First Day of Teaching

Rene brought the inspiration for the day. He observed the parishioners at the mass on Sunday and their strong engagement in the service and strong expressions of faith. After breakfast we each headed off to our first day of classes escorted by one of the teachers. I sense that some of us entered our assignment with a certain amount of apprehension and nervousness. However those feelings some dissipated when we entered the school. We were received with warm and welcoming greetings. Many of the students went out of their way to say “welcome”. After a brief welcoming and tea in the faculty room, we proceeded to our respective class rooms.

 

An unexpected outcome is that we all had small classes which enabled us to devote the individual attention required. For the youngest students, their command of the English language was nearly nonexistent. It will be important that we continue to stress the fundamentals through repetition especially with the young children. Many were anxious to participate while others held back. Obviously we were strangers in their class room and some surely did not want to expose their lack of understanding to this new language. However we plowed on with an introduction to greetings and welcoming exercises. Some of us used bingo games and puzzles as a way of introduction.

 

Some of us felt drained from the day of teaching. However there seem to be consensus that the first day was exhilarating, the children and adults fun loving, pleasant eager to learn, and welcoming. I sensed that we all feel more confident after the first day and that a rapport had been established with both the children and adults. Dorota was most helpful in preparing our first lessons. Especially since we do not know the Polish language, Dorota was helpful in providing the Polish equivalence to the words we will be using with the students.

 

We finished our day with a nice supper and Rene prepared popcorn for the group with help from the kitchen staff. Carol is not feeling well and retired early.