Week 14: Professional Blog: 17.05.13 - 24.05.13

Miss Kasia

During my placement, over the last couple of weeks I have started to feel very at home in the International School of Poznan. The children in my class are very open-minded and intelligent and it has been a pleasure teaching them. However, as I have only been able to attend the school one day a week, it has taken longer than usual to gain their trust and respect.

I have been able to teach many English (language) lessons and this has given me a great insight into what children find difficult, when learning English as a second language. The children often mix the present simple tense and the present continuous tense when speaking and writing. They also find it difficult to use definite and indefinite articles in the appropriate way. For example ‘I am playing the football in a school’ instead of ‘I play football in school’. I had never thought how complex the English language can be. Remembering which article to use is especially difficult for children whose mother tongue is Polish, as the Polish language doesn’t have definite and indefinite articles (a, an, the).  Many of the language lessons that Miss Kasia prepares for the children focus on areas the children may find confusing, for example homophones. The children are literally like sponges; they readily absorb this information and effortlessly use this in their speech afterwards.

An example of a language homework

I also have been able to teach some maths lessons. In contrast to the usual ‘Aww no’ that echoes in the classroom when a maths lesson is about to begin, the children in this class seem to really enjoy maths, and most of them are very talented at it. I think that this may be because mathematics is somewhat ‘international’ as Natanael West stated "Numbers constitute the only universal language" (Good Reads, 2013). The children can think in the language which is most comfortable for them and the symbols have the same meaning and value.

Music class in ISOP

 There is a definite sigh of relief when a mathematics lesson begins after a language lesson, and I can understand their frustrations. English is difficult! I can also understand their frustration as I am constantly confused and baffled by the Polish language. I really admire these children for their perseverance and determination to speak English, even when they are upset or angry about something.  In the staff room I was discussing this with some of the teachers, and we agreed that we were also truly envious of these children as they now have have the abilitiy to speak and understand another language which will open so many doors for them in their future. As stated by Ludwig Wittgenstein, “The limits of my language are the limits of my world” (Language Land, 2013).

There is a famous quote ''In teaching others we teach ourselves'' and I have learnt a lot from teaching at this school. I think what I have learnt is important to remember in my future teaching career when I am teaching children in a second language. 

Being on Erasmus has made me realise the importance of learning other languages to communicate and socialise

References:
  
Good Reads (2013) available at: ttp://www.goodreads.com/quotes/78894-numbers-constitute-the-only-universal-language accessed on 25/05/13

ISOP (2013) available at http://isop.pl/en/mission-statement/ accessed on 24/05/2013

Language Land (2013) available at http://noviceinlanguageland.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/20-quotes-for-foreign-language-learners/ accessed on 24/05/13

Week 13: Cultural Blog: 10.05.13 - 17.05.13

This week, I was researching something which became a little ‘too close to home’ for me. The research paper, for my ‘Equity and Social Justice in Education’ class is surrounding the topic of Heterosexism and education. For those who may not know, Heterosexism is “an ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any non-heterosexual form of

Belfast Gay Pride Support

behaviour, identity, relationship, or community” Herek (1990). It usually refers to discrimination against the LGBT community (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender community). As I have a close family member who is homosexual, as well as many friends, I am very passionate about this topic.

 This research paper should discuss whether this type of discrimination exists in your country and your personal opinion on the issue. It also should cover the more controversial topic, of whether we should teach it in schools.

One of my friends
celebrating at Gay Pride

Whilst writing this paper, I discovered a lot. Firstly, of course Heterosexism exists in Northern Ireland. It exists in an institutional, unintentional way, such as filling out a membership form for a gym and also in an individual way, unintentional sometimes and unfortunately sometimes intentional.

However, through doing my research, I was reminded that in Belfast we have a very strong ‘Gay community’. There is also a lot of support for this community, especially among the younger generation. In 2012, almost 35,000 people joined the Belfast Pride march to show their support (12% of Belfast’s population), making it one of the top ten Gay Pride festivals in the U.K. (Gay Pride, 2013). Not to mention the bar and nightclub area known as the ‘Gay Quarter’ which has a calendar full of events catered especially for the LGBT community, although everyone is welcome.

I had thought this was fairly normal, until I attended my ‘Poland for Beginners’ class in Ogrody, Poznan. This class is very mixed, with students from U.S.A., Canada, South Korea, France, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Spain and Latvia. The mixture of different cultures and opinions always creates a very interesting discussion. We were discussing the use of religious symbols in Schools. In the midst of the discussion, someone asked suddenly, ‘Why do gay people want to get married in churches?’ Margo, from France began to talk about how they should have equal rights, they want to feel they have a choice and they may be religious themselves. The class erupted into debate about whether this was true and the lecturer tried to get control of the class again. She asked the two students from Uzbekistan about their views.

My Poland for Beginners Class

They told us that several years ago there were three people who were found to be homosexual in their country. They were arrested. We asked how the public felt about the government’s actions. They replied that this was applauded by the public. I then asked them what their own feelings were about this. They replied that this was the correct thing to do, that homosexuality is wrong. Furthermore, they said that now there are no homosexuals in their country and that homosexuality is a ‘Western Idea’. This caused a huge uproar in the class. People began arguing that there are homosexuals in their country, but they are hiding and that it isn't a ‘Western Idea’. I asked them that if one of their close friends came out as gay, what they would do.  One of them said that they would take their gun and shoot them.

Generally, I think that I am open minded enough to accept other’s views, even if I don’t agree with them. However, I found this opinion very hard to swallow.  It showed me that there are still people who have this opinion, in fact, entire countries. I understand that the strict Muslim values that Uzbekistan holds, shapes public opinion, values and law. However, I was still surprised that students that were on Erasmus in Poland would have these views! 

I was interested in why they had such opinions, however I decided to let sleeping dogs lie, and not push the topic any further.

References:

Gay Pride. (2013) available at: http://www.belfastpride.com/ accessed on 15/5/13

Herek, G. M. (1990). The context of anti-gay violence: Notes on cultural and psychological heterosexism. Journal of Interpersonal Violence,

Week 12: Cultural Blog:3.05.13 - 10.05.13

This week I attended “Wieczor Strawinskiego” in the Poznan Theatre House which translates as “Stravinsky Evening”.

 My friend Zane, from Latvia, had seen a beautiful advertisement of the ballet, and as she regularly attends ballet in Latvia, she was eager to go. Despite not being a regular spectator at this sort of event, I decided I would join her for the experience, as I have always admired the elegance and grace of Ballet dancers, the tickets were only 24 zł (£4.90) for students and ever since selecting the ‘Acting craft in Polish theatre’ module, I have wanted to see a performance in Poland for myself. We joined a number of excited Erasmus girls at the Theatre, found our seats and awaited the spectacular show. However, within five minutes, we realised that this show was not one we had expected.

This was not an elegant, graceful ballet show. This was an Opera-oratorio of the Greek Tragedy Oedipus the King. Yes, the one where the King gouges his own eyes out in despair with Jocasta’s (his mother/wife) dress pins. Just to add to that, it was performed in Latin,

Zane and myself outside the theatre

therefore the subtitles were in Polish. Even though I couldn’t understand very much, I understood that it was a very dark and quite unusual performance. The melody of the orchestra and the singing were performed slightly off-key from one another to give the audience an ‘on edge feeling’.  At the end of the show, once everyone had finished clapping, we began packing our bags to go home, when we were told that this was only the first part of the concert. 

We stayed to see the second half, and to our delight, it was the Ballet “The Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky. I’m not an expert, but even I could appreciate how elegant, timely and flawless their performance was. 

After seeing the performance, I spoke to a friend who is studying theatre in France. She said there is a stark contrast between studying theatre in France and in Poland, as Polish theatre focuses more on body movement.  According to Lust (2012), it has become increasingly vital for actors to use body movement to bring "authenticity and believability to a character". Thinking back, it was very obvious that the performers were using a lot of body movement to represent feelings, emotions and communication, with the other performers and the audience, which is why I understood a little bit of what was happening. 

Some of us from Acting Craft in Polish theatre 

                This emphasis on body movement in theatre is also very apparent in our ‘Acting craft and Polish theatre’ class. We have been creating individual physical movement 
sequences, which hopefully we will perform at the end of the semester. Last week we did a very interesting exercise exploring the use of the voice. Using a piece of text we had each selected from our own country, he conducted us like an orchestra, playing around with several elements such as volume control, pitch, rhythm, speed, staccato and legato. This exercise was used to remove our own ideas, meanings and memories from the text, enabling us to have more freedom with the text, and add it to our journeys in a more creative way. It really worked!  Last week I was having difficulty separating the meaning I had given to the text, restricting me in the way I could use it through my journey, however, after this activity, I felt confident and experimented with the text, using it a metaphorical way, rather than a literal way. 

My Polish friend Ada and me relaxing
after a hard week in our favourite bar!

I am sure that when I return home I will use many of teaching ideas from this class, if not all of them, as I truly admire my teacher’s approach.

Lust, A (2012) 'Bringing the Body to the Stage and Screen: Expressive Movement for Performers' Scarecrow Press

Week 11: Personal Blog: 26.04.13 - 3.05.13

What an eventful week! It was Poland's national holiday this week and my friend, Lütfullah and I booked to travel around Italy during this time.

Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral)

From the beginning we ran into difficulties! We realised that the only train available to Wroclaw was leaving at 8.30pm, leaving us in Wroclaw 6 hours earlier than we needed to be! We ended up spending 3 hours in McDonalds and then slept in the airport for 2 hours!

When we got to Milan, we were greeted by rain and wind. Wet and tired, we walked the forty-five minutes to our hostel, the website said a ten minute walk, only to be told we could not get into our rooms for another four hours. Despite our difficulties in Milan, we still managed to enjoy ourselves visiting parks, the cathedral and a bar, of course and it got nicer as the day went on. 

In the main square of Milan

Beautiful day in Venice 

In Venice, we had booked to stay in a campsite on the mainland, as it was cheaper. As it was a little out of the way, we found it difficult to find at first, attempting to hitchhike part of the way. Nonetheless, the next day we traveled to Venice and it was the most beautiful place I have ever been and definitely want to return for longer.

In Bologna we were met by our ‘host’, through the ‘couchsurfing’ website, Anna (Couchsurfing, 2013). She took us on a tour around her city, showing us the historical sites, such as the cathedrals, the Mayors building and the 3 main squares. In the evening, Anna cooked us a delicious authentic Italian dinner and she invited her friends who were German, South Korean and of course Italian!

Our Couchsurfing Host in Bologna, Anna

Unfortunately we were very tired the following day in Florence however I still appreciated the beauty of Florence, especially the views from the bridges overlooking the river. In the evening we bought ingredients and tried to imitate Anna’s beautiful pasta dish in Bologna. That night was very special in Italy as it 30^th April, the day before International Worker’s day. In every street corner, bands were playing; people were singing, dancing and laughing, it was a lovely way to remember Florence.

Just before the party started!

At the Spanish Steps

The sun was splitting the trees the following day when we visited Rome. Every corner we turned in Rome seemed to be picturesque, with a story to tell. We got so distracted with Rome we almost missed our flight back to Budapest!

The Colosseum

In Budapest, we booked to stay in a hostel called ‘Grandio Party Hostel’. We arrived at 1am

Grandio Party Hostel

at the door, which was locked. We waited for someone to come and check us in for an hour! Eventually the person on duty woke up. Needless to say, we were a little annoyed. The Hostel itself was very interesting, covered in artistic graffiti; however it was obvious that some of the guests were contributing to this! We enjoyed our day in Budapest walking around the markets and sitting by the river.

We then had to visit Vienna for a day as our train was fully booked to Krakow. We went to a carnival in Vienna. Afterwards, we accidentally walked into, what seemed to be a protest to legalise marijuana! People were walking around with marijuana potted plants in their hands, dancing to drum and bass music, whilst the police stood by and watched. It was very surreal to say the least! I researched this after to find out it is called the ‘Global Marijuana March’ which occurs on the first Saturday in April (Gottfried, 2004).

Vienna Carnival

The Beginning of the Vienna Global Marjuana March

Austrian Man we met

In conclusion, from graffiti covered hostels to Marijuana marches, my eyes were opened on this trip. I was very sad to see the number of people who are homeless and the amount of poverty within Italy, Hungary and Austria. Despite being in tourist destinations, it was still very apparent, we passed many people sleeping in doorways, on park benches, on the subway, with their suitcases and shopping carts beside them. We spoke to an Austrian man who had recently become homeless and he seemed tired, depressed and fed up with life, but was still very friendly to us. I couldn't help but feel guilty for all the luxuries I enjoy in my life, when all he wanted was a place to call home. “Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend” (Stegner, 1992).

References:

CS available at; https://www.couchsurfing.org/ accessed on 03/05/13

Gottfried, T. (2004) ‘The Facts About Marijuana’ Marshall Cavendish

Stegner, W. (1992) ‘Angle of Repose’ Penguin

Week 10: Professional Blog: 19.04.13 - 26.04.13

I found this week very interesting in my placement school. As my dissertation topic next year will be on ‘Personal Development and Mutual Understanding’, I have been asking Miss Kasia questions about how she deals with multiculturalism in her classroom. She told me about the specialised training she received for multicultural teaching . She also mentioned her general classroom rules which help to promote a friendly, inclusive classroom, for example, every child must speak English (as some children may not know Polish) and the classroom layout and every child’s seat changes each week. This helps to prevent exclusion in the classroom, whether it is to do with differences of race and culture or generally. However, when I asked how she approached the topic of the children’s different cultures and traditions, her answer surprised me.

The school reception area is covered in many different flags

In comparison to the Northern Ireland Curriculum, where we may often approach this subject directly in many of the suggested activities within ‘Personal Development and Mutual Understanding strands’ such as ‘Circle time’, the teachers in the INSP (International School of Poznan) prefer to use the more subtle, indirect approach by addressing it through themes (CCEA, 2007). One of the older Primary classes have just finished a project called ‘religion, ethics and morality’ in which they learnt about many different cultures and religions and at the end of the topic had to interview someone from a different religion and ask them about how their beliefs affect their life.

Map showing the migration of the class

My class have just begun the topic of ‘Migration’. This topic enables the children to share their own stories about where they have come from. It also helps children to understand each other more, help them to consider their own identity and also, for some children who may still not be settled into Poland, it can help them understand the reasons behind them moving country. I read a number of the children’s interviews they gave their family members and listened to them talk about their personal migration stories and it is very clear that this method has been successful as all the children were very proud of their own identities and accepting of others'.

Children's 'Earth Day' bags

On Monday it was also ‘Earth day’. I took a ‘bag painting lesson’ in which children painted a bag with their ‘Earth day message’. Afterwards we made ‘Earth day promises’ and hung them on a tree in the reception area of the school, Miss Kasia even wrote that she would give less homework to save paper, needless to say, the children were very happy! The rest of the day was spent outside with nature, in the beautiful grassy grounds of the school. 

I definitely have noticed that there is a much more relaxed approach in this school and I think this could be due to the INSP having their own curriculum. When we first came to the school we were told by the coordinator that the curriculum gives guidelines, however the teachers within the school have the space to be creative and fun with their teaching. I think that this definitely reduces teacher’s stress levels which contributes to a much happier staff, who can, instead of focusing on high test results, can teach children life skills, relating to the ‘Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities framework’ in the Northern Ireland Curriculum (CCEA, 2007). This is supported by the research carried out by The GTC for England which gave a statement saying that this 'teaching to test' approach not only frustrates the teachers, but that "the tests can depress pupils' motivation and increase anxiety" (House of Commons, 2008).

This suggests to me that school could be a much happier place for both teachers and students if there was less emphasis put on assessments, testing and exams.

References:
CCEA (2007) available at, http://www.nicurriculum.org.uk/ accessed 2/05/13 

House of Commons (2008) Teaching and assessment: Third Report of Session 2007-08, Vol. 2: Oral and Written Evidence. The Stationery Office

INSP (2013) available at http://isop.pl/en/mission-statement/ accessed on 2/05/2013