August 31, 2010: Second day at school

August 31, 2010: Today I arrived at school in great time once again even though I left a little later in the morning. The weather has turned significantly colder -- I may actually need to wear a jacket tomorrow! You can tell the cooler weather is here to stay because all the outdoor cafes have started offering blankets for their customers to wrap around themselves to keep warm. It's funny to see everyone outside the cafe wrapped in the same color of blanket.

On the way to school, I noticed Hungary's contribution to recycling -- huge plastic containers where the population can contribute their waste in separate containers depending on the item.

Receptacles for recycling

After arriving at school, the gate lady gave me my very own key to the teachers' lounge. By the end of the day I also had a key to my office. I also went to the school bursar to pay for the lunches for September. I decided to take my chances on the school's food for lunch @ ~$1.50 a meal, especially having seen the menu. If I had selected not to participate in the school's lunches, I would have been given a voucher for 4500 forint (~$20) that I could have used at outside restaurants for lunch!  I guess this is a perk for teachers to be given money especially for food.  I can choose to buy lunches at school or receive a voucher every month.


I went to my office and met Gabor who took me to the school library where I opened an account so that I can check out any books I like. They have all the classics in English literature as well as simplified versions that could be used in my classes. They even have Dan Brown's latest book (why, I don't know since his first book, The Da Vinci Code was not exactly what I would call notable literature). I also looked over the math book, but it was written in Hungarian. They must have one written in English since math is taught in the English language to the bilingual students.

Ujpesti High School library

Returning to our office, I met Bede Kati and asked her what she thought of my first English class activity that I had e-mailed her and the other teachers last night. (The activity was a four by four matrix where the boys would find someone in class who satisfied what each box stipulated and fill in the box with that information -- e.g., find someone in class who has a dog  and find out its name). I was concerned that perhaps the exercise was too advanced for the students but all the teachers who saw it said it was a very good exercise, so I'm all set for day one!

After this we all went to the English department's first "formal" meeting. There are twenty English teachers in the school, and I'm on the teams for four of the five English teacher teams for grade 9. There's 9A, 9B, 9C, 9D, and 9E. Of these classes, 9A is the weakest of the five classes and they will not be part of the bilingual program. 9B, 9C, and 9D are the strongest students in grade 9 and each of these bilingual classes will have twenty classes of English per week. I will be teaching English conversation six times a week to each of the 9B, 9C, and 9D classes and four times a week to 9E which is slightly weaker than the bilingual students. As I said, there are three other teachers on each team teaching each of these classes and the other teachers will divide their duties to English grammar, written English, and reading. I am very pleased with all the other teachers I've met to discuss upcoming plans for doing this. They all speak impeccable English and will be very easy to teach with. They have all made it very clear that I'm to do what I want to do, however, I've told them it seems that it would be in the students' best interest if I were to exercise the students in the grammar that the others are teaching so that they're getting double dose of what they're teaching. They liked that idea, so that's the way it will be.

The meeting began with Lacsi, the assistant headmaster whom I had met yesterday, welcoming everyone and giving basic guidelines (I think that's what he did but can't be sure since everything was spoken in Hungarian at the meeting). Following Lacsi, Fekete Kati spoke about English plans for the year (again in Hungarian) and the only part of her talk I understood was when she introduced me (I heard my name). She eventually came up with a list of English activities where each teacher would volunteer to participate in that activity. Eventually she said "Halloween and Thanksgiving" and in the same sentence said, "Dick will volunteer to do these two activities." And so I was introduced to the Hungarian way of volunteering. So, dear blog readers, if you can think of any activities for Halloween or Thanksgiving (American Thanksgiving), please let me know.  I'm thinking bobbing for apples, wearing costumes and giving prizes, and perhaps the game my parents subjected us kids to when we were forced to touch a grape in the dark after being told it was an eyeball, spaghetti after being told it was intestines, etc. I think boys of that age would love that. Please send your ideas. 

After the meeting, the teachers of 9B, 9C, 9D, and 9E asked me to join them to discuss plans for teaching English in those classes. As I said above, I am delighted with my interactions with them so far and look forward to a great teaching year.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the meeting, as I walked in the door, Fekete Kati gave me my tentative schedule, telling me that it would most likely change several times in the first three weeks of school (why they can't seem to arrange the schedule once and for all is beyond me, but according to our orientation, it's the Hungarian way). According to the schedule I was given, I'll be teaching twenty-two 45 minute classes with ten minute breaks between them. On Thursdays, it appears that I'll be teaching six classes back to back starting at 7:45 and ending at 1:15. This will undoubtedly test my endurance. But again, this is only a tentative schedule so perhaps it will change. I only hope that eventually I will be living in my apartment close to school so that I won't have to get up so early to accommodate traveling by subway to school by 7:45.

Another action we were all given at the meeting was to complete a syllabus (actually schedule) indicating what topics we will be teaching for the entire year! Imagine having to document what I'll be teaching next June to students whose capabilities I don't even know yet. But that's the rule so I'll have to abide. Fortunately the other teachers said they would help me to complete this task.

Meanwhile, in roaming around the school, I saw a number of trophies that the school had won in the recent past.  These were on display in the HM's office.

Trophies won by the school in recent years

On the way home, I decided to buy a notebook to write notes of things that take place at meetings (all the teacher do this). This allowed me to veer off the path to the subway and in doing so, I passed the Ujpest market, not as grand as the one downtown, but very large and ample nevertheless.

Ujpesti Market

 Next to the market was a nice looking church.

Ujpesti market & neighboring church

Ujpesti church

 After buying my notebook and roaming through the market, I returned home.

One other picture that I took yesterday across from the Budapest main market shows some buildings that have been refurbished. Refurbishing seems to be going on everywhere.

Refurbished buildings across from Budapest Market