Week 5: Personal Blog 15/03/13 - 22/03/13

Snowing again in Poland!

On Friday we attended our ‘Polish for Beginners’ class and the lecturer began the seminar with a discussion about the ‘Phases of Cultural shock’. It had never occurred to me about these phases, especially as I was having such a fantastic time in Poznan. However, the lecturer outlined the phases like this:

  

Phase 1: The Honeymoon Stage

Phase 2: How can I live like this? What am I doing here? I want to go home!

Phase 3: Let’s try to survive and be happy!

We discussed the elements that can create this unsettled and anxious feeling within Phase 2. We agreed that one of the major issues could be the difficulty to express ourselves, including the language barriers and the differences in facial expressions and body language in different cultures. We also agreed that this can be a lack of familiar surroundings and ‘home comforts’. I jokingly said to my French classmate that I must still be in the honeymoon phase, as I was still very happy and content.

Just after our class

Personally, before coming to Poznan, I hadn't really worried too much about homesickness, as I have never thought of myself as a ‘home bird’. However, “Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was” (Picoult, 2009). This began to ring true to me when I started to feel unwell over the weekend. 

By Sunday I had a sore throat, a cough, a temperature and my asthma was beginning to get irritated. I was invited to a friend’s birthday party and I did everything I could to ignore my symptoms but in the end I gave up and had to lie in bed. At that moment, all I wanted was a cup of my mother’s honey and milk remedy and to lie in my bed watching television. However, my Turkish friend used his mother’s remedy to get rid of my temperature, using cold wet cloths, which actually really helped.

Our tram stop

The next day, I thought back to ‘The Phases of Cultural shock’ and decided to investigate it. There seems to be a difference in opinion about how many stages there are, such as Pederson (1995) who states there are five. Nonetheless, they all seem to agree upon the same principals of a ‘Honeymoon’, ‘Negotiation’, ‘Adjustment’ and ‘Mastery phase’, however, unfortunately Pederson (1995) states that individuals only begin to settle into a culture after 3 months, which will be when I am leaving!

This week really made me think about my attitude to growing up and leaving my family home, for some reason I seemed in a rush. It reminded me of something I had read in a book called ‘The other Belfast’;

‘home is a place you grow up, wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to’ (Rickerby, 2011).

I’m feeling much better now but I'm going to take it easier so that I can fully recover over the next few days!

References:

Pederson, P. 1995 'The Five stages of Cultural shock:

 

Critical Incidents Around the World'. ABC.

Picoult, J. 2009 'Handle with Care' Simon and Schuster,

Rickerby, J,S. 2011 'The other Belfast' Xlibris Corporation

Week 4: Professional Blog (8/03/13 - 15/03/13)

This week started with our first visit to our placement school, The International School of Poznan and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

 After a very cramped, long bus journey, we arrived and I was given a class with children aged between seven and eight years old. They are currently learning about the body and the first lesson of the day was music, in which the children were talking in great detail about the different muscles in their legs and arms. It was obvious that the children in the class are very intelligent, however this was even more impressive as most of the children were talking in their second language, English. 

Miss Kasia reflected that the chart lacks a positive
 behaviour incentive (GTCNI 21 & 22, 2007)

 In this international school, all lessons are taught in English and children are expected to answer all questions in English. My class is very multicultural, with children from Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Canada and United States and therefore some children in the class are fluent in English, and some have only arrived recently and do not know English at all. . However, during the last hour of the school day, the children are given the opportunity to speak a different language other than English. There are classes for fluent Polish speakers and German speakers and there are also beginners' Polish classes.

INSP's version of a KWL board

After speaking to the teacher, Miss Kasia, I found myself agreeing with her as she told me that the children are free spirited and accepting of one another in this school. Miss Kasia said that the children were all given lots of time at home to practice with their parents, helping to reinforce their teaching within the school and this was evident. However, I feel that a large part of this is down to the teaching style, as it is very informal, children are not afraid to ask questions and there is a lovely relationship between the teachers and pupils. 

The school uses a thematic approach to teaching, which is also promoted in the Northern Ireland curriculum (CCEA,2007). Miss Kasia has been organising different projects; to eventually transform their classroom into the inside of a human body and I noticed she used her own version of a KWL board (CCEA,2007). The music teacher had also created his lesson to link directly to this topic as the children sang songs such as ‘Dem bones’ and ‘The Muscle Man’ song.

An example of the School's ethos

 The school believes that the following things should lie at the heart of education:

                   developing citizens of the world – culture, language and learning to live together
·         fostering students’ recognition and development of universal human values
·          stimulating curiosity and inquiry in order to foster a spirit of discovery and enjoyment of learning
·         equipping students with the skills to learn and acquire knowledge , and to apply these skills and knowledge across the broad range of areas
·         encouraging diversity and flexibility in pedagogical approaches
·         providing appropriate forms of assessment

      (INSP, 2013)

These statements are definitely reflected within the school as the children are provided with an interactive teaching style, given opportunities to mix with children from all over the world and are linked with many of the Northern Ireland curriculum’s statements such as within PDMU strand II ‘Mutual Understanding in the Local

And Wider Community’ (CCEA, 2007). As this school is private, the children are also provided with the best quality learning resources, a wide range of learning opportunities and many school trips.

I feel like this week has given me a much better insight into how the International School of Poznan works, however I would also like to see a Public Primary School within Poland at some stage too.

Until then,

PaPa

References:

Helping the caretaker remove the snow!

CCEA (2007) available at, http://www.nicurriculum.org.uk/ accessed 15/03/13

GTCNI(2007) available at, http://epublishbyus.com/ebook/ebook?id=10020354#/52 accessed on 15/03/13

INSP (2013) available at http://isop.pl/en/mission-statement/ accessed on 15/03/2013

Week 3: Professional (1/03/13 - 8/03/13)

I never thought I would be saying this, but at long last we have begun to do some work! Our class schedule formally began this week and unfortunately, some of my classes were cancelled due to low numbers, so I have spent most of the week attending different classes and trying to find ones which are appropriate for my degree.

‘Teaching strategies within Early Childhood education’ is one of the modules I am taking within the education faculty. I have to say, I was very impressed with this class as the teacher was energetic and vibrant and her lesson was interactive. She mixed the class into groups and asked us to discuss and record our thoughts on a reading about Vygotsky. Although I had previously studied this in Stranmillis, I found that the lecturer’s style of teaching explained and reinforced Vygotsky’s ideas which enabled me to understand the concepts much more deeply.  The class also showed me that Marisa, Brian and I are at a great advantage, as the text, which would have taken others in the group half an hour to read, took us merely five or ten minutes to read! However, this causes the lecturers to expect more from us unfortunately, but I suppose that’s fair.

Collegium Maius Campus

Outside of the education faculty, I joined a class called ‘Acting craft in Polish theatre’. This week we explored the ‘Study of uninterrupted flow of movement’. The class was practical and the activities were designed to explore body movements, gestures and facial expressions. Throughout this lesson I found many links to teaching, as the activities directly linked to the drama, dance, gymnastics, PDMU and music area of the Northern Ireland Curriculum. The class has already given me so many ideas for teaching, especially for P.E class, as this class encouraged us to “use different parts of the body to explore personal and general space”, “explore, practise and improve body management skills” and evaluate our own “movements and those of others” (CCEA, 2007). I was actually very shocked how closely it related to the Northern Ireland curriculum and I hope I can continue attending this class. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of this but I will try and remember for next week!

‘Social Capital’ was another class I attended this week. I’ll be honest; I wasn't sure exactly what the class would be about and was worried it may not be very helpful for my professional development. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I realised that a large area of this class would be about multiculturism and issues surrounding this. I am extremely excited to begin studying this topic as just before I came to Poland I had selected this as my dissertation topic and I hope it will help me with my literature review and deciding the direction I might go in for my research. Additionally, the lecturer has assured me that I can design my presentation around multiculturism within education.

Hopefully by next week I will have a lot more to say about my professional development as I am starting my first day of placement on Monday!

Until then, Na Razie!

References:

CCEA (2007) available at, http://www.nicurriculum.org.uk/ accessed 08/03/13

Week 2: Cultural (22/02/13-1/03/13)

It has only been this week that I have really seen how different the Polish culture is, mainly due to our Polish language classes. 

On Tuesday Marisa, Brian and I attended our first class, and after arriving five minutes late, we were shocked that the class were already reading the alphabet! The lecturer seemed very formal, unlike the lecturers in Stranmillis, and instructed us to call her ‘Pani Doktor’.  After some time, the lecturer began to warm to us and explained that within Polish society there are many divides, which are only beginning to be broken down now. This can be seen within the university, as students and lecturers are divided, even when it comes to the canteen they eat lunch in.

During our second class she pointed out that many of us were smiling all the time and explained that Polish people, especially the older generation, may think we are crazy. Polish people do not ‘fakely’ smile at strangers or exaggerate their emotions, and if they do this it is usually to suggest romantic interest. This explained a lot for me, as I often had smiled at people on the trams and received odd looks. I also told the class a story about a man standing outside a shop a couple of days before. He had an extremely cute dog on a leash and I screamed and got down on my knees to pet the dog. The man looked at me as if I was mentally insane! The lecturer confirmed that he would have thought I was crazy and the whole class erupted into laughter!

At Stary Renek

We also attended our second ‘Poland for Beginners’ class which seemed very long but interesting. We discussed the History of Poland and what has shaped it to be the country that it is today. I was very surprised how many times the borders of Poland have changed throughout history, which has effected how some older people feel about areas of Poland, as they were once part of Germany or the USSR. We also discussed the many Wars that Poland has been involved in, with particular reference to WWII. Even though our lecturer was relatively young, and never experienced the pain of the war, it was very obvious that Polish people still feel hurt by what happened at this time. However, Polish people are strong; “The soul of Poland is indestructible... she will rise again as a rock, which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal wave, but which remains a rock” (Churchill, 2005).

International School of Poznan

This week we also visited our placement school, ‘The International School of Poznan’. The teachers all seemed very happy and friendly and kindly gave us a tour around the school. They even invited my boyfriend, Seán, on the tour, who had surprised me with a flight over that morning. Although this visit was over lunchtime hours, it was apparent that the school was laid back, informal and relaxed as the children were very loud and hyper! I got the impression I will be very content in this school for placement and cannot wait until we start on the following Monday. I am also very excited as the schools strives to teach the children to develop as ‘citizens of the world – culture, language and learning to live together’ (INSP, 2013) which is directly linked to my dissertation topic for next year!

My little bit of home!

Although I have enjoyed meeting so many new people, it has been so nice spending time with Seán as he’s my little bit of home.

Until next week,

Do widzenia.

References:

Churchill, W. (2005) ‘Maxims and Reflections’ Kessinger Publishing.

INSP (2013) available at http://isop.pl/en/mission-statement/ accessed on 01/03/2013