May 18, 2010

Thought for the Day: "Yesterday is but a memory; tomorrow is a mystery; that’s why today is called the present – a gift!"

Tuesday, May 18

Today’s driver for Mary Martin has her niece with her; this Maja is a student at junior high school; judging by her flow of English, she is a highly successful student. “Strzala” she informs Mary Martin “means arrow.” Certainly many arrows have flown through the course of Polish history. Once again, classes flow by in a medley of themes: sports, routines of the day, telling time and the days of the week. The oldest group of students use an article to explore the meaning and significance of “environmental issues.” Some are clearly more confident with cooperative learning than others when they work in small groups with a definite task to perform. The friendly, pleasant staff paired with friendly, willing children create an atmosphere conducive to learning and self-expression.

At Spoleczna, Jim used word-search worksheets and city map locations, the ensuing classroom response to the lessons was quite enthusiastic.

Jim attempted his infant Polish vocabulary on his trip to and from the school on a very amused Roman, the morning and afternoon “chauffeur” – and slowly but surely, a bond is being formed with this most genial of Polish gentlefolk.

At four o’clock, Jim met with his two adult ladies for their regular tutorial sessions and enjoyed the encounter immensely. Aneta and Joanna have extensive vocabularies with only an occasional pronunciation “wrinkle” to correct. Aneta seems to be the “resource” person when Joanna stalls on a word selection. Both responded well to an English speech (delivered by a visiting big-wig) and the supposed translation of the speech into Polish (for an invisible audience).

The day was capped off by an invitation to an evening Chopin concert – one of Jim’s favorite composers – to be absolutely blown away by the talent and skill of a quartet of young people. The youngest, Aleksandra, was (guessing) eight years old and displayed an amazing gift at the keyboard. She was followed by Alicja, again guessing, a ten-year-old, who stroked the ivories with her renditions of a composition by Chopin and an etude by Liszt. The third and fourth pianists were older boys, Jakub and Igor, both playing other works of Chopin and Liszt. It was a most impressive concert.