A Batson's Education: Second Week of Teaching and Getting a Life

TL;DR or Quick Summary

Enjoying the Fall Colors

My second week of teaching was a success. I have now seen all of my classes at least once.
I have a more firm idea of the direction in which I want to take my classes. Although, I am sure that will change again as time goes on.
I have made friends with several Erasmus (international) students in Białystok. It has been really good to spend time with other students.

Second Week of Classes: Changing Everything

I wonder if my students know about Winnie the Pooh...

Well okay, maybe not everything, but I have made a lot of changes. Using the vast resources of Google, I have looked up more literary analysis practice, information, and tips than I think I did in all of high school. Luckily, I have been able to find worksheets, practice, and examples for most of the topics online. I revisited short stories that I have almost forgotten about, like The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, and several more that I will soon subject my students to.

For all of my classes I have assigned a weekly one page journal entry. I blatantly and apologetically stole this idea from some past Fulbrighters and I am very glad that I did. While I give weekly suggested topics, students can always free write if they wish. They were all very relieved to hear that I would not be checking their journals for spelling or grammar, just completion. So far I have only read two classes worth of journals; however I have already received some very interesting responses about what students expect from my class (to get better at writing duh), about jobs (teacher, taxi driver), and why childhood was so much better than adulthood. I hope that their responses continue to be genuine and interesting.

What most of my classrooms look like. Sometimes includes
students.

For my lower writing classes (2nd year students) I want to focus a lot of determining the theme of a passage and being able to justify that choice with evidence from the passage. Other professors have told me that the biggest challenge with Polish students is getting them to think for themselves (a problem that is not unique to Polish students at all) and to support their ideas with textual evidence. So it seems like we will practice a lot of analytical writing.

For my upper writing classes (4th year students) I want to focus on researching and writing research papers. Next year (their final year of their MA program), these students will have to write an extended research paper to complete their degrees. As such, I want them to be comfortable with reading academic papers and extracting relevant information. I gave them their first essay assignment this week; it asks them to determine what type of education that middle school students should receive: highly academic focused, highly life skills focused, or something in between. I had them read an academic article on teenage brain development and listen to the 'This American Life' radio show on Middle School.

Cafe near my university where I have taken up part time
residence.

Finally, in my Integrated Skills class, the students read their descriptions of pieces of art out loud. Students chose pieces ranging from The Scream to some famous Polish painter (whose name I can't remember). It was a very useful exercise because it showed how confidently students spoke English and revealed the depth of their vocabulary. Lastly, we watched some clips from the second presidential debate; their faces while watching the debate were priceless. Hopefully we will be able to have some good discussions about politics and other controversial issues.

How I Got a Life

The biggest adjustment for me by far in coming to Poland has been the change in my social life. In Austin and Houston, I had an established group of friends with whom I could hang out with, go out to eat with, or go camp with in remote parts of the country. Starting off, things here were very different.

For the first couple of weeks, I didn't really meet anyone my age because classes had not started yet, I was setting up my apartment, and I was doing some hardcore lesson planning (most of which I would later trash). Netflix was definitely my best friend for a couple of nights. I kept telling myself that once the semester got started and I got into a rhythm, I would find some people my age.

I knew that there were supposed to be a lot of international students in Białystok through the Erasmus program. Erasmus is a Europe wide exchange program between universities in different countries. Since Białystok has three major universities, there are a surprising amount of Erasmus students roaming about. However for a while, I never saw any of these mythical people.

Erasmus Pub Crawl.

After scouring Facebook for different Erasmus events, I saw an event for bowling for Erasmus students. Although I was not specifically invited to the event, I decided to show up anyways. Arriving at the bowling alley, I found that it was in an old run down warehouse. Eventually, I walked up to two people standing around and asked if they were here for the Erasmus event; fortunately they were and they were happy to let me join bowling! Although I literally bowled the worst game of my life (I think I barely broke 50) and personally started the stereotype that Americans suck at bowling (sorry fellow Americans), I really enjoyed myself. Everyone was very nice; there were people from Serbia, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, and of course Poland. They supported me when I bowled double gutter balls and cheered when I knocked down nine pins.

After meeting people face to face, I was immediately invited to many other events. The Białystok branch of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) organizes fairly frequent events; pub crawls (which I think are a Polish national sport), karaoke (don't worry, I didn't sing anything), and themed parties followed. It was a very nice change from the first couple of weeks.

The Białystok ESN also organizes trips to different parts of Poland and Europe. They mentioned a possible ski trip, a trip to the nearby national park, and several others. I am excited to see what the rest of the semester (and year) holds with my Erasmus friends.

Other Adventures: Białystok and Beyond

Autumn Market Festival

The first full weekend that I spent in Białystok turned out to be a really nice weekend. I had finished my first week teaching and did not have any classes on Monday so I planned for a rather relaxing weekend. I went out for dinner a couple of nights with two of my Erasmus friends from Greece. We walked around the city at night (and discovered just how long things got) and ate at a pizza place while the Polish national football (soccer) team beat Denmark.

Bubbles! I may or may not have popped several bubbles

The next day, I stumbled upon two cool events in the city center. There was an autumn market festival where they sold Lithuanian meats, mulled wine, and some of the best cheese that I have ever had. The other event looked like it was sponsored by a church group (but everything was in Polish so I wasn't entirely sure). They had different choirs come up and sing, a man making hundreds of bubbles, and a horde of dancers that unknowingly encircled me (see video below). The entire city center had a very festive and happy spirit. Even the sun cooperated and came out for a nice afternoon.

After my third week of teaching, I decided to go back to Warsaw for the weekend (Oct. 14 -16). It was the weekend of the Warsaw beer festival and there were several Fulbright friends I wanted to visit. The train ride to Warsaw is only about 2 hours and 20 minutes; so it is an easy trip to the 'big city'.

Inside of the Warsaw Beer Festival

The Warsaw beer festival was a lot more classy and sophisticated than I was expecting. I wasn't expecting things to be full on Octoberfest, but I was expecting outdoor tents, long tables, and obnoxious drunk people. Instead, it was held inside the stand area of a large stadium (it looked like a convention hall) and was very organized. There were probably over 100 different 'bars' from different breweries selling beer; most were smaller craft brews. I had a great coffee milk stout, some hot cider, an American Pale Ale (apparently that's a thing), and a nice wheat beer.

We also went to a visual performing arts show where a fellow Fulbrighter performed. The event was a lot of fun and I was several interesting performances (although I'm still not sure if I 'got' some of the performances).