Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Apologies (to both of my readers) for the lag between entries.  The last couple of weeks of the CELTA were pretty busy, and the day after I finished, I moved to an apartment where I cannot make the internet work.  It’s really lovely, though.  Dorota and her husband have gone on vacation, so Ayisha and I are dog-sitting two of the best-behaved, loveliest dogs I’ve ever met, Waru and Hades.  I’ll be doing that for two weeks, while I send my CV out to language schools all over Poland.  Hopefully by the time I have to leave Dorota’s house, I’ll have some idea where I might be going.  I have friends in Kraków, Gdańsk, Poznań, and Wrocław, though, so wherever I end up, it’s possible I’ll know at least one person living within a reasonable distance.  I am a little concerned about getting a job, because I’ve heard it can be tough for Americans, but I’m persistent and convincing, and I really love teaching, so I’ll find a way.

Now that I’m done with the CELTA, I was hoping to spend a bit more time learning Polish.  And I have been, kind of…but I’ve been focusing a lot on the job search.  Of course, I occasionally have to step out to see friends off before they leave town, and that’s when I try to get as much practice in as possible.  I’m pretty good at ordering all kinds of beverages.  It does make me feel a bit like one of those dumb Americans who can’t be bothered, though.  I’m really trying, I promise, Poland.  Actually, at the celebration for the end of the CELTA and DELTA (those poor saps were at it for 8 weeks), I did get a chance to practice my French with one of the DELTA guys.  It was really fun, and it made me feel a little bit less stupid about my Polish not coming along as quickly as I’d hoped.  It reminded me I’m not hopeless at this, it just takes time.  And my receptive skills are getting much better.  I understand a lot more than I can say.

Anyway, I’ve gotta go for now, or I’ll miss the next express bus and I’ll either have to wait 40 minutes for the next one, or spend 40 minutes on the tram.  Neither sounds like a really wonderful way to spend my evening.

Love from Poland.

Home Stretch

Another week done.  By this time next week, I'll be done with the CELTA.  Between now and then I have two more written assignments - one long, one short; two more assessed lessons - one long, one short; and  fifteen more hours of input.  I can do that.  I'm pretty excited to be done, because I'll actually have free time to see more of Poland, and to focus on learning Polish, and I can stop worrying about how to get a job and start working on getting a job.  But I'm also going to miss the people from the course, many of whom will be scattering to the four corners of...well, Europe, when this is over, and I'm a bit stressed about what's going to happen now and where I'm going to end up.  


The good news: (1) Dorota and her husband are going away for a few weeks right after the course, and they've offered me and Ayisha a place to stay if we walk their dogs for them, so I know where I'm going next Saturday when we have to leave our school flat, and I have a bit of job search time without committing to a lease in a city I may not be living in.  (2) If I want to go to the Gdansk area, Anna may be able to put in a good word for me with the school she works for.   (3) I've made friends with someone who is Director of Studies at a school in Krakow.  He doesn't think there are any spots open at his school at the moment, but he may be someone I can consult with a list of schools to find out whether they're dodgy. (4) For the first time in almost five years, I feel like I'm doing something I can get behind.


The bad news: (1) I'm exhausted.


Well, I think the tilt of the balance is pretty clear at the moment.  Now let's hope it all works out.
Stay tuned.


P.S. I bought a Polish translation of The Little Prince today.  I was thinking it would be cool to have a copy in every language I learn - someday I hope to have at least 5 different editions.  Here, he's called Mały Książę.
-

On Turning a Corner...

It’s been a long week.  Challenging, terrifying, satisfying.  I think that’s the key point here: it’s been satisfying.  I don’t wake up and think how I might just crack if I have to actually do what it is I’m doing day after day: I can’t wait to get up in the morning.  The food is delicious (though this place could well be a vegetarian’s nightmare), the city is beautiful, and the people are warm.  There is also a sense of community, a sense of shared experience and fellowship that is almost unimaginable in the US.  And, as is always the case when life takes you far from home, the mundane tasks I hated at home have become adventures, learning experiences.  I find going to the grocery store here an absolutely fascinating task.  I’m sure it won’t always be that way, but I’m more than happy to enjoy it while it is.  School is hard, and sometimes I’m dying to get home and lie down, but I’m learning so many things that I find both useful and interesting, things that I can imagine being relevant to my life beyond the end of the course.  All in all, I feel generally positive about the challenges and novelties of being here in Poland.  No surprise. 

But, oh, the students. I am surprised by them constantly.  My students are the absolute joy of my days.   I can’t get over how quickly most of them have crawled under my skin, straight to that warm, fuzzy place I always used to hide deep down inside.  In fact, if I didn’t like my students so much, I think this course might be easier.  I could just stick straight to the syllabus and crank out a textbook lesson, I could be firmer with them when I’m giving instructions; I could give them easy work to make myself look good.  But I do like them.  I want them to have fun while they’re learning, I want them to like me, and I want them to know I see their potential and expect them to live up to it.  That makes the lesson planning so much more difficult.  I admit to having a few favorites, because no matter how hard you try to be even-handed, it’s impossible to bypass basic rules of human nature, and some people are just easier to get.  But what’s so cool about teaching is that just when you think you’ve zeroed in on the people you really like, one of your other students steps in and does or says something to make you see a side of them you didn’t suspect, and that you love just as much, or more..  God, maybe teaching is just making me soft, because lately I find myself back in that place where I accept the inherent good in other people.  I see the negatives as quirks, and the positives as their true natures, instead of the other way around.  Maybe I’m just a marshmallow, really, and I was never as tough as I thought I was.

What else is different now that I get to re-create myself in a new place?  Well, for one thing, I’ve been really trying.  Before I left home, I had been noticing among more and more people around me the pervasive idea that as you get older, it’s no longer ok to be so enthusiastic about life, because that’s not cool.  As you become “wiser,” you should know that some things are just never going to happen, so you should accept your lot and move on with the business of growing up.  Well, maybe.  But some things are never going to happen because we stop trying hard enough.  We become so averse to the possibility of failure that we quit really putting all of our heart into them, we do them halfway so that it won't hurt so badly, or so that we have that excuse to fall back on when things don’t work out they way we wanted them to.  It's not really because they can't happen.  Sure, they may never happen exactly the way we thought they would when we were 5 years old, but as far as I'm concerned, dreams really aren’t that fragile.  I don’t think they shatter into a million pieces if we aren’t careful with them.  I think they’re flexible and resilient and can be molded into as many different shapes as we have ideas to apply to them.  I think we can make new dreams out of old dreams, even late in life.  And since most of my friends are only in their upper 20s and lower 30s, the idea that we've got to give up trying is even more absurd.  I think that the most un-cool things I can actually think of are apathy and resignation. And I'm glad that I snapped out of them when I did, because I was getting awfully tired of being so un-cool all the time.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed my little game of “What Rachel thinks.”  If you want more, don’t worry.  We’ll play again after I’ve finished the paper I’m putting off right now.  Suggested topics can be posted in the comments or emailed to rainydaygirl414@gmail.com. Until next time, Do Widzenia!

Breathe, Eat (kind of), Lesson Plan, Teach, Sleep (kind of), Repeat.

I've only really got time for a quick one today.  This month is going to be a little bit ridiculous.  I'm really enjoying myself, but this class is really going to be very difficult and time-consuming.  I even feel a bit guilty that I'm writing this now, when I've got a lesson plan to finish before tomorrow at noon or so.  I "taught" a section yesterday, but it only involved playing a funny game.  Tomorrow I teach my first real lesson.  It will be observed by other CELTA students as well as one of our instructors.  That is not to mention the 12 eager Polish students who want to learn from a native speaker of English.  They're very nice (as all Poles seem to be) and very clever.  But it's intimidating all the same.

While teaching my lesson, I'm supposed to be thinking constantly about making sure my instructions are understood, getting a particular concept across, keeping the students engaged, filling the time allotted to me for teaching, being approachable and creating a good classroom rapport, etc. I will never underestimate a good teacher again.  It takes a lot of hard work, not to mention natural talent.  And while everyone else is merely worried about passing, I've got to worry about doing well enough to get very good recommendations, or a high grade (better yet, both!), so that I can convince a good school that it would be worthwhile for them to take the trouble of helping with the complicated work permit process so that I can stay.  I guess the only way to do it is to focus on the students though, isn't it?  If I think too much about the other stuff, I will certainly not be able to keep all of those balls in the air, and I will flop miserably.  I guess if I do that once, I just get back up, though.  As the tattoo on my arm always says, "If he has fallen, he fights on his knees."

PS The lovely Polish ladies who are taking the CELTA course as well have really taken us native speakers under their wings.  They have kept quite busy showing us around, helping us with language questions or problems, and pointing out traditional Polish food we ought to eat.  So three cheers for them!