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

Week 9: Personal Blog: 12.04.13 - 19.04.13

Our first day in Oslo

At the weekend I visited Oslo with my friend Lütfullah. We were very lucky to purchase our return flights for a total of 14€ each! I also registered on www.couchsurfing.org which is a website designed for travellers to meet other people who are travelling. I was so excited to go on this trip as I had never visited Norway and I had been told by many other Erasmus students how great an experience couchsurfing is. 

Standing on the Opera's roof

As I explored the website I discovered that there are so many people who are willing to open their homes to complete strangers! Most of them seemed to be motivated by their interest in other people, different cultures and new experiences. These people’s state of mind is reflected in the phrase once said by Fay Weldon; “The freedom of travel opens the mind to unlimited possibilities” (Global seekers, 2013).

The main benefit of couchsurfing is that it enabled us to find a native Norwegian who could ‘host’ us, which means to supply us with somewhere to sleep and show us some of the Norwegian culture.  Thomas or ‘Melby’, was our host, who was an open minded, lively and very funny guy. Unfortunately he had to practice a lot with his punk band that weekend, which prevented him from being able to guide us around, however this did not stop us seeing Oslo! Within the two days we visited many places including the parliament building ‘Stortinget’, The Royal palace park ‘Slottsparken’ and the Opera ‘Opergen’.

The one thing that we were disappointed about was that the Norwegian prices are not very similar to the Polish prices, quite the opposite in fact! We had been warned about this already and had brought sandwiches with us for the first day. We also brought our host, Thomas some beverages over from Poland to thank him for his trouble, which he very much appreciated.

The Royal Palace

Thomas lived in GrØnland, a very central part of Oslo in which Lütfullah felt very at home, as it is known as the ‘multi-cultural melting pot’ which includes a large community of Turkish people. Thankfully, in this area of Oslo, it was a little less expensive therefore we went for dinner in a Turkish restaurant both nights as it was more in our price range than the other restaurants in the centre.

The Parliament Buidling

In general, we found the Norwegian people to be very friendly people, who were happy to help us and give us directions. We also noticed that everyone’s English was almost perfect, even the older generation, which I was especially surprised about.

However, when we arrived back in Poland, we rejoiced in hearing people speaking Polish, even if we didn't understand it, it now somehow seemed familiar to us.

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” (Pratchett, 2005)

References:

Pratchett, T. (2005) ‘A Hat Full of Sky’ Corgi Childrens

Global seekers (2013)  available at: https://twitter.com/Global_Seekers/statuses/215123738897825792 accessed on 18/04/13

Week 8: Cultural Blog 05.04.13- 12.04.13

Lutfullah and Me watching a Turkish football game

As I was making dinner this week my friend Muhammet told me that I have changed a lot since I first arrived here. He told me that at the beginning of Erasmus, for example, when I joined them for a Turkish meal, I seemed a little unsure and awkward. Now, after two months (I still cannot believe it has been that long), I am very at ease and comfortable with my Turkish friends’ culture and rituals. At first I disagreed with him and told him that I had always felt relaxed around them, however when I began to think back to my first week there were certain things that seemed very alien to me.

Turkish Coffee and Turkish Delight

The first time I ate with my Turkish friends they made potatoes and egg, similar to a Spanish Omelette, which I found very normal. However, when we began to eat, I realised they do not use forks to eat with, but bread and had tomatoes and ‘Turkish cheese’ to add to their food. They also did not use individual plates, but ate together from the saucepan in the middle of the table. Now that I have experienced this for a couple of months, I understand that the cultural reason for this is that eating together from the same plate brings the people together. I also discovered that they eat bread with almost everything! During Erasmus I have learnt that there are very important Turkish rituals such as the expression which is used to compliment someone when they have prepared a meal for you, “Eline sağlık”. This literally translates as ‘health to your hand’ and when said, the person replies “Afiyet olsun” which is similar to the French “bon appétit” which means “May there be good appetite”.

My 'Turkish Culture' Teachers

Just as certain idioms and colloquialisms are unique to each language and culture, so are body gestures, as I realised during my first month.  I subsequently discovered that a gesture in one culture may be meaningless or insignificant in another culture or worse may indicate a completely different meaning. I had occasionally thought that my Turkish friends were being dismissive or were disapproving of me as they would often ‘tut’. This had made me very uncomfortable and anxious. Eventually I plucked up the courage to ask why they continued to do this and to tell me what I was doing wrong. They explained that Turkish people often tilt their head upwards while making a ‘tut’ sound to indicate “no”.  I felt a massive sigh of relief once they explained this to me as I finally understood!

It is easy to focus on language barriers when meeting people from different countries however, I never realised how important facial and body gestures can be in communicating information. Unfortunately a lack of knowledge of these gestures can often lead to a miscommunication and sometimes even offending someone.  According to Dörnyei & Thurrell (1994), body and facial gestures are non-linguistic tools that can be used by learners and teachers to overcome communication breakdowns, however for this to work in a multicultural class, teachers must introduce children to these gestures before assuming knowledge, which may often be forgotten about.

References:

Dörnyei, Z. & Thurrell, S. (1994). Strategic competence and how to teach it. ELT Journal, 45, 16-23

NMELRC (2013).  Available at, http://nmelrc.org/documents/Handbooks/TurkishHandbook.pdf accessed on 14/03/13

Week 7: Professional Blog 19.03.13- 05.04.13

The week started off well when Marisa, Brian and I, received our Polish language test results. We were pleasantly surprised when we received a decent mark, the equivalent of a 2:1, in our exam. Polish language is an extremely complicated language to learn, especially as Polish has different ‘Cases’ which influence verbs and nouns. The majority of the people in our Polish language class have already stopped attending class, I assume for this reason. However, I feel that these language classes are very important for our professional development, as last year I encountered two Polish P.1 children who spoke no English in my class in Northern Ireland. As the teacher did not know any Polish, it was very hard for her to communicate properly with the children and furthermore, with their parents.  I hope that, even if I can only remember a little bit of Polish, it will help me with my future teaching in Northern Ireland to avoid this communication problem.

Our Polish Language Class

This week we also had an interesting seminar in ‘Developing teacher’s critical thinking through the educational designing’ on defining educational goals. We discussed the different types of goals in teaching, such as learning intentions and aims, and discussed how these are influenced. We began debating the cultural influence on education and education’s influence on culture awareness.

Zane and I enjoying a glass of wine

In Northern Ireland, even though all schools share the same curriculum, the division between Maintained schools and State schools could influence what children are being taught in a massive way. I started to consider if being taught subjects like religion, geography and history differently could affect a child’s attitude to culture and the different communities in Northern Ireland’s society. This division within the education system in Northern Ireland shows how interrelationships between schools and the communities they are in are so vitally important (GTC 12, 2007). 

This is also made me think about how the teacher's attitudes and opinions can affect how they teach children and the content they teach. It is very difficult to teach with a completely unbiased view, especially if the topic is something close to your heart. However, I feel that it is good for a collection of teachers in a school to collaborate with each other, especially if they have differing opinions, points of view and experiences about a topic, as this will ensure children are given a wide variety of  view points to consider. This will also enable children to have the opportunity to develop their own opinion and appreciate other opinions, developing their 'Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities' (CCEA,2007).

Poland for Beginners class

In this class we also spoke about different teaching styles and the lecturer encouraged us to teach in an interactive way in which children learn how to live. He told us; “Non scholae, sed vitae discimus” which is a Latin phrase meaning “we do not teach for school but for life”. I became very proud of our Northern Ireland Curriculum, as all the strategies our lecturer was encouraging were within our curriculum, such as the AFL strategies, KWL boards, connected learning and the TS&PC (CCEA, 2007).

The Emergency Supplies Box I received from Home! 

Furthermore, I have realised how valuable the past two years of Teaching Practice has been for my professional development as in comparison with the other Erasmus students (who have not had the opportunity to have teaching practice), Marisa, Brian and I are very knowledgeable about the practicalities of teaching. Even though we may complain about the stressful period of teaching practice, I can now see how it has helped us to build and expand our capabilities as teachers. 

References:

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

Week 6: Cultural Blog 22/03/13 - 29/03/13

Catching up with Mateusz

The Salt Mine Hall

Over the last week I have travelled to many different places, including Toruń, a place famous for Gingerbread and being the birth place of Copernicus.

I also went to visit Krakὀw, which is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. I got in touch with a friend from Krakὀw who I hadn’t seen in a couple of years and he joined my friend, Zane, and I on the tour of the salt mine, which was very impressive, especially the salt mine hall. We also visited the Main Square, some Cathedrals and a synagogue museum, but the place that struck me the most was Shindler’s Factory.

Oskar Shindler was a German spy and a member of the Nazi party who has been credited with saving the lives of over 1,200 Jews during the holocaust, by employing them in his enamelware factories which were in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Shindler’s Factory is a Museum which takes you through the story of the tragedy of the WWII in Poland and how this affected the Polish people. The museum is distributed in many different rooms, with multimedia elements and sound effects which creates a real experience, as you look at photographs, read letters and read the descriptions on the walls.

 As I was walking throughout this museum, I read about the terror people felt, in particular, the fear the Jewish people shared in the Jewish Ghetto. I had chills as I read about the accounts from different people, some from children of 8 years old.

“Even if you hid in the darkest of gates... someone would always see you enter that gate as a Jew and walk out of it as – as who? .. Your Jewishness came out with every anxious move, with every hesitant step, whenever you hunched your back, as if burdened with the yoke of bondage, whenever you gave that look of a baited animal; it was evident in your whole figure, your face, your eyes, all bearing the stamp of the ghetto.”

Gusta Drӓnger, teacher, fighter of the ZOB. (Shindler’s Factory, 2010)

I had always thought about the treatment of the Jewish people in terms of the Holocaust; however the museum showed the influence the treatment of the Jewish people had on the people around them who were not Jewish. It seems that citizens who were non-Jews came across a moral crossroads. 

Some people attempted to rescue their Jewish friends and neighbours from the Nazi death sentence by hiding them and their identity; however they did this at great risk to their own safety. In this situation, everyone was forced to live in secrecy:

“Secrecy, secrecy with every move. Mind everything and everyone. Every fluff may end with tragedy. A moment’s inattention may cost your freedom; it may cost your life” Jacek Sosnowski (Shindler’s Factory, 2010).

Others fell down another path:

 “The war favoured moral decay. The ethical standards applicable before the occupation declined. In return for a bottle of vodka, a bag of sugar or five hundred zlotys, Polish and Jewish informers denounced Jews to the Germans. Some made quite a lot of money on blackmailing Jews in hiding” (Shindler’s Factory, 2010).

Some did nothing:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--  Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.” Martin Niemöller (HMM ,2013)

Liquidation of the Jewish Ghetto

It’s very easy to say what we would have done in this situation, but in reality, we cannot know and therefore we should resist judging the individuals and their choices at this terrible time. This is the message I received from the museum, and I think it’s a very important one, and to learn from the mistakes made to never allow this to be repeated.

References:

HMM, 2013 'Holocaust Encylopedia' available at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392 accessed on 30/03/13

Shindler's Factory, 2010 available at http://www.oskarschindlersfactory.com/ accessed on 30/03/13

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