Welcome to my Poland section. I made this section to show my friends and my church the things I learned, observed, and thought during the preparation and process of my trip to Poland to teach English for a year.
Today will be the first day of classes.
I don't know how to put into words what I feel. I know I should be nervous, but I'm not. It's not peace. I guess my body just hasn't realized that I'm about to be in the lion's den. Teaching is not an easy job.
I don't know what the day will hold, but I know who holds the day. I know that today is (in Poland) a day to honor teachers. The teachers get a day off, so school is closed. This being the case, I don't know how many of our students will come to the first day of classes. Many of them stay at the dormitory across the street, and it's not serving meals today.
I read one of Charles Spurgeon's sermon's yesterday, and one statement was particulalry interesting to me. He said that if any man had as much trouble with his children as God has had with His people, that man would have strangled his children long ago. Praise God for His patience with us.
On a side note (to most of you; to me it is very important), I wrote 81kb of formatted text yesterday. On one of my projects, 23kb of unformatted text is a chapter. On this project, I think 35kb is about four pages.
In other news, I have sent mail to about nine-tenths of the addresses I brought with me, so if you haven't heard from me, chances are strong that I don't know how to reach you.
I just finished my first class. I made it through alive.
My class is five teenage girls at the fourth level. I had, I thought, enough material to carry me through seventy-five minutes.
I introduced myself and talked briefly about myself. I asked them about why they felt studying English is important. They gave some good answers: business, education, most books are written in or translated into English, much of the popular music around the world is in English. We talked about some Polish words that are borrowed from English: businessman, hot dog, hamburger, supermarket. I asked them about English words they already knew.
Silence, though we had been talking in English all this time. I didn't know if that would go well, because it's hard for me to list Spanish words I know without a starting point. I gave a very brief outline of the course, including the tests and the grading scale. I reviewed the English alphabet with them, and they pronounced the letters properly, so I didn't spend much time on that. I asked them if they had any questions about America.
Nothing. I asked them what goals they had for the semester, what things they would like to be sure I cover in the course.
Deathly quiet. I asked them where they hear English in Poland. They mentioned TV (CNN, movies), radio, school, and movies. I asked them where they see English. They mentioned Newsweek and Time. I looked at my watch. I had used only twenty minutes.
I got the placement tests from Pastor Kris and handed them out. We spent about five minutes in silence while they looked over their tests. I asked if they had any questions.
They didn't. I took up the tests and asked them if they had any topics they wanted to discuss.
Nothing. I cleared the board and asked them to each give me their name, their favorite color, and where they were going after this. One student asked me if I meant today. I said I meant career or college. I got some good discussion, but this went quickly.
I asked each student what was the farthest she had ever been from Iława. I asked each student about sports and pasttimes. I asked about places they'd like to go. I asked what they wanted to see in those places. I asked them about their favorite music artists. I asked if they liked cars. About half did. I asked if they liked motorcycles. They all like motorcycles, but each liked a different brand. I asked about dress: casual or formal.
Now, I had used up seventy minutes, and I felt as though I were soaked with sweat. I released the students early and took off my coat.
Adam had arrived, so I talked to him about the class and some other school matters. I'll be glad when we get the books on Wednesday. Winging it is a very hard way to teach. All in all, I'm very pleased with this first class. I only have to do this on the fly four more times. *gah!*