Dr. t. lee

Reflection on the TLG Experience

There are many reflections about the TLG experience that will form a future publication. However, two deserve mention in this portfolio. First, because the vast majority of TLG volunteers do not have backgrounds in the field of education and most lack experience teaching in their home countries, it will serve the Ministry well to recast the titles/roles of volunteers, extend the training/orientation period, and cease the practice of asking TLG volunteers to evaluate Georgian teachers and administrators. Asking volunteers with little to no practical teaching experience to become co-teachers is a dubious proposition; it is an interesting prospect to expect TLG volunteers to use various co-teaching models that even teachers with many years of experience are hard pressed to implement. In the interim, one way to address these challenges would be to extend the training/orientation period; this would provide the Academic team with more opportunities to conduct additional methodological training and give volunteers much needed language training including specific English-Georgian translations of common classroom management phrases and the translation of many of the common instructional phrases contained in the English World texts (see Figure 137 for an examples of suggested phrases that volunteers need to know how to say when providing instruction to Level 1 Georgian speaking children). Knowing these words/phrases in Georgian will help English speaking volunteers to better communicate with students especially when employing co-teaching methods such as parallel and station teaching. Even with an extended orientation period, significant managerial and organizational structuring is needed to legitimize the efforts and stated aims of the program.

Second, there is a general lack of instructional leadership and economic equity.  School directors and Ministry of Science and Education of Georgia officials need to be visible instructional leaders that guide their staff through the Ministry’s stated reforms. School directors need to design master schedules that provide teachers with a manageable teaching load and adequate common planning time; they must be individuals that are present in classrooms, observing and/or modeling effective instruction, and actively providing teacher assistance. With respect to economic equity, it is difficult to form a partnership and co-teach with a Georgian teacher when the stipends that volunteers receive, while miniscule by Western standards, are double the salary rate the Georgian government provides to its teachers. It seems that some national reforms have been implemented that require teachers to pass various tests in order to earn a higher wage, but paying teachers well, providing ongoing training, and providing the instructional resources that teachers and students need to implement a new program with integrity are worthwhile priorities.

Ultimately, being a TLG volunteer was an experience of great honor and I am thankful for it. I enjoyed meeting my co-teachers and getting to know my students; see Figure 138 for some lovely art that my students made for me.

The Republic of Georgia is a beautiful place and I look forward to returning, this time as a visitor to explore the many beautiful areas that I did not have time to visit during my service. I love Tbilisi and want to see all sectors of the people and the city thrive. Some of my favorite foods that I miss are: Mitana sausages, lobiani, khinkali, Megrelian khachapuri, matsoni, kupati, and mtsvadi. I miss Natakhtari lemonade (pear, cream, and of course peach). I also miss red adjika on tomatoes, and red tkemali on just about everything.

Figure 138. Art from my Georgian students.

_Go to Prospects for English Education in Georgia