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.
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