Professional Presentation

When my agenda from Ivegeniia arrived sometime in late January or early February, I saw scheduled a presentation I was to give on standardized testing in the United States. Standardized testing is a hot topic in Ukraine, as students are required to take a national test after their ninth form year, and another such test after their eleventh form year. With strong enough results after the ninth form exam, students may leave the local school to study at a college. I visited such a college in Lutsk, where the instructor Mayya was leading a classroom of fifteen or sixteen young girls in an English lesson. The lesson was concerned with the attributes of a strong leader. These girls all said they hoped to be teachers of English, translators, or international business leaders.
When I arrived in Lutsk, Ivegeniia explained I would give my own presentation at a meeting of regional English teachers that was to take place the next day at Gymnasium 18. I went back to my hotel room that evening to brush up on what I would say and to make certain my PowerPoint presentation was complete. I had also brougth along sample pages of the Advanced Placement Literature exam. I was going to use the multiple choice section questions to engage the teachers.
The next morning, I was handed a simply made program for the day, with my name included as the second speaker. First, one of the English teachers from Gymnasium 18 and her eleventh form students would demonstrate a lesson on the effective interaction between teacher and students in a higher level language class. The lesson concerned ways in which the students could create civic minded projects to aid the physically handicapped.
My turn came and I started by explaining there are a myriad of tests U.S. students are either required or encouraged to take, including state administered tests, as well as nationally normed exams. I then passed out the sample A.P. multiple choice questions and asked the teachers to complete the first five. After giving them a brief period to work through the test questions, as well as a couple minutes to share their answers, I brought them back together, went over the expected answers and segued into my PowerPoint, illustrating the features and the drawbacks of each of the most common tests.
In half an hour the whole experience was over, and the teachers thanked me. I honestly wondered what I had said that they didn't already know, but I think hearing it from someone who works with these exams regularly helped them see how their experiences compare to those of U.S. teachers.