May 24, 2010

Thought for the Day: Taste all that is possible; you may regret passing on something good! --John Robert Paulus

Believe it or not, we are into the third and final week of our Global Volunteers service. As noted below numerous times, we each have acquired a daily routine, despite the variations in our schedules among the different schools. This Monday at Spoleczna, Mary Martin enjoyed exploring the topic of Idioms which makes English more colorful, more visual, and for the foreign language learner, often more opaque. “You cannot translate these; you will not find these in an ordinary dictionary,” she advises students. “But you can learn these and use them to make your conversation more interesting.”

Idiomatic expressions were matched with definitions. Then students created sentences on the white boards, using names of classmates. For example: Konrad has a candy bar and Pawel is green with envy. Keeping to a theme also enhance meaning, with themes of COLOR and SPORTS:

A. Patty, you didn’t study for the test. I heard you tell teacher a white lie!

B. Yeah, but you didn’t either. We’ll both sink or swim together.

C. Not me! Go fly a kite!

Students caught on quickly. Those who listened and contributed sentences earned stickers for their notebooks or pencil cases. Those who chose to coast through the exercises learned a fact of Life: “Those who don’t work, don’t eat,” for, in Mary Martin’s classroom, even those who listen courteously and show effort can achieve recognition.

The day continued with a tutorial at 3:30 and steady completion of the Global Volunteer evaluation forms which are due before we pull up stakes and move on.

At Spoleczna, the III-A girls sailed through a Translation Exercise, and a pronunciation scheme featuring voiced and unvoiced TH sounds, adding ING practice as well. A harder-than-usual Word Search puzzle was used as fillers for all four classes. For tomorrow, a Time Capsule project was prescribed as homework – and the shorter assignments covering ED endings, and Radio/TV commercials were returned to the students. Jim discovered that when students do not turn in homework, it does make his job easier! No fractured English sentences to correct!

Nothing out of the ordinary at Niwiski School. Pani Dyrektor and three teachers left a bit early for an afternoon of training---in research methods and evaluation---in Siedlce. Several students were absent with what were pantomimed as “sore throats.” Since I, too, have developed a raspy voice, probably due to pollen in the air, I seized the opportunity to teach the English idiom “frog in my throat” as in “I have a frog in my throat.” The fourth- and fifth-grade students knew “frog,” and “throat,” but the third grade needed the dictionary to grasp the meaning of “throat.” The third-graders were especially amused by the image and later danced down the hall making frog sounds and repeating “frog in my throat.”

Audrey's day started at Grala school with Kasia with school lunch between 3 and 4. Kasia and I decided that since it was my last visit to the school we should talk more about Canada, my family and theirs and encourage questions….so we did just that. In Grade 4 class we also covered Birthdays. The students at this school are all eager, full of fun and had some good questions. Grade 4 sang me a’Tiger’ song…in English. Today I met the Headmistress who gave me a warm welcome and invited me to return to her school.

Agness arrived at four o’clock and we enjoyed a visit and conversation on many topics….weekend activities, etc. over tea. She wanted to practice reading and chose a story from her brother’s English workbook on the history of TRAINERS (running shoes) which was very interesting for both of us. Agnes read very well and only needed correction on very few words. I’m so glad she can come to our picnic here tomorrow evening….a delightful young lady and its been a pleasure to work with her.