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Real People: Local English Teacher Organizes Armenian Spelling Bees

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  • Real People: Local English Teacher Organizes Armenian Spelling Bees

    REAL PEOPLE: LOCAL ENGLISH TEACHER ORGANIZES ARMENIAN SPELLING BEES
    Molly McGowan

    Burlington Times News
    http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/english-51562-second-spelling.html
    Jan 16 2012

    Matt Oakley is a teacher who recently organized an English spelling
    bee for the second year in a row. Considering English is the second
    language to all his students, that's a pretty big deal.

    Matt, from Burlington, is 19 months into his 27-month commitment to
    the Peace Corps Armenia, where he works at the National Institute of
    Education in the city of Kapan. In an email interview, Matt said his
    job is a little different than the rest of the teacher volunteers,
    who are usually assigned a specific village instead of a position
    with several schools.

    The Peace Corps is currently working in 67 other countries in addition
    to Armenia, and has been in 139 countries in the organization's
    50-year history, said Matt. More than 780 Peace Corps volunteers have
    served in Armenia alone, since the program began in the country in
    1992, according to a news release. Matt is one of 98 volunteers who
    are currently working in Armenia, in either community and business
    development, or English education.

    Thanks to his extensive teaching background in North Carolina, Matt
    has a position that allows him to work in about 14 schools in Kapan
    and its surrounding villages, and consult the teachers there. Since
    he's the only volunteer in that position, Matt organized - for the
    second time - a spelling bee for local students.

    This year, the competition was held in one of Kapan's larger schools,
    No. 7, where Armenian college students and other Peace Corps volunteers
    judged.

    "It has been one of my goals of my second year to extend outreach and
    my teaching to more of the local villages, and this was reflected in
    the large turnout," he said.

    Matt said the contest in Kapan was one of four regional competitions
    in the main cities of Syunik, the southern region of Armenia. In
    each regional contest, students in grades 6 through 12 competed and
    the top two finalists from each grade will advance to the regional
    championships in Spring 2012.

    Matt said the trip to the city of Goris - where the regional
    championships will be held - was a major motivator for the children
    he taught, who had studied extensively for the contest. Their
    determination was epitomized by two 9th-grade girls, who Matt said
    spelled all the 9th and 10th grade vocabulary words before the first
    place winner was determined when she spelled an 11th grade word.

    "It took nearly an hour to determine a champion from these two
    hard-working girls," he said.

    The spelling bee isn't the only English-related contest created and
    sponsored by Peace Corps Armenia volunteers, said Matt. There's the
    National Poetry Recitation Festival and the International Writing
    Olympics, which he said expanded to four continents last year and
    has participants in 12 countries.

    But the spelling bee is what Matt has had his hand in during the last
    two winters. He said since he's the only English teacher working there,
    it's logistically easiest for him to coordinate with participating
    schools, and figure out transportation and prizes for the competitors.

    And it's no wonder Matt scored a position at the NIE - he was an
    accomplished scholar and teacher while still in North Carolina. His
    father, Bernie, said his son was destined to be a teacher. "He knew
    going into college," Bernie said, explaining Matt earned a teaching
    fellow scholarship for the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

    Matt studied child development and religious studies at UNC after
    graduating from Williams High School in 1995. Before joining the
    Peace Corps, Matt was a special education teacher in the Durham,
    Wake, and Alamance County school systems for 11 years, which he said
    put him in a position to help students - and teachers - in Armenia.

    "I know he's working with teachers along with (students)," Bernie
    said of his son. He said the schools in Armenia aren't as familiar
    with special education as in the United States, and Matt helps
    Armenian teachers learn and understand how best to teach children
    with special needs.

    Bernie said Matt's older brother, Tripp, is also teaching abroad, in
    China. With both of his sons' different schedules, Bernie said this
    past December was the first time in seven years the family had been
    together in Burlington for Christmas. Nevertheless, he and his wife
    are very proud of their boys, and keep in touch with them on Skype.

    "We generally try to get up with each other on the weekends,"
    said Bernie.

    Though both his sons live continents away, Bernie said he can't always
    feel the distance.When other parents exclaim when he drops the words,
    "China" or "Armenia," Bernie said he sees his children as much as
    some parents whose children live a few states away. "I don't really
    feel like they're so far away," Bernie said.

    That's partially because his sons stay so well-connected, watching the
    Republican presidential debates and sports on the Internet. "They keep
    me up with ACC sports and I'm right here," Bernie said, laughing. He
    said when people ask him how he deals with the worry of something
    dangerous happening to his children overseas, Bernie says bad things
    can happen over here, too.

    "It's terrible to think about. And that's why you don't think about
    it," he said. Bernie said he's at ease about Matt being in Armenia
    because he has faith in the organization for which Matt works. "I
    trust the Peace Corps," he said. "I expect them to take care of him."

    And though Matt hasn't expressed specific career plans after he's
    completed his 27 months in the Peace Corps, his father said he has
    lots of options. With about a decade of experience with the North
    Carolina teaching system, Matt could retire comfortably after another
    19 years working in his home state.

    Or, Bernie said, Matt could teach on military bases somewhere in the
    world. "He and his brother both are looking at a global search for
    jobs," said Bernie. He said Matt not only has to figure out where
    he wants to work, but also where he wants to live. But wherever that
    may be, Bernie said the family supports him, and, "I know it will be
    teaching somewhere or another."



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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