From one perspective, it was a frustrating and eye opening year where the value of an engaged and competent administration became truly apparent. Without a consistently logical decision making process, a school becomes utterly rudderless, lacking direction and drive, and this drift impacts upon your professional self, mental health and, eventually, the classroom. From a teaching perspective, the year was sometimes successful, which is better than unsuccessful. The task I took on - teaching everyone in the school Geography from years 6 to 10, without appropriate resources or time - was difficult but not impossible. I had some success but some failure, which is an OK strike rate in the teaching game. Despite the very real limitations of the school, the positive work I did in the classroom made everything much more tolerable and rewarding.
Late in the year, I was asked to distribute a survey to students about the state of geography at the school. I wasn't sure what I'd get back, as kids sometimes don't take these things very seriously or just give uniformly positive/bland answers. Reading through the surveys, the tone was generally positive and some things that I did, such as the Country of the Week, struck a chord with the kids and they all seemed to look forward to learning about more aspects of the world. When word went around the school that I was leaving at the start of the exam period (rather than the end), a healthy number of students asked me if I was coming back next year, and, when I answered no, they were genuinely disappointed and wished me well. Those conversations were pleasant if heartbreaking, as part of me wanted to see how these kids would turn out in a year or two or 10.
On a personal level, getting debate up and running in earnest during the second semester was also a major motivational factor in my year. It sounds ridiculous but, in a few months and with great help from my friend Levi, I organised and ran an interschool debating competition (over 3 levels) from scratch, managed and coached up to 5 teams, and then took one of those teams to an international competition in freaking Kyrgyzstan (where we made it to the quarterfinals). The development and growth in all of our teams was truly amazing. In the senior finals of the competition, two teams from our school debated about whether Mongolia should do more to increase the level of foreign investment in the country. It was the most complex and nuanced debate I had ever heard in the country, and its topic is so close and important for the future of the country that it was heartening to hear two teams lay out completely reasonable, nuanced and persuasive arguments that avoided jingoism, nationalism and patriotism in favour of facts, arguments, and logic. Affirmative won but negative's case made me almost believe that stepping away from foreign investment would be good for the country.
Taking stock of my year of teaching in Mongolia, the lessons from lessons emerge:
- I made some positive connections with students and staff.
- I worked through a lot of stuff as best I could.
- I learnt so much, as you should every year.
- I will always cherish my time in Mongolia as a teacher.
- I'm glad to be moving on.
