Výsledky 3. KOLA PŘIJÍMACÍHO ŘÍZENÍ – 79-41-K/81
Výsledky najdete zde: VÝSLEDKY
Mgr. Pavlína Školníková, ředitelka školy
During the first month of the school year, many of you could meet a new face at our school – Deborah Cherman. Born in New York and lived in São Paulo and Portugal, she decided to take a break from studying in the USA and challenge herself to come to Czechia and gain some experience in teaching.
We were pleased to have the opportunity to have an interview with her and we wish her only the best experiences.
Během prvního měsíce letošního školního roku mohla spousta z vás potkat na naší škole novou tvář – Deborah Cherman. Narodila se v New Yorku, vyrůstala v São Paulo a Portugalsku, a teď se rozhodla si dát pauzu od studování v USA a vyrazit do Česka, aby získala nové zkušenosti s učením.
Měly jsme možnost se jí zeptat na pár otázek, za což jsme velmi rády, a přejeme jí jen ty nejlepší zážitky.
Tatiana Vošvrdová, Kristina Perglerová, Zuzana Sajdlová
Q: How did you end up here in the Czech Republic?
I'm with a program called Fulbright - an American program that gives out funding for many projects. One of those projects is called the ETA - English teaching assistance - and they send young Americans all over the world. They have partnerships with different countries to teach English for about a year. And they do that here in the Czech Republic, too.
I figured out last year that I want to be a teacher of biology, but I wanted to get teaching experience first and do something different. This program is also pretty well-known and well respected, so it would be a good thing on my resume as well.
I chose the Czech Republic because I knew I wanted to go somewhere totally different from anywhere that I'd lived. I was very intentional that I wanted to be in a place that I wouldn't speak the language because it would be a different level of challenge. And then for the Czech Republic specifically, one of my biggest hobbies is hiking and outdoor activities and there's a ton of that here, and it's so beautiful. Also, it's an area that I have a historical connection to, part of my family originally is from Central Europe, so I was there visiting as well.
The program is different in every country, and the one here is with middle and high schoolers, in other countries you teach English to adults or you're teaching little children, not necessarily in a school, and I knew that I wanted to be in a school classroom with middle and high schoolers.
Q: Did you have any options in cities where you could go or they just placed you?
It wasn't random, but I didn't get to choose. A bunch of Czech schools applied, they said around 120 schools this year, and there's only 22 Fulbright people in Czechia, so it was pretty competitive and then they paired the students with a school. They put us in specific cities or schools that they thought made sense with the stuff we said in our application. I said that I really like outdoor stuff, music, I like being in the mountains. I said I wanted to be in a smaller town as well, smaller than anything yet. Also based on what I studied in college and what I want to do, they were like: “It makes sense for you to be in a gymnázium, and it makes sense for you to be in Rychnov.” And so they picked that. They didn't give us a full reasoning of why but I've been really liking it here.
Q: Are you still studying for being a teacher or you already taught in the USA?
I graduated from college already, I have my bachelor's in biology and anthropology, but not in education and in the US you need to have a teaching certificate for teaching in public schools, same as here, and I don't have that yet. And before I found out that I got this opportunity to come here, I had already enrolled in a program to get a master's in teaching. The grant is pretty competitive, so I didn't think I was going to get it. And when I found out I was like: “Never mind, I'm going to go to the Czech Republic”, and after that, I'm going back and getting my master's in teaching.
I haven't talked in classrooms in the US but I was a teaching assistant in universities, someone that will either help in the lab when there are lab classes or I would help the students with homework for class and reviews for exams. So I did a lot of teaching work on the university level, but I wasn't teaching my own class.
Q: Have you already tasted some Czech food?
Yes, I had. It's kind of hard, because a lot of the traditional foods here are made of meat, and I only eat kosher meat and there's not a lot of options.
One of your teachers that lives in the villa by the school made me buchty. They were so good. She knocked on my door and they were steaming... Also, I tried the dumplings with blueberries, or with apricots as well, those were really good. Oh, and when I was in Prague and I had trdelník. Yeah, mostly sweet stuff. But I've had the garlic soup, which I know is traditional to the region, it was really good to me. Other than that, I've had a lot of fruits that are on all the trees here. And I've been so excited about it, because you don't see that in the US a lot, at least in big cities, because people don't put fruit trees there. But I've been really excited about blueberries, I went to Deštné, and there was a bunch of blueberries. And I've had check beer.
Q: Have you like travelled already around in this region?
A little bit. Like I said, I've been to Deštné and I've done the hiking there a little bit, when my mom was visiting, and I went to Wroclav with her, in Poland. I've been to Hradec, and I was in Prague for the Jewish holiday - Jewish New Year's. Oh, and I spent a weekend in Dobruška and I went to Opočno. So I've seen the little towns that are really nearby, like Častolovice, Kostelec, …
I've also been to Studánka, I did the walk in the woods there. I went to Vamberk into the lace museum. It's so cool. I really liked it, as someone who makes a lot of crafts. Very impressive. And Adršpach, I've been there. I was on the way back from Poland with my mom, we stopped by there and it was raining so much. So it wasn't even that crowded, which was great and it was still so beautiful.
