awkward arm flailing lasted longer than the pre dinner warmup. I can only do the big fish little fish cardboard box dance move for so long without Cole and Lucas there with me and after doing my best impersonation of the inflatable dancing man at used car lots I was fresh out of dance move ideas. Just when I thought all hope was lost, and feeling more insecure and self conscious than I have since puberty, the DJ started playing some pretty catchy beats. With popular tunes from Kazakh, Uzbek, Spanish and even a little French suddenly the music took over and dancing felt a little more natural. And perhaps the highest compliment an amateur dancer can receive, I noticed a few people copying my moves! According to Trevor’s theorem of dancing that means I looked natural and confident. 

Finally we went back to our VIP room for some dessert! You guessed it, followed by yet another round of dancing. 

Saturday morning my Vice Principal picked me up and took me around this ancient city to a few historical sites to learn a little more about the 2000+ years of history that has shaped this city. 

We visited the mausoleum of Aisha, and the mausoleum of the guy who built it for her after she died at 18. These structures have been around since the 1200s. 

We visited the site where the Republic of Kazakh was founded 550 years ago by none other than Genghis Khan’s great grandchildren when they decided enough of Mongolia, let’s found our own nation and let’s do it right here in Taraz. 

We visited an open air museum and the site of assembly of the Nation’s leaders when they meet in Taraz. 

Kazakhstan!

We stopped for some awesome lunch! And I got to hear more about my VP’s time studying in Manchester. My Vice Principal is the biggest Manchester United fan I’ve ever met. He applied for a scholarship 4 years in a row to study in Manchester. Within 5 minutes of arriving he went straight to Manchester Stadium and spent almost his entire scholarship stipend on season’s tickets and never missed a game while he was there. He even told me a story of a time he took his last $30 and travelled 700km to a tennis tournament, posed as a Russian translator who got separated from his group, and smooth talked a security guard into sitting in the VIP section just a few metres away from his favourite tennis player, Canadian Genie Bouchard. 

Overall he’s a pretty cool guy to have as my VP.

Kazakhstan has figured out both juice and bread with every meal

And we stopped by a place that spoke quite deeply to me. The Silk Road was a meeting point of traders from Europe and Asia for centuries and this statue is one of many that reflects the importance of that time in Taraz’s history. 

This quote led to a few moments of deep thinking from me. The amazing people of Kazakhstan that I’ve been meeting this past week’s values have been shaped by and are a reflection of a remarkable 2000 year history. 

It led to some parallel thinking of my own “great history” of living abroad and learning about new peoples and cultures and how my values, and who I’ve grown to be as a person, is a reflection of all those unique values that I’ve encountered throughout this remarkable journey. 

And from what I’ve experienced in Kazakhstan so far I believe that the mark that this country will leave on who I become will be reflected as an even better version of myself than when I arrived here.