Thursday, October 21, 2010We left our hostel at 7:00 am local (1:00 am at home) on a bus bound for outer edge of Vilskapolska Province. As you may remember, Poland is divided into 16 provinces. Poznan, as well as many other towns and cities, are in the Vilskapolska Province (sp?). In this province is 4000 schools and 500,000 students-very large and very spread out. So, we road on a bus to the first of 3 stops. The first school was Zespol Szkol Ponadgimnazjalnych in a town called Krotoszyn. I have their school letterhead that I'm copying from or I would have just said, "School" :) The ride to this school took over 2 hours by bus. The school is extremely old, you'll see that theme in my blog today, and the school was very unique. This high school has a program for high school students interested in becoming teachers. They spend 3 years taking general studies, but also having opportunities to work with university professors, observe teaching in other classrooms, do work with students, etc. At this school, 90% of students go on to a University after high school. They study a pedagogy curriculum and this program is called a vocational profile. They study multi-culturalism, pedagogy, etc. In this country, handicaps (EC students) are treated as a multi-cultural group. Students study how to connect with handicap students, make them feel acclimated, study how to incorporate these students in the school culture much like we do with multi-cultural students. They see handicaps as a culture. On the walls are projects they've done about the US. One of them shows "Sports in the United States." On this display it has pictures of the World Wrestling Federation and says that in the US, pro wrestling is the most popular and most dangerous sport. They had pictures of various pro wrestlers (fake wrestling for those of you who aren't familiar with WWF). We had to break it to them that WWF was not in fact the most popular sport. What else must they think about us???
The weird thing about today is that when we arrived, the local press were there for our meeting with the students. We met in a room with about 35 or so students in the audience. We introduced ourselves and they had a Q and A for us. (You can see some if this in my videos on YouTube. It's not great video because it's weird videoing an audience when you're on a panel at the front.) So, anyway, they had invited the press and the press was taking lots of pictures, etc. Apparently they don't get a lot of visitors. So as I was saying, the students in this audience are all high school students who hope to one day become teachers. They asked questions about USA, about our culture, etc. We found out that here education majors in college don't do student teaching. They do unsupervised volunteering in classrooms throughout their college experience and are asked to get 150 total hours. It is ungraded.
After an hour of sharing and Q and A, we were treated to our first meal, but not our last of the day. We met the staff and explained the project. The school is excited about partnering with American schools. They idolize America. They listen to American music, dress like American students, watch American films, etc. They love the NBA and NFL in the US, and they watch US movies online. If you met them, you could not tell by their interests, music or dress they were not Americans. Their English has an accent, but otherwise they have all of the same interests that our students do. We left this school and went to Hugokorrataj. It is the oldest High school in Poland and the site of the first national capital of Poland before one of their many wars. The school building is like a museum (again, lots of videos coming). The school has the most amazing architecture. Your mouth would drop. They have interior doors that are covered in a burgundy, beaded leather. It looks like castle doors. The building is 160 years old. These students talked continually about the history of their school. They take great pride in the heritage of the community and building. A very neat feature at this school is that any high school graduate that has ever graduated from this school and eventually earned a doctoral degree to teach at the University has their photo and bio on a "wall of fame." There were 40-50 total, some over 100 years old. Our guide and partner for this trip to Poland from UAM, Stanislaw (not sure of last name, we just call him "Stan"), actually graduated from this school and has a large memorial there. Even though we were 3 hours from Poznan, these students all knew him. They take great pride in their graduates who are successful. It was so inspiring. In Poland, all High Schools are either comprehensive high schools or profile schools that specialize and students apply to. The first school we visited that I explained earlier was a profile school for teaching. This was also a profile school, but I never did hear what the area of specialization was. Sorry. They again had a Q and A with us, but with no media thank goodness. They asked about ever being able to do a student exchange. Here is a real kicker. They have a "headmaster" who told us that he would pay for any student from Hugokorrataj that wanted to do a summer exchange (couple of weeks) in NC. He would pay their travel and spending money for US. In return, he would gladly partner NC students for a summer exchange here. One wasn't necessarily dependent on the other. Possibilities???? Again we explained the program and again they were gungho about become a partner. I get the impression that they would give any price to partner with US schools, learn from US culture, etc. It's humbling for our country and a little embarrassing. I hope we are a model worth wanting to learn from. They served us a meal, again, and we left for school number 3 for today. This was a long bus ride from the first two schools. The third school was still in the same province, but very far away. This town will blow your mind. The town and school are called Kalisz (pronounced like college). When it was founded it was called Calisia. Ok, Roman text from 150 BC mentions that Romans marched from Rome to the Baltic Sea to get Amber (not the person :) ) and they stopped along the way in the town of Calisia. So, this town has a history of over 2000+ years. The school again was like a museum. Large arched doorways, huge hallways, large ornate stairs and moldings, etc. This school too is a profile school specializing in math and science. We met with 8 students and 5 staff. All of these students spoke English and were some of the top students in the region. This school has very tough entrance standards and only the top students get in. They all take great pride in being in this school and you can see the big difference in how students value education here. They glow when they talk about their school. They can tell you prominent former graduates. They brag on having the best teachers in all of Poland. What makes this school even more unique is that their teachers do a process similar to PLCs!!! They are very interested in talking to American teachers about common issues, strategies, etc. They fed us heavy snacks and coffee. Another amazing thing about this school is that it was closed for students today because in this particular town, today is Teacher Day of Celebration and the schools are closed. We didn't arrive at the school until 4:00 local time. When Dr. Howard, a professor from ASU, asked why they were here today to meet with us on their day off, one male student said, "we love this building. We love to be here even when we don't have school." Now, granted, if you can tell from my videos, you'll understand why. It is like a historical landmark. These students actually tried out the online software we are using, Teleplace, and worked with some students in NC to try out the process. As expected, students take to technology like I do to chocolate éclairs. This school is very excited about the project. So, after an 90 minutes or so at this school the staff took us with them to join the rest of their staff (80+ people) for dinner at a restaurant. I thought it would be casual. NOPE. First of all, this restaurant was a banquet hall. It is obviously where major functions, weddings, huge parties, are held-chandeliers, banquet tables, 40 foot ceiling like in a civic center, disco ball from the ceiling, etc. (see on video). We ate with their staff in a 100 seat banquet room. There was DJ and everyone was dressed formally as if for a wedding. Well... in this area, the Teacher Day of Celebration is more than a day off of school. It is a holiday. We joined them for the celebration, 4 course meal, and THEY (not us) dined on vodka and sang celebratory chants, danced, and had a huge celebration. I resisted the temptation to dance. It was the weirdest thing I've seen in a long time. (Again, some video, but not sure if it is clear. It looks weird to video strangers celebrating so I try to be discrete which makes the footage look like a lapel cam). After our 4th meal of the day we rode back on a 2+ hour bus ride back to the hostel. Tomorrow we visit a high school, Maria Madalena in Poznan and have lunch with the Vilskapolska Province school board. These are appointed positions I've been told. We also have our first day of the conference we are presenting at. The conference program is at www.k2b.yoyo.pl/program.html The Poznan television station is recording some of the conference. The University is trying to use this conference as a first step to "PR" for their teacher prep program. This is getting much bigger than I originally thought it was set out to be. I’m excited that we can make connections for our state with other countries. If you have time, view some of the videos from today's schools if they are clear, to get the images I uneffectively tried to describe.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Friday from Poland- ASU partnership
Friday, October 22, 2010
Visited Liceum Ogolnoksztatcacego sw. Marii Magdaleny (or Mary Magdalene for short) high school. These schools keep getting more interesting. Go to my youtube page and watch the clip about Pope John Paul II meeting with this staff and writing them a personal letter commemerating their 700 year anniversary in 2003. YES the school is over 700 years old. They showed us the original framed school charter from 1302 that is framed on the wall, the pictures of the Pope touching several kneeled staff members in 2003 and the framed personal picture and hand written note from the Pope from 2003. They have a detailed description of the school's long history and everyone not only knew it well, but took great pride in it. Don't forget that several videos from the trip can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/user/dasme23?feature=mhum We met with selected staff and discussed the project. This is the first school that seemed had questions/concerns about the process. The upper math teacher stated that computers are for play and that students only learn by writing and reading. They gave each of us school medals that they give to graduates and special guests. The school is also a profile school. Last year 370 students applied and submitted gimnajium (Jr. High School) exam scores. Only 200 were admitted. All 370 that applied were likely the best of the best from their Jr. Highs so these students aren't typical HS students. This school had a much different aura about it. Hard to explain. All students must take Latin, and there are 600 total students enrolled. Remember that "high school" here is equivalent to our 10-12 grades.
An interesting find from this school is that they are the first school to use a new e-register online data management system in Poland that they just started this year. It's very similar to our NC Wise. They did not seem happy about it. Also interesting are the customs at this school. We visited 6-7 classrooms and in every one, when the door opens all students stand. The lead teacher told us that this is their school custom, not just for us. Students were very respectful. The internet RAM here is very high (50 GB- Nha Nou can explain I hope) so downloading the software and running the program isn't an issue at all.
After this meeting, myself, Dr. Taschner, Dr. Wallace and our Polish counterpart Dr. Stan Dylak visited the Wilskapolska Province Superintendent. You may remember that earlier in the week I spent 2+ hours talking with the Superintendent. Well, I didn't realize that the person I spoke to then (Elizabeth) was the former Superintendent. Elizabeth is now working for the University. So, the 4 of us met with the new Superintendent (over 500,000 students, 4000+ school and 60,000+ teachers). Her name is Elzabieta Walkowiak. We spoke of Teleplace, university collaborations and our project in the 4 Polish schools. She asked about a process of teacher collaboration that is called "critical friends" that is happening in Warsaw, Poland. Critical Friends is a variation of PLCs where a veteran teacher matches up with a newer teacher and they plan together, share strategies together, talk about student problems together, etc.
These 2 HS kids played music for us after today's conference. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA6qlyTRXWghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxEnGFqaXX0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MprrZPt5aMsIt starts out slow, but wait until you here them. It was amazing. I hope you have time to listen to them. As for this afternoon, we have 2 presenters. In addition, 4 professors presented short keynotes on:Brain-based research with students use of technologyPolish grants for the University through the European Union
European Union's new teacher competency standardsLiving in a digital age Overviews of sessions were given in a large auditorium with about 60 participants. Tomorrow are the full breakout sessions. After dinner these 2 HS honors music students played accordions for us. Please watch the videos. They are about 3 minutes each. These guys were amazing. Have you ever heard Techno music from an accordian???? Then listen. We had dinner with the conference participants. I've learned about 15 words-spelled below phonetically, but not correctly: Gendobre- Hellochesh- HiJencoya- thank youdak- yesnhhhhee- nodoma-homebibliotecka- libraryedukacji- educationszkole- schoolpracy- workinterneteweeg- internetinfomacjee- informationindustrialnego- industrycava- coffeeherbata- teanu playees lyke hoom - Newton- Conover ( ok I made that one up)gymnazeum- middle school Tomorrow are the long conference breakout sessions (we have 2 breakouts each of the same session- 2 hours each). we have to allow time for interpreters to translateski. I hope all is well in NCCS.
Visited Liceum Ogolnoksztatcacego sw. Marii Magdaleny (or Mary Magdalene for short) high school. These schools keep getting more interesting. Go to my youtube page and watch the clip about Pope John Paul II meeting with this staff and writing them a personal letter commemerating their 700 year anniversary in 2003. YES the school is over 700 years old. They showed us the original framed school charter from 1302 that is framed on the wall, the pictures of the Pope touching several kneeled staff members in 2003 and the framed personal picture and hand written note from the Pope from 2003. They have a detailed description of the school's long history and everyone not only knew it well, but took great pride in it. Don't forget that several videos from the trip can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/user/dasme23?feature=mhum We met with selected staff and discussed the project. This is the first school that seemed had questions/concerns about the process. The upper math teacher stated that computers are for play and that students only learn by writing and reading. They gave each of us school medals that they give to graduates and special guests. The school is also a profile school. Last year 370 students applied and submitted gimnajium (Jr. High School) exam scores. Only 200 were admitted. All 370 that applied were likely the best of the best from their Jr. Highs so these students aren't typical HS students. This school had a much different aura about it. Hard to explain. All students must take Latin, and there are 600 total students enrolled. Remember that "high school" here is equivalent to our 10-12 grades.
An interesting find from this school is that they are the first school to use a new e-register online data management system in Poland that they just started this year. It's very similar to our NC Wise. They did not seem happy about it. Also interesting are the customs at this school. We visited 6-7 classrooms and in every one, when the door opens all students stand. The lead teacher told us that this is their school custom, not just for us. Students were very respectful. The internet RAM here is very high (50 GB- Nha Nou can explain I hope) so downloading the software and running the program isn't an issue at all.
After this meeting, myself, Dr. Taschner, Dr. Wallace and our Polish counterpart Dr. Stan Dylak visited the Wilskapolska Province Superintendent. You may remember that earlier in the week I spent 2+ hours talking with the Superintendent. Well, I didn't realize that the person I spoke to then (Elizabeth) was the former Superintendent. Elizabeth is now working for the University. So, the 4 of us met with the new Superintendent (over 500,000 students, 4000+ school and 60,000+ teachers). Her name is Elzabieta Walkowiak. We spoke of Teleplace, university collaborations and our project in the 4 Polish schools. She asked about a process of teacher collaboration that is called "critical friends" that is happening in Warsaw, Poland. Critical Friends is a variation of PLCs where a veteran teacher matches up with a newer teacher and they plan together, share strategies together, talk about student problems together, etc.
These 2 HS kids played music for us after today's conference. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA6qlyTRXWghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxEnGFqaXX0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MprrZPt5aMsIt starts out slow, but wait until you here them. It was amazing. I hope you have time to listen to them. As for this afternoon, we have 2 presenters. In addition, 4 professors presented short keynotes on:Brain-based research with students use of technologyPolish grants for the University through the European Union
European Union's new teacher competency standardsLiving in a digital age Overviews of sessions were given in a large auditorium with about 60 participants. Tomorrow are the full breakout sessions. After dinner these 2 HS honors music students played accordions for us. Please watch the videos. They are about 3 minutes each. These guys were amazing. Have you ever heard Techno music from an accordian???? Then listen. We had dinner with the conference participants. I've learned about 15 words-spelled below phonetically, but not correctly: Gendobre- Hellochesh- HiJencoya- thank youdak- yesnhhhhee- nodoma-homebibliotecka- libraryedukacji- educationszkole- schoolpracy- workinterneteweeg- internetinfomacjee- informationindustrialnego- industrycava- coffeeherbata- teanu playees lyke hoom - Newton- Conover ( ok I made that one up)gymnazeum- middle school Tomorrow are the long conference breakout sessions (we have 2 breakouts each of the same session- 2 hours each). we have to allow time for interpreters to translateski. I hope all is well in NCCS.
Poland ASU trip day 3
Tuesday, October 19, 2010Today was another interesting day here in Poland. We gave a lecture to doctoral students on Teleplace, teacher collaboration, Active Worlds, and ways to network students and teachers with colleagues. The doctoral students shared with us that in their culture, collaboration and group work are not very well accepted until recently. Up until 1989 Poland was a communist country. So they basically started from scratch in 1989 with all aspects of life. Freedoms we take for granted, they still are getting used to having (open speech, free thinking, networking, entrepreneurship, etc.). On top of that, their education Minister has changed the entire education system multiple times in the last 20 years. They've gone from 11 grades, to 12, to possible 13 in 2 years (similar to our K-12). They educate all students now, even EC. More on all of that in a moment. So the doctoral students seemed eager to find new ways to integrate online, virtual classrooms, as well as, a collaborative structure such as PLCs as they become professors and school leaders. The professors at the university are also encouraging the students to think outside of the box, since they have so many possibilities that their predecessors never had. Several doc students discussed partnering with ASU doc students to work on collaborative research. We also shared information about our conference that we'll have on Friday and Saturday. Found our conference flyer online at http://www.k2b.yoyo.pl/program.html
After our lecture and Q and A, we had lunch with the Dean of doctoral students, several university staff and the Superintendent of the province that Poznan, Poland is in. As a nation, she shared, Poland is divided into 16 provinces or large districts. In each of those districts, there is a Superintendent (wasn't titled Superintendent, but served the same function as Superintendents do in NC). She serves that role for this district. She said she has 4000 schools, 60,000 teachers and 500,000 students in her district. WOW! Their role is very different in practice however. In schools here in Poland, she said there are no principals as we know them. Each school has a "lead teacher" who does all evaluations. They may also be called director, but I wasn’t clear on that. They have no effective teacher evaluation process. Schools are also self governing. They manage their own funds. Under her,and other superintendents, there are inspectors. She has 150 working for her. These people are each assigned a number of schools and must evaluate all of their schools in a 5 year period, or 20% each year. It sounded very much like the SACS process we do. They do not evaluate individual teachers, but instead evaluate pedagogy as a whole, processes in place, and certain documents. Anyway, she sat beside me at lunch and again later this evening where we were able to talk for close to 2 hours. She shared the way schools are structured. As of right now, students start school at age 7. Before starting primary school all parents are required to send their child to 1 year of preschool. Starting in 2 years, compulsory age will drop to 6 and add another year to their education. They go to Primary cycle 1 for 3 years. In this stage, there are no subjects. All curriculum is integrated. Then students move to primary stage 2 for 3 years. During this stage, subjects are divided and teachers instruct much like we do in elementary. To be a teacher, in primary, you are certified in EITHER cycle1 or cycle 2, but not both. Teacher training is very specialized to grade clusters, even more so than in America. After primary cycle 2, students go to 3 years of "gymnasjum"-which is similar to Jr. High School. It's associated with their next 3 year stage which is called "matura". Students take an exam at the end of Matura. It's a comprehensive exam of all knowledge from their education experience. Starting about 10 years ago, all students are required to take English and Polish every year of their education. On top of that, in matura, many students take Latin, Russian or German. We were able to observe a university class in session and speak to students. They don't sit in desks. They sit in rows on cloth chairs while the professor lectures. Because their country embraces change and growth since their revolution in 1989, professors seem open to us being in their rooms. Their culture seems to embrace becoming world class. We had an informal 2 hour session with some University Department of Pedutologii (I think it means the same as pedagogy). They teach education majors. This is where I talked to Elizabeth, the superintendent. Others from our group had similar conversations with their colleagues from Poland. We just discussed similarities and differences in our educational systems and how each may help the other. Elizabeth shared with me how they educate all students, even EC, but the major difference is that they assign EC students as groups of 3 to a "regular" classroom. Before they enroll, the entire group of non-disabled students and the teachers receive intense training on how to support and integrate the students into the class. There aren't EC classes, however the classroom teacher has an "advisor" who helps her plan for the students. The non-disabled students are taught how to work with peers, assist, build up, and include EC students as a part of class. They don't avoid labels or stigmas, they just hit them head on and say, "these students have disabilities, but they are equals. Here is how each of you are responsible for helping these students be successful." It was very intriguing. She said that severe and profound students can choose to go to a separate school. These schools are paid for by public funds, but housed in churches. The priests and nuns manage the schools. They work for free and use the $ to build new churches. I've also learned a great deal about the rough history of Poland- From Napolean, to Hitler, to the Russians. They've been attacked or assaulted many times. The people here are perhaps the most hospitable I've ever encountered. Even people who don't know us are very polite and generous. I found out that teachers here make the eqivalent of $1200 in US money a month before taxes. Medical doctors make about the equivalent of $1500 US dollars a month. Most professionals work 2 jobs. We were told that there are some in the society who genuinely miss communism because in communism, all workers got the same food rations, all teachers got 1 week free vacation on the cost paid for by the government, everyone, got the same clothing allowances, personal item allowances, etc. With the fall of communism, people have to work harder to get vacations, if they ever afford one at all and not everyone gets the same ammenities, etc. The younger generation love the freedoms and possibilities, but there are many from older generations who miss the "sameness" and structure. It's an interesting divide. For NCCS, there could be some very interested teachers here in Poland willing to partner with us to exchange ideas, collaborate, and more. Tomorrow, we visit a high school in the town of Jerzykowo and meet with their teachers and students. This is the first of 3 straight days traveling to towns within a 2 hour drive to meet teachers at 4 different schools in 4 different towns. These will be the some of the classroom teachers we will hopefully partner with in NCCS. We have 2 MS and 2 HS teachers in NCCS who have agreed to partner. Thanks to Sylvia White, I've passed out several bag tags, card holders and carabiners that say NCCS on them. We may have an influx of Polish applicants next year :) I hope all is well there. I'll write again tomorrow night.
After our lecture and Q and A, we had lunch with the Dean of doctoral students, several university staff and the Superintendent of the province that Poznan, Poland is in. As a nation, she shared, Poland is divided into 16 provinces or large districts. In each of those districts, there is a Superintendent (wasn't titled Superintendent, but served the same function as Superintendents do in NC). She serves that role for this district. She said she has 4000 schools, 60,000 teachers and 500,000 students in her district. WOW! Their role is very different in practice however. In schools here in Poland, she said there are no principals as we know them. Each school has a "lead teacher" who does all evaluations. They may also be called director, but I wasn’t clear on that. They have no effective teacher evaluation process. Schools are also self governing. They manage their own funds. Under her,and other superintendents, there are inspectors. She has 150 working for her. These people are each assigned a number of schools and must evaluate all of their schools in a 5 year period, or 20% each year. It sounded very much like the SACS process we do. They do not evaluate individual teachers, but instead evaluate pedagogy as a whole, processes in place, and certain documents. Anyway, she sat beside me at lunch and again later this evening where we were able to talk for close to 2 hours. She shared the way schools are structured. As of right now, students start school at age 7. Before starting primary school all parents are required to send their child to 1 year of preschool. Starting in 2 years, compulsory age will drop to 6 and add another year to their education. They go to Primary cycle 1 for 3 years. In this stage, there are no subjects. All curriculum is integrated. Then students move to primary stage 2 for 3 years. During this stage, subjects are divided and teachers instruct much like we do in elementary. To be a teacher, in primary, you are certified in EITHER cycle1 or cycle 2, but not both. Teacher training is very specialized to grade clusters, even more so than in America. After primary cycle 2, students go to 3 years of "gymnasjum"-which is similar to Jr. High School. It's associated with their next 3 year stage which is called "matura". Students take an exam at the end of Matura. It's a comprehensive exam of all knowledge from their education experience. Starting about 10 years ago, all students are required to take English and Polish every year of their education. On top of that, in matura, many students take Latin, Russian or German. We were able to observe a university class in session and speak to students. They don't sit in desks. They sit in rows on cloth chairs while the professor lectures. Because their country embraces change and growth since their revolution in 1989, professors seem open to us being in their rooms. Their culture seems to embrace becoming world class. We had an informal 2 hour session with some University Department of Pedutologii (I think it means the same as pedagogy). They teach education majors. This is where I talked to Elizabeth, the superintendent. Others from our group had similar conversations with their colleagues from Poland. We just discussed similarities and differences in our educational systems and how each may help the other. Elizabeth shared with me how they educate all students, even EC, but the major difference is that they assign EC students as groups of 3 to a "regular" classroom. Before they enroll, the entire group of non-disabled students and the teachers receive intense training on how to support and integrate the students into the class. There aren't EC classes, however the classroom teacher has an "advisor" who helps her plan for the students. The non-disabled students are taught how to work with peers, assist, build up, and include EC students as a part of class. They don't avoid labels or stigmas, they just hit them head on and say, "these students have disabilities, but they are equals. Here is how each of you are responsible for helping these students be successful." It was very intriguing. She said that severe and profound students can choose to go to a separate school. These schools are paid for by public funds, but housed in churches. The priests and nuns manage the schools. They work for free and use the $ to build new churches. I've also learned a great deal about the rough history of Poland- From Napolean, to Hitler, to the Russians. They've been attacked or assaulted many times. The people here are perhaps the most hospitable I've ever encountered. Even people who don't know us are very polite and generous. I found out that teachers here make the eqivalent of $1200 in US money a month before taxes. Medical doctors make about the equivalent of $1500 US dollars a month. Most professionals work 2 jobs. We were told that there are some in the society who genuinely miss communism because in communism, all workers got the same food rations, all teachers got 1 week free vacation on the cost paid for by the government, everyone, got the same clothing allowances, personal item allowances, etc. With the fall of communism, people have to work harder to get vacations, if they ever afford one at all and not everyone gets the same ammenities, etc. The younger generation love the freedoms and possibilities, but there are many from older generations who miss the "sameness" and structure. It's an interesting divide. For NCCS, there could be some very interested teachers here in Poland willing to partner with us to exchange ideas, collaborate, and more. Tomorrow, we visit a high school in the town of Jerzykowo and meet with their teachers and students. This is the first of 3 straight days traveling to towns within a 2 hour drive to meet teachers at 4 different schools in 4 different towns. These will be the some of the classroom teachers we will hopefully partner with in NCCS. We have 2 MS and 2 HS teachers in NCCS who have agreed to partner. Thanks to Sylvia White, I've passed out several bag tags, card holders and carabiners that say NCCS on them. We may have an influx of Polish applicants next year :) I hope all is well there. I'll write again tomorrow night.
Poznan, Poland ASU partnership
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
This project has 2 parts, a University part that ASU is partnering with UAM here and the public education part that we are partnering with. Today we visited a school in Jerzykowie, about an hour outside of Poznan. I've downloaded a few videos on my youtube page to give you an idea of the school. They have great technology, beautiful campus and the school has a "home" feel to it. It is a village school with 350 students in the equivalent of our 1st-8th grades. Some key differences from this school and US schools:
· All teachers have obligatory 2 hours a week of "extracurricular." They do clubs like geography club, instructional technology club, math club, etc. Students choose which ones interest them and attend 2 afternoons a week for an hour each.
· No sports teams at schools. Children play for sports clubs.
· School starts around 7, they have what they called "2nd breakfast" which students bring from home. It's a light snack and the school provides free milk for students. At 2:00 school dismisses and students go home for lunch. No school lunches. (the staff lunchroom is on my youtube video I posted today)
· Schools don't have "textbooks" but students are required to buy books. They are assigned books, and for each subject they are 70-100 pages and like a workbook. There are illustrations, with room for note etc. Students keep them after year's end for later reference. (you can see an example on the longer video I posted today)
· No group work. Students sit at 2 person tables in rows. (you can see on the longer video on youtube I posted)
· Buses only run for gimnazjum students. Primary students rode scooters, bikes, walked or parents brought.
· The teachers post essential questions on the board before lesson
· When I asked about discipline, several teachers said that in these village schools, there is none. Everyone is close knit and teachers/neighbors serve as surrogate parents and discipline when needed (which is very rare)
· All classroom doors have a crucifix hanging above (in all public schools)
· Students are responsible for providing plants for all classrooms. There are lots of beautiful plants hanging in every room.
· We have been told that 90% of homes have internet and 95% have computers
We observed several classrooms (on video), we spoke to the teachers and the lead teacher (they called her headmaster, but she teaches there as well), and we met with the local city mayor. He has offered to help support this project.
During our lunch with the mayor, we went over details of the project. Their teachers are very excited about possibly working with US schools and teachers. Details are still being ironed out, but we should not have a shortage of willingness on both sides.
The school has a distance learning center for adults to take classes. They also offer distance learning classes for disabled students.
Much of what I may write can be seen on the new videos I've downloaded tonight.
Tomorrow we have to leave very early for other school visits in neighboring towns. We are taking the bus. Friday, we are scheduled to meet the province superintendent.
The world is definitely flattening. Our issues are the same as their issues and our students can now more easily visit or speak to others from around the world in seconds.
This project has 2 parts, a University part that ASU is partnering with UAM here and the public education part that we are partnering with. Today we visited a school in Jerzykowie, about an hour outside of Poznan. I've downloaded a few videos on my youtube page to give you an idea of the school. They have great technology, beautiful campus and the school has a "home" feel to it. It is a village school with 350 students in the equivalent of our 1st-8th grades. Some key differences from this school and US schools:
· All teachers have obligatory 2 hours a week of "extracurricular." They do clubs like geography club, instructional technology club, math club, etc. Students choose which ones interest them and attend 2 afternoons a week for an hour each.
· No sports teams at schools. Children play for sports clubs.
· School starts around 7, they have what they called "2nd breakfast" which students bring from home. It's a light snack and the school provides free milk for students. At 2:00 school dismisses and students go home for lunch. No school lunches. (the staff lunchroom is on my youtube video I posted today)
· Schools don't have "textbooks" but students are required to buy books. They are assigned books, and for each subject they are 70-100 pages and like a workbook. There are illustrations, with room for note etc. Students keep them after year's end for later reference. (you can see an example on the longer video I posted today)
· No group work. Students sit at 2 person tables in rows. (you can see on the longer video on youtube I posted)
· Buses only run for gimnazjum students. Primary students rode scooters, bikes, walked or parents brought.
· The teachers post essential questions on the board before lesson
· When I asked about discipline, several teachers said that in these village schools, there is none. Everyone is close knit and teachers/neighbors serve as surrogate parents and discipline when needed (which is very rare)
· All classroom doors have a crucifix hanging above (in all public schools)
· Students are responsible for providing plants for all classrooms. There are lots of beautiful plants hanging in every room.
· We have been told that 90% of homes have internet and 95% have computers
We observed several classrooms (on video), we spoke to the teachers and the lead teacher (they called her headmaster, but she teaches there as well), and we met with the local city mayor. He has offered to help support this project.
During our lunch with the mayor, we went over details of the project. Their teachers are very excited about possibly working with US schools and teachers. Details are still being ironed out, but we should not have a shortage of willingness on both sides.
The school has a distance learning center for adults to take classes. They also offer distance learning classes for disabled students.
Much of what I may write can be seen on the new videos I've downloaded tonight.
Tomorrow we have to leave very early for other school visits in neighboring towns. We are taking the bus. Friday, we are scheduled to meet the province superintendent.
The world is definitely flattening. Our issues are the same as their issues and our students can now more easily visit or speak to others from around the world in seconds.
Poland Day 2
Monday, October 18, 2010We left our hostel at 9:45 local time (3:45 AM there) and went to a section of Adam Mickiewicz University on the edge of town. It was -1 Celcius when we set out. COLD. The University is divided up by disciplines. The main campus is for education, general studies, languages, etc. The section we went to is several miles away, and is for students of physics, chemistry, political science, math, technology, etc. All UAM campuses have over 40,000 students total. The science and math campus we visited today has over 5000 students just in these disciplines. It's amazing. We are here to share with the University and 4 area schools the an online portal called Teleplace and ways we can use it to partner with Poland. So, at the UAM campus, we set up computers with the program, set up the classrooms at we'll be doing workshops in later this week and met with some doctoral students.
After lunch with the group, we rode the train back to the main campus and had a meeting with the University Vice Rector. This is the 2nd in charge of the University from what I gathered, (like a vice chancellor in the US???). He had several questions about how App State does online courses, how students react differently in virtual worlds, and is really interested in creating a process for blended learning here in Poland (blended being part face to face and part online class). We will present Teleplace tomorrow to the doctoral staff and show them how they can use the virtual world to foster collaboration between students and for students to use it as a way to build shared understandings. I'll be briefly sharing the process of PLCs as a means to helping all participants grow. The meeting with the Vice Rector was great. He meets with the national Minister of Education and seemed to be inclined to advocate for Poland to migrate into virtual opportunities. After this meeting we visited the Polish countryside and had a perogi (sp?) dinner. Very neat. When we returned to the dorm, we planned our sessions for tomorrow's meetings with the staff. We just finished (10:45 pm local time). It's been a long day. Later this week we work with 4 K-12 schools- meeting the teachers and students. We plan to select specific partner teachers to be collaborative partners with specific teachers from NCCS, Watauga County Schools and Davie County Schools. We are also doing a conference on Friday and Saturday. My session is on PLCs for K-12. I've come to appreciate the challenges and cultural differences here. However, I've seen little to no diversity and I've yet to see a single person anywhere that's the least bit overweight. Must be the diet. Every meal we get seems to come with potatoes, meat, and either slaw, cabbage, beets or shredded carrots. The teacher who took us downtown last night asked about a teacher exchange for the USA. It would be great if we were ever able to do a one year or one semester teacher exchange. I could see these teachers being great teaching English as a Second language in US schools. Something to think about. To see various short video clips I've taken so far, visit my youtube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/dasme23 I've added about 10 short clips. They aren't long, because I wasn't sure how long they could be for youtube. I'll do longer ones later this week. I hope all is well. Off to bed... it's closing in on midnight here.
After lunch with the group, we rode the train back to the main campus and had a meeting with the University Vice Rector. This is the 2nd in charge of the University from what I gathered, (like a vice chancellor in the US???). He had several questions about how App State does online courses, how students react differently in virtual worlds, and is really interested in creating a process for blended learning here in Poland (blended being part face to face and part online class). We will present Teleplace tomorrow to the doctoral staff and show them how they can use the virtual world to foster collaboration between students and for students to use it as a way to build shared understandings. I'll be briefly sharing the process of PLCs as a means to helping all participants grow. The meeting with the Vice Rector was great. He meets with the national Minister of Education and seemed to be inclined to advocate for Poland to migrate into virtual opportunities. After this meeting we visited the Polish countryside and had a perogi (sp?) dinner. Very neat. When we returned to the dorm, we planned our sessions for tomorrow's meetings with the staff. We just finished (10:45 pm local time). It's been a long day. Later this week we work with 4 K-12 schools- meeting the teachers and students. We plan to select specific partner teachers to be collaborative partners with specific teachers from NCCS, Watauga County Schools and Davie County Schools. We are also doing a conference on Friday and Saturday. My session is on PLCs for K-12. I've come to appreciate the challenges and cultural differences here. However, I've seen little to no diversity and I've yet to see a single person anywhere that's the least bit overweight. Must be the diet. Every meal we get seems to come with potatoes, meat, and either slaw, cabbage, beets or shredded carrots. The teacher who took us downtown last night asked about a teacher exchange for the USA. It would be great if we were ever able to do a one year or one semester teacher exchange. I could see these teachers being great teaching English as a Second language in US schools. Something to think about. To see various short video clips I've taken so far, visit my youtube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/dasme23 I've added about 10 short clips. They aren't long, because I wasn't sure how long they could be for youtube. I'll do longer ones later this week. I hope all is well. Off to bed... it's closing in on midnight here.
ASU partnership in Poznan, Poland- Day 1
Sunday, October 17, 2010
We arrived in Munich after a 9 hour flight. Our connecting flight from Munich to Poznan, Poland was canceled so we were held over at Munich for a couple of hours waiting on another flight. Poznan is a town with rich history and architecture. There are several memorials various wars and conflicts. This town has been through a lot through history.
We met up with a teacher from one of the high schools who gave us a tour of the market square and spoke to us about Polish schools and the University. She teaches English to students here. She is a second year teacher. In Poland, new teachers don't get a full-time job. She works 4 hours a day teaching and works nights translating and teaching business classes. She shared many cultural things here and stated that all students in Poland must learn English and are very proficient by the time the graduate. However, up until 20 years ago, all students learned Russian and German while they were a communist country. So, the generation that is 40+ years old doesn't speak English, while the current generations do. A real divide. She knows as much about US history as many of our students do. We spoke about the Marshall plan from WWII, she knows the US geography, landmarks, etc. She's familiar with US issues and policies. Very impressive.
We are meeting with the Physics department this morning. They want to learn about Teleplace, the online community we'll be using, so that they can help us set it up. I forgot to mention that we are staying in a hostel, which is much like a dorm room. Very modest, but comfortable. It makes you realize the differences in wealth of our country compared to others. As far as the schools go, they are 99% caucasian of Polish descent. Not much diversity.
We arrived in Munich after a 9 hour flight. Our connecting flight from Munich to Poznan, Poland was canceled so we were held over at Munich for a couple of hours waiting on another flight. Poznan is a town with rich history and architecture. There are several memorials various wars and conflicts. This town has been through a lot through history.
We met up with a teacher from one of the high schools who gave us a tour of the market square and spoke to us about Polish schools and the University. She teaches English to students here. She is a second year teacher. In Poland, new teachers don't get a full-time job. She works 4 hours a day teaching and works nights translating and teaching business classes. She shared many cultural things here and stated that all students in Poland must learn English and are very proficient by the time the graduate. However, up until 20 years ago, all students learned Russian and German while they were a communist country. So, the generation that is 40+ years old doesn't speak English, while the current generations do. A real divide. She knows as much about US history as many of our students do. We spoke about the Marshall plan from WWII, she knows the US geography, landmarks, etc. She's familiar with US issues and policies. Very impressive.
We are meeting with the Physics department this morning. They want to learn about Teleplace, the online community we'll be using, so that they can help us set it up. I forgot to mention that we are staying in a hostel, which is much like a dorm room. Very modest, but comfortable. It makes you realize the differences in wealth of our country compared to others. As far as the schools go, they are 99% caucasian of Polish descent. Not much diversity.
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