Teaching Day #1

Today the teaching program began, after we spent two days in orientation and preparation.

I teach in the morning at the nearby Cisie school. There are 5 of us who start there. Today one of the teachers drove 3 of us to school and Dorota drove the other two volunteers. Poland families drive small fuel efficient cars because as much as Americans often complain about the price of gas, it is between three and four times more costly here. Most families don't have a vehicle that will hold 5 people plus the driver.

At the school I am teaching one group of fourth graders and one group of fifth graders. The fifth graders are the 4th graders I had last year. I teach in the library and the students come to me at the change of classes. I even get a cup of coffee delivered to during the interval between classes.

We were driven back to Reymontowka by a father of one of the students. He could do this because one of the volunteers goes on down the road after the Cisie teaching and spends time in preschools teaching English. Thus we could all squeeze into one car.We were back to Reymontowka by 10 AM.

I haven't been sleeping well and took the chance to take a morning nap. I got myself going again about noon and got things organized for the afternoon teaching.

At 3:00 five of us where at the Kotun Community Center for an after-school program. My first group are children ages 6-8 years who are definite beginners. Oliva has become a popular name in Poland and three of my seven students in the first class have that name. I have students make name tents and place them on the table in front of them. That way I can see their names and learn them more quickly.

With this class I am right at basics. We spent a great deal of time on the English alphabet.I find they know some animal names in English and they know some of the colors.

The second class are students from middle school. We talked about food, what they liked to have on a pizza, and then played Food Jingo.

This blog posting has no pictures. It is a Global Volunteers policy to keep the camera put away until one truly has developed relationships with people, and certainly one day one -- such relationships don't exist.

They are great kids.