five days in may - a bolnisi portfolio
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Carol Cecelia Smith
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sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia quam rara sunt
'but [as regards] everything [it] is as difficult
[to bring it about] as it is rare [to find it]'
SPINOZA (1632 - 1677)
'He has obtained exactly what he deserves: no less; and
certainly no more'
(Andrew Crocker-Harris to Frank Hunter about Taplow)
TERENCE RATTIGAN, The Browning Version(1948)
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5thcentury carvings at Bolnisi Sioni (Mike Woodcock)
To record some ongoing English educationdevelopments in a
Georgian school, fluency in the maths of nor more dimensions is
essential. The parameters are numerous and varied. All are in flux.
Here are some of the variables:
1.The school buildings and their fittings;
2.Directions in education policy;
3.Student learning: what has been accrued; what is being targeted;4.Timein relation to student learning especially;
5.Emotions: the network of feelings and expectations students bring
to lessons;
6.Geographythe travels of the Volunteer;
7.Materials;
8.Ideas and strategies;
9.Overall goals of the program.
Being invited to write a portfolio about Bolnisi Third School is
rather like an oceanographer being asked to comment on individual
1This essay was written in response to a request by the Teach and Learn with Georgia
Project (TLG) for portfolios of volunteers school teaching experiences.
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waves; but I will do my best, and restrict my observations to a
period of just a five days in May, 2012.
*
Nothing, Rilke said, is less likely to bring us near to a work of art
than criticism. Unfortunately, the same can be said of education.
Seen from a distance, it is - subjectively - a confused blur of good
intentions, occasional success and, overall, a territory of ambiguous
remembered feelings. These may vary with day-to-day, hands-on,
experience; and in due course will acquire a patina whose quality
will depend on learning achievement or its absence.
That same emotional field can vary with our daily classroom
experiences as a teacher too: a good day will provide a sense of
uplift; a bad one something approaching the dark night of the
soul.
It is curious why this should be the case. My explanation is that our
engagement happens at a deeper level than is obvious. Students in
Georgia know deep down even if they if not of an age to understand
the facts where available that their country, which both they and
all visitors love unreservedly, has of late suffered greatly from the
disintegration of the Communist system and the events that fall
precipitated.
Native teachers, too, are all too aware of the catastrophic collapse
in educational activity and standards which went hand in hand with
this political and social upheaval.2
2cf Peter Nasmyth, Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry, 3rd Edition (Taylor and Francis 2006) p 309. Available
online athttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Georgia-Mountains-Poetry-Peter-
Nasmyth/dp/0415396697#reader_0415396697
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Georgia-Mountains-Poetry-Peter-Nasmyth/dp/0415396697#reader_0415396697http://www.amazon.co.uk/Georgia-Mountains-Poetry-Peter-Nasmyth/dp/0415396697#reader_0415396697http://www.amazon.co.uk/Georgia-Mountains-Poetry-Peter-Nasmyth/dp/0415396697#reader_0415396697http://www.amazon.co.uk/Georgia-Mountains-Poetry-Peter-Nasmyth/dp/0415396697#reader_0415396697http://www.amazon.co.uk/Georgia-Mountains-Poetry-Peter-Nasmyth/dp/0415396697#reader_0415396697 -
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But Georgians know that their leaders have attempted to turn round
the rhetorical question of a Russian in New York: Why, with a
system of education five times better, do we have an economy five
times worse?3
The adventure TLG volunteers are part of is an attempt to address the
paradox that now the social system is maybe twenty-five times better,
but the education system has become five times as bad, Teacher-
volunteers thus bear something of the mantle of Saint Nino...they are
potentially saviours of Georgia...
Class Eight gets under way
My five days in May actually begin on 26 April the day of my
return from England, a good day for taking the temperature of thewater.
3Norman Stone, The Atlantic and Its Enemies:A History of the Cold War, Penguin 2011, p xiii
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Before I left, I had arranged that all English classes should take
place in our light-drenched, dedicated English room; equipped also
with writing materials, blackboard, projection equipment and blackout
curtains.
Mari, a ninth-grader, assured me the evening of my return that the
lessons were progressing well; and were quiet- but I was not sure
that I could expect the same conditions in Class Eight. I was
pleasantly surprised. In my absence, the pupils had acquired a habit
of applying themselves; and for a golden moment there was actually
spontaneously a moment of complete quiet, a rare thing duringEnglish lessons in Bolnisi.
Ani is actually studying Georgian, but for a while the others are quiet...
Class Three in the same setting seemed a challenge, as these children
are wedded to their classroom. But after a little fun inspecting the
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gaudy covers of the MacMillan books (This one is Level Three! Wow!)
they settled down, if anything, better than the Eighth class.
Ana (2ndleft) showing her usual diligence; the boys in deep involvement
Teachers must circulate...
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In invigilating self-paced learning, teachers must circulateas there
are a variety of topics and levels all going on at once. I spent
fifteen minutes with Stella (left of picture) studying words ending
in double l. Wall, ball, shell. She shaded in the bricks of a wall,
then wrote, wall.
It was important to her to do the bricks in different colours. (Such
an attention to sometimes needless detail is a very Georgian thing.)
She then found it easy to complete the exercise in which she must
write in the double ls. And she found it fun. I gave her a littlehelp on the scaling of the letters: three-quarter sized and half-
sized and so on; although Stella insists of drawing the e from bottom
to top perhaps influenced by her knowledge of the Georgian hard t.
The last class of the day was Class Seven. This class has been
subjected to a continuous program of behaviour management over the
last two terms; and for a group of young people of extraordinary
energy and diversity, they do pretty well these days. Here my
strategy is to control by small acts of guidance.
Little by little the children have come to trust the teachers and the
teachers the children; and when this process reaches certain level of
empathy, a new learning dimension is reached; and one can be a great
deal more permissive and flexible than originally seemed possible.
Classes 5 and 7 have ventured the furthest along this route; and
getting to know the children as friendshas given us a new insight
into their diverse personalities and learning styles. The message
they need to receive is that we care deeply about them all.
The picture below shows their obvious happiness and application.
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Giorgi and Eka, apparently satisfied customers
Albert Einstein lecturing in 1934
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I am not in favour of using the term teaching because it has lost
a precise sense due to over-employment. It should therefore be either
avoided or very precisely defined.
While at first it would seem to suggest that there may be an
identifiable activity to which it refers (i.e. something which can
easily be undertaken by a teacher if the teacher so desires) this is
at best a top-down, outwards-in approach which bears little
authentic relationship to what one might callsubjective process:
which is at the heart of our psychological and sensory life.
Teaching of course lives cheek-by-jowl with another processwhich it implies namely, learning (in the sense of a learning
process). The interaction of these two dynamics, teaching and
learning, equates to quite a sophisticated psychological event, or
series of events.
It also seems to me that students bring to the lesson both their
emotional selves and their so-far-formed mind and an attendant desire
to learn. In Georgia the last seems sometimes absent.
To make the argument clearer, it is perhaps useful to compare the
overall classroom teaching-learning process to that of the
conquest of a difficult peak by a mountaineering team.
The teacher is clearly the lead mountaineer, the Hillary or the Doug
Scott of the occasion, The various outcrops, overhangs and peaks of
the mountain may be taken to represent the (actually infinite)
English matter which should eventually, at least in some way, be
encountered, grappled with and even in rare cases mastered.
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Doug Scott on the South-West face of Everest
But it is not an exhaustive clambering over every inch of a
mountains extent which constitutes conquest, rather a light
skipping over the surface, in the process visiting many places
implicated in the peaks geographical and geological description.
Although the ultimate goal is mastery, to travel is more important
than to arrive.
Can students be mountaineers in this scenario? I think when fully
motivated, yes. They are colleagues in a collective task, co-
operation in the doing of which (it is hoped) will confer upon the
teacher the accolade of having successfully taught the student
English; and upon the student the laurel wreath of having
successfully studied it. These outcomes the implicit everyday
outcomes of EFL orthodoxy are in reality far rarer than the
confident tone of language textbooks would suggest.
More often students are Sherpas: essential facilitators of the task;occasional summiteers; and bearers of various burdens. Most obviously
they bear the emotional burdens of having been born during the
historical period in Georgia of a collapsing infrastructure,
declining national confidence, and a decayed political culture. Or
else they will be beneficiaries of the phoenix-like aftermath of all
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1024&bih=483&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=U5ivmyY_DLfXiM:&imgrefurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/september/24/newsid_4185000/4185568.stm&docid=THH2VB9D6oxO6M&imgurl=http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40795000/jpg/_40795262_scott_scottkelly_238.jpg&w=238&h=178&ei=KWudT4PMHY6ZOrzU5fsB&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=787&vpy=72&dur=4168&hovh=142&hovw=190&tx=73&ty=107&sig=114379630515732151973&page=2&tbnh=141&tbnw=189&start=11&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:11,i:115 -
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that; with the many difficult questions that new-found freedom has
raised.
Red Army in Tbilisi, 25 February 1921
On occasion they can bear, too, the burdens of a teachers
miscalculations. Pitch a lesson at too high an intellectual level,
and it is like asking them to bear packs too heavy to carry. Keep
them waiting when they are ready for the trek - as may happen if one
chooses material insufficiently novel or challenging - and what you
get is a pack of restive, discontented Sherpas. If the teaching teamis not entirely harmonious in its aim, too, the children will suffer,
and the wrong peak will be ascended; and what price planting the flag
of victory then?
Good teaching which always involves the utmost humility - will
meld the teacher and the taught, the Hillary and the Tensing, into
one penetrative energy - whose summit successes will then see theblurring of all distinctions; and whose conviction may also echo
in some small way the miracle of May, 1953.
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The Browning Version
1994 Film: Opening Scene
MR CROCKER-HARRIS-THE TAXI-BOYS-MR GILBERT-THEPORTER-WILSON-THE PREFECT-THE HEADMASTER-MR
FLETCHER
Hurry upwere late --
words with up
get up show up come up go up pick up look up hurry up
the wordsget/show/come/go/pick/lookare all fine but here are used ALONE - when
there is a 50-50 relationship between the meaning-value of the VERB - these are allverbs - and the thing which we are using it for.
Example: Please get me the newspaper. Until we reach me the meaning is unclear, so
there is a 50-50 spread of meaning between the two halves,getme and newspaper.
But the words using up orsimilar short words of direction (e.g. out) AFTER aregular and normal VERB (e.g.get/show/come/go/pick/look) are used when there is
not much extra meaning coming from the thing we are talking about (I mean inthe CONTEXT) because the meaning is all in the VERB with its following POST-
POSITION (yes, post-positionsuch as you have in Georgian).
Up and down in the sentences below are post-positions.
He showed up at 10 o'clock SHOWED UP =100%; nothing else
Shegot up at 7 o'clock=100%; nothing elseCome up! I am in Flat 10 - on the third floor. (Sameclarification follows)
Go up to Tbilisi and meet her at the airport= maybe(100-70)Gamsakhurdia's car drove UP to the spot where the bomb was.The bomb did not explode. He drove DOWN to Batumi without incident.
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Milton Abbey School, Dorset, which was used for the school in the film, The Browning Version
Mr Gilbert?
Yes Good Morning
We thought you might have caught the earlier train, sir
Think thought. Catch caught, Early, earlier. Easy, easier
Yes well I did, but it was late, and getting a taxi wasnt easy
The gateway used in the film at Sherbourne School, Dorset, England
I did Did you do your homework? I did.
Do you like English? I do.
Can you speak Georgian? I can.
Could you open the window? I could.
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1024&bih=483&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=9Tq3ps9vR7TLRM:&imgrefurl=http://getahundred.com/blog/archives/299&docid=sRyfp49ASHnogM&imgurl=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1175/557450263_c162524fb7.jpg&w=500&h=376&ei=Db6eT-SVCoGs-gaywumDDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=95&vpy=159&dur=446&hovh=195&hovw=259&tx=164&ty=151&sig=114379630515732151973&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=173&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:81 -
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May I go out? You may.
I might have caught the earlier train but I lost my keys.
Allow me
Allow me to teach you. I need quiet.
Allow me to take your bags, they are heavy.
I will not allow you to stand up during the lesson.
The Historic Hall Built 1550 Destroyed by fire, rebuilt 1732 Restored 1874
Its very beautiful
Great Chapel Built in the Year 13-
Sorry
Who says this?
Wilson youre late
Yeah but Im not really late
I'm late, you're late, she's late, the President's late.
My cat was late for a meeting of Bolnisi cats.
We are very late celebrating Christmas in Georgia.
They were late and were not admitted to the concert.
I dont care. Three minutes late Wilson. Cromwells. Write it down, tomorrow.
Who says this?
- Today.
Who says this?
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Oliver Cromwell, who ruled England very harshly from 1653-1658
Any boy late for Morning Prayers is given Cromwells, which is the word here for
punishment.
Who says this?
Why?
Who says this?
If you ask me why its called Cromwells Ill say Y is a crooked letter and you cant
make it straight.
(The new American master is really asking why the boys must be punished.)
Quite
'Quite' means 'I see', like Georgiangaseghebia
But you also have: 'she is quite nice. Mari is quite musical. I quite like it'
Dont worry sir, Youll soon get the hang of it.
Don't worry - be happy
Old and traditional English paying schools (especially Eton and Harrow, which was
the model for the Browning Version school) use special words like 'Cromwell's',
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which only the boys in these schools understand. In the same way special words are
used at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
For example a lady who cleans the room and makes the bed is called a 'bedder'. The
man at the gate is called a Porter. But porters are originally people who carry things.
It is a Latin word. Remember the word for a place like Poti or Sydney, Australia. Theyare ports. Places where things are carried from by sea.
Get the hang of = get used to
The unpleasant man (maybe he is the Porter!) is trying to suggest that Mr Gilbert will
soon get used to the special language in the school
Mr Gilbert new master for next term. Show him in please.
Who says this?
Whom is he speaking to?
Where does this take place?
Mr Foster, trouble with the alarm clock again, sir?
Who says this?
What is he trying to say?
What ONE THING have you noticed about this school so far?
They are all very interested in _ _ _ _
What is that word?
Morning boys!
Who says this?
Morning, sir!
Who says this?
Announcements.
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The inter-house boat race was won by Ironsides. And we have to thank, for the
excellent organization, Mr Hunter.
Who are Ironsides?
There is a hidden meaning here. It relates to 'Cromwell's' (see above).
Ironsideswas the name for Cromwells horsemen (cf Georgian Mkhedrioni)
During the period of Cromwell there was no king. Our Soviet period
Notice the word order of this sentence. Can you say the sentence a different way?
English can be like Georgian when you can say something in two directions, and it is
still OK. Me var Martin. Martini var.
Tomorrow 2pm cricket match. Scaeffernel boys versus First Eleven.
There are eleven people in a cricket team, so it is called an 'Eleven'.
Everything in England is graded and in classes, first, second, third etc.
First Eleven = the best people at cricket. Second Eleven = the next best etc
And tomorrow evening at 8:30 pm concert by Small Choir from Library Steps. Now,
Prize Giving will be at the earlier time of 9:00 am. This is to enable Mr Fletcher time
to reach the MCC squad in preparation for their match against the Australians at
Lords.
Mr Fletcher is a cricket player. The boys love him because he is famous.
MCC is a special English organization for cricket. CCmeans 'cricket club'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oliver_Cromwell_by_Samuel_Cooper.jpg -
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M stands for Marylebone, a place in London named after a 'burn' or 'bourne' (later
'bone') a small stream, that is protected by (Saint) Mary, where Lords a famous
cricket ground is. Traditional opponents of England: Australia.
Cricket at the time Terence Rattigan wrote The Browning Version (1948)
*
Yorker for the fielding side the most desired outcome in cricket;
a metaphor for what we are aiming to achieve in all the arts we undertake...?
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=483&tbm=isch&tbnid=uC_wCh5kiJjf2M:&imgrefurl=http://www.edgworthcc.co.uk/theclub.asp&docid=dP0aErkcpeBzEM&imgurl=http://www.edgworthcc.co.uk/images/cricket1948_b.jpg&w=320&h=235&ei=3s-eT5-gCIWF-wa44dWHDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=660&vpy=107&dur=5193&hovh=188&hovw=256&tx=131&ty=131&sig=114379630515732151973&page=4&tbnh=128&tbnw=158&start=40&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:40,i:179 -
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Chapter Five: A Short Tour to Vardzia and Borjomi
Vardzia
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Jvari Monastery, seen from the road near Mtskheta
Mtskheta
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The wide open lands on the way to Gori
More lush landscape further on
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Teachers on the bus
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Green Monastery (preceding page)
Monastic residences at Green Monastery (above)
Next pages:
Icon of the Resurrection:
(L to R) Adam, King David, Eve, Saint John The Baptist.
Detail Eve
Detail
Saint John the Baptist
Detail Adam, King David.
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Surami Fortress
View from the top of the fortress
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Vardzia
Sculpture at Vardzia
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Vardzia: a city cut into the rock
Candles at Vardzia
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Icon of Mary in Vardzia chapel
Q
Queen Tamar wall painting in Vardzia chapel (source: tripadvisor.com)
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Queen Tamar (detail)
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1024&bih=483&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=Xq3or8Emn_bp0M:&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tamar_(Vardzia_fresco_detail).jpg&docid=4ShpJFQ9AM_d_M&imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Tamar_(Vardzia_fresco_detail).jpg&w=600&h=759&ei=JO6jT4DnBIbm4QSlnODFCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=188&vpy=101&dur=1305&hovh=253&hovw=200&tx=93&ty=120&sig=114379630515732151973&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=102&start=0&ndsp=11&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:74 -
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Black Virgin
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Cave stairs
View from Vardzia
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Borjomi
Borjomi typical architecture
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Yellow house
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Stone steps
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Yellow house another view
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Borjomi River (above and below)
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Composers House
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View from the forest
Composers House Gatehouse
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Composers House Gateway; below, Restaurant
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Old Kodak booth
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Railway engineer sculpture awaiting unveiling.
The sculpture is by George Tsuladze and shows the Lithuanian railway engineer, Antanas Vikuraitis-
Keturiakis ( 1864 - 1903 )
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Plinth of Antanas Vikutaitis Keturakis sculpture by George Tsuladze; typical street (below)
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Old wooden house; below, Old street
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Much altered building
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Street of dust and stones
A glimpse of George Tsuladzes brother, Irakli, at work on the installation of Georges sculpture
of Antanas Vikutaitis Keturakis (next page)
Borjomi River and one of its many small bridges
(next page)
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Another view along the Borjomi river
New apartments; below, Iranian House, both under construction
(next page)
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Plans of works; another view of Iranian House (below)
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Construction works (above)
Views near the park (below)
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Buildings near the gates of the park (above, top and preceding page)
In the park ( also following page)
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First Blue House
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Second Blue House
Hotel Victoria, Borjomi
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Icons on Hotel kitchen wall
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Railway
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Mtkvari River
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Bridge over Mtkvari (previous page) - below, Promenade
Colourful Soviet period tower block
View of Mtskheta - on the way back to Tbilisi (following page)
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=Hotel+Victoria+Borjomi&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=483&tbm=isch&tbnid=dkAiQa6Of2iE5M:&imgrefurl=http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/chan_hc/1/1250341097/ugly-but-colorful.jpg/tpod.html&docid=6S6SSbLoQm6K4M&imgurl=http://images.travelpod.com/users/chan_hc/1.1250341097.ugly-but-colorful.jpg&w=550&h=413&ei=_WipT7HRNIzO4QSu9r2LAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=119&vpy=89&dur=457&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=98&ty=119&sig=114379630515732151973&page=2&tbnh=147&tbnw=221&start=11&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:11,i:123 -
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Michelangelo: Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Concentration is at the heart of any teaching or learning process; and
to understand it, a consideration of Mihly Csikszentmihlyis flow
makes an excellent starting-point. Csikszentmihlyi is a positive
psychologist, concerned with discovering what makes for optimum human
mental functioning; in contrast to traditional psychologists, who are
generally concerned with learning deficits and mental handicaps of
various sorts.
To analyze Georgian schools in terms of their potential and then
to try to reach out to that potential is better than to lament
what is not right about the situation: it is preferable to see thatthe glass is half-full than that it is half-empty. Csikszentmihlyi
represents his findings graphically in this chart.
Csiszentmihlyis Chart of Mental States and Flow (1997)
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Colours code the degree of emotion present in the state indicated. The
ideal state should be one of flow(maybe pale yellow) with supporting
elements of relaxation and control. However, many people who have
experienced this state, such as Ayrton Senna, claim that control
actually passes to the subconscious mind during the process, a peak
experience when sustained flow is obvious and all-pervasive.
I was already on pole, [...] and I just kept going. Suddenly I was
nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team- mate with
the same car. And suddenly I realized that I was no longer driving the car
consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a
different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel. (Ayrton Senna
describing the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix).
In a flow state, there is a sense of mental stimulus and
relaxation at the same time, and it can arise in many fields of activity.
As a teenager I remember the first time I heard Stravinskys Symphony
of Psalmsin a radio broadcast. When I finally stumbled down late for
supper that summer evening in July 1973, I felt as if I had been absent for
about a hundred years. In fact Stravinskys piece lasts a mere twenty
minutes.
The Wright Brothers (1903) an early example of flow?
And Michelangelo is said to have worked on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
for days at a time, so absorbed that he did not stop for food or sleep for
several days in succession; whereupon he would collapse, wake up refreshed,
and continue.
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Csiszentmihlyi discovered that the optimum state of flow arises
when there is a balanced challenge for the mind: difficult enough to be
uncertain in its outcome; but easy enough toget into; also providing
instantaneous feedback. Writing this portfolio, for example, has given me
a typical sense of flow: the challenge is great, but the way to proceed
seems at last clear to me, and the text as it assembles before my eyes
provides continuous feedback and reassurance.
What perhaps is more mysterious is that immersion long enough and deep
enough in such a state ought to give rise to those miraculous brain-waves
which make the process self-sustaining. This has a great deal of relevance
to speaking a foreign language, since when it is mastered, one ultimately
has no sense of speaking it. In years past, I experienced something like
that with French. As with the Wright Brothers invention, it is a form offlight; only in this case, mental flight.
3
Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms (1930)
3This section draws on the Wikipedia article on Csiszentmihalyi's 'flow'. Retrieving the relevant musical reference from
the mists of time, I see that the broadcast I heard was of the concert of the First Night of the Proms, on 20 July 1973,
when Pierre Boulez conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the following program: Brahms - Ein
deutsches Requiem, Op 45; Stravinsky - Symphonie de Psaumes
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Bolnisi Third School: Nana Pruidze tutoring in the Seventh Class
How does such an approach using positive psychology to optimize the
learning conditions for the pupils work out in the classroom?
The lack at least in recent years of a culture of studyinGeorgian schools ( and, sadly. in the country itself, so far as I can
see)implies that the negative states of the left side of the chart
may be predominant in Georgia.
(I remember that I came here expecting to find people perfecting their
Beethoven Sonatas or the Reti Gambit; and imagining that taxi-drivers
would quote Rustaveli to me...)
But there is a difference with English schools learning culture.
Whereas the negativemental states (on Csiszentmihlyis chart) which
one is most likely to encounter in Georgian schoolchildren would be
Apathy and Boredom (for the historical reasons alluded to: a break-
down of the continuity of study in schools due to social upheavals, and
a consequent loss of contact with metal stimuli at a receptive age, and
so on) the English schoolchild is more likely to suffer from Anxiety and
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Worry about tests.
Now, Csiszentmihlyis thesis has a Mozartian beauty to it, in that it
considers what happens in the free mindwhen it is placed under no
external social or political pressure. Does this fact not recommend him
most highly to the Georgians, those great intellectual independents of
the Caucasus?
By contrast, traditional educational systems are enslaving, in that
children are required to garner knowledge in a certain pre-determined
and obviously inadequate ways with a view, later, to their
revising that knowledge in a mind-numbing fashion, in order to be
able to function in a prescribed way in a test situation.
English children preparing for a controversial new phonicstest for 6-year-olds
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Eka in complete absorption in Class Seven. The others are concentrating too...
Class Seven enjoying a small amount of flow. We must be doing something right!
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The usually volcanic Class Nine awaiting a showing of The Browning Version
Nana Pruidze: a classic study in traditional tutoring. Meanwhile Anuka helps
two students in the traditional Victorian pyramid learning fashion.
Next page: Time for relaxation: Khatia (Class Seven) spots a new challenge (top)
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Meanwhile the class has spontaneously arrived at break-out time (middle)
Class Nine (Nana, Eka, Natia) acting out The Browning Version(bottom)
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When I started, the materials in use in the upper classes were textbooks
by Tatiana Bukia. Luckily I soon discovered a website, Enchanted
Learning, which had material better suited the simple and energetic
tastes of my early-adolescent pupils, especially of Class Seven.
I have described elsewhere how, in the Autumn of 2011, Nana Pruidze and
I solved the problem of the endemic disorder of this class - pupils of
twelve to thirteen - by giving very careful attention to the signals we
communicated, the timing and degree of forcefulness of our actions, and
the degree to which we presented an open and frank teaching presence.4
This was in the childrens best interests. Regarding subliminalsignals, it became apparent that should Nana appear too absorbed in the
act of class registration, and remain seated right at the start while
doing this, there would be a series of disruptions, obfuscations and
distractions from the children, whose prime aim would be that of
frustrating our agenda for as long as they could get away with it.
Instead, Nana took to compiling her statistical information later,
during some longueur; and we concentrated our initial energies - alwaysusing eye contact - on establishing control, after first taking the
emotional temperature of the water.
According to our findings, we calibrated the choreography of our
plunging into the situation, always passing the initiative to the
children to make the first move in initiating the learning experience..
To do this, we used the ploy of asking them to re-arrange desks and
chairs into a different formation, ostensibly to allow pupils to be
closer to the radiators.
For quite a while, the pencils and crayons I provided had a way of going
missing; but eventually we instituted foolproof and transparent ways
for making sure that everything was present and correct. In time, we
4See my article, 'Bolnisi Third School: The First Seventeen Months' (April 2012) which may be accessed on
my website, martinenglish.co.uk
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converted the students into being the prime movers in all this; and the
result was that by around January of this year the classes almost ran
themselves.
But at the moment of fission, about seven minutes into the lesson, just
beyond the desk re-arrangement, something decisive and appropriate has
to happen from the teachers' side. This is really the main finding of my
time so far in Bolnisi an insight which is to be found nowhere in
conventional pedagogic methodology.
That was where Enchanted Learning came in. The site has a large number
of themes, from Art and Antarctica to Wales and the Weather, but what
caught my attention was Alphabet Activities- and in particular the
ten collections of pages giving words using the long and short vowels.
This provided material for ten lessons straight away; and was repeated.
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In this way the students regularly encountered around ten words a lesson
(wed give them two double-sided A4 sheets) some of which like
igloo- would be new to them; and thus little by little they became
more confident with the look and feel (as well as sounds) of simple
English words. The materials were always presented in an attractive and
amusing way, and arranged according to their sonic characteristics.
In early May, for the same class, I expanded my choices from this
website, whose art filling-in exercises (of Hokusais wave, for
example, or of friezes from the Parthenon) had already given the
students some much-appreciated light relief from all the linguistic
material.
The creators of the website, Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector, describetheir educational philosophy as follows:
We have found that learning can be enjoyable and satisfying. Our
company's mission is to produce educational materials that emphasize
creativity and the pure enjoyment of learning. The underlying message of
our materials is that curiosity and exploration lead to delightful
learning experiences. We hope to maximize the student's creativity,learning, and enjoyment.
We believe that people learn the most (and retain it the longest) when
they are actively involved in educational pursuits that are clear,
logical, stimulating, and fun.
*
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Enchanted Learning: Word grid. The student has not initially
realized the need to highlight the secret word (here butterfly).
Below: Khatias response: dragon/flysuccessfully discovered in the grid
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Khatias witty reinterpretation. Below: joining the dots; she was at first
puzzled by the dogs left fore-leg, coded (a,b,c...) to avoid ambiguity
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The first view of Svetitshkoveli Cathedral from the expressway offers an
interesting parallel to the experience of viewing Gothic or Romanesque
churches in England or France from a distance, for example from the train.
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta
Lincoln Cathedral, England
Amiens Cathedral, France
In each case we confront a huge medieval statement of faith which has
defined and brought into existence a whole urban settlement. The impression
is strengthened because although Svetitiskhoveli Cathedral follows the
5This chapter makes use of interesting Wikipedia material relating to Queen Tamar of Georgia
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=amiens+cathedral&start=249&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=483&addh=36&tbm=isch&tbnid=BS0RZfjPUC69qM:&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/mauricedb/4975874471/&docid=FNsCt4OpR2nTrM&imgurl=http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4105/4975874471_a02bab6fcb_z.jpg&w=640&h=426&ei=FTCmT6ieEaLg4QSuzsnQCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=631&vpy=51&dur=1297&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=139&ty=147&sig=114379630515732151973&page=16&tbnh=130&tbnw=199&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:249,i:179http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=lincoln+cathedral&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=483&tbm=isch&tbnid=Hz6bsoxm_9D2OM:&imgrefurl=http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g186336-Lincoln_Lincolnshire_England.html&docid=IT0jRwXqwVjHyM&imgurl=http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/8b/c9/32/lincoln-cathedral-from.jpg&w=550&h=412&ei=mi-mT43lBqLP4QSZhp3KCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=99&vpy=118&dur=4530&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=135&ty=134&sig=114379630515732151973&page=4&tbnh=135&tbnw=180&start=41&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:41,i:243http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=mtskheta&um=1&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=483&tbm=isch&tbnid=d3X21Y1xhS-I_M:&imgrefurl=http://georgia.travel/travel2/?site-path=about/topdestinations/mtskheta/&site-lang=en&docid=PrhckJfAI6_XRM&imgurl=http://georgia.travel/travel2/storage/uploads/content/schema_a/gallery/images/e0b0ffe1b8d263a657fe7dbac082f3c3.jpg&w=520&h=340&ei=2C6mT4-EEOaP4gSj_N27CQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=301&vpy=148&dur=3391&hovh=181&hovw=278&tx=136&ty=91&sig=114379630515732151973&page=3&tbnh=137&tbnw=205&start=24&ndsp=13&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:24,i:139 -
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customary Georgian cross-plan design, there are spacious aisles and a
narthex, giving the church huge mass; and the building is also of a great
height 54 meters (Lincoln is 83 including towers and Amiens 43 without
spire).
Just prior to this, Jvari on a rocky outcrop sends out a resonance that
here is a special ancient place in Georgias history. On this summit,
Saint Nino erected a cross, while at Svetitskhoveli, Sidonia was interred
clutching Christs robe, from which her grasp could not be separated.
The landscape near here is wide and prairie-like, cut through by the
Mtkvari River; before lusher, greener lands near Gori.
Gori is heralded by a huge army base, and a little earlier there is an
Abkhaz resettlement camp, resembling a more sombre version of a British
mobile home holiday site.
One knows that at Gori, the ghost of Stalin still lives on; and one isanxious to pass this place of ill-repute as soon as possible. I think that
I am very sensitive to such atmospheres; and remember from my childhood
that when our route to a Scottish holiday house and passed a lowering
prison-like Victorian mental hospital in Lanarkshire, I suffered nightmares
for days after, and the start of the holiday was invariably ruined.
At Surami is a well-preserved fortress, strategically situated between East
and West Georgia, and known to Pliny the Elder as an important centre of
power in ancient Colchis. Now it is a mere village, and when we were there,
we were caught in a thunderstorm, which luckily I saw coming and thus
managed to escape. The view from the fort on a clear day is quite
different.
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Surami Fortress, whose origins may be traced to the 12thcentury
We had earlier visited the Green Monastery in the Borjomi National Park,
which may have been founded by Saint Grigol Khandzteli, a kind of Georgian
Saint Bernard, who lived from 759 to 861. The part of south-west Georgia in
which he was active (after a monastic education in Klarjeti, Iberia) was
strategically important in the days of the Silk Road.
Saint Grigol Khandzteli
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At Vardzia we heard a similar story about the international connections of
Queen Tamar. She ruled a much larger territory than Georgia today; assisted
in the foundation of the Black Sea kingdom of Trebizond; had important
connections with Jerusalem, where she was much interested, like the
Crusaders, in preserving Christian religious relics; she was the patron of
Rustaveli; commissioned works of art; and sent off a military expedition
into Turkey, much as Englands Queen Elizabeth had exhorted the sailors
who fought the Spanish Armada at Tibury, on the River Thames near London.
Extent of Georgia in the time of Queen Tamar (1160 1213)
Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem, a Georgian foundation
dating from the 11thcentury
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Rustaveli presenting his work to Queen Tamar, by Mihly Zichy (1827-1906)
Vani Gospels, now in Tbilisi (13thcentury)
After ten minutes alone with Queen Tamars mural in the rock cave town at
Vardzia I was able to take some photos which I later presented at
school(see above, pp 21-34). On the return leg, I left the party at
Borjomi in order to have a small adventure of my own, the photographic
results of which I also showed to my students (see above, pp 35- 62).The
material was well-received by the Eighth Class where Ani took the lead,
reading out my captions but also shown to the Ninth. There was exactly
enough material to fill a single lesson; and I think it was valuable to
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remind my students although in less detail than here of the
geography, history, heritage and culture of their country.
Queen Tamar portrait (wall painting at Betania Monastery, near Tbilisi). This is one of five
images of Tamar extant.
Empire of Trebizond in 1300 (Pontic Greeks)
At the time of this map, the Golden Horde the Mongol empire
was the largest- ever empire on earth . It still holds that record.6
6See Wikipedia article on 'The Golden Horde' and links
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We have come to discover the primacy of learning over teaching; and
gradually are trying to inculcate a taste for study and ultimately
reading in our pupils.
Even some of the youngest students (aged 8) have demonstrated an innate
desire to learn and to communicate the results of that learning to their
teachers.
Spontaneous learning in Class Three
The allotted material during on either side of Easter was textbook-based; but by requesting pieces of paper, students privileged the
artistic aspect of things over that of words, thereby turning the
occasion into a drawing lesson.
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I redressed the balance by getting them to label the objects drawn; and
the Azerbaijanian students in particular have adopted this procedure.
Here, vividness of response and eagerness seem more important than finesse...
Meanwhile, in Class Eight, some students have made an intelligent
investigation of available resources and found something that interests
them at a level they are comfortable with. This enthusiasm for the
learning process can be capitalized on later.
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Class 8: Ani,Mzeo
The Azerbaijani students with their images of sun, tree and cloud have
demonstrated that conceptsare primary. The way in which this image of
the sun is drawn shows that a sense of the powerful heat of the sunis primary; next comes the imageof the sun; and finally the graphical
sign associated with it.
An Azerbaijanian students representation of the sun
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At this point, from the teacher comes the sonic parameter, which
the child will add to the nexus already built up.
Thus the acts of identifying and associating the various nuclei
which constitute the word that denotes a concept may be seen as the
first steps on the road to reading.
Since we are dealing with a foreignlanguage, that language presents
itself to the mind of a child in a peculiar and different way; although
we have, I think, no clear idea of quite this inner view may be
different from that of the childs view of his ownlanguage.
My guess is that Azerbaijanian students bring a particularly
pure consciousness to the proto-reading act, since they are alreadydealing with another foreign language Georgian at school, and all
around them.
Another factor, seen in children in Class Seven is synesthesia.
Colouring in the words known from Dolchs list of 110 words. A synesthetic response
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I gave Class Seven a page from Enchanted Learning which lists some of
the Dolch words. Dolch words are defined as follows:
The is a list of frequently used words compiled by Edward William
Dolch PhD. The list was prepared in 1936. It was originally published in his book
Problems in Readingin 1948. Dolch compiled the list based on children's books of
his era. The list contains 220 "service words" that have to be easily recognized
in order to achieve reading fluency in English. The compilation excludes nouns,
which comprise a separate 95-word list.7
It is obvious that some of the students in Class Eight who attempted
this task had strong associations with particular words and thus
coloured them in different, and symbolic, colours.
Students in Class Five, by contrast, have been given significant
exposure to the dialogues in the MacMillan English Worldbook, Level
One; and are slowly picking up the skills of reading spontaneously,
apparently based on associations of context, as well as linking the
visual aspects of words (the signs that make them up) to the drawings
in the book alongside.
7The quotation is taken from the Wikipedia article on educator Edward William Dolch and his 'Dolch Word Lists'
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Sophiko (above) and Salome (below) in action reading dialogues (Class Five)
Class Nine have become enthused with an English play which I have
introduced them to, The Browning Version, in its 1994 film version.
The story concerns an unfeeling Classics teacher who repents of his
intellectual bullying of the pupils, after his heart is softened by
a gift from one of the boys - of Robert Brownings version of
The Agamemnonby Aeschylus. The play was written by Terence Rattigan
in 1948, and is currently enjoying a revival in London.
In the Spring Term pupils watched all the available material from
this film on YouTube. Since they liked the subject-matter and
enjoyed understanding and speaking out the dialogues - for example
the young students hesitant gift (Well...Taplow ?) and the
schoolmasters farewell speech (I am ... sorry!) I ordered
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the complete film; and an excerpt, which we have begun to look at
and try to perform, may be seen above, pp 10-16.
In the first days of May, having seen the first fifteen minutes of
the film earlier, we read the script (as it appears above) and
although this was less well-received attempted to understand
its linguistic content.
Next, I blew up the words to be spoken and pasted them onto cards.
We acted the film out, and it was clear that this was a great
learning device, as it drew in quite a few students at once in different
roles, and gave them a challenge of which Csikszentmihly wouldprobably approve.
Albert Finney pacing the quadrangle in Mike Figgis1994 film, The Browning Version
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A weary and sighing Mr Crocker-Harris regrets
the imminent loss of his position in the school.
Mari catches this perfectly.
Following pages:
Teona as Director;
Teona, Natia, Mariami;
Eka, Ana;
Nana, Eka, Ana, Natia;
Mari;Vali;
Mari;
Mari,Magda and Mariami playing the Chapel scene of the Porter, Wilson and the Prefect
with obvious enjoyment.
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PREFECT
Wilson youre late!
WILSON
Yeah but Im not really late
PREFECT
I dont care. Three minutes late, Wilson. Cromwells. Write it down, tomorrow.
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Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuffAs dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
William Shakespeare,The Tempest, Act 4 Scene 1
7thMay: my five days in May are ended: and we must accept whatever
floral revolution or newly-pacified territory which has come our way.
7thMay: First job, to renew the flowers...
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The time has come to retrieve the core sample from the bottom of the ocean
and send the contents, with all their impurities, but possible mineral
wealth, to the laboratories for analysis.
I feel a huge sense of relief that I need no longer be the fly on the wall
in my own documentary, and reach for that wonderful Georgian implement, the
buzebis saklavi.
Learning: a delicate combination of swatting and swotting, maybe?
Freed from the need to observe and document, I immediately surge into some
important new progress in reading and sounds with the Fifth Class.
First I explain how they should look for vowels working together either side
of a consonant, and that if they find this situation, they should then
modify the two possible (adjacent but separated) sounds into a new single
compromisesound, finishing it offwith the consonant sound which is counter-intuitive - andprecedingall that with any consonant sound
coming right at the beginning of the word.
Then I explain as I have done many times before that a languages words are
made up not of letters but of two types of sign, representing the bricks
and mortar of the wall an image which may be conjured up if you want
to imagine the co-operation, in practice, of the two elements.
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The Third Form also shine, since the course-correction I planned is spot-on:
we had lingered a little too long on the MacMillan Workbook in the previous
session; and the tonic of Enchanted Learning join-the-dots print-outs is
just what the doctor ordered. I sense again a Csizszentmihlyian balance of
challenge against skill; and the apparent disorder of the lesson as we pass
Steve Jobs ten minute concentration barrieris no disorder but as my
psychologically-sceptical younger sister once said about Obsessive-
Compulsive Disorder, I think it is an order!8
The atmosphere in the school is both peaceful and cheerful this morning and
my amiable colleagues twice make me Turkish coffee, and as usual I chat,
stumblingly, in my very inadequate Georgian about very obvious things...
The Ninth Class watch The Browning Versionagain and seem to be settling
down at last. I agree to twenty-five minutes without stopping for the next
day, with twenty minutes of analysis to follow. There is a problem in that
there is some spicy language about fourteen minutes into the film which can
no longer be steered around. My solution will be make a transcript of the
next section, presenting that first; but to leave out the offending
sections. The students will then have to make their own deductions.
I have been assisted in my work here by excellent support from the TLG team;
and by Nana Pruidze, Nato Elikashvili, Mzia Danielia and all the other
teachers in Bolnisi Third School. I have had important discussions with
Professors Ian Press and Michael Gold about Georgia; and have been
privileged to meet Peter Nasmyth, a leading British expert on the country,
on two occasions. Tamar Nadiradze had cheerfully provided beautiful art work
for my website9and Manana Gelashvili, a Professor at Tbilisi State
University, has been a true Georgian aunt of great discretion whenever
I have needed her. And although it has not impinged on this work, Vardi
Tvaladze has given me a great insight into some elementary things in
Georgian.
8Steve Jobs' philosophy of presentations, which includes the idea of a ten-minute barrier for concentration in a typical
audience, may be accessed athttp://www.smartdraw.com/Blog/archive/2012/04/12/want-to-give-a-presentation-like-
steve-jobs.aspx9loc cit. where my first essay about Bolnisi Third School, 'One School in Georgia' and the television report about our
summer school made by Bolneli Television in July 2011 may be accessed
http://www.smartdraw.com/Blog/archive/2012/04/12/want-to-give-a-presentation-like-steve-jobs.aspxhttp://www.smartdraw.com/Blog/archive/2012/04/12/want-to-give-a-presentation-like-steve-jobs.aspxhttp://www.smartdraw.com/Blog/archive/2012/04/12/want-to-give-a-presentation-like-steve-jobs.aspxhttp://www.smartdraw.com/Blog/archive/2012/04/12/want-to-give-a-presentation-like-steve-jobs.aspxhttp://www.smartdraw.com/Blog/archive/2012/04/12/want-to-give-a-presentation-like-steve-jobs.aspxhttp://www.smartdraw.com/Blog/archive/2012/04/12/want-to-give-a-presentation-like-steve-jobs.aspx -
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My joyous, serene, enthusiastic students could only be found here in
Georgia.
*
Brainstorming with the Fifth Class. They were able to follow
the logic of these examples and pronounce almost all the words
many of which they had not seen before correctly.
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Zauri, school caretaker, takes down the flag on Friday afternoon
Following page: Brainstorming, Part Two; and the vowel wall
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1 Front cover: Evening Sky, Bolnisi, Kvemo-Kartli
2 Title page: Landscape near Rachisubani, near Bolnisi, Kvemo-Kartli
3 Title page: Eurasian Hoopoe4 Fifth century carvings at Bolnisi Sioni
5 Class Eight gets under way
6 Ani is actually studying Georgian,but for a while the others are quiet
7 Ana (second left)shows her usual diligence; boys in deep involvement
8 'Teachers must circulate'
9 Giorgi and Eka, apparently satisfied customers
10 Albert Einstein lecturing in 1934
11 Doug Scott on the South-West face of Everest
12 Red Army in Tbilisi, 25 February 1921
13 Milton Abbey School, Dorset, used for the film, The Browning Version
14 The gateway used in the film: Sherbourne School, Dorset
15 Oliver Cromwell, who ruled England very harshly from 1653-1658
16 During the period of Cromwell there was no king. Our 'Soviet' period.
17 Cricket at the time Terence Rattigan wrote The Browning Version
18 'Yorker' - for the fielding side the most desired outcome in cricket
19 Jvari Monastery, seen from the road near Mtskheta
20 Mtskheta21 The wide open lands on the way to Gori
22 More lush landscape further on
23 Teachers on the bus
24 Green Monastery
25 Monastic Residences at Green Monastery
26-29 Icon of the Resurrection
30 Surami Fortress
31 View from the top of the fortress
32 Vardzia
33 Scupture at Vardzia
34:Vardzia: a city cut into the rock
35:Candles at Vardzia
36:Icon of Mary in Vardzia chapel
37:Queen Tamar wall-painting in Vardzia chapel
38:Queen Tamar (detail)
39:Black Virgin
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40:Cave stairs
41:View from Vardzia
42:Borjomi typical architecture
43:Yellow house
44:Stone steps
45:Yellow house - another view
46 -47: Borjomi River
48:Composers'House
49:View from the forest
50:Composers' House - Gatehouse
51:Composers' House - Gateway
52:Restaurant
53:Old Kodak booth
54:Railway engineer sculpture awaiting unveiling55:Plinth of Antanas Vikuraitis-Keturiakis sculpture, by George Tsuladze
56:Old wooden house
57:Old street
58:Much altered building
59:Street of dust and stones
60:A glimpse of Irakli Tsuladze at work on sculpture of Lithuanian
railway engineer, Antanas Vikuraitis-Keturiakis
61:Borjomi River and one of its bridges62:Another view along the Borjomi river
63:New apartments (under construction)
64:Iranian House (under construction)
65-66:Plans of works
67:Another view of Iranian House
68:Construction works
69-70:Views near park
71-73:Buildings near the gates of the park
74-76:In the park
77:First Blue House
78:Second Blue House
79:Hotel Victoria, Borjomi
80:Icons on Hotel kitchen wall
81:Railway
82:Mtkvari River
83:Bridge over Mtkvari River
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84:Promenade
85:Colourful Soviet period tower block
86:View of Mtskheta - on the way back to Tbilisi
87:Michelangelo: Sistine Chapel Ceiling
88:Csiszentmihlyis Chart of Mental States and Flow (1997)
89:The Wright Brothers (1903) an early example of flow?
90:Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms (1930)
91:Bolnisi Third School: Nana Pruidze tutoring in the Seventh Class
92:English children preparing for a new phonicstest for 6-year-olds
93:Eka in complete absorption in Class Seven.
94:Class Seven enjoying a small amount of flow'.
95:Class Nine awaiting a showing of The Browning Version
96:Nana Pruidze: a classic study in traditional tutoring.
97:Time for relaxation: Khatia (Class Seven) spots a new challenge98:Meanwhile the class has spontaneously arrived at break-out time
99:Class Nine (Nana, Eka, Natia) acting out The Browning Version
100:Enchanted Learning: These pages proved a hit with the Seventh Class
101:Enchanted Learning: Word grid.
102:Khatias response
103:Khatias witty reinterpretation of the word grid
104:Joining the dots
105:Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta106:Lincoln Cathedral, England
107:Amiens Cathedral, France
108:Surami Fortress
109:Saint Grigol Khandzteli
110:Extent of Georgia in the time of Queen Tamar (1160 1213)
111:Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem
112:Rustaveli presenting his work to Queen Tamar
113:The Vani Gospels
114:Queen Tamar portrait at Betania Monastery, near Tbilisi
115:Empire of Trebizond in 1300
116-117: Spontaneous learning in Class Three
118:Class 8 Ani,Mzeo
119:An Azerbaijani students representation of the sun
120:Colouring in the words from Dolchs list a synesthetic response
121-122: Sophiko and Salome reading dialogues
123: Albert Finney in The Browning Version
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124:A weary and sighing Mr Crocker-Harris regrets the imminent loss of his
position in the school(Mari)
125:Teona as Director
126:Teona, Natia, Mariami
127:Eka,Ana
128:Nana,Eka,Ana,Natia
129:Mari
130:Vali
131:Mari
132:Mari,Magda and Mariami playing the Porter,Wilson and the Prefect
133:7thMay:First job,to renew the flowers...
134:The buzebis vaglave
135 and 137: Brainstorming with the Fifth Class.
136:Zauri,school caretaker,takes down the flag on Friday afternoon136:TheVowel wall
137:Inside Back Cover: Macmillan meets Harry Potter meets Ali Baba
138:Back Cover: Bolnisi Third School
*
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Michelangelo:
www.habeeb.com/sistine.chapel.vatican.html
Eurasian Hoopoe: Rajiv Lather,www.birdform.net
'Flow': Oliver Beatson, Wikimedia Commons
Stravinsky:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Stravinsky/sop.html
Phonics: Marc Hill/Alamy; guardian.co.uk; Monday 4 July 2011,"Now they want all primary pupils to take a
phonics test"
Enchanted Learning: enchanted learning.com (reproduced under 'fair use'[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use(para 2)]
Illustrations 10-18: Wikimedia Commons
[Doug Scott: dougscottmountaineer.co.uk]
Chapter Five: Illustrations 30; 37-38: Wikimedia Commons; Illustration 85: HC Chan (blog.travelpod.com)
Hotel Victoria:www.concordtravel.ge
Chapter Six: Illustration 89: Wikimedia Commons
Chapter Eight: Wikimedia Commons
Browning Version film clip: still from my video copy (fair use)
Illustrations 121-122; 157: author/www.macmillanenglish.com (fair use)
Remaining illustrations either acknowledged locally or by the author
http://www.habeeb.com/sistine.chapel.vatican.htmlhttp://www.habeeb.com/sistine.chapel.vatican.htmlhttp://www.birdform.net/http://www.birdform.net/http://www.birdform.net/http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Stravinsky/sop.htmlhttp://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Stravinsky/sop.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_usehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_usehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_usehttp://www.concordtravel.ge/http://www.concordtravel.ge/http://www.concordtravel.ge/http://www.concordtravel.ge/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_usehttp://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Stravinsky/sop.htmlhttp://www.birdform.net/http://www.habeeb.com/sistine.chapel.vatican.html