A Special Invitation

Welcome to Nairi Zaryan School 130 and Teacher Appreciation Day! 

Make your teacher smile today!

Our friend Armine Tumanyan (of IWAY walking tour fame) invited me and two other friends from the International Women's Association of Yerevan (IWAY) to join her for a very special program today at the school her children attend. It was almost like being a grandma for an afternoon!

The STAR of our show: Arpie giving one of her lines

Armine's 11 year old daughter Arpie and her 6th grade classmates celebrated their teachers with song and skits performed for parents and teachers. In English! In addition to learning several songs, each student also learned several lines which they recited in turn.

Arpie claims they learned it all in a matter of days, but I am sure it took a little longer than that. The recitations and songs were accompanied by a slide show and music and supplemented by skits that demonstrated just how important the teachers are to these pupils.

They joked about wondering if their teachers were real people? If they wore pajamas at home and had families?

Spelling out T-E-A-C-H-E-R in mum arrangements!

Here we are after the show--with the school director and teachers with their beautiful bouquets. Like the teachers, we too received flowers and a special card made by a student, each with a quote about how important a teacher is.

In this school, which goes through grade 9, children study three languages from the start:  Armenian, Russian, and English. The emphasis in the early years in Armenian is on writing and reading, starting with the alphabet. The "a" classroom is filled with desks for very short people and colorful collages of their photos. They learn the entire Armenian alphabet and begin to read and write words and sentences in this year. In addition, they begin to learn to speak English and Russian.

Part of a collage of this "sunflower" class of 2012-2013

Everyone has a place on the letter "a."

Director Hovhannisyan graciously met with us in her office and gave us tea and special caramel candies after the performance. From left, Armine Hovhannisyan and IWAY members Surekha Dani (Mumbai), Armine Tumanyan (Yerevan), and Vilma Maria Hagan (Puerto Rico).

The director of the school, Armine Hovhannisyan, is a career educator, who began as a teacher in after-school programs and rose through the ranks to be director. She has led school 130 for seven years, starting with only 300 students. Now there are over 800 students in the very orderly and clean school.

Her commitment to the students and to her teachers is obvious in conversation with her. She is able to take the teachers on a couple of retreats each year where they simply relax and have fun together for a few days out of town.

They obviously care a great deal about all the children and this is reflected in how contented and happy the children seem to be. There is plenty of hugging and personal attention.

As a public school, school 130 is inspected regularly--or it would be more correct to say that the inspectors come to review paperwork. Director H would prefer that they go into the classrooms and see for themselves how the children are learning and developing. If for some reason the paperwork falls short, the Director must pay a fine--from her own pocket. But some citations are unavoidable. For example, the school received a donation of several pressed board desks from the government. But then they were dinged for not having desks that were all solid wood.

A "trout" in the making with scales cut from old CDs!

Still, Director H loves teaching and being with the children, watching them develop. She knows the names of every child in the school and is very proud of their accomplishments. When we visited the art room after the performance, we learned that this school won a big competition last year for creating "dragon" artwork from trash materials. This year the students (without teacher help) are already busy creating fish from recycled CDs, plastic bags, and other cast-offs.

Harout takes a shot!

We also got a glimpse of a very busy boys' basketball practice in the gymnasium, where two volunteers are helping the physical education teacher to teach the children the fundamentals. This is where we caught up with Armine's son (Arpie's brother) Harout, who was doing a great job of sinking the ball. And check out the shorts--Carolina blue! We might be able to recruit him to UNC-Chapel Hill.

In front of School 130

Our hostesses for the afternoon: Arpie and Armine--a beautiful pair!