SLO 8 - Collaboration

In 2015, I went back to Ukraine with Peace Corps Response. There, I worked hand-in-hand with both my local community and nationally within Ukraine. I created vocabulary and grammar powerpoints and lesson plans for my site, the Oleksandryia Gymnasium-Boarding School/Kirovograd Regional Education Complex, where I helped teach English and learned Russian. One powerpoint that stands out is when I gave a presentation about Saint Patrick's Day, with a lot of Irish history and symbolism thrown in. This presentation was given to my upper-levels, who were all planning on going on to university and from there to jobs with an international focus. They asked a lot of questions, and made several connections between the Irish Troubles and the Conflict in the Donbass. 

The powerpoint presentation mentioned in the above presentation. I created it for my 10th and 11th formers, who asked me to include some history in the presentation.

While there, I was a camp counselor for Camp OHALOW, a PEPFAR-sponsored camp for adolescents born with HIV. There, I taught lessons on bullying and helped teach the campers how to have better self esteem. This helps the organizations (PEPFAR and Peace Corps) achieve professional and societal goals via collaboration. 

Judges badge for the National Olympiad in English. Badge reads:
All-Ukrainian Student Olympiad in the English Language
Megan Bennett.
My position [teacher] at my school [the Oleksandryia Gymnaisum/Boarding School]
Kirovohrad Oblast
Jury Member [judge]

Finally, I was a member of the National Olympiad in English, where I worked collaboratively with a group of 6 other Peace Corps Volunteers to create the material used in the Olympiad. There, we collaborated with a member of the Ministry for Education, who helped us with the process of deciding which passages to use and what questions to write. We were also the native-speaking judges of the Olympiad, where we judged the writing and speaking sections. This demonstrates effective collaboration for the achievement of societal goals. 2016 was the Ukrainian Year of English, and the National Olympiad in English helps Ukraine with bringing English into the classroom as a primary teaching language, as well as helping Ukraine on an international level, by ensuring that the current generation speaks one of the largest languages of trade and diplomacy.