St. Nino's #3

My first day at St. Nino's #3 was just wonderful! We arrived a few minutes after 9 and were taken in to see Mr. Tomas, the principal. We visited with him for about 30 minutes. He told us the history of St. Nino's #3; it started as a girl's school in (I believe he said) 1848. After being a girl's school for a while it became an all purpose school and it continues as that today. There are about 1, 450 students at St. Nino's and Mr. Tomas and his deputy are the only administrators. The school has an open enrollment so students come from all over K'ut'aisi to attend. When spots come open siblings of current students have priority and then new students are allowed. They are working on becoming a school that is known for and specializes in English instruction. I must say - the English department is wonderful and welcoming in every way. We walked around the school for a bit and then we headed for our host's 9th grade English class for a round of presentations about Georgia as well as Georgian sights, traditions, and food. I must say, they did so well presenting in English! They seemed so nervous - there were so many adults in the room, but they were troopers and pulled it off beautifully!

Later throughout the day my partner and I presented about our schools and the students were delighted to see what we had to show. One young man was really struck by how big Caney Creek seems to be compared to his school, and it's true that CCHS is much bigger. They were also impressed by how many different activities we have to offer for students. At St. Nino's they are quite focused on academics and do not have the facitlities for many types of activities. They do have a well equiped computer lab, a decent sized library, and a gym for some PE for the younger grades. 

After our long day we returned to our hotel to blog and get caught up on email and such as that. All in all it was a really great first day of teaching here in K'ut'aisi and I really loved it. Our weekend is filled with activities and I'm so looking forward to all of them.