Vepa Berdiyev, a Turkmen fellow studying Education at Bemidji State University, volunteered at J. W. Smith Elementary School, working with the fourth grade class of Ms. Sally Rodgers to help her students in math, art, reading and writing. Vepa was at J.W. Smith for about six hours each week for a seven-week period. Ms. Rodgers said that her class benefited from the experience of having Vepa as a teacher and that it was one of the few opportunities for the students to meet on a personal level and on a continuous basis with a foreign teacher. Vepa plans on using this experience to prepare presentations comparing the US public school teaching styles to those in Turkmenistan for his Turkmen colleagues who are also elementary school teachers.
Vepa observed a teaching phenomenon unique to elementary school: how to make students work independently and at the same time behave well without yelling and causing a disruption. This phenomenon cannot be taught at the university level, but one can experience this teaching methodology in an elementary school class in the United States. Vepa gained skills in managing students attention by observing and helping in the J. W. Smith Elementary School classes in a real teaching situation. He is excited to share his new skills with Turkmen colleagues. Vepa will share these experiences in a district session of English teachers, which is held twice a year in Turkmenistan.