Thought for the day: "Enjoy the moment, it’s the start of a journey".
By Megan
“Oh, how wonderful!”
That phrase pretty much sums up Day Three for me. We started off with a great breakfast and conversation. It is amazing how fast we are getting to know each other. We really seem to be coming together as a team!
Classes as usual are always an adventure, I engaged my group with an active guessing game. We learned phrases we would use at a party and talked about our families. We finished off our day with a rendition of “Take me Out to the Ball Game.” Jane, Pete, and Zack engaged their groups in a spirited discussion about music. The conversation ranged from Zack talking about American music to an in depth conversation about the disappearance of CDs. The language capabilities of some of the students amaze me. It is wonderful they can have such deep conversations about important issues. Across the tent, Marge focused on homonyms and engaged her students in the picture searches that seem like a huge hit among the Polish students.
Jean (John) reviewed animal names with his students while they taught him some animal names that started with a Y! He also took them for a walk where they used their English language skills to talk about their surroundings. Kasia and Caroline taught the little ones names of shapes and played fun games with them too! Judy and Ryan are beginning a new project focusing on food and ordering from a menu at a restaurant. The students seem engaged and excited about a real life activity they are practicing here at camp. The wide range of ideas and lessons my teammates have come up with are fantastic. There aren’t enough hours of the day to use all of their wonderful ideas.
The last hour of English we taught the students a few American line dances! Wow was this an interesting experience. I felt that I was observing a middle school dance in America. The similarities were amazing there were students too shy to participate and the students who were dancing fiends. First we “did the Cha Cha Real Smooth” during the “Cha Cha Slide.” That dance was followed by the Electric Slide and the much more popular “Cotton Eye Joe” and “YMCA.” The excitement and interest in dancing was infectious and all of us were so excited to be apart of the students’ enjoyment.
After another delicious lunch we were off to Siedlce to meet with the local county vice governor. It was such an honor to be invited to the office of such an important figure in the county. I believe it really made our team feel good about the work we are doing here with the children. After learning a lot about the local Polish government we walked through the town of Siedlce. We saw beautiful architecture, the town hall and post office. It was a wonderful experience to visit the city but it was great to come back to the cottage house to enjoy great dinner and conversation with my teammates.
We were then treated to a wonderful singing competition. I was pleased to see my “active” boys were using their talents in a lovely rendition of “Barbie Girl.” We were treated to another playing of “Cotton Eye Joe”, some heavy metal tunes, and a great performance by our Ryan who was a hit among the Polish students. It is wonderful to see our students enjoying their experience in camp. Well I hope you agree with me that the day was just wonderful, just wonderful!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
August 18, 2009
August 17, 2009
Thought of the day: Don’t waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation of the hours or ages that follow it. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
By Pete
Crepes for breakfast! We are all overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of the food. Kudos to the kitchen staff.
9.30 a.m. and the start of classes, thank goodness for Marge who had previously cautioned us to do as much preparation as possible. We soon found out that the students are very bright and we went through the lessons real fast.
Leaving my able assistant (and grandson) Zack in charge of our students, I made a quick tour of the group, Marge in firm control with name cards and word games followed by a giant jigsaw puzzle of the USA.
Caroline and Kasia with the youngest group spelling out names of the week and months of the year.
Jean (John) discussing TV game shows, challenged by a student named John who says he is too smart to be a millionaire!
Jane using a great deal of animation in conducting a game of Apples to Apples and throwing in a few observations whenever the opportunity arose.
Megan showing her professional teaching expertise and commanding rapt attention.
Judy and Ryan out under the apple trees discussing future dreams and school transportation.
Zack and Pete gave a lesson on opposites and showed some pictures of home. Zack performed a mini concert on the guitar.
We assembled to sing American folk songs and during another hearty meal we compared our countries’ educational systems. While the students participated in various sporting events, we all seemed to converge in the resource room feverishly planning lessons, too busy to snack in the dining room so Dorota did “take out” by bringing the snack to us.
Hot dogs for supper followed by a delicious strawberry cheesecake. In the evening we watched the orientation ceremony for the “first timers” including our own Carolina, Ryan and Zack who earned their official Reymontowka certificates.
A great day of learning and sharing and, yes, teaching.
Team 212 - August 16, 2009
Thought for the day: Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.
Robert Louis Stevenson
By Jane
Last night a tired group of Global Volunteers met at the airport. We would slowly and surely become a team under the skillful direction of Dorota. We had a very informative tour of Reymontowka, the Manor House and its grounds, to be our home for a week or two. Jean (John) arrived later and the team was complete. A fast-paced table tennis tournament and then off to bed.
Breakfast was a place to start the process of getting to know each other, and then five of us went to Mass in a beautiful, old church, not far away.
At our first formal meeting, everyone contributed their thoughts, histories, and personalities.
From each volunteer’s personal goals, Dorota helped us formulate team goals. They are: To help Polish kids, To think Polish, To leave a positive impression, To learn as well as teach, and to enjoy the experience.
Moving right along, we then came up with the characteristics of an effective team: They are: respect, flexibility, listening, patience, understanding, sense of humor, independency, preparation, communication skills, implementation, helping, assistance, collaboration, sharing of ideas, participation, and receptivity.
We were reminded that each person bring their own skills to our joint effort.
During lunch we had a very practical Polish lesson, and during the lesson-----THE STUDENTS ARRIVED!! The Manor House was infused with energy, laughter and took on a new vibration.
We were then given the location for our supplies which will be invaluable in the planning of our lessons and went to the Tent for introductions. Yes, it’s real! These are our students. Putting myself in their place at their age, introducing myself in a second language----they did a fantastic job.
After this short introduction, the staff was able to separate the students into groups that will be most beneficial to the students and to us who teach.
We then went to the room to compose our very first lesson plan. Dorota had lots of guidance to offer her fledgling teachers, and it was a big help. A very productive day. Off and running!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Team 210 - Millenium Development Goals Achieved
Seven volunteers taught for four hours a day.
July 31, 2009
Though for the day: "Kocham Cie Polska!"
In the blink of an eye, here we were on the last day of this 2-week adventure with the young children of Remontowka. One more breakfast in the manor's beautiful dining room before heading to our classes one very last time. Our final moments with our classes were occupied by picture taking and one more attempt at rehearsing our presentations for the night. The final 2 periods were dedicated to the scavenger hunt. The children seemed to have enjoyed collecting rocks, asking even the youngest of us whether we had 3 grandchildren and counting the windows in the main building...
We we served a lunch, including a dessert which consisted of "sweet bread"... a contrasting difference of sweetness with Cyndi's brownies...!! We went back to Kisielany in order to finalize the packing of our luggage. Our host was anxious to serve dinner, which, arrived, oh! just a little over 2 hours after lunch! Pierogis (in their "fat" format - apologies for not knowing the name...) and crepes filled with cheese and covered with some sweet jam.
We returned to Remontowka to attend the closing show. After very warm welcomes and thank yous by the camp director, we were witness to the children's talent in theater, signing and dancing. How sweet to see the girls and the boys putting so much effort in offering a great performance! We then had a chance to showcase our classes: Ania with Old MacDonald, Kasia with Head and Shoulders, Dorota with The farmer and the Dell, Lori with Bingo, Jim (a.k.a. "the King of Dance") with the Hockey Pockey, Bruce with some Chineese and Cotton Eye Joe and Chris and Cyndi with It's a Wonderful World... It is unfortunate that techonology refused to cooperate and we really look forward to seing the slideshow... Then it was time to meet some of the parents, eat... again... grilled sausages and marshmallows and final good byes to the kids and the camp staff.... definitely a touching moment.
One last ride on the bumpy road to Kisielany and before we knew it, it was time to go back home...In the end, I think that nothing would summarize our passage to Remontowka better than: "Kocham cie Polska!"
By Nathalie
July 30, 2009
Thought for the day: Well done is better than well said.
Poor Richard’s Almanac
We started the day with the great teacher swap of 2009 in order to give every student the opportunity to learn from a North American English speaker. What the swap proved was that every single one of the teachers is a liar. How else to explain the angelic behavior of Pawel and Kacper, Janek and Mikolaj, Amadeusz and Jakub? What we got, perhaps, was the kids’ day-one desire to impress the new teacher. For me, the swap was a way to get to know eight of the children a little better—sadly, just in time to leave them.
By third period, we were all anxious to continue prepping our own classes for tomorrow night’s final show. Strains of Old MacDonald floated up from Ania’s table to the second-floor workroom where Chris’s and Cyndi’s classes put the finishing touches on their not- so-top-secret grand finale. This included once again interrupting Bruce’s and Jim’s classes for picture re-takes. Both classes got in the spirit of the thing.
The final session was given over to the sports round robin that proved so popular on Tuesday—with Jim supervising volleyball, Nathalie and Cyndi doing their best to keep the Blasto players INSIDE the box, and Chris’s team trying to even the score with Bruce’s in a sun-baked game of soccer. Bruce’s team once again crushed Chris’s, but, as Chris pointed out, his defense held Bruce’s team to a mere 3 goals, an improvement over Tuesday’s 8-4 rout. There were a few intelligent souls who opted out of all such activity, opting for the shade of the nearest tree.
Lori had made two dozen muffins with her class during third period, but somehow none of the muffins made it to the lunch table, a breach smoothed over by her provision of some traditional Polish gingerbread at the midday meal. There was also sorrel soup and baked chicken and of course potatoes—a Polish version of Tater Tots.
In the afternoon, we visited some of the sights few tourists to Poland ever see, beginning with the wooden manor house at Sucha. We toured the 1743 home currently under restoration and watched the most famous artist from Belarus at work in the living room. The highlights of the tour were the wooden windmill and the thatched-roof peasant houses.
Then it was off to the castle at Liw, a bastion that once stood at the border between Lithuania and Poland formed by the Liwiec River. The very fine armory contained weapons from the 15th century up to the Second World War. Chris gave us a lesson in the subtle distinctions between the halberd and the spontoon, while the guide explained how the castle’s bricks were saved from becoming cornerstones at Treblinka by the quick-thinking Otto Warpechowski, who persuaded the Germans that the castle used to be a fortress of Teutonic Order Knights. And in what might possibly be the most serious overreaction to conjugal infidelity ever, we were shown the very stone where the castle foreman had his wife, Ludwika, beheaded. The Yellow Lady stalks the castle grounds at midnight with her head under her arm, undoubtedly awaiting a suitor of less savage tendencies.
Our penultimate dinner at Ewa’s brought back our favorite mushroom pierogies, as well as ham and bean soup, and chocolate-filled “rugelah” for dessert.
By Cyndi
July 29, 2009
Thought for the day: Evil grows and bears fruit, which is understandable, because it has logic and probability on its side and also, of course, strength. The resistance of tiny kernels of good, to which no one grants the power of causing far-reaching consequences, is entirely mysterious, however. Such seeming nothingness not only lasts but contains within itself enormous energy which is revealed gradually.
-"If Only This Could Be Said" To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays by Czesaw Milosz (2001) edited and translated by Bogdana Carpenter and Madeline G. Levine
After completing our classes, we all adjourned to the dining room to watch a movie with our students. Upon completion of the movie, guess what? It was time again to eat again, the highlight of the lunch being the chocolate brownies which Cindy had made for us and which were devoured in record time.
After lunch, most of us prepared for tomorrow’s class, and I met with my two Polish adult students for their afternoon English class. Upon returning to the manor after my class, my nose detected a familiar aroma which got my taste buds salivating. I couldn’t help it, but I had to go into the kitchen and investigate what smelled so wonderful. Eureka! I was right! My nose hadn’t deceived me as I savored the evening meal, zapiekanka, or what is affectionately called Polish pizza by me.
After dinner, we all met in the tent to enjoy the Polish talent show performed by our students and some of the Polish staff. We saw talents ranging from Waldek and Ula Cash, to magic tricks, singing, dancing, acrobatics and classical piano. I never cease to marvel and be amazed by the exceptional talent these Polish students possess.
After the talent show, we danced in the tent for a while and then proceeded to the dining room where we all enjoyed steak tartar, herring, and other fantastic Polish foods. It was an absolutely marvelous evening, as can be evidenced by the fact that I’m writing the remainder of this journal as the clock is quickly approaching midnight. What a great, fun day it was!
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