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| Białystok on a rare sunny winter day |
TL;DR or Quick Summary
- This is the final week of the winter semester, so like any school, things here are slightly chaotic.
- Last weekend, I traveled to Częstochowa to see the Black Madonna.
- Last week I gave my integrated skills class their final. While they freaked out about it during the exam, most of them did well.
- This week, my 2nd year students will write an in class essay and my 4th year students will be submitting their research papers. So for the next few days, I will be trying to wade through all of the reading.
- Next Monday, I head out on my next adventure, Morocco! I will be there for about a week before heading back to Poland for a Fulbright meeting.
End of the Semester
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| Sculpture in Częstochowa |
I have tried to ease the burden as much as possible, although it is still necessary to have some type of final. For both of my writing classes, I assigned essays (surprise, surprise). My 2nd year students are writing an in class argumentative essay while my 4th year students have (in theory) been writing a short research paper over the past couple of weeks. My integrated skills class took an exam over listening skills, idioms, phrasal verbs, and the mysterious 'Use of English.'
2nd Year Writing
After somewhat mastering thesis statements and the basics of a 5 paragraph essay, my 2nd year students have moved on to argumentative essays. The new challenge for them is to state and explain an opponent's viewpoint and then disprove it. In the practice essays we wrote, several students did not understand the concept of disproving an argument and I ended up with some essays that argued vehemently for both sides of the issue. While they were well written, they didn't exactly successfully argue for one position or the other.Another continuing goal is for students to successfully integrate examples to support their claims. These examples do not need to be super formal, but can include personal experiences, events from history, or even occurrences from movies or TV. While many students can think of several pertinent examples, they sometimes have difficulties showing how their examples connect to their thesis. So that is another skill that I will be looking for in their writing.
For their final in class essay, I borrowed several prompts from the SAT writing section. The topics are pretty broad with the hopes of allowing students to bring in their choice of examples. I gave potential topics out ahead of time so that students will have an opportunity to think about their position and prepare some examples. While I know some students who will come 100% prepared, others will come in with nothing but a pen, a hope, and a prayer. Some of the topics include:
- Must our achievements benefit others in order to make us truly happy?
- Is it better not to know what is going on if we cannot do anything about it?
- Does loyalty require unconditional support?
- Do good intentions matter, or should people be judged only according to the results of their actions?
Hopefully students will take a diversity of positions, although if their past writing is any indication, most will choose the same position. Not that I blame then, sometimes one side of the issue is just more agreeable. Overall, there are a total of six potential topics. The day of the essay, I will choose three from which my students will be able to write on.
This semester was primarily focused on how to effectively use a thesis statement in their writing and how organize a paper around it. Next semester I hope to do some different types of writing. We did a couple of creative writing activities this semester that my students really responded well to so there might be more of those in the future. Interestingly, it looks like I will also have the same group of students for conversation next semester so I might be able to combine the classes in some way.
4th Year Writing
As I said earlier, my masters students are writing short research papers for their final exam. Well I had one student tell me in my evaluation that a 5 page paper was too long. Yeah... not for a masters student when you have had several weeks to work on it. Although it was nice to get at least some critical feedback from a students. Generally my students hate giving negative feedback to each other during peer reviews and even less so to me.For their past essays I did not really give my students much of a choice when choosing topics, so this time I pretty much gave them free range. I found a very helpful chart of essay topics from The New York Times and let them choose from that list. The goal of the essay was for students to pick a position and then defend it with evidence from studies or research. It is similar to the task for my second year students, but definitely a step up. Since most students chose different topics, these essays should at least have more variety.
Teaching my 4th year students has been more of a challenge than my 2nd years. From by their evaluations of me and my own feeling of each class day, some lessons have been too challenging and some lessons have been much too easy for them. Having never taught (or taken) a masters level English writing class, I don't judge myself too harshly, but at the same time, it is a very frustrating feeling to know that the semester could have been more successful than it was.
Fortunately, my students did offer some good suggestions about what they would like more next semester. Several students suggested more in class short writing assignments that I could review and give back to them. Of course there were mixed opinions on several topics; some really liked their weekly journals and others strongly disliked them; some enjoyed that I talked more about US events and others wanted a more international outlook. However, the most frequent comments were about my prompt emailing and energy during classes. So clearly the coffee IV I have been on for my time in Poland has been working!
Integrated Skills
After stumbling early on in the semester to determine what exactly I want the class to look like and it was definitely not how I started the semester. The topics were not connected and there was really no follow through from class to class. Next semester, I want to connect the topics better. Now that I have good idea of how the class works, I think I will definitely have that chance.
Travel and Adventure
Last Week
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| Relaxation room in the water museum |
Last weekend, I knocked a couple of other places off my Poland bucket list. On Friday, I headed to Wrocław, which is almost 100% on the other side of Poland. I to get there by train, I had to make a connection in Warsaw. By now I know the Polish rail system to know that I can never really rely on the trains being perfectly on time. I got lucky and scheduled in just enough time. My ideal 15 minute connection time quickly turned into a 3-4 minute connection time, but that was just enough.
In Wrocław, I had a decent beef burrito for lunch. Sadly I can tell that my Mexican food standards are quickly decreasing. I can already picture my first meal back in the US. Hint: it starts with Tex and ends with Mex.
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| The Black Madonna |
After that, I went to perhaps the most particular museum I have ever been to: The Wrocław Water Museum. Keep in mind that Wrocław is far from any ocean or lake (it is on a river) and that as far as I can tell, there is not special reason for Wrocław to have this museum, yet there is it. The museum focuses on how people interact with water, from the water cycle to the deep sea. There were tons (perhaps too many) interactive screens and exhibits. The best part however, was undoubtedly the relaxation room, where soothing water sounds played to images of waves rolling up on a beach. We took a nice long break to enjoy the waves.
The next day, I headed to Częstochowa, a smaller city in Poland known for a religious icon, the Black Madonna. Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit the Black Madonna and approach her on their knees. From what I understand, it (or some related form) was originally painted by John the Baptist and has traveled from place to place before finally ending up in Częstochowa.
The entire monastery complex was huge and contained several different museums and exhibits. Despite being entirely misled by the seemingly helpful woman at the information desk (we missed an infrequent bus and there was no promised English mass), it was still a really great cultural look at Poland.
Next Week
For Poles, actual winter break starts next week. During February, students take exams ... and then can retake them if they fail. The ability to retake exams (and for some classes to have the second semester's grade override the first semester's grade) is probably the largest difference between the American and Polish higher education system. Unfortunately, many students try to take advantage of this. But, more on that later. This about travel plans.
My first stop will be Milan, Italy. It is really just an extended layover in order to get the cheapest possible flights. Flying on budget airlines is super cheap, but not always the most convenient. I will be there for just a little bit over 24 hours. The last time I was in Milan, I was not super impressed. For some reason, the fashion capital of Italy (and maybe the world) was not very interesting to a middle-school-aged Austin. Hopefully I will be able to appreciate it more this time. Also, authentic pasta, espresso, and gelato will not be a bad touch.
After that, with a group of 9 Fulbrighters, I will be traveling to Morocco for about a week! It will be a great opportunity to get out of the cold ice cube that is Poland and into some warmer temperatures. We will be going to Marrakech, one of the larger cities in Morocco. We will spend a couple of days exploring around the city, bartering at markets, and enjoying the food. After that the real fun begins.
We will take a 2 night, 3 day trip into the desert to see Merzouga in the Sahara Desert. The first day we will be traveling by car/mini-bus and will stay in hotel. The next day we will continue deeper and ride camels for the last leg of the journey. Our final night will be spent with the Berbers at one of their nomadic camps. On the trip we should see some beautiful desert scenery, a ton of stars (unfortunately the moon will be full while we are there), and meet some interesting people. Many people have warned me that riding camels will not be a fun experience, but it is something that I think I will be able to survive.
Hopefully this will help satisfy my need for hiking and the outdoors. Not being able to enjoy the outdoors (at least without freezing) is one of the things that I miss most about Texas. Going from the northeast corner of Poland to the desert might be an extreme change, but I am looking forward to it!
My mom has already come to terms with my travel plans (or at least that's what she tells me). I am really excited to get to some warmer temperatures and to see the sun for extended periods of time. It surprised me to learn that Texas and Morocco are more or less on the same latitude. So it will be a little bit like going home?
I am not sure when I will have the chance to post an update, but rest assured that I will try as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!
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