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