Hi! Well, it is my turn for the delayed update on our blog, so here goes!
I go to the Math School here in Stara Zagora. And...I love it! Last spring, I was accepted to the school by taking and passing a special test. The test was hard, but, thankfully, I scored 7th out of 150 kids taking this test.
Actually, the test was taken by all of the students in our oblast (county) that wanted to apply to the math school. Since they only took the top 10 scores, boy was I happy to get 7th place! So, unlike the Olympics, 7th place really is great sometimes.
Then, we found out later, that out of the 55 students accepted, 3 of my good friends also passed the 2nd or 3rd test to join my class. It is very cool to have Josh, Martin and Radi in the same class doing something all of us love-namely, math!
Our school, which we all call the matimaticheskoto is from grades 5-12. Also, we have 750 students and share the school with another high school.
Well, I do love my school other than the fact that it is old and run down.
Now the grade system is quite different from American standards. For instance, an "A" is called a 6, a "B" is a 5, "Cs" are 4, "Ds" are 3 and "Fs" are 2-0. So, if you are getting 5s and 6s you're doing pretty fine.
Also, every single student, starting in 2nd grade, takes responsibility for a grade booklet, called a "beleznik," that they have all their grades written in by their teachers.
Daily, they have to show this grade booklet to their parents who must sign it if there is a new grade posted in it. So, everyone knows just how they are doing with their grades in school all of the time. Even all of our tests must be signed by a parent and returned to our teachers.
So, good luck trying to hide any bad grades you might get from your parents!
As you may have noticed, Bulgarian school is quite different from your average school in the US. For instance, one difference is that tests are not the ONLY way to get grades. Here in Bulgaria, we get most of our grades by getting called up for an ispiit. This ispiit means that your teacher invites you in front of the whole class. Then you are asked questions about history, science, geography, IT and math. How well you answer the questions your teacher asks is your grade on the ispiit.
Yet, another difference is that we have shifts for school that change. For instance, during 1st shift, we start school at 07:30 and finish at 12:30. While on 2nd shift we start at 13:30 and finish at 18:30. So, right now we're on 1st shift which I like. In March, we will go back to 2nd shift for the month.
Other differences are than in Bulgarian high school, there are no lunch rooms. Everyone is expected either to eat before they go to school or at lunch. We do have what we call a pavilion inside our school which sells snack food to all students.
Nearby is a bahnitsa stand where I like to buy bahnitsa for lunch with my friends. It costs 80 stotinki (about 60 cents) for one bahnitsa, which is pita bread with hot feta cheese in the middle.
Another difference it that we have to buy all of our own school books which are much smaller than American school books. They are kind of like big magazines in size. This is really nice when you are hauling them around in your backpack.
Of course, in the winter, we have great fun having snowball fights at recess IF there is snow.
Naturally, we also have to buy all of our notebooks, pencils, school kits and other things we need for school. The only free thing at our school is the air!
This year we had a 5th grade basketball team for our high school. Well, since I'm a member of the class and like basketball, I was allowed to play on the team. Our coach is a Ukranian lady named Gooba and we won first place by beating four other teams.
Sometimes, we call our school the PMG for short as this means the First Mathematic High School. Hey, it just would not work to have students yelling, "Go matimaticheskoto!" in a basketball game now would it?
Now, we just finished playing basketball for the 5th-7th grade city teams. Our team did well, but, unfortunately, we had no 7th grade players. The city tournment just finished last week and we ended up in 4th place out of all of the schools in our league.
Well, wining at least one trophy wasn't so bad!
So, if you are bored at your American school, come to Stara Zagora and join my matimaticheskoto school!
by Josiah A. Brown
I go to the Math School here in Stara Zagora. And...I love it! Last spring, I was accepted to the school by taking and passing a special test. The test was hard, but, thankfully, I scored 7th out of 150 kids taking this test.
Actually, the test was taken by all of the students in our oblast (county) that wanted to apply to the math school. Since they only took the top 10 scores, boy was I happy to get 7th place! So, unlike the Olympics, 7th place really is great sometimes.
Then, we found out later, that out of the 55 students accepted, 3 of my good friends also passed the 2nd or 3rd test to join my class. It is very cool to have Josh, Martin and Radi in the same class doing something all of us love-namely, math!
Our school, which we all call the matimaticheskoto is from grades 5-12. Also, we have 750 students and share the school with another high school.
Well, I do love my school other than the fact that it is old and run down.
Now the grade system is quite different from American standards. For instance, an "A" is called a 6, a "B" is a 5, "Cs" are 4, "Ds" are 3 and "Fs" are 2-0. So, if you are getting 5s and 6s you're doing pretty fine.
Also, every single student, starting in 2nd grade, takes responsibility for a grade booklet, called a "beleznik," that they have all their grades written in by their teachers.
Daily, they have to show this grade booklet to their parents who must sign it if there is a new grade posted in it. So, everyone knows just how they are doing with their grades in school all of the time. Even all of our tests must be signed by a parent and returned to our teachers.
So, good luck trying to hide any bad grades you might get from your parents!
As you may have noticed, Bulgarian school is quite different from your average school in the US. For instance, one difference is that tests are not the ONLY way to get grades. Here in Bulgaria, we get most of our grades by getting called up for an ispiit. This ispiit means that your teacher invites you in front of the whole class. Then you are asked questions about history, science, geography, IT and math. How well you answer the questions your teacher asks is your grade on the ispiit.
Yet, another difference is that we have shifts for school that change. For instance, during 1st shift, we start school at 07:30 and finish at 12:30. While on 2nd shift we start at 13:30 and finish at 18:30. So, right now we're on 1st shift which I like. In March, we will go back to 2nd shift for the month.
Other differences are than in Bulgarian high school, there are no lunch rooms. Everyone is expected either to eat before they go to school or at lunch. We do have what we call a pavilion inside our school which sells snack food to all students.
Nearby is a bahnitsa stand where I like to buy bahnitsa for lunch with my friends. It costs 80 stotinki (about 60 cents) for one bahnitsa, which is pita bread with hot feta cheese in the middle.
Another difference it that we have to buy all of our own school books which are much smaller than American school books. They are kind of like big magazines in size. This is really nice when you are hauling them around in your backpack.
Of course, in the winter, we have great fun having snowball fights at recess IF there is snow.
Naturally, we also have to buy all of our notebooks, pencils, school kits and other things we need for school. The only free thing at our school is the air!
This year we had a 5th grade basketball team for our high school. Well, since I'm a member of the class and like basketball, I was allowed to play on the team. Our coach is a Ukranian lady named Gooba and we won first place by beating four other teams.
Sometimes, we call our school the PMG for short as this means the First Mathematic High School. Hey, it just would not work to have students yelling, "Go matimaticheskoto!" in a basketball game now would it?
Now, we just finished playing basketball for the 5th-7th grade city teams. Our team did well, but, unfortunately, we had no 7th grade players. The city tournment just finished last week and we ended up in 4th place out of all of the schools in our league.
Well, wining at least one trophy wasn't so bad!
So, if you are bored at your American school, come to Stara Zagora and join my matimaticheskoto school!
by Josiah A. Brown
Nice job, Woo!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, Josiah!
ReplyDelete