Visit to Szkoła Podstawowa Nr 1

Hey everyone!

This week, we had the first snowfall of the year, finally! I was really scared that we will not see the snow this winter, which is so sad and shows the seriousness of the global warming. However, fortunately we could enjoy a lovely and white view. Pułtusk is even prettier when it is all in white J

Besides snowfall, we were also honored by an invitation from Szkoła Podstawowa NR 1

im. Konstytucji in Nasielsk this week. It is a primary school in Nasielsk, which is a small town close to Pułtusk. We went there to meet the students from 4 to 8 grade and introduce our projects, countries and have a quiz afterwards.  Firstly, we were welcomed by the director accompanied with nice conversations and coffee. We introduced ourselves to them and got to know about the school. She introduced the school to us and we visited some classes. We didn’t stay very long not to interrupt them, however the students and the teachers were very nice and welcoming. We had a chance to see how they have their classes so we could compare if there is a difference between their system and ours.

After visiting the classes, we went to the room that we met students. First, the voluntary club of the school had a presentation about their activities. It was very inspirational to see what they’ve achieved as the voluntary club. They are responsible young people who are trying to have an impact on society, which is really impressive.

After their presentation, we had introduced ourselves, our countries and our projects. When we finished, we wanted to see what they have learned from us so we had an interactive quiz with them. Results were surprisingly good! I can say that they were really interested in different cultures and they asked a lot of questions to us when we were having conversations with them. At the end of the meeting, they gave us diplomas which were designed under our names. It was very nice of them, thank you once again 😍

We all had a great time in Szkoła Podstawowa Nr 1. Also, they want to host a volunteer in future which means that we will be in touch 😊

This is all from Pułtusk for now. 😋

Have a great weekend!

-Hande Ozdemir

Marta's Project

Hello everyone!

My name is Marta. I come from Croatia and I am 25 years old. I have started my EVS project in November and will stay until the end of August. My project includes working in kindergarten with preschool children as an assistant to the teachers. Children are from 4 to 6 years old.

My task is to help the teachers in the everyday life of children in kindergarten. Usually that would be preparing for the activities or cleaning afterwards, helping children with their assignments, when we are going outside...Currently, I am in the group that has children with special needs.

The biggest challenge that I am facing is the language. I have never learned Polish and even though it is in the same language family as Croatian (Slavic languages), it is not so easy to learn it. We had organised Polish lessons which gave us a good basis for further learning. Both, Polish lessons and kindergarten helped me to work on my language skills. I am trying to talk in Polish as much as possible with children, teachers, in the shops...There are some struggles but we manage to understand each other. This type of situations also made me use more the non-verbal communication, body language for example. It is nice to learn a new language and people appreciate it more if you try to speak their language.

Until now, I had a chance to get to know the culture better and also the way in which kindergarten functions. I have seen some customs and holidays that are not common in Croatia such as ‘Dzień babci i dziadka’ (Grandma and Grandpa Day) – teachers with children prepared recitals and gifts and afterwards they had a short feast;

Andrzejki (Saint Andrews day in Poland) – a day of mysterious parties with the candles and future telling games. Children and teachers dressed up in costumes and played some games;

The breaking of Christmas wafer or ‘opłatek’ in Polish during Christmas show in kindergarten. Each person has one and you go from person to person wishing them all the best for Christmas and in the New Year. It is something we do not do in Croatia and I believe it is a nice tradition.

I enjoy my stay in Poland and hope that it will continue to be as good as it has been. In my opinion, learning about new cultures and their traditions is very interesting and I’m excited to see what else is yet to come.

Your Croatian volunteer Marta 😊

https://www.facebook.com/fiyepolska
https://www.instagram.com/fiyepolska/

Meeting at Liceum

Hello hello,

While we are getting closer to the end of January, we still cannot believe how fast the time is passing. I have already been here for 3 months, and it actually feels like 3 weeks! However, it’s good that we still have a long time to spend here as a volunteer in our lovely Pułtusk.

Yesterday morning, we were invited to Liceum Ogólnokształcące im Piotra Skargi w Pułtusku to meet juniors. We wanted to introduce our culture and talk about volunteering, but this time, in a more competitive way😜

So we have prepared Kahoot quiz which enables you to have an interactive activity in teams. The students picked their team members and then we have started to the quiz. There were questions chosen from different areas about our countries. I can say that I was impressed by their knowledge about our cultures. Of course, there were some information which they did not know before. Then we gave them some further information. This was a great activity where we could see their knowledge about our countries and also tell them some more.

After the quiz, we had several activities. We have started with Tingo Tango where we ask questions about countries. Most of the questions were aimed to test the students’ perception about our cultures. So we could see what they know about our culture and if they are true or false. Some of them could guess correctly, and for difficult questions, we helped them. 😅

Then we were divided into two smaller groups to play Human Bingo in which students are supposed to find a person who is suitable for the specified situation. There were questions about volunteering so we talked about their voluntary activities afterwards.

Our last activity was a debate. We had some controversial situations about school and education. So we discussed about them. Everyone had explained their opinion and we could compare different point of views. It was interesting to see diverse opinions and hear their reasons behind it. Then, we had random conversations with the students. They mostly asked about our background and our voluntary service. So we could tell them about ourselves more, also about volunteering and the opportunities they have.

For everyone, it was a fulfilling day. It was great to meet the students and the teachers at Liceum. Once again, thank you for having us. We can’t wait for our next meeting!😁

👉If you want to be a volunteer as well, we are looking for new volunteers! 

More info:

http://workcamps.pl/index.php/blog/projekty-evs/247-esc-projects-in-poland-2020?fbclid=IwAR1Ej-HISSScAcHYWnf33O6sWEVCRyjQwxic484RJE4BZOVGATlwlwcs3J4

Do widzenia everyone😋

Hande Ozdemir

https://www.facebook.com/fiyepolska

https://www.instagram.com/fiyepolska/

A Day at Akademia

Hello everyone!

After a long break, we got back to work. I can’t lie, I thought that it was going to be very difficult to adapt working after the holidays, but once I got in the atmosphere I realised that I actually missed it. So I started working on our meetings excitedly💪 Since it is the beginning of a new year, we have a lot of events on our list. Last Saturday, we have started with our meeting with Akademia Humanistycza im. Aleksandra Gieysztora w Pultusku.

Akademia Humanistycza im. Aleksandra Gieysztora w Pultusku is a school which provides higher education to their students in many different fields. We have visited a class of Education Studies department whose graduates will be teachers and pedagogues.  The aim of the meeting were to introduce ourselves and our projects in Pultusk, present our countries in general and talk about the education system in our countries. For me, it was a very interesting topic since I am an English teacher. I was curious about the current situation of education and the status of teachers in different parts of the world.

We had presentations about Croatia, Honduras, Taiwan, France and Turkey.  All of us talked about the examination system, schooling years and how they are divided, universities and etc. We had a chance to compare and contrast the education in these countries. It was really interesting to see how the system differs from each other. The students listened to our presentations interestedly. The teacher, Joanna Popielska helped us with the translation when it is needed, and also asked us some questions about the things that she found interesting.

After our presentations, the class has been divided into smaller groups where we can have conversations. The aim was to discuss about education but they were also curious about our project and our opinions about Pultusk, Poland and Polish people it was a nice opportunity to learn about each other better and talk about volunteering. Then, we have discussed on some controversial issues about education such as uniforms, examination and social status of teachers. These discussions enabled us to see the differences and similarities of the current situation of education and to explore each other’s opinions on diverse topics.

I can say that it was definitely a satisfying start to a great year thanks to this meeting. It was very informative for all of us. Thanks to Akademia and Joanna Popielska for welcoming us in their class😊 We hope to see them again for another occasion in the future.

 👇Don’t forget to follow our activities on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fiyepolska/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fiyepolska/

- Hande Ozdemir