Massively addictive

You know that being a teacher means performing different roles at a time. A teacher doesn’t only teach a students, but she inspires, motivates, re-educates and rehabilitates. Being a teacher is a constant struggle, where majority of the things depend upon a teacher. A teacher should always be ready to solve every problem. There are lots and lots of them. Addiction is one of them. I am getting more and more about my profession with the help of PDP classes. It is especially important for young teachers, whom lots of difficulties await in future. PDP ( Professional Development Program) helps them to be ready to these problems and find a solution in advance.

February 21 is one of my usual PDP classes day. The significance of this day is two videos we watched today. Both of them relate to the problem of addiction. The first video clip shows a man, who easily get addicted to the machine. It is not a simple machine, it is a machine that brings you to the world of ecstasy. Once you use this machine, your brain is captured. Each time you use it, you get more and more addicted. Your will is ruled by machine. The plot of the clip is as follows: a man, angry and desperate, throws a case out of the window.  A passer-by (another man) runs into it, opens, closes, and takes with him. An angry man runs out of the house, trying to find what he has thrown away. He doesn’t find it and his story ends here, which in turn is the beginning of another story. A passer-by takes it home and tries it for the first time. He is horrified. Later this feeling vanishes and he enters the world of pleasure and ecstasy. The case, that he picked up in the street, is a powerful machine. The more he uses the machine, the more he gets addicted to it. As soon as he puts on the devices, he finds himself among dancing and tempting girls. Everything is about dirty pretty things. One day he wants to get more out of it (usual thing with addicted people), instead he is wounded by the girl of his obsession. He is wounded not emotionally, not mentally ( and emotionally, and mentally), but physically as well. The trace of woman nails caused real bleeding on his face. Angry and desperate, he throws the case out of the window. A passer-by ( the third man) runs into it…

What is strange is that what you brings you pleasure works only virtually, but hurts in reality. How many lives did addiction ruined? How many lives does it ruin? And how many will?

Another short video clip that is also about addiction is called “Addiction”. To tell the truth, I didn’t get the message until I read ” Addiction” in the end. It shows a man, who goes up by an elevator. He is on the third floor. He goes up again. He is on the third floor. Surprised, he goes up again and again it is the same floor. How much he tries, he appears on the third floor. In a horror, he seeks other ways out, he runs to every voice he hears, but there is nobody. Throwing down his arms, he sits on the elevator, and keeps going up and down, up and down . . until he sees a light. If you have already understood, it is the same thing that happens to addicted people. Reaching the highest point of their addiction, they still want more and more. But there is no more. So what brought them ecstasy at first, brings them misery till the end of his life OR until that light shows them a better solution of their problem.

You see, addiction is an actual problem of the society. Our ears got used to addiction to alcohol, tobacco,  and drugs. Addiction to computer games still seems to be ridiculous. However, it is also a big issue with difficult solutions. Children spend more time in the internet than any other places. Nowadays, nearly all the children in Kazakhstan are addicted to “Warcraft Game”. They meet together after the classes, but not for playing a football, going to swimming pools, but playing Warcraft in internet cafe. I want you watch the following documentary film on Warcraft addiction.

So such kind of things are massively addictive and have much harm for future generation. And we , as teachers, should do everything to prevent it from widening. Being a teacher means to be a mother, an adviser, and an instructor at a time. So, let’s be more attentive to our children, students, and followers!

 

The second Christmas

This year I am going to celebrate Christmas several times. Yesterday I was invited to Christmas party. That was my second Xmas party. Earlier I had one with my PDP teacher and fellow students. Even though I knew only a person, who invited me there, I didn’t feel alone, because everybody was glad and friendly. When I came there, Sveta (she invited me) was not at home. Nevertheless, there were other guests and Sveta’s friends, who were glad I accepted the invitation. A few minutes later Sveta came , and I felt myself totally relaxed. There was a nice  buffet table or fourchette as we used to call it. What surprised me is that it was the second time I was offered fresh cider drink. On my first Christmas, Kristina also prepared cider drink as well. One of the boys, Duman, joked when all of us were actively eating food standing around the table. He asked: “Do you know the difference between Swedish  and Kazakh fourchette table?” I guessed what he meant. By the way, do you know the difference? As Duman continued: “In Swedish fourchette table –  people take the food and stand away from the table and eat it; in Kazakh fourchette table – people take food and stand around the table and eat it.” All people rushed back after that.))

The atmosphere was friendly and everybody joked with each other as if they were old friends. Further we played a game “White elephant” or as I call it “Gift exchange”. Earlier I told you about this game OR you can follow this link to know about it. There were so many presents. So, according to the rule we started to choose presents. There was one extra-large present-box and Kalzhan took it. Duman is a cool bot, he said: ” Now we know who is a greedy person among us!” )) Of course, he didn’t mean to insult anybody. That large box was full of papers and there was “Raffaello” among them. Clever! But the present most of us wanted to take was a packet of 18 Sneakers (chocolates). It passed two hands until Umit save it for herself. She is lucky.)) So, the “contest” for gifts ended.

Furthermore, we played a game – “Crocodile”. If you watch MuzTV, you know this game. It is my favourite TV game, and I was happy to play it. The description of the game: people are divided into two teams. And one member from each team comes in front and tries to explain to his group the word on the paper. The rule is he can do it only with different kind of gestures. Mostly, they are to explain celebrities, names of soap operas, films, TV shows or characters/personages of cartoons and literature works. This game is funny. For example, a person doesn’t know an actor, but he should somehow explain it to his team. Funny, isn’t it?! Who guesses first is a winner. We played long, nobody seemed to be tired or bored. The game ended in a draw in the end. “Friendship won” we usually say in such cases.

I thanked Sveta for invitation for I spent my time splendidly. It was my second time I met Sveta, the first time we got acquainted on Volunteer Commencement Day. The second time we celebrated Christmas Party together. I thank Duman for he helped everybody feel at home and he gave me headphones as a Christmas present. The party was success.  I found more new friends. It means so much for me. Merry Christmas to  everybody! 

By the way, it was not Sveta’s home as I found out later, it was “Work and Travel” program office. It looked like home, there were a great deal of pictures: Chicago, Hollywood, Statue of Liberty, etc. I got acquainted with Kevin, an American, who works there. First I thought he is Russian, he really looks like. )