The Governor

I spent a little over two hours meeting with the district governor, the regional director of education, a representative from the cultural affairs office, the principal and Krotoszyn High School complex #1 and Waldek. We laughed and shared details about the similarities and differences in government support of public schools. The low drop out rate of Polish students could be attributed to the law that mandates school attendance until 18 years of age and the abundance of technical high schools. America has almost done away with technical high school courses leaving those students who are less academically minded with no option for completing a high school degree. With all our advanced technology we seem to have forgotten that many people prefer to work with their hands, building, problem solving, and creating than living in abstract consideration of how to build, establishing verbal processes for problem solving, or creating in virtual environments. Many Polish people see their education system as antiquated, but I think it accurately reflects the needs of the society much more than the American focus on pure academics without practical application.

We made the obligatory exchange of keychains and T-shirts as I left. The governor said he didn't know the rules of baseball to which I responded, neither do most Americans.

American Culture Contest

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

16 High school students mostly 18 or 19 year-old seniors took a written quiz on America. The questions ranged from naming several of the past presidents to details about the population and the physical area of the US. Of the 50 questions, I knew about 45 of them. The top score was 31. Very Impressive. As the graders were evaluating the tests I played American Culture Jeopardy with them. They knew questions about texting, consumer products, and T.V. Afterwards we had a fairly serious conversation about the effects of English on the Polish language. They seemed to appreciate both the positive changes that technology and the influx of English brought along with it as well as the negative effects the combined influences may have on Polish society. Overall the event seemed quite productive for both the participants as well as me.

Monkey, Monkey, Crocodile

Ewa and the staff at Ladybug Kindergarten

There are few things in life more invigorating than singing and doing the motions to animal songs with kindergarteners. These little people laughed freely and knew all the names and actions for all the animals. I loved it.

And candy speaks every language.

Junior High kids are Junior High kids everywhere.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Presentation at Gymnasium No. 4 junior high

I did 2 sessions with 30 students in each class at one of the more advanced junior high schools in Krotoszyn. The students were intentive and engaged. Some students had almost no accent. Most of them were very quiet.

They had questions prepared but I didn’t give them opportunity to ask because the bell rang just as I was finishing my presentation. The students and teachers were very disappointed that they did not get a chance to ask their questions.

I gave the teacher my email address so that those students could ask their questions via my school blog.

We met the principal who offered us the most delicious croissants filled with chocolate custard that would tame the most difficult personality.

Presentation at Copernicus Junior High #2

Three English classes assembled in a large hall with a stage. The students were reticent to respond to my presentation until I plied them with Jelly Bellies and called specific students to read aloud.

They enjoyed the casual nature of the presentation and eventually relaxed. They seemed to have a better grasp of listening skills and more confidence than the 10th or 11th graders at the high school.

Interestingly, as they entered the hall the students shifted chairs often with the boys sitting on the left and the girls sitting on the right. I have seen this exact sorting of position in US junior high schools. This age group seems to need to belong to a group.

Krotoszyn,

The Krotoszyn Town Center.

The first house built in Dzuny a nearby town. It is over 700 years old.

Easter decorations in Dzuny Museum

Stove Tile Factory, All the tiles are handmade. They are used in making traditional stoves and room heaters.

The molder allowed me to attempt making a tile. I'm sure he scrapped that one after I left. The clay has a mixture of old clay, tile fragments, and other elements to keep it from transferring too much heat.

The interior of the kiln was oddly reminiscent of my tour of Auschiwitz three days before.

The showroom and storage room were quite small and utilitarian, but the quality of the glazing was amazing. Several decorative tiles show real artistic talent.

The Best Laid Plans

After weeks of preparation for the teacher workshop today was a bust. I did the Instructional Technology workshop for 4 participants. Fifteen invitations were sent out. The local priests called a 3-day retreat in preparation for Easter last week. During the time the students were at the retreat, the teachers were attending staff training. Not surprisingly, their principals were not as keen on having the teachers attend another workshop on the following Monday. Some of the websites and activities did seem valuable to the assembled few. They especially appreciated the a4esl.org websites ability to provide Polish to English activities. On the down side, the internet connection speed did not allow them to fully explore the more dramatic free websites available for student products or listening comprehension. Until the school invests in higher speed connections, those sites will be unusable to their students.

Learning the Ropes.

Day 3

Tuesday morning I woke up early ready for the day. I took a leisurely shower and walked to the bakery for a panschke (Polish donut) for breakfast. Watched CNN news about Japans continued recovery efforts after the Tsunami. Wondered if any of my former students or colleagues were affected by the tragedy. I looked at my brand new watch 15 minutes before 8 a.m. I walked the 7 minutes to the school and noted the oddly vacant sidewalks. I was met at the door by Majka, the photographer, who took me immediately to the classroom where 25 students had been waiting for me to arrive. Apparently, the clerk at the store had set my new watch to the time before daylight savings time had started. I was an hour late. I spent 20 minutes apologizing before the class ended. Waldek generously understood and even laughed at my mistake. As we walked to the teacher’s lounge, I noticed that the school clocks all have a different time. Just like in the U.S.

Another observation about high school in Krotoszyn was that each classroom was locked after each period. The teacher retrieved a key from the lounge and met the students outside the door of the classroom. Keys and locks seemed to be a major priority in the school. I did not ask why. But I noticed in the hostel and the residential flats there are multiple keys to gain access to almost every room or entry.

I taught 3 classes with Waldek.

They ranged from beginner to low intermediate level English classes. I did a “Hot Potato” activity to get the students to relax and set the comfortable tone for the meeting.

I demonstrated how to play several of the board games I had sent Waldek. The games focus on context clues for new vocabulary, listening for details, determining fact from opinion, and placing events in sequential order. The students really did not have enough time to get the academic benefit of the games, so hopefully Waldek will take the time to reinforce his textbook lessons with the thinking games that bring about more internalized English instead of rule based abstract language.

The last session was with a“difficult” behavior class. I did the same activities but made it very structured with participatory elements. That class seemed to get more of the point of the games because they were more comfortable with the structured environment rather than the open ended “play the game to practice your English” instructions I had given the other two classes.

After the class Waldek and I did a tour of downtown churches, park with its floating swan family, grocery shopping, and snacking on the most amazing sweets imaginable.
I found myself wondering, will I lose weight from all the walking or get fat from all the sugar?

That afternoon Waldek took me to the NGO where he volunteers to help troubled youth. I did not want to do a “lesson” with the young students in the afterschool program so I talked to them while I made animal balloons. One of the boys,Hubert, “knew” English so I made a point of asking him questions. He wasn't as fluent as he wanted his 9 year old friends to believe. Instead of doing a presentation I told stories about animals as I made balloon animals. When I gave a rabbit to one very shy girl she wet her pants. Later I found out that she has strong reactions in front of any man because of suspected abuse in her past. When the kids became bored with my attempts to entertain them, they went into the next room to play video games. The social worker in charge informed me of some of the difficulties these young ones face. The situation sounded so similar to many aid agencies helping kids in the U.S.
I tried to say goodbye to the boys but they were too interested in video games to say goodbye. Before I left the young girl who had the accident asked for another balloon that had not been blown up. She smiled and said "Goodbye" in English. A small tear of satisfaction almost fell from my eye as I walked out.

Next I walked a quarter mile to a community center in an old communist era apartment block. The center provided after school activities for older kids. Waldek informed me that the program had won national recognition for its effective methods in addressing the needs of kids from troubled homes. I did a hybrid version of the presentation on American Culture with balloon animals thrown in. Waldek translated much of the information so the kids could follow the point. They were all comfortable with me and much less inhibited than the students in the school setting. Obviously, they had close connections to the adult sponsors including Waldek and Majka, the photographer for most of my adventure.
Photos, translating. Balloons very interactive

That evening I ate Chicken with red cabbage and apples in the hotel restaurant. I was completely alone in a grand hall decorated for a wedding or other engagement. Only one table was set for me. We forget what a communal experience eating usually is until we sit alone chewing and scraping the plate by ourselves.
Again there was no internet available in the hotel. The receptionist explained that someone would be coming on Friday to fix it.

Teaching Right off the Bat!

Day 2
Monday morning at 9 am Waldek walked me the short distance to Zespol Szkol Ponadgimnazjianych nr 1 w Krotosynie. (Complex School Upper High School number 1 in Krotoszyn.) I met several of the teachers in the teachers’ lounge. Many of them immediately giggled and apologized for not speaking English. Some asked me if I spoke German or Russian. I asked if they spoke Spanish or Japanese. Ironically with 6 languages between us we could not find a common one. Somehow we seemed to communicate the necessities, though.

It was an incredibly busy day. These three students took me on a guided tour of the campus. They showed me their favorite classroom which was large and had a multi-paneled black chalkboard at the front. The furniture was modern, typical of most high schools. The young women were very excited to speak with me and seemed proud of their school. They made sure to tell me not to drink the soup from the snack bar because it is so hot that there must be some kind of chemical reaction with the Styrofoam cups they are served in. I heeded their advice.

Waldek and I met with the director and vice director of the school for about an hour. We discussed a brief history of the school which used to be a center for ceramics and art instruction. The evidence was displayed in murals and emblems throughout the classrooms. Some of the crests were of professional detail and design. We also exchanged common frustration with state control of school curriculum. We discussed the advantages of each educational setting. American schools tend to have more new technology and more extracurricular activities while Polish schools have a lower dropout rate and more parity in access to resources than American schools. I think the law that mandates school attendance until age 18 contributes to the low drop out rate.

I did a short presentation to the freshman class of about 90 students in a small hall with large support pillars blocking large parts of the Powerpoint slides I had

carefully prepared. I tossed out Hershey’s candy to any student brave enough to speak English to me when I asked questions. The Polish teachers’ faces barely hid their shock and disdain for such a breech of teacher-student etiquette. Interestingly enough, the students paid attention for the entire presentation on American Culture even though they probably understood about 10% of what I was saying. Waldek commented that he was worried at first, but surprised at how well the students were listening even when they were having side conversations. I felt proud that the students attempted to communicate as much as they did.

I did the same presentation with the similarly sized sophomore class as well. In contrast to the freshmen’s open participation, the sophomores were very reserved and did not volunteer to respond to direct questions even with the bribe of chocolate before them. I wonder if the teachers had previously warned them to have better deportment than the younger students.

The students were much more serious about the information and only responded after much encouragement. I ended up speaking most of the time instead of interacting with the students. The Polish teachers seemed more pleased at this presentation. I wondered whether the difference in response was a symptom of their group mentality, maturity, English level, or adult influence. Mostly a combination of all the above.

I went almost immediately into the first of three English classes. The students were at a high intermediate language level and enjoyed the “hot potato” speaking game that required them to respond to each toss of the stuffed bear with a word from the category I had set. I started with colors then moved to words that begin with the letter s and finished by having them add a word to a sentence each time the bear was tossed. They struggled to find vocabulary, but were quite capable of adding an appropriate word to what turned out to be a very long sentence. I ended the class by describing how to play the Fact vs. Opinion game I had sent Waldek earlier in the Month. It was a challenge, but they seemed more comfortable reading than asking questions or conversation.

The next class had a quite different response to the games.

They were more reserved and less responsive even though they were leveled as intermediate students. I showed them how to play a few language games that I had sent to Waldek via the U.S. Embassy. The purpose of the games was to get the students to react to each other as they played instead of translating a response into English. If Waldek continues playing the games as he said he would, the students will become much more fluent in speaking English.



The third class was mostly beginner level English learners. They struggled with the hot potato game and I did not even attempt to play the board game. Conversely, they were more interested in asking questions and conversation. I felt they learned more than the second group because they were less inhibited as a class.

Poland Getting There!

Poland

Day 1 March 28, 2011

I arrived in Wroclaw at 8 am on Sunday morning after leaving Chicago at 5 pm Saturday night. It would have been 1 am in Chicago.

Waldek Sedkowski picked me up at took me to get some money changed and buy water.
I ate delicious pork stew from a bread bowl.
We drove 2 hours to Krotoszyn. My hotel room is on the 7th floor. It is small and very peachy. IKEA style modern furniture with a hard but comfortable twin sized bed. The bathroom and shower are very modern with 4 shades of elaborately designed blue tile. The toilet paper and towels offered a unique experience in exfoliation!

I expected to have internet in the room to blog about the daily experiences, but it was not working for some unknown reason. I tried to call home but the line was busy all night. Apparently there are limited lines of service from the hotel. I slept well because I was awake for almost 28 hours with only catnaps on the plane. In the morning I was able to call my family to tell them I was safe in Poland. I woke them up because it was 2 am there.

Teaching Excellence and Achievement Grant Process

The U.S. Department of State and IREX sponsor a program to build connections between teachers in the U.S. and other nations, especially countries with developing educational systems. Teachers from many different nations spend several weeks in the U.S. studying current teaching methodology in an American college. The application process is rigorous and the content of the course is quite comprehensive. As a follow-up to the international teachers' time in the states, an American teacher is matched with some of the international teachers. The American teacher does demonstration lessons, teacher workshops, and public relations for the U.S.

I was honored to be one of the American teachers matched to go abroad for the two-week followup visit. Originally, I was assigned to Ghana, but for reasons beyond my control I was reassigned to Poland at the last possible minute. While I was looking forward to seeing Africa and had made connections with two of the Ghanaian teachers, seeing Poland and teaching in Eastern Europe were equally thrilling. This blog is a diary of my adventures in Poland from March 27, 2011-April 9, 2011.

Feel free to post any comments or responses to my experience.