Szkoła Podstawowa nr 27 w Gdańsku

 BARBARA'S BLOG

22nd June 2014

It's been really intensive few weeks.

I've been visiting a lot of places in last month. I started with visiting Poznan, one of the most beautiful cities in Poland. What I liked about it is a lot of green areas, parks, fountains, and nice old town. One funny thing happened in Poznan. While we were walking in the old town I accidentally run into my classmate from highschool. It was really crazy, because I don't remember when was the last time I ran into any of my classmates accidentally even in Rijeka (and Rijeka is a few times smaller than Poznan). But it was nice surprise, and a good opportunity to exchange our thoughts about Poland. During my stay in Poznan we visited also Kórnik, with it's magical lake and arboretum; and we wanted to visit Rogalin, but unfortunately the caste is closed for renovation, so I will have to come once more to check it! At our way back we stopped in Bydgoszcz, which was also nice, although small! What I like the most in all cities in Poland is green areas near lakes/ river where you can take a walk and enjoy the nature.

After Poznan I went on school trip with 3rd and 4th grade to Łeba. Unfortunately we didn't have nice weather (very cold for me), so I was freezing most of the time. Last time when I went home I took almost all my warm clothes back, because spring/ summer was ahead of us. Now I think I made a mistake. I have to wear a lot of layers to feel warm (I can see it's not so cold for Polish people, walking in short sleeves, not wearing socks!). I never experienced a spring/ summer cold like this one! I don't even want to talk about rain. Let's get back to Łeba! The town itself didn't impress me at all, but I guess it's because there's nothing like a typical old town. The attractions they have there, from the other hand, are great! We visited sea park in Sarbsk, Dinopark and labyrinths in Łeba. Those places were great for children, not only as a places where children can have fun, but also as places where they can learn something new. We also visited sand dunes in National Park. When teachers told me that we are visiting sand dunes I was thinking what's there worth visiting, what can be so special about sand dunes. However, when I saw those sand dunes I was more than impressed! They are huuuuge! Wow! But, it was cold and rainy and I didn't have a courage to walk barefoot or do anything. Students behaved very well, though it's not easy too watch over so many of them.

A few days after the trip there was a conference about teaching languages at University of Gdansk. Conference was organized for exchanging experiences of language teachers and Comenius assistants. It was divided in a few parts: speaking about a country where we're coming from, presenting how we organized lessons, language lesson in our native language, and lectures from Professors from the University. It was valuable to take part in the conference, because I could get some ideas for organizing lessons and teaching. The most beneficial part were lectures from Professors from the University. They were talking about researches about learning/ teaching languages in different countries (Croatia and Poland were countries that took part in this research) and results really confirmed my observations about the difference in the knowledge of English in Poland and Croatia.

Last weekend I visited some more places (thanks to the best mentor, Miss Kasia) near Gdansk: Kwidzyn, Gniew, Frombork and Elblag. I think „the winner“ from this four places is Frombork. The castle, and especially the view from the tower is breathtaking. The other castles are not so big, and actually are very similar to Malbork and Trakai, places that I visited before. In Frombork there's also great planetarium. The „voice“ is speaking in Polish, yet it's made for children and it's slow enough so I could really understand what are they talking about. The whole show was very interesting and worth seeing.

In the school we are ending the school year. Situation with marks is more or less clear for all the students. One weird thing is that you're putting marks very early. It's not a practice in Croatia. Usually we're putting marks last week of school, because it happens that when you give students marks for the end they stop learning, and there's no point of doing anything after the marks are given. But, maybe someone noticed this system with giving marks almost a month before the end of the school year is good. Anyhow, I think Croatian system is better in this point.

Last Friday there was 6th class ball in the school. I went to see what is it about. In our schools in Croatia we don't have any tradition connected with finishing elementary school. Everyone dresses up fancy, I couldn't believe they can look so grown up! Polonez was great too. I remember that we were first generation that organized a special „gift giving“ play for teachers when we were finishing. We wrote a play for teachers and parents, with some funny characteristics and customs from teachers and school.

A few days before I participated Hungarian evening in the library. Although Hungary is our neighbor, I never visited it (too close for me, I always think that I can visit it whenever I want). We had a chance to get recommendations from the first hand, and I didn't want to miss it. Afterwards there was opening match between Brazil and Croatia and I went to cheer to one of my acquaintance. He „made a deal“ with his friends that they will prepare some national dishes from the countries that are playing. It was interesting to see what will be chosen to represent Croatian national dishes. He prepared čevapčići and musaka. In Croatia you can buy already prepared meat for čevapčići, you just have to bake them, and he had to prepare them from scratch. It looked a bit funny (the shape was not completely the same), but I appreciate the try, it was tasty. Musaka turned out better, however, I'm not sure if I would say it's Croatian. The result was unfortunately not good, but we can say it's referee's fault.

Currently I have a friends over visiting me. They never visited Poland before, so I'm trying to show them the best of it. When I visited Poznan, a friend prepared potatoes with cottage cheese and some onion (pyry z gzikiem). I was thrilled that something so simple can be so tasty and I surprised them with this as their first Polish food (ok, they have tried pierogi, pierniki, placki, sernik and makowiec when I made them at home), but this was their first meal in Poland. They shared the same enthusiasm as I did. I took them to see Wrzeszcz and school, Westerplatte and the center of Gdansk. We went to Torun (I wanted to visit it once more and eat in that perfect milk bar) because that's one of the closest and nicest city in Poland. When I was planing our trip I was imagining perfect sunny warm day, enjoying the sun near Wistula river. Of course, we got rainy cold day. Anyway,we enjoyed it! It turned out that it was music day in Torun, so the streets were full of people, there was a fair where we could buy some traditional Polish things, and in the evening there was the night of museums. When I was reading about the museums in Torun, I read that Nicolas Copernicus museum is awful, but the entrance was free so we went to check it. I think I never visited worse museum! When we went out we couldn't decide what was museum about. Also, the town hall tower was opened to visit, and the view from it was more than great! One of the reasons to visit Torun surely that milk bar I was already writing about. I remembered where it was and I couldn't wait to visit it! I was dreaming about it for the past six months. My friends couldn't believe it's so cheap and that food is so tasty. We saved the bill, to show it in Croatia. It's the place where I tried zurek for the first time, and that's why I wanted to go back. I looooove it. I was promised to learn how to make it, but unfortunately this promise didn't come true. I guess I will have to experiment on my own, until I get it right. I will really miss Polish food. I have to learn how to cook all this perfect soups you have here.

While I'm writing this my friends are visiting Malbork. I hope they will find the way (I'm a little worried because they are not speaking Polish at all). I want to take them to Gdynia and Sopot also, just to show them places (we have to go to eat doughnuts in Gdynia). Hopefully, weather will be better to not ruin all my (walking) plans.

That's all for this post. I'm counting six more days. Can't believe eight months have passed. It feels like I came here yesterday.

29th May 2014

A few minutes ago I was checking which date is today, and I've just realized that I have one month until my last day in Gdansk. Wow! It means seven months have passed since I arrived. And weather is not much better than the day I have arrived, funny! I have to admit that this weeks that have passed have been full of different activities, but I'm glad that I'm spending my time in a good way. I love to learn new things, and since I'm here I've learned many, many things.

But let's see (retrospectively) what have happened since my last post. Before I left for my Easter holidays I had a „meeting“ in Library here in Gdansk, where I had Croatian evening for the adults. After all, one of the goals of my stay here in Poland was teaching others about Croatian culture. Considering that I love baking and cooking, we decided to make this meeting more interesting by offering something sweet for people to try. Miss Katarzyna helped me to prepare some Croatian cakes that are typical for different areas of Croatia. Baking took us almost the whole afternoon, but we ended up with a lot of nice cakes to offer. Amount of people that came to our meeting was bigger that I expected. What surprised me (positively!) even more was a huge interest about Croatia. At the beginning we organized a short quiz just to see what do people know about Croatia, which was well accepted in the audience. Another nice surprise was that one nice older man brought some paintings that he created during his holiday in Croatia! The whole meeting was great, and even after I finished with talking there was a lot of interest and questions about various things. I have to say that this will be one of the nicest memories from Poland.

As I already wrote, I went home during Easter (main goal was to change winter clothes to spring and summer one, haha!). I learned that one of traditions for Easter in Poland is Mazurek (cake). In Croatia we don't have such tradition, but other traditions are quite similar. I can never decide if I like more Christmas or Easter! Thing is that in my family (I can't speak for others) we don't have tradition of preparing a lot of food for Christmas, but Easter is a different story. We also don't prepare as much food as in Poland, but Easter is a holiday more related to food for me. Everything starts on Saturday (day before Easter). Usually in the morning we started with preparations (this was my second year for preparing everything on my one). First thing to make is „Pinca“- it's a sweet bread we eat on Easter. Pinca has the form of a round bread with the sign of a cross, which is carved in with a knife before baking, on the upper side. Pinca is eaten to celebrate the end of the Lent because it contains many eggs. After preparing the dough and leaving it to raise, we start with other things. We boil eggs and color them as we wish- some people use special colors for coloring eggs, some use beetroots or onion leafs to color the eggs, and people that are crafty use beeswax for drawing on the eggs and then color them. I never tried the last method because it usually takes a lot of time. And the third thing we prepare is cooked ham or pork neck. Traditionally, Easter breakfast is consisted of pinca, boiled eggs, cooked ham and spring onions. I think that's the best breakfast in the world! The reason why we prepare everything early on Saturday is that usually this food was taken to the church on Saturday evening or early morning on Sunday so that priest can bless this food.

Except Easter, nothing very interesting happened in Croatia during my stay, I visited my family and my friends and promised them that I will come back in June!

Trip back here was an adventure again! My plane was leaving before 7 in the morning, so I had to come a bit before 6 at the airport. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to reach the airport in Zagreb as here in Gdansk. Of course, buses during the night are running very rarely and I could spend a lot of time in Zagreb waiting for buses and trams. In the end I think it took me two hours to reach that airport.

First weekend after my return was May 1st weekend. My boyfriend came to Gdansk once again to visit some other places we didn't manage to visit last time he was here. Miss Katarzyna took us to Wdzydze Kiszewskie to see traditional old houses and to try some „new“ food for us. Unfortunately, that was the moment when the cold weather came too. We also managed to visit Westerplatte (finally!), Hel and Malbork. From all these places I liked Hel the most, because of fokarium there! Unfortunately, when we were in Malbork English tour was not available so we had to spend time with Polish guide, and after a while I was really tired of trying to understand what he was saying.

During this first two weeks of May we were also making decorations for Croatian Day. I think last time I was drawing so much was in elementary school, but I had a lot of fun doing that, and realized that I really miss Art lessons from my elementary school. In the end I wasn't so happy how the map turned out, however it's always my problem. On the other hand, when I'm mentioning Croatian Day, I can also say that I'm more than happy with everything students (and teachers!) prepared. I was never more proud of them! I can't even say what was the best! The hardest part for sure was to learn Croatian song, yet all my friends that saw the video said that they would never guess this children don't know Croatian! I'm very, very, very proud of everyone!

Also, the day before Croatian Day Comenius teachers arrived (the other Comenius program). For me it was nice opportunity to meet teachers from so many different countries. This was actually the first time for me to meet teachers that work in schools for students with special needs. During this two days I managed to find out a lot of things that I was interested in, and it was nice to exchange experiences and to learn something that could be very useful in the future. In Croatian schools we have integrated classes, but unfortunately I think no one can teach us how to work with so many specific special needs. But with time and experiences (and a lot of learning) we manage to make some strategies and methods.

After two quite crazy weeks, I had some „not so busy“ weeks. Well maybe it's not the best expression, but we can call them that way. Last three Wednesdays I was going to one school for students with special needs. In that school they teach this students to became cooks, bakers and some other professions. I was working with students that will be cooks and bakers. We had workshops about making Croatian food. The students were amazing! They were very interested and they helped me a lot. We made three main courses and three deserts. The most successful dishes were with rice, and they told me they tried to do it at home and it turned down very good. I'm glad that they liked it and that they also discovered some new dishes. Girls who helped me the most asked their teacher to invite me to the school some other time, thus I hope I will have some more time to go there at least once more.

My culture lessons are almost finished too. Currently I'm visiting younger students, and we are making paper ties. I've chosen this because it's said that tie comes from Croatia and they showed me that they like to color and make something. The weather is so depressing.

I hoped it will be nice, warm and sunny, and I got completely opposite thing. I'm looking through the window, it's still day outside (it's almost 9 pm!) but it's cold, windy, rainy and I can't go anywhere. Hopefully it will be better soon, because I'm not prepared for weather like this (again after long, cold and dark winter). I don't want to finish the post with depressive ending, so I will say that I'm looking forward to the following weeks, with some traveling and visiting new places.

6th Apr 2014

I didn't find a lot of time to write blog in last few weeks. Just a few days after my last post, I went for a trip. My wish since coming to Poland was to visit Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. I was never sure if I will succeed to get this wish come true, but there was a good time for buying tickets, so we did it. Actually, for someone from south of Europe, these countries are something new and totally undiscovered, and I didn't know what to expect at all. But maybe it's for best, because you can't be disheartened by anything. The trip was great! I was afraid that it will be too much, because we had to spend every second night in the bus, but in the end it was not so bad. First we went to Riga. I have a few friends there, and it was nice to see them again. They showed us city, and it was great to see the city like locals do. Unfortunately, second day it was snowing pretty hard, and it was cold, so it was a bit hard to walk around for a whole day. Second city on our list was Tallinn. One of my friends told me it's the nicest capital city from all this three countries, and I have to agree with her. Tallinn was amazing! I like this old, medieval cities, there's something really special about them. The funniest thing that happened was that we ran to one Croatian girl that is living in Tallinn and working there. We met her by accident, and she told me that she should have a camera to record peoples faces when they realize she's Croatian (because, of course, there's not much Croatians living nor traveling to Estonia). We found some little medieval restaurant, in which there's no electricity, but candles. We ate elk soup, but we couldn't use spoons, we had to pretend like we are in middle ages. But it was great! The third city on our list was Vilnius. I couldn't find a lot of information on the internet about it, so I expected some boring city without anything to see. Well, in the end, I liked it also, because architecture is beautiful. Although, we didn't find a lot of things to see except churches, churches, and more churches. Second day in Lithuania we decided to visit Trakai, because everyone was telling me how stunning it is. My friend was a bit disappointed, she said it's similar to Malbork, but for me it was splendid! I still haven't visited Malbork, so maybe that's the reason. On our way back we had to pass through Warsaw also. I was waiting for Polish National Agency to make a meeting for Comenius Assistants to see Warsaw, but obviously they won't make it. So I had to see it, at least for one morning. We arrived to Warsaw really early, around six in the morning, but we kept telling ourselves that it's our last day, and we just have to get all our strength for this last day. We were almost running through the city, so we saw a lot of things. I always imagined Warsaw as a city from Orwel's 1984. I don't know why. I imagined it grey and terribly unpleasant, and I was so surprised when I saw such bright and modern city. It's definitely worth visiting and spending some time there (more than one morning that we had).

After coming back to Gdansk I've been working a lot. I've had a lot of workshops for children from other schools in the library in Przymorze. Miss Katarzyna is helping me to organize everything, as well as translating during my presentations. After presentations we are make a quiz with children, to see how well did they listen to me. The most interesting part for children is I think a game where they have to connect Croatian and Polish words. I also had another workshop in kindergarten. Now that I'm working with younger children, I got used to it (finally!). Furthermore, I started to go to Liceum and Gimnazium in Nowy Port. It's a big shock to see all this grown up students suddenly.

Seeing that there was no lessons last Tuesday, and that I'm postponing my visit to the museums all the time, I decided that maybe it's the best time to visit them. I started with Amber museum. It was interesting, but nothing so special to see actually. After it, I went to House of Uphagens, which was marvelous! I really didn't expected that, seeing the facade you can't guess what can be inside. I don't know which one I liked the most, as they are all spectacular! I love this old houses that are showing past times. Third place on my „must see“ list was Town Hall. I've heard it's worth visiting, but also I didn't expect something delicate as this. Although, I was thinking how could they decide anything in there, I wouldn't be capable of making any decision in such exquisite surroundings. And last, but not least, I went to Arthur's Court. I saw a bit of ceiling from the outside, and I could guess it's very well decorated from the inside. My guesses were right, and I wasn't disappointed at all. To sum up, a great day to see all this remarkable places in Gdansk.

This weekend we went for a one day trip to nearby places. We wanted to see a view from the tower in Gniewino, yet when we arrived there we realized it's not opened until next weekend. Too bad! Nevertheless, we went to Puck and Gdynia. It was nice and sunny day, a perfect day to spend outside with great company. Next week is the last one for me before my spring break. I will have some more workshops, so it's better if I start preparing myself now.

10th March 2014

I think I always start writing with the same sentence, but I'm always surprised how much time have passed since last time I wrote this blog. Well, it's been a while. I was calculating the other day that half of my stay have already passed, so I've been in Poland for quite a long time. I'm sad because I feel that I haven't seen so much, but I will try to change it now when the weather is beautiful, sunny, warm and it invites you to go out and explore things you haven't seen yet. During this past month, I have finished with my first „round“ of cultural lessons. For the end of this part, miss Katarzyna helped me to organize a Croatian competition for students. We made Croatian quiz for older students, and competition in drawing for younger students. I would like to thank her in my blog also, for helping me to organize it, and also to miss Alicja for helping with the competition for younger students. Unfortunately, response to the competition wasn't big, but I hope that students that were participating to the competition are happy with their prices, and more important, that they had fun. Quiz was based on the cultural lessons I was providing in the past four months and short texts about Croatian culture, geography and history. Students were prepared for the quiz so good that we had to make some extra questions to find a winner. For the drawing competition we decided that it would be the best if the children are drawing characters from Croatian cartoons and brands. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the drawing and how good they combined different techniques for making a perfect drawing that could win. It was the hardest thing to pick the winners, because all drawings were great! Part of the prices for students was given by our local tourism offices. They gave me a lot of materials about Croatia, and some of them were even in Polish, so I hope it will be interesting for students to read it and learn something more about my country. „Paprenjak“, the cookie that was part of the price, was given from company „Hrvatski paprenjak“, and I would also like to thank them for their donation. It was so hard to bring all this things to Poland, because I can't bring a lot of things, so I had to bring part by part to collect everything that was donated. The other thing I would like to write about are Croatian schools. I think I haven't write about this topic before. I have prepared the presentation for teachers about our school system, thus I would like to present it to readers of this blog. Unlike Polish educational system, Croatian educational system has slightly different amount of years spent in each of the levels. Children start going in the preschool one year before they have to go to school (before preschool they can go to the kindergarten). Elementary school in Croatia lasts 8 years, that are divided in two parts: first four years are lower elementary school where students have one teacher that teaches everything except foreign language; and next four years they have one teacher for each subject they are learning. Elementary school is compulsory and free for all the children between the ages of six and fifteen. Except from regular elementary schools and special institutions for students that have serious developmental difficulties, we have art schools for elementary music and dance education as well as special schools for adults that haven't finished their elementary education as a consequence of different reasons. Regular elementary schools are mostly founded by the units of local government and towns. There are a few private school in Croatia, because most of the parents are not in the good position for paying high tuition fees of private schools. In private elementary schools alternative elementary education is available according to special pedagogy principles as Waldorf and Montessori. The first thing I have noticed when I came to Poland is that in Gdansk there are so many schools! Gdansk is bigger city than Rijeka, but I don't think we have even one third of the number of schools as here. In our law, it's said that schools should work in one shift, but as we lack buildings and spaces for schools, sometimes it's not possible to have everyone in one shift. For example, me and my brother were going in the same building, but in the different schools. When I had school in the morning, he had in the afternoon and opposite. As we have some schools that are very small (because they are in the village, or on the island that is not very populated), sometimes teachers have to teach combined classes. For lower elementary school it means that one teacher can teach first and second year in the same classroom in the same time. But than, the number of students in the classroom can be between 12 and 16 if there are two years together, or less than 12 if there are more than two years in the same classroom. In regular schools without this problem number of students should vary between 14 and 28. Students with special needs (ADHD, hearing problems, sight problems, weaker motor skills, ...) are also integrated in regular schools, but by law the biggest number of students with special needs in one class is three. School year in Croatia starts on first Monday of September, and lasts until the mid June (for students). There should be at least 175 working days (35 weeks of school). School year is divided on two semester. First semester finishes before the winter break. During the school year there are 3 breaks: winter break that starts before Christmas and lasts three weeks (usually until mid January), spring break that starts week before Easter and lasts until Monday after Easter, and summer break that starts in mid June and lasts until the first Monday of September. Teachers work until second weak of July and are coming to school in mid August to prepare everything for the beginning of the next school year. School day is similar to Polish one. Every lesson lasts for 45 minutes, but break between two lessons is five minutes (not 10). After third lesson usually there's a bigger break that lasts 15 minutes which is considered as lunch break. Lunch can be organized in the school if school has a place for the canteen (elementary schools usually have them, but in secondary schools there's no canteens). I was already writing that we are not thought that we should eat regularly, which is why we have so much problems with maintaining our weight. This school year some elementary schools started with „fruit program“, so once a weak students are given one piece of fruit in the school. After finishing elementary schools better students usually go to „Gimnazija“, which are schools with „general“ and better education. We are not focused on any topic, but are learning between 14 and 17 subject per year. There are five types of Gimnazija: general, classical (accent on classical languages as Latin and Greek), mathematical (accent on math and science), language and sports gimnazium. This education lasts for four years after which students are writing matura exam from Croatian language, English language, Mathematics (these three are compulsory) and other subjects that are picked by personal preferences of the students. After passing matura exam students can enroll University (usually three years for bachelor's degree plus two years for finishing master's degree). Students with worse achievements in elementary school ordinarily pick vocational schools that lasts three or four years, depending on the school program. Now after writing about schools I can go back on how I spent days here. Although I'm not the biggest fan of sports, I like ice- skating. I've been watching that ice- skating ring at Brama Oliwska for a long time (actually, every time I was passing by) thinking it would be really great to go ice- skating one day. I am not very good on ice, because in Rijeka we have a small ice- skating ring, and I can never find anyone interested in doing it, but I promised myself that I have to go to see this one. I've found a few „victims“ that went with me and I really had a lot of fun (even without falling!). I am also writing every time that I'm disappointed of my sightseeing, and it took me four months to finally go to Oliwa. I was watching the picture of Oliwa cathedral and park for soooo long, that I felt like I've been there. However this weekend I had some free time and I decided that it's time to see it for real, not only on the picture. I loved the park and the cathedral, but I have to go back when trees will have leaves again. This beautiful Sunday I've spent on Gora Gradowa, listening to the stories about Gdansk and enjoying lovely weather. That's all for now. I hope I will write the next post sooner.

2nd March 2014

I thought that there's nothing to write during the break. And nothing so interesting happened. When I was writing the last time, I was waiting for the plane for going back home for the holidays. Now I'm back, sitting in my rooms, and making plans for this semester. In that two weeks I spent home, I really enjoyed my time with friends and family. Unfortunately, it also passed too quickly, but that's life. I was writing that I will be making Polish dinner for my friends, and I did it. It was a great success. I made a few Polish dishes that I enjoyed the most, and that weren't so hard to make. First, I had to prepare pierogi. I absolutely love them! And I was making them. A lot of them! It took me a whole day of preparation. In the end, I think I got around 5 kilo of pierogi! But what can I do... I made a few kinds: pierogi z kapusta i grzybami, pierogi z miesem, pierogi ruskie and pierogi z bialym serem. They turned out very good (I can't say great, because I wasn't completely satisfied), but everyone liked them. I also prepared placki zemniaczane, pierniki, sernik z karamelem and makowiec. The biggest surprise for me was that everyone loved makowiec so much, that I immediately had to give recipe to everyone! Next time, I have to bring dome other recipes to try out. When I was coming back to Gdansk, I had again long break in Frankfurt. Gladly, this time I didn't had so much luggage with me, so I decided to go to the city center (I never been there before). The weather was nice, not to cold and I had a really nice walk in the city. Personally I'm a huge fan of skyscrapers, and there are a lot of them in Frankfurt. Even nicer are those that are all in glass, and you can see sky and clouds in them! Lovely! As I haven't had a plan, I just decided to walk around old town and financial area. I saw one nice church which I wanted to check out, and when I came there, there was a mass in Croatian! It was so funny, because I doubt that they have a mass on Croatian every Sunday. Since I came back to Gdansk, the weather is really nice! Days are longer (finally!), there's plenty of sun, it's not so cold... I hope that winter won't come back! What's new in school? I changed my schedule, because I want to be more present on math lessons. In past week we had a few very interesting lessons. First one was with 6th grade. As they are learning about solids and polygons, we decided to make a lesson connected with some history and art. It was about mathematical origami. First we were learning some facts about Plato, and what has he discovered. Solids that had a main point in Plato's studies are regular and that's what makes them special. After learning some facts about Plato's life and work, we started making origami. It was quite slow, because I think not a lot of students made something from origami. Origami making demands a lot of patience and precision, if we want to make „perfect“ origami shape. The easiest to make was cube. The only problem was that we needed 6 papers to make it, but we succeeded at the end. I like lessons like this one, because they are something new and interesting for students, and every now and then it's nice to have different lesson. On Tuesday there was a sport competition in which girls took part, and we didn't want to start a new topic with boys. The idea was to play a board game, but also a mathematical one. It was for 4th grade, therefore the game had questions from topic they did during last semester and this 2 weeks of new semester. The hardest part was to make rules for the game considering that it still has to be fun and not too easy. At the end, we came up with a few good rules, and the game was great! Seeing students playing game was interesting, since some fields had harder questions and students really had to think of everything they learned. The idea of playing a game as a part of revision is very refreshing, because students think of it more as a game than a real revision, and in the end they have more fun than on a „normal“ lesson. Since this Friday was st. Valentine's day, I proposed to make something with students connected with Valentines. One of the Croatian souvenirs and symbols is Licitar heart. Licitar is colorfully decorated cake made of honey dough. Usually it's painted in red colour, and for decorations on it we use mainly white, green and yellow, although even other colours can be used. The original recipe for Licitar is a secret that only a few families in Croatia know, and they are still producing them and passing the secret to their children. The tradition of making and giving Licitar is coming from the central and lowland of Croatia, while it's not so popular on the coastline. Licitar is made of and decorated with edible ingredients. Generally we don't eat them, but keep them as decoration. They are coming in various shapes and sizes (heart- the most popular, cherry, doll, small bird, mushroom, horse- shoe, horse). Small Licitars are used as Christmas tree decoration, whereas large Licitars are made for giving as a gift at special occasions. Seeing that it would be a bit complicated to make them from scratch in school, I made this hearts at home, and brought them to school for students to decorate them. I got a request that I shouldn't write or put any pictures on Facebook before st. Valentines in consideration that students wanted to give this hearts they decorated to their parents. I have to say that they put a lot of effort in decoration and result was very nice! Unfortunately, we couldn't decorate them with edible colours, but at least they saw a piece of our culture. I hope in the future there will be more lessons like this, because they are stimulating for students and for me as well. Besides of school, I've been to a hockey game for the first time in my life. Hockey is actually very popular in Croatia in last few years, though I was never interested in it. However, we saw that there will be a game and decided to go and see it. Funny thing is that we even didn't know any rules, nor how many players were in teams.. Nothing! Still, game was very entertaining (I think we even got to know some rules) and I had a really good time seeing it! Atmosphere in the arena was nice, people were singing, cheering! Very nice experience! Except of hockey game, I haven't visited any other place. I still haven't visited a lot of museums (I don't know what I'm waiting for), although I hope I'll have enough time for that in the next few months.

18th Jan 2014

I'm at the airport right now, waiting for my connecting flight to Zagreb. Since no one was able to visit me in Gdansk during this holidays I decided to go home and visit them instead.

What happened since I last wrote my blog? Well, I decided to change my schedule a little bit, so from the next semester, I will be attending mostly Math classes and some English classes as well. It will be easier for me to prepare for this lessons, and I will continuously work in the same classes, so I will know where they are with their materials. I am really enjoying preparing materials for the lessons, because I can be creative if I want to. The most important thing is to make lessons more interesting for the students, because then they will remember what we were learning.

One thing I like in maths are word problems. In Croatia, we don't do a lot of word problems because someone sometimes in the past decided it's to hard for our students, so they are just practicing how to calculate without any thinking. In Poland, as I see in the books students are using, there are mainly word problems, which is very good, because students learn how to read and find important informations for solving these problems.

Everything else in school is ok. No more „problems“ with strange food! Although, there were pierogi with sweet cheese one day for lunch, but they were even too delicious. I was dreaming about them for days! So I think I will replace my favourite pierogi with this kind! I asked for some recipes for pierogi, pierniki, makoviec and so on, and I will try to prepare them at home for my friends. We will have one Polish evening (but I think I won't prepare 12 dishes!, it's too much for me). Actually, in my luggage now, there are more things for eat and drink than anything else. I feel like Santa Claus (and I already gave some food to my boyfriend when he was going home). After I came back to Poland, I will write how my Polish evening was.

This Tuesday I went to art class with miss Kasia. We were making things from felt (the first time for me), and I liked it very much. I hope I will have enough time to participate to this workshop every time as scheduled. It's also good because everyone that are participating are Polish, so I will be able to use at least some Polish and practice it.

Hmmm... I think that's all for now. Time for flight is finally getting closer (only 3 hours waiting this time). I wish all the students to have nice holidays, to get rest and not think about school for some time. The same to teachers! See you in February!

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Jestem teraz na lotnisku, czekam na mój lot do Zagrzebia. Ponieważ nikt nie był w stanie odwiedzić mnie w Gdańsku podczas tych świąt, postanowiłam wrócić do domu.

Co się wydarzyło od mojego ostatniego wpisu?
Zdecydowałam się zmienić mój rozkład zajęć w szkole, więc od następnego semestru będę przede wszystkim obecna na zajęciach matematyki i języka angielskiego. Będzie mi łatwiej przygotowywać się do tych zajęć i będę kontynuować pracę w tych samych klasach co do tej pory, więc będę wiedziała na jakim etapie realizacji materiału są uczniowie.

Lubię przygotowywać materiały na lekcje ponieważ mogę być wtedy kreatywna. Najważniejszą rzeczą jest sprawić, by lekcja była bardziej interesująca dla uczniów, gdyż wtedy lepiej zapamiętają to, czego się uczyliśmy.

W matematyce lubię zadania tekstowe. W Chorwacji nie rozwiązujemy zbyt dużo zadań z treścią ponieważ ktoś kiedyś zdecydował, że jest to zbyt trudne dla uczniów, więc teraz uczniowie tylko ćwiczą samo liczenie bez myślenia.
W Polsce (widzę to w książkach, których używają uczniowie) są przede wszystkim zadania tekstowe, co jest bardzo dobre, bo uczniowie uczą się jak czytać tekst ze zrozumieniem aby znaleźć ważne informacje potrzebne do rozwiązania zadania.

Poza tym w szkole wszystko w porządku. Żadnych więcej „problemów” z dziwnym jedzeniem! Chociaż jednego dnia na obiad były pierogi nadziewane słodkim serem i nawet były bardzo smaczne. Marzyłam o nich przez kilka dni! Więc myślę, że staną się moimi ulubionymi pierogami.

Poprosiłam o przepisy na pierogi, pierniki, makowiec i inne potrawy i postaram się przygotować je w domu dla moich przyjaciół. Chcę zorganizować polski wieczór (ale nie przygotuję 12 potraw! To dla mnie za dużo). Prawdę mówiąc w mojej walizce w tej chwili znajduje się przede wszystkim polskie jedzenie. Czuję się jak Święty Mikołaj (a już dałam trochę jedzenia mojemu chłopakowi kiedy wracał do domu). Po powrocie do Polski napiszę, jak udał się mój polski wieczór.

We wtorek poszłam na warsztaty plastyczne z panią Kasią. Robiliśmy różne rzeczy z filcu (robiłam to po raz pierwszy) i bardzo mi się to spodobało. Mam nadzieję, że będę miała wystarczającą ilość czasu, by uczestniczyć w tych warsztatach. Poza tym wszyscy uczestnicy warsztatów są Polakami, więc (co jest dobre dla mnie) będę mogła używać chociaż kilku słów po polsku i ćwiczyć je.

To na razie tyle. Zbliża się czas odlotu (tym razem tylko 3 godziny oczekiwania na lot).
Życzę wszystkim uczniom miłych ferii zimowych, by odpoczęli i nie myśleli o szkole chociaż przez chwilę. Tego samego życzę nauczycielom!
Do zobaczenia w lutym!

8th Jan 2014

So, the last week of school was also very busy. I attended the Christmas show, which was nice. I remember our Christmas shows, but they are very different. Usually it's not so closely connected with Christmas if we are making a show for our parents and friends. And we have another show that we usually do in the church, and which is more connected with religion. On Friday before Christmas I prepared a lesson for 6th class, showing Christmas traditions in Croatia. Apart from that, I wanted them to hear and try to sing some Croatian Christmas songs, that are traditionally sung during the Christmas time. I also attended on lesson with 4th class, when they were singing Polish Christmas songs and sharing „opłatki”. I never saw that before, so I didn’t know what is it for. As I researched later, it’s Central European tradition, so probably that’s why we don’t do it. I like Christmas time mostly because it’s time when I bake a lot of cookies, and share them with my friends and family. This year I didn’t have a good oven, so I couldn’t make as much as I wanted. But miss Katarzyna invited me to her house to prepare pierogi and pierniki. I really enjoyed making them and learning finally how to prepare some Polish food. I was really surprised that you make a big celebration on Christmas eve. I was reading that there’s a tradition of preparing 12 dishes, but I didn’t believe it’s still done this way. Since my boyfriend came to Poland to spend some time here, we celebrated Christmas eve with miss Katarzyna’s family and friends. And there really was a lot of food and different dishes, so we were really stunned. Christmas eve is not so celebrated in Croatia. I remember that we were decorating Christmas tree on that night when we were children, and that’s mostly it. We don’t eat meat that day, but we don’t prepare so much food also. Usually people prepare codfish, and maybe something else without meet. Main celebration in Croatia is on Christmas day, when we visit our family members, and everyone prepare more food for that day. As on Christmas day you’re allowed to eat meat, people prepare food that contains meet. In northern part of Croatia traditional food for Christmas day is turkey with mlinci (It is a thin dried flatbread that is easy to prepare by simply pouring boiled salted water or soup over the mlinci). As my boyfriend come to visit me, and he was also never in Poland before, we made a short trip. We went to Krakow and Torun. In Krakow we had a nice weather, and it wasn't so cold, so we were spending a lot of time walking around. It's popular to go to Krakow for New Year's in Croatia, but every time I remember how my friends were telling that they were freezing there (one of the main reasons I never went there before). Well, we are so lucky that we didn't feel that cold. Whereas my boyfriend is not a big fan of vegetables, we were also pleasantly surprised that Christmas market wasn't closed in Krakow when we arrived. Except Krakow's old town, we visited Wawel castle (with it's beautiful cathedral!), Kazmierz where we finally visited a synagogue, part of the city where Jewish ghetto was, and Schindlers factory. As my boyfriend is history teacher, we also visited Oswiecim which was terrifying and very sad. When my friends were visiting Krakow, they mentioned that there is a great salt mine worth to visit, so one day we visited Wieliczka salt mine. It's quite a long trip from Gdansk to Krakow and we decided to stop somewhere on the way. We have chosen Torun as our last stop. Very good choice, I may say. City center is even nicer then one in Krakow (for us), because architecture is very scenic. I bet it's even nicer during spring and summer, when weather allows you to stay out more, and walk on the banks of Vistula river. I already mentioned that I like baking and cooking, so going to bake pierniki was logical sequence. We went to one of museums to bake pierniki and see how was it originally done, and it was fun to attend interactive museum for once. We also discovered small but great milk bar for eating where we explored Polish cuisine a bit more. Now it's much harder to get used to go to school again! In Croatia our holidays for children begin a weekend before Christmas, and last three weeks from than, so it's a bit unusual that there's two more weeks of semester before another break. But, maybe it's better to have holidays, a bit of work, and then holidays again than use all of the holidays in the same time.

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Ostatni tydzień szkoły był również bardzo pracowity. Widziałam Jasełka, które podobały mi się. Pamiętam nasze przedstawienia Bożonarodzeniowe, ale są zupełnie inne od tych w Polsce. Jeśli przygotowujemy przedstawienie dla naszych rodziców i przyjaciół, zazwyczaj nie jest ono tak bardzo powiązane z Bożym Narodzeniem. Przygotowujemy też drugie przedstawienie w kościele, które jest bardziej o tematyce religijnej.
W piątek przed Bożym Narodzeniem przygotowałam lekcję dla klasy 6 na temat tradycji Bożonarodzeniowych w Chorwacji. Oprócz tego chciałam, żeby uczniowie usłyszeli i spróbowali zaśpiewać jakąś chorwacką kolędę tradycyjnie śpiewaną podczas Świąt. Brałam również udział w zajęciach klasy 4, podczas których uczniowie śpiewali polskie kolędy i dzielili się opłatkiem. Nigdy wcześniej nie widziałam tego zwyczaju, więc nie wiedziałam, do czego służy opłatek. Po późniejszych poszukiwaniach dotarłam do informacji, że jest to tradycja charakterystyczna dla centralnej Europy, więc prawdopodobnie dlatego nie mamy tego zwyczaju w Chorwacji.
Lubię Boże Narodzenie przede wszystkim dlatego, iż jest to czas kiedy piekę dużą ilość ciasteczek i dzielę się nimi z moją rodziną i przyjaciółmi. W tym roku jednak nie dysponowałam dobrym piekarnikiem więc nie mogłam upiec tyle, ile chciałam. Ale pani Katarzyna zaprosiła mnie do swojego domu aby przygotowywać pierogi i pierniki. Przygotowanie ich naprawdę sprawiło mi ogromną przyjemność, a przy okazji nauczyłam się, jak przygotować kilka tradycyjnych polskich dań. Byłam naprawdę zaskoczona, że Wigilia to w Polsce taka duża uroczystość. Czytałam, że istnieje tradycja przygotowania 12 dań, ale nie wierzyłam, że nadal się tę tradycję kultywuje.
Na Święta przyjechał do Polski mój chłopak i spędzaliśmy Wigilię z rodziną i przyjaciółmi pani Katarzyny. I naprawdę podczas Wigilii było dużo różnych potraw, więc byliśmy oszołomieni.
Wigilia nie jest świętowana w Chorwacji. Pamiętam z dzieciństwa, że w Wigilię dekorowaliśmy choinkę, i to wszystko. Nie jemy mięsa tego dnia, ale również nie przygotowujemy takiej ilości jedzenia. Zazwyczaj ludzie przygotowują dorsza i może jeszcze coś bezmięsnego. Główną uroczystością w Chorwacji jest Boże Narodzenie, kiedy to odwiedzamy nasze rodziny i przygotowujemy większą ilość jedzenia. Tego dnia można już jeść mięso. W północnej części Chorwacji ludzie przygotowują indyka z mlinci (to cienki suchy płaski chleb, który jest łatwy do przygotowania – po prostu zalewa się go posoloną wodą lub zupą).
Ponieważ mój chłopak przyjechał mnie odwiedzić, i on również nigdy wcześniej nie był w Polsce, zorganizowaliśmy sobie krótką wycieczkę. Pojechaliśmy do Krakowa i Torunia. W Krakowie mieliśmy dobrą pogodę, nie było zbyt zimno, więc dużo czasu spędzaliśmy spacerując po mieście. Odwiedzanie Krakowa na Sylwestra stało się popularne w Chorwacji, ale moi przyjaciele po powrocie z Krakowa za każdym razem opowiadali mi, że tam marzli (jeden z powodów, dla których nigdy wcześniej tam nie byłam). Mieliśmy szczęście, że nie odczuwaliśmy takiego zimna. Zważywszy, że mój chłopak nie jest fanem warzyw, byliśmy przyjemnie zaskoczeni, że Jarmark Bożonarodzeniowy nie był zamknięty w Krakowie, kiedy przyjechaliśmy. Oprócz Starego Miasta odwiedziliśmy Wawel (z jego piękną katedrą), Kazimierz gdzie udało nam się wreszcie odwiedzić synagogę, tę część miasta w której było getto oraz fabrykę Schindlera. Ponieważ mój chłopak jest nauczycielem historii, również odwiedziliśmy Oświęcim, co było przerażające i bardzo smutne. Kiedy moi przyjaciele odwiedzali Kraków, wspominali o wielkiej kopalni soli, którą warto odwiedzić, więc jednego dnia odwiedziliśmy Wieliczkę.
Z Gdańska do Krakowa jest długa droga, więc postanowiliśmy zatrzymać się gdzieś po drodze. Wybraliśmy Toruń jako nasz ostatni przystanek. Muszę przyznać, ze to był bardzo dobry wybór. Centrum miasta jest nawet przyjemniejsze, niż w Krakowie (dla nas), ponieważ architektura jest bardzo malownicza. Założę się, że jest nawet przyjemniej wiosną lub latem, kiedy pogoda pozwala na dłuższe spacery brzegami rzeki Wisły.
Wspominałam już, że lubię piec I gotować, dlatego też wizyta w miejscu, gdzie można upiec tradycyjne toruńskie pierniki była oczywista konsekwencją. Poszliśmy do jednego z muzeów, gdzie można piec pierniki, żeby zobaczyć, jak w tradycyjny sposób robiono to od wieków, i to było świetną zabawą choć raz odwiedzić interaktywne muzeum. Odkryliśmy również mały ale świetny bar mleczny, gdzie mogliśmy odkryć jeszcze bardziej polską kuchnię.
Teraz bardzo trudno jest wrócić do szkoły! W Chorwacji przerwa świąteczna dla dzieci zaczyna się tydzień przed Bożym Narodzeniem i trwa 3 tygodnie, więc dla mnie to trochę niezwykłe, że są jeszcze 2 tygodnie semestru przed następną przerwą. Ale może lepiej jest mieć trochę wolnego, później trochę pracy, i znowu wolne niż wykorzystać cały wolny czas w jednym terminie.

 17th Dec 2013

Well, time is really flying by!

Last Thursday I went on a short trip with miss Katarzyna. She wanted to show me around, so we went for a trip to Kaszubian region. First we visited Szczyt Wieżyca. It was quite windy that day, so we couldn't really enjoy our stay on top, but it was nice anyway. After that we visited Szymbark, which was great! I've learned some new things about history of Poland and seen a lot of interesting houses. My favorite one was of course Dom do góry nogami. A few months ago I was watching a show about house like this one (maybe it was even this one, I don't remember). But I remember that they were saying it was a weird feeling when you enter the house, because everything is upside- down, and you feel dizzy. I couldn't believe it, but it really was like that when we got in! I had to walk by the wall, because I think I would fall down if I didn't do it. In the end, we went to Kościerzyna for a good lunch, where I first tried Pierogi (and realized that one with cabbage are much more delicious than one with cheese).

It was st. Nicholas day last Friday, and he brought to me one of the best presents! Snow! I wasn't prepared very well for that, so I unfortunately cought a cold. But at least I enjoyed it! There is some snow where I live, but I can't remember that I have ever seen that it's snowing for a few days in a row. We went for a walk in the Old Town, to see it's beauty with Christmas lights and snowy streets! It really looked beautiful!

My favorite class in past two weeks was cooking class! I was preparing Choco balls with students from 3rd grade. They were well prepared, with all the cooking equipment. At the beginning of the class we were learning how to say all the ingredients in Croatian, and than started to prepare our cookies. Some students couldn't wait to finish it, and when they finished every step they wanted to quickly do another step of preparation. I even learned some new Polish words, so it was very useful workshop for me too! In the end we had so many cookies, and everyone wanted me to try them. All of them that I tried, were very delicious. In all this work, our classroom suffered quite a mess. And once more students showed to me that they are so hardworking, and they cleaned it very well.

There was a workshop for another project last weekend. I've had an opportunity to get to know students a bit more. We were practicing English, and interviewing each other. The most exciting part was when they had to cross the corridor using just a few objects. They didn't succeed from the first time, but that didn't discourage them to continue. And in the second attempt they had a better strategy. After the workshop I helped to carry packages that school have collected. They were very heavy, and I hope that this family will be happy for such a nice help.

This week I had my culture lesson in 4th grade. We have experienced some technical problems, but I think it was for good. All the class was very interested to learn something about Croatia. They had a million questions, and I think that we could have this lesson for hours! Unfortunately, I don't have so many time for this lesson, so they have to keep this questions for the next time.

I have to admit that I'm most impressed with math knowledge. I know that students here have a different curriculum, but every week they impress me more and more. This week it was in 6th grade. They are learning about speed, time and distance. This topic is introduced to our students in Croatia usually in 7th or 8th grade (our elementary school lasts 8 years), and not on maths class but on physics. And I would say that most of the students have a lot of problems with calculating this, because they are forced to use a formula, rather than use they own mind. For students here, this seems like quite an easy topic, and interesting as I can notice (because it's really useful). We had an exercise where they had to apply their knowledge to some real life situations, and I'm soooo satisfied with them. Why? In the end of our high school program (when we're 18) in Croatia, students have to take matura exam. In the last five years, all the students in the country write the same standardized tests, and results are getting worse every year. They can pick if they want to take „basic“ maths test or „advanced“ maths test. Most of the students choose first one. But on „advanced“ level, usually there's one problem with speed, time and distance, and it's very big problem for everyone (and they are 18!!). So what have I learned this weak? That there's a desperate need to change something in our schools (and teaching system), because this one is obviously not giving any positive result.

Let's go to some brighter topics! I went to Christmas market yesterday! Now that I'm prepared for winter, I can stay outside for a longer time. The size of the market is about the same size as our Christmas market in Rijeka, which became very popular in the last few years. I loooove Christmas time, because usually I do a lot of baking and cooking, and I really enjoy that. I'm not sure if I will have an opportunity to do it this year, but I'll try to do at least something. The best thing about Christmas markets for me are all these nice winter smells: cinnamon, cloves, mule wine, sauerkraut, sausages.... And what I definitely didn't expected, we saw reindeer! Generally I see them on the tv, but yesterday they were standing in front of me! It's like I'm in a real Christmas story! After a long walk, we couldn't resist to all these nice smells, so we went to try some specialties they were offering on the stands for the end of a very good day.

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Czas naprawdę szybko mija!

W zeszły czwartek pojechałam na wycieczkę z p. Kasią (moim opiekunem asystentury). Chciała pokazać mi okolicę, więc pojechałyśmy na wycieczkę na Kaszuby. Najpierw odwiedziłyśmy Szczyt Wieżyca. Było wietrznie, więc nie mogłyśmy delektować się widokami ze szczytu wieży, ale i tak było warto. Później odwiedziłyśmy Szymbark, gdzie było świetnie! Dowiedziałam się wielu nowych faktów z historii Polski i widziałam wiele interesujących budynków. Moim ulubionym był oczywiście Dom do góry nogami. Kilka miesięcy temu widziałam program na temat takiego domu (może to było o tym, ale teraz już nie pamiętam). Ale pamiętam, że mówili jak dziwnie się człowiek czuje wchodząc do takiego domu, ponieważ wszystko jest do góry nogami i można mieć zawroty głowy. Nie wierzyłam w to, ale rzeczywiście tak się czułam kiedy weszłam do środka! Musiałam iść przy ścianie, gdyż myślę, ze mogłabym się przewrócić gdybym tego nie zrobiła. Na koniec pojechałyśmy do Kościerzyny na smaczny lunch, gdzie po raz pierwszy jadłam pierogi (i okazało się, że pierogi z kapustą są smaczniejsze od tych z serem).

W zeszły piątek był Dzień św. Mikołaja, który przyniósł mi najlepszy prezent! Śnieg! Nie byłam zbyt dobrze na to przygotowana, więc niestety przeziębiłam się. Tam gdzie mieszkam jest trochę śniegu, ale nie przypominam sobie, żebym kiedykolwiek widziała śnieg padający przez kilka dni z rzędu. Poszłyśmy na spacer na Starówkę żeby zobaczyć wszystkie świąteczne dekoracje i zaśnieżone ulice! Wszystko wyglądało naprawdę pięknie!

Najlepsze zajęcia w czasie ostatnich dwóch tygodni to lekcja gotowania! Przygotowywałam czekoladowe kuleczki z klasą 3. Wszyscy byli dobrze przygotowani do zajęć. Na początku zajęć uczyliśmy się nazw składników w języku chorwackim, dopiero później zaczęliśmy przygotowywanie ciasteczek. Niektórzy uczniowie nie mogli doczekać się i kiedy już wykonali jakiś fragment przepisu, natychmiast chcieli wykonywać następny. Nauczyłam się nawet kilku nowych słów w języku polskim, więc te zajęcia również i dla mnie były przydatne! Na koniec mieliśmy mnóstwo ciasteczek i każdy uczeń chciał, żebym poczęstowała się nimi właśnie od niego. Wszystkie były pyszne. W czasie naszej pracy sala lekcyjna ucierpiała pod względem czystości. I tym razem uczniowie pokazali mi, że są pracowici i wszystko posprzątali.

Brałam też udział w warsztatach w związku z innym projektem [Comenius]. Miałam możliwość poznania niektórych uczniów trochę lepiej. Ćwiczyliśmy język angielski i przepytywaliśmy siebie nawzajem. Najciekawszą częścią zajęć była zabawa, podczas której uczniowie musieli przejść przez korytarz używając tylko kilku przedmiotów [nie dotykając podłogi]. Nie udało im się za pierwszym razem, ale to nie zniechęciło ich do dalszych prób. Podczas drugiego podejścia mieli lepszą strategię. Po warsztatach pomagałam przenosić paczki, które szkoła zebrała [Szlachetna Paczka]. Były bardzo ciężkie i mam nadzieję, że rodzina, które je dostanie, ucieszy się z takiej pomocy.

W tym tygodniu miałam lekcję kulturową w klasie 4. Mieliśmy trochę problemów technicznych, ale myślę, że wyszło nam to na dobre. Cała klasa była bardzo zainteresowana i chciała dowiedzieć się czegoś na temat Chorwacji. Mieli milion pytań i pewnie moglibyśmy prowadzić tę lekcję godzinami! Niestety nie mam zbyt wiele czasu na przeprowadzanie takich lekcji, więc uczniowie muszą poczekać z pytaniami do następnej naszej lekcji.

Muszę przyznać, ze jestem pod wrażeniem wiedzy matematycznej uczniów. Wiem, że uczniowie w Polsce mają inny program nauczania, ale z tygodnia na tydzień coraz bardziej mi imponują. W tym tygodniu była to klasa 6. Uczą się na temat prędkości, czasu i odległości. Ten temat jest wprowadzany w Chorwacji w klasie 7 lub 8 (nasza szkoła podstawowa składa się z 8 klas), i nie na lekcjach matematyki, a fizyki. Większość naszych uczniów ma problem z policzeniem tego, ponieważ są zmuszani do korzystania ze wzorów, a nie z własnego rozumu. Dla tutejszych uczniów wydaje się to proste i – jak zauważyłam – interesujące (ponieważ jest to bardzo przydatne). Robiliśmy ćwiczenie, gdzie uczniowie musieli zastosować swoją wiedzę do prawdziwej sytuacji i jestem bardzo z tego ćwiczenia zadowolona. Dlaczego? Pod koniec naszego [chorwackiego] programu szkolnego (kiedy mamy 18 lat) uczniowie muszą przystąpić do egzaminu maturalnego. Przez ostatnie 5 lat wszyscy uczniowie piszą te same standaryzowane testy a ich rezultaty są każdego roku gorsze. Mogą wybrać, czy chcą pisać podstawowy test z matematyki, czy zaawansowany. Większość uczniów wybiera ten pierwszy. Na poziomie zaawansowanym zazwyczaj jest jedno zadanie z prędkością, czasem i odległością i stanowi to duży problem dla wszystkich zdających (a mają po 18 lat!). Więc czego się w tym tygodniu nauczyłam? Że koniecznie trzeba coś zmienić w naszych szkołach (i metodach nauczania), ponieważ w tej chwili trudno jest zaobserwować jakieś pozytywne rezultaty.

Przejdźmy do weselszych tematów! Wczoraj pojechałam zobaczyć Jarmark Świąteczny. Teraz, kiedy jestem odpowiednio przygotowana do zimy, mogę przebywać na zewnątrz przez dłuższy czas. Wielkość jarmarku jest podobna do tych, które są u nas w Rijece, a które stały się bardzo popularne w ostatnich latach. Uwielbiam czas Bożego Narodzenia, ponieważ zazwyczaj dużo w tym czasie piekę i gotuję i sprawia mi to wielką przyjemność. Nie jestem pewna, czy będę miała możliwość świątecznego gotowania w tym roku, ale postaram się przygotować chociaż mała rzecz. Najlepszą rzeczą w Jarmarkach Świątecznych są dla mnie zimowe zapachy: cynamon, goździki, grzane wino, kiszona kapusta, kiełbaski … I – czego się zupełnie nie spodziewałam – widziałyśmy renifera! Widziała je w telewizji, ale wczoraj stały przede mną! To tak, jakbym była w prawdziwej Bożonarodzeniowej opowieści. Po długim spacerze, nie mogłyśmy oprzeć się tym wszystkim miłym zapachom, więc poszłyśmy spróbować niektórych specjałów oferowanych na straganach na zakończenie miłego dnia.

 4th Dec 2013

I've been quite busy in last two weeks, that I almost forgot to write my blog!

Since my last writing I had a few more lessons for higher grades about Croatian culture. I think they were quite interesting, especially those parts when students had to guess and match Croatian words with Polish and pictures. I've chosen school for a theme for my cards. (I just have to catch a moment to see if they have memorized it!). More pictures from the lesson are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.547489542011770.1073741854.107373236023405&type=1.

Last week I went to kindergarden to see how kindergardens in Poland look like and try to work with young children. Usually I don't have a lot opportunities for that. In the end I had a great time there! We were watching Croatian cartoon, coloring pictures and trying to prepare one simple Croatian cookie. Children were very interested in everything, they even wore clothes in colours of our flag. For their cooking time they prepared little Croatian flags with their name on, which was so nice! (pictures are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.544086755685382.1073741853.107373236023405&type=1)

This Friday was st. Andrews Eve, and I'm not familiar with celebrating it. In fact, in Croatia we don't celebrate our name days (I would say st. Nicholas is maybe the only one we „celebrate“, as kids, with putting our boot on the window so that st. Nicholas can bring us presents if we were good that year.). I'm very glad that I could celebrate Andrzejki and to discover all the traditions you made for that special evening (I think I will organize that next year for my friends!). Now I know what to do with wax and key – although it was hard to read from my wax shape what's the meaning of it. We also did play with picking the heart with a lot of names on it, and the one with cups and ring. It was a lot of fun, and now I have to wait if it will come true!

For now I still haven't been anywhere except the Tricity area, because the weather is not so nice. I will keep that for spring! During the weekends I try to go out with some friends to „discover“ Polish cuisine. This weekend we've been in Old town eating potatoes, and it was soooo good! I also went to a milk bar for the first time, and I'm thinking that it's a shame that we don't have such nice little places to eat.

When I'm writing about food, I will continue with the same topic. I've noticed that kids in school always have lunch boxes with them, and they are always eating something. Last year was the first time in my life that I thought about getting one for myself. In Croatia it's not „cool“ when you have a lunch box, and I can't remember that any one of us ever had one. There were a lot of researches that showed that most of our students eats their first meal during lunch break in school (or they even don't eat it). It's very rarely to see anyone eating something during the breaks. A few of our schools have cantine (some elementary schools does have them, but none of high schools), so usually children go to the bakery/pizza cut place and buy sandwiches, doughnuts, pizzas, hot dogs, chips, and other „healthy“ meals. From this year in some schools they are getting one piece of fruit per week. So I have to collect as much pictures as I can of good eating habits and send them to our government to think! I would like that our children have good eating habits and that they are healthier than now. Other thing connected with eating (maybe) is that breaks between two lessons last only 5 minutes in Croatia, so it's usually not enough for eating and chatting with friends.

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Byłam tak zajęta przez ostatnie dwa tygodnie, że prawie zapomniałam o moim blogu!

Od ostatniego wpisu miałam kilka kolejnych lekcji w klasach starszych na temat chorwackiej kultury. Myślę, że były interesujące dla uczniów - zwłaszcza ta część zajęć, w której uczniowie musieli odgadnąć i dopasować chorwackie słowa do polskich i do obrazków. Jako temat do moich kart obrazkowych wybrałam szkołę (muszę znaleźć chwilę by sprawdzić, jak dużo zapamiętali).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.547489542011770.1073741854.107373236023405&type=1

W zeszłym tygodniu odwiedziłam przedszkole by zobaczyć, jak wyglądają przedszkola w Polsce i spróbowałam pracować z małymi dziećmi. Zazwyczaj nie mam zbyt dużo takich możliwości. Ale świetnie się tam bawiłam! Oglądaliśmy chorwacką kreskówkę, kolorowaliśmy obrazki i próbowaliśmy przygotować proste chorwackie ciasteczka. Dzieci były wszystkim bardzo zainteresowane, były nawet ubrane w kolorach flagi chorwackiej. Przygotowały również małe chorwackie flagi ze swoimi imionami na nich, później wykorzystane do ozdobienia ciasteczek - to było bardzo miłe!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.544086755685382.1073741853.107373236023405&type=1

W zeszły piątek były Andrzejki a zwyczaj obchodzenia tego święta nie jest mi znany. W Chorwacji nie obchodzimy imienin (Mikołajki są chyba jedynym dniem obchodzonym przez nas jako dzieci, kiedy to kładziemy but na parapecie okna by św. Mikołaj mógł włożyć do niego prezent, jeśli oczywiście byliśmy grzeczni tego roku). Bardzo się cieszę, że mogłam obchodzić Andrzejki i poznać wszystkie tradycje związane z tym wyjątkowym wieczorem (myślę, że zorganizuję taki wieczór dla moich przyjaciół za rok). Teraz już wiem, co robić z woskiem i kluczem - chociaż bardzo ciężko było wyczytać cokolwiek z kształtu mojego wosku! Graliśmy również w wybór imienia naszego przyszłego potencjalnego męża wybierając jedno z imion wymienionych na kartce w kształcie serca i w kubeczki z pierścionkiem, pieniążkiem i różańcem. Było przy tym wiele śmiechu, a teraz muszę poczekać by sprawdzić, czy wszystkie wróżby mi się spełnią.

Jak na razie nie byłam nigdzie poza Trójmiastem, ponieważ pogoda nie jest zbyt dobra. Zostawiam to na wiosnę! Podczas weekendów staram się wychodzić z przyjaciółmi, by odkrywać polską kuchnię. W ten weekend byliśmy na Starym Mieście i jedliśmy ziemniaki (Pyra Bar), bardzo smaczne! Po raz pierwszy byłam również w barze mlecznym - szkoda, że w Chorwacji nie mamy takich miłych małych miejsc, w których można smacznie zjeść.

Jeśli już jestem przy temacie jedzenia. Zauważyłam, że dzieci w szkole zawsze mają ze sobą pudełka z drugim śniadaniem i zawsze coś jedzą. W zeszłym roku po raz pierwszy pomyślałam o tym, by kupić sobie takie pudełko. W Chorwacji posiadanie pudełka na drugie śniadanie nie jest popularne i nie pamiętam, by ktokolwiek z nas je posiadał. Przeprowadzono wiele badań, które wykazały, że nasi uczniowie jedzą swój pierwszy posiłek podczas dnia dopiero w trakcie przerwy na lunch w szkole (lub w ogóle nie jedzą). Rzadkością jest widok kogoś jedzącego podczas przerwy. Część naszych szkół ma stołówki (szkoły podstawowe, ale nie licea), więc zazwyczaj dzieci podczas przerwy na lunch idą do piekarni bądź pizzerii i kupują tam kanapki, pączki, pizze, hot dogi, frytki inne "zdrowe" posiłki. Od tego roku w niektórych szkołach uczniowie otrzymują jakiś owoc raz w tygodniu. Więc muszę zebrać wiele zdjęć z nawykami zdrowego odżywiania z waszej szkoły i przedstawić je naszemu rządowi, by miał się nad czym zastanawiać! Chciałabym, żeby nasze dzieci miały zdrowe nawyki żywieniowe i żeby były zdrowsze, niż teraz. Inną sprawą być może związaną z jedzeniem jest to, że przerwy pomiędzy lekcjami trwają u nas tylko 5 minut, więc zazwyczaj jest to niewystarczająca ilość czasu by coś zjeść czy pogadać z przyjaciółmi.

20th Nov 2013

Last week I've had my first maths lesson in English. I have to say that I was pretty scared about it, because I didn't really know what to expect. I have even prepared translations to Polish (and translations were good!), and in the end everything was great.

I'm trying my best with learning Polish, but for now I have just learned numbers and basic phrases (and some maths vocabulary, of course). So, in the end I was very satisfied with students knowledge of English and maths, and I think that we have done good job together.

In the same class I've also had my first culture lesson. I was telling students about geography, legends, and tried to teach them a few Croatian words (I will check if they have memorized them). I think that the last part was the most interesting for students, because they've seen that we have some words in common. From the other side, they had some problems with pronunciation as well as I have with Polish.

Other interesting things from school? I loved the „Jestem młodym Europejczykiem“ competition! It was nice to see how younger students presented different European countries (especially the costumes), and to see how much effort have teachers put for preparing their students for it. Another good side of the competition was that students had to present their skills, and to link all the knowledge they have to solve the tasks they were given.

I almost forgot that I found out that you have a 6 as a mark in schools. In out school system we have marks from 1 to 5, and we are not allowed to give + and – (for example 4- or 4+). This differentiation actually enables teachers to evaluate students much better than our system, because there's a big difference if student has 50% or 75%.

Even before I came to Gdansk, when I was reading about it, in all books they were mentioning Sopot as a beautiful place, so I had to check it this weekend. And I have to say they were right. I absolutely like Sopot. Bohaterow Monte Cassino is such a nice street, especially during the night when the lights make some magical atmosphere. From molo I saw a Baltic see for the first time in my life, but I have to wait for the summer for a swim.

Unfortunately (or lucky) I didn't have a lot of strange experiences with food. There was a fruit soup one day for lunch, but we eat something like that for desserts (but without pasta!). Now, I'm waiting for a new surprise.

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W zeszłym tygodniu miałam swoją pierwszą lekcję matematyki w języku angielskim. Muszę przyznać, że trochę się bałam, bo tak naprawdę nie wiedziałam, czego mam się spodziewać. Przygotowałam nawet tłumaczenie na język polski (i nawet było poprawne!) i lekcja wyszła świetnie.

Próbuję z całych sił uczyć się języka polskiego, ale na razie nauczyłam się tylko liczb i podstawowych zwrotów (i, oczywiście, trochę matematycznego słownictwa). Więc byłam bardzo zadowolona ze znajomości matematycznych wyrażeń w języku angielskim przez uczniów i myślę, że razem udało nam się wykonać dobrą robotę.

W tej samej klasie miałam również moja pierwszą lekcje kulturową. Opowiadałam uczniom o położeniu Chorwacji, o legendach i próbowałam nauczyć ich kilku chorwackich słów (później sprawdzę, czy je zapamiętali). Myślę, że właśnie ta część zajęć była najciekawsza dla uczniów bo zauważyli, że mamy wiele wspólnych słów. Z drugiej strony mieli problemy z wymową chorwackich słów tak samo, jak ja mam problemy z wymawianiem polskich.

Inne interesujące wydarzenia ze szkoły? Bardzo podobał mi się konkurs „Jestem młodym Europejczykiem”! Miło było zobaczyć małych uczniów prezentujących różne kraje UE (zwłaszcza kostiumy) i ile wysiłku włożyli nauczyciele żeby przygotować swoich uczniów. Inną dobrą stroną konkursu był fakt, iż uczniowie musieli zaprezentować swoje umiejętności i połączyć swoją całą wiedzę aby rozwiązać otrzymane zadania.

Prawie zapomniałam, że dowiedziałam się iż macie 6 jako najwyższą ocenę w szkole. W naszym systemie edukacyjnym mamy oceny od 1 do 5 i nie możemy dodawać „plusów” lub „minusów” do ocen. To zróżnicowanie umożliwia nauczycielom o wiele dokładniej oceniać uczniów niż w naszym systemie edukacyjnym, gdyż jest wielka różnica jeśli uczeń ma 50% czy 75%.

Zanim przyjechałam do Gdańska we wszystkich książkach wspominano Sopot jako piękne miejsce do odwiedzenia, wiec pojechałam to sprawdzić podczas tego weekendu. I muszę przyznać, że mieli rację! Bardzo spodobał mi się Sopot. Ulica Monte Cassino jest piękną ulicą zwłaszca po zmroku kiedy światła uliczne tworzą magiczną atmosferę. Z sopockiego molo po raz pierwszy w życiu widziałam Morze Bałtyckie, ale żeby popływać muszę poczekać do lata.

Niestety (lub na szczęście) nie miałam zbyt wielu dziwnych żywnościowych eksperymentów. Jednego dnia była zupa owocowa, ale w Chorwacji jemy coś podobnego jako formę deseru (ale bez makaronu!). Teraz czekam na nowe niespodzianki.

11th Nov 2013

On Friday I have attended a reception for first grade. It was very nice to see all the students dressed up like they are graduating. Although I didn’t understand much of the speech, I have enjoyed experiments and songs, as well as the ending part when everyone got their diplomas.

Fortunately, this weekend was long enough, so I managed to visit city center, not once, but twice! I’ve read my “tourist” book very carefully, but there were no pictures, so I had to imagine all the things that I was reading. And now, I have finally seen most of my readings. The architecture of the city center is so beautiful, and in some streets you can still feel a charm of old times. Although all the streets has it’s charm, I find Mariacka street the most charming, beautiful narrow street with amazing houses, small shops and cafes. As I had an amazing tour guides, I found out a lot of interesting facts and legends that I will try to memorize, and share with my friends. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to see museums from the inside, but I have too leave something for the next time.

Other visit was for the Independence day parade. I have to admit that we usually don't celebrate any holiday with parade, and it was very interesting to see all the people dressed up in red and white, carrying flags and other artifacts in Polish colours. It was a nice opportunity to learn something about Polish history, to see old uniforms, cars, national costumes...

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W piątek uczestniczyłam w apelu klas pierwszych. Miło było oglądać wszystkich uczniów ubranych tak, jakby kończyli szkołę. Pomimo tego, że niewiele rozumiałam z przemówień, podobało mi się bardzo przedstawienie i piosenki, tak samo jak ostatnią część, kiedy wszyscy uczniowie dostali dyplomy [chodzi o uroczystość pasowania na ucznia - K.P.].

Na całe szczęście ten weekend był wystarczająco długi, więc mogłam odwiedzić centrum miasta, i to dwukrotnie! Wcześniej przeczytałam mój przewodnik po gdańsku, ale nie było w nim żadnych zdjęć, więc musiałam wyobrażać sobie rzeczy, o których czytałam. A teraz wreszcie zobaczyłam to, o czym wcześniej czytałam.

Architektura Starego Miasta jest taka piękna, a na niektórych ulicach nadal można poczuć urok dawnych czasów. Chociaż wszystkie ulice mają swój czar, ulica Mariacka jest dla mnie najbardziej urokliwą - piękna wąska uliczka z niezwykłymi kamienicami, małymi sklepikami i kawiarenkami.

Pnieważ miałam niezwykłych przewodników, dowiedziałam się wielu interesujących faktów i legend , które postaram się zapamiętać i podzielić się nimi z moimi przyjaciółmi. Niestety nie miałam wystarczająco dużo czasu, żeby odwiedzić muzea, ale muszę coś zostawić na następna wizytę.

Inną wizytą była parada z okazji Dnia Niepodległości. Muszę przyznać, że zazwyczaj nie świętujemy żadnych uroczystości przy pomocy parad, więc było to bardzo interesujące doświadczenie zobaczyć wszystkich tych ludzi poprzebieranych lub udekorowanych w kolory narodowe. To było wspaniała okazja dowiedzenia się czegoś na temat polskiej historii, zobaczenia starych mundurów, samochodów czy też strojów narodowych ...

5th Nov 2013

First impressions

First day at school I was introduced to the kids. I was impressed how big the school was, because I was expecting much smaller one. Also, I like that the school has such a big amount of different equipment for learning, because unfortunately our schools in Croatia don't have so much equipment.

Children were very nice, and they were trying to speak to me, but unfortunately I don't understand much Polish for now, and I hope that will change in the next few months.

But, the biggest surprise from everything was my first lunch experience! Although everyone was telling me that Polish food can be surprising, I never expected that I will eat pasta with strawberries. It was quite strange, but I like strawberries.

Following days I will spend observing every class, so that I can see if there are any differences between Polish and Croatian schools. I would like to thank all the teachers for the time they ease off for me.

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Pierwsze wrażenia

Pierwszego dnia w szkole zostałam przedstawiona dzieciom. Byłam pod wrażeniem, jak wielka jest szkoła, ponieważ spodziewałam się o wiele mniejszej. Podoba mi się również to, że szkoła jest wyposażona w tak dużą ilość pomocy dydaktycznych, bo niestety szkoły w Chrowacji nie są tak dobrze wyposażone.

Dzieci były bardzo miłe i próbowały porozumieć się ze mną, ale niestety nie rozumiem jeszcze zbyt dużo po polsku, ale mam nadzieję, że się to zmieni w przeciągu kilku najbliższych miesięcy.

Ale największą niespodzianką ze wszystkich był mój pierwszy obiad w szkole! Chociaż wszyscy ostrzegali mnie, że polskie jedzenie może być zaskakujące, nigdy nie spodziewałabym się, że będę jadła makaron z truskawkami. To było dziwne, ale lubię truskawki.

Najbliższe dni spędzę obserwując każdą klasę, bym mogła zorientować się, czy są jakieś różnice pomiędzy polskimi a chorwackimi szkołami. Chciałabym podziękować wszystkim nauczycielom za czas, który mi poświęcają.

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