1st Day of Class

Well, we have officially started class now.  We have four classes of 45 minutes each day.  Then, in the afternoon, the students do other activities or some sort of sport.  Emily and I were prepped and ready to go right away- for our high school kids.  After the third group, I began to think that something crazy was in the water here because the high school kids are so small.  Turns out, we're teaching the middle school kids - NOT the high school ones.  Welp, we're just as good at the middle level as we are at the high school level, so let's do this right?

We had them start with folding paper "hamburger style" and then "hot dog" style to make name tags (I don't think the high school kids would have gone for this type of activity, but we would have made it work)  For some, it was a challenge to just get them to fold the paper correctly.  Others knew what to do right away and went for it.  There is a healthy amount of coaching with Polish for those who need it, similar to what happened in my Hungarian lessons.  We had them answer some questions on paper, then converse with their neighbor about the questions, and lastly introducing their neighbors to the class.  For most groups, that was a good time activity and then we took a class picture.  However, I had them take a picture WITH their name tags so that we can start remembering/learning their names.  It was a brilliant move.  When I asked the students why they thought we were taking the picture that way, one responded, "so we can be unforgettable" and another, "for a blog."  They don't know that I'm writing this blog, but for the students who inevitably find it, you were right.  

Once I figured out that they were in fact the middle school kids, some of their behaviors made sense.  They were particularly squirrely, mostly because they were excited to be with Americans (I think) and it was something new.  Some were purely overwhelmed.  They just finished school Friday, and here they are two days later being forced to engage with Americans in their second, and perhaps third language.  Some really wanted nothing to do with us - a bit of that middle school/teenage attitude showed through.  Others just wanted to be the funny man- it's (again) typical of any kids anywhere.  In our classroom (I'll put some pictures up) we have large posters of different bugs - as this is an ecological study point as well - and some of the boys were just obsessed with those.  We had one particular boy, Simon, who was about as ADHD as they come - English OR Polish.  He was so off task it was unbelievable that he got anything done - AND he was the only person I had to take a cell phone from.  He was something else.  Turns out we middle school teachers all had the same opinion on him, but perhaps he's just one of those souls who needs a bit of extra love.  After our four classes, we had a meeting with the staff.  Simon’s name came up from all of his teachers :(  Oh well.  Extra patience required.