808's and Heartbreak

Just like old Axle Rose says, 'nothing lasts forever'. Truer words have never been spoken, and today this life-changing practicum came to its end. The nature of International Schools is change, and if there's one thing people who attend them come to understand thoroughly, it's the word 'goodbye'. The school actually has a little ceremony that they do every time someone has to leave the close-knit community. Today it was my turn to stand in the middle of the little hallway.

I won't go into the details, but basically I had a chance to personally thank and say goodbye to every student and staff member. I also had a chance to address them all at once and say a few words. I thanked them for welcoming me with such open arms, even those who I didn't get to teach directly. I told them how much this experience meant to me, and how I was now officially locked-in to this career. I told them it was just a temporary goodbye; because in international education, you never know when your paths will cross again. And that's the truth. Fittingly, my mentor Kristin was the one who put the capstone on the event by saying some kind words that I will never forget. Then they all sang me the school song and waved goodbye.

By that point the water-works were just around the corner and I was so choked up that speaking was not really working for me anymore, so I had to cut it off there. I grabbed my bag and my jacket and my mentor walked me out the front door. I couldn't have asked for a better end to this experience.

Arbeit Macht Frei

Our unit on the Holocaust culminated last week with an amazing field trip that the Grade 8's and 9's took to Krakow. One full day of that trip was dedicated to touring Auschwitz/Birkenau which is located 2 hrs away by train from Krakow in a small steel town called Okocim. I've had a really hard time deciding how to approach this subject from the get-go, and that is probably going to be evident in the meandering nature of this posting.

This whole unit, I felt like something was wrong with the way I was teaching it. The students read all the materials I gave them, watched difficult documentaires, engaged in group discussions and reflected constantly on the tough subject matter. But no matter what I threw at them, it didnt seem to be making much of an impact. For example, at the end of the class on the Nazi euthenasia campaign, where we read heart breaking personal accounts of disabled children being put to death in rudimentary gas chambers, I felt like I had been hit by a steam-roller. The kids seemed to get over the subject matter instantly and began happily chatting away about the weekend as soon as the bell rang. It made me feel like I was really blowing it; how could they not be moved by what they were learning about?

In a way I was scared by what could potentially happen in Auschwitz with the kids. If they weren't being properly prepared for it in class, would going there be a disturbingly shocking event? There is an entire room FILLED with human hair. 90,000 pairs of old shoes. A 15'X40' gas chamber that killed approxiamtely one million people. How could seeing that stuff not shake them to the core?

The other thing that needs to be mentioned is that Auschwitz is now a very big tourist attraction and that had a pretty big effect on our experience. It is a one-day destination that is promoted and covered by every tourism kiosk in Krakow. I am one of those tourists, so I don't have much right to complain, but when we were there, there were thousands of other people there taking the tour. School groups, Isreali soldiers on leave, Bus tours... the list goes on and on. It was a big challenge to see something so intensely emotional in such a overtly public way, as was seeing the disrespectful ways some people treat the grounds. The IDF soldiers were taking pictures everywhere even where clearly marked NO PHOTOS signage was up and even after the guide asked them to stop. And believe it or not, there is actually graffiti all over Aushwitz too! Some of it is the 'never again' variety, some is staunch pro-zionist rants, some is actually run-of-the-mill tagging. All of it is terrible. There's even graffiti in the gas chamber. But to me, the worst part of the tourist angle is that you don't feel like to have time to really take it in. You find yourself looking at a bolt of fabric that was made out of human hair, and you can't even begin to take in how profoundly disturbing that is because the line is moving. You can't really stop and reflect. Its a destination, and they want to put as many people through it in a day as they can. This was something the kids commented on right away.

But our kids did so good. We knew we had a good group, but they showed such a high level of respect and reverence for what they were seeing that you could not help but be feel so proud. But at the end of the day, just as with this entire unit, they happily skipped off down the street towards the train back to Krakow once it was all over. I suppose if actually going to Auschwitz and seeing it for yourself doesn't make a big impact, then maybe your mind just isn't in a place to fully understand it yet. As we'd say in Child Psych, 'Formal Operations' must still be a few years off. And really, can you ever fully understand how terrible it was to live through the Shoa without actually having been there? Can any medium ever do it justice? I will admit, that once I got on that train back to Krakow, and began thinking about the rest of the trip, the horrible, horrible things I just saw began to slip away all too quickly. I myself am not a whole lot different than the students in this sense, I guess.

So in the end, my experience in teaching the Holocaust has been a real eye-opener. I think the most valuable thing I've learned is that there are times where kid's minds just won't sync up with your vision for learning no matter how much you plan for it. But they had an amazing experience, showed a great deal of maturity for their young ages and most of all they learned a lot... even if it didn't fully sink in.

Birkenau's ominous front gate.


Stairs to the gas chamber.


Disgusting.

Make Time For Fun

We got back from Krakow two nights ago. It was a great field trip, and the kids made us all very proud. Nonetheless, even good field trips are completely exhausting for the teaching staff; I've been in bed pretty much all weekend. There is going to be a big, honkin' posting about the academic side of the Aushwitz trip in a few days once I've had a chance to wrap my head around it all. So stay tuned. Until then, here are a few shots and videos of some of the lighter moments on our trip. Bon Appetit!

4 Hour train trip. We played copious amounts of mafia. The kids never get sick of it.




We organized a games night on the last day. Chin-face sing-alongs are good times!

Feeding the teenagers. They're just like baby birds.

This is an old gem from my camp days called the Pantyhose Facelift. Sorry Miss Hutton...


Last but not least we have a great video of the lone male student on the trip, Jules, telling us exactlty what he thinks of the Rynek. Teenage cold-blooded honesty + ESL = Hilarity.

Praha!

What to say about old Prague that hasn't been said before? That's a tough one. Basically its a city that is so achingly beautiful that it makes your head spin. Architecture, art, history, culture; you name it, you got it. The other part of Prague which should be mentioned is its' gong-show nightlife. Now being a professional educator, I have precious little to say about that. Travel writing is definitely not my forte, so I will leave it at this... you should probably go to Prague before you die.


Book-vortex at the Prague library


Center of 'New Prague'. That domed building in the background is the Czech National Gallery where a series of students kept burning themselves alive to protest the communist government back in the day.



This giant statue of the Virgin Mary apparently ripped a thief's arm off for trying to steal her gold chain!


And what did the church do with the bloody, severed limb once the Madonna had finally calmed down and dropped in on the floor you ask? Why they did what any rational group of individuals would do!!! They had it embalmed, ran a chain through it and hung it on the wall as a warning to any other would-be chain-snatchas!


Putting the 'Antics' in Education.Diplomacy.Antics.CabbageRolls

Sights and Sounds of Wroclaw

With the May Day long weekend here, I finally had time to check out my host city. It felt good to shift my focus away from teaching and to something a little bit more relaxed, albeit though for just a couple of days. Enjoy!

All of Wroclaw is connected by a very sketchy tram network. Every so often, you see a Bombardier space-train roll by, but for the most part, its one of the most glaring relics of the Cold War

The Church of Our Savior Jesus. Jaw-dropping even for us heathens

It's all shot-up on the outside.

More beautiful religiousocities

Apparently Wroclaw is world renowned for the sheer number of naked dude statues this town has. They're riding horses, having sword fights, shoeing mules... you name it!

This is this weird abandoned ampitheater/plaza/restaurant just outside the main square. Its known for its amazing views of the city, but when I was there, all I saw were dirty punk-rockers doing dirty punk-rocker things.

A Nazi bunker converted into a disco!!! Astounding! This is where I am going to spend my last night in Wroclaw.

Probably the best piece of public art I have ever seen. Off in the background, they are sinking into the pavement, representing the descent into communism. Then they pop up on the other side, representing the rebirth of Poland. Fantastic!

I don't know about you, but there is no way I would drop 399 Zlot on a humidifier being sold by this guy....

This was something I was really interested in seeing! Here we have some Roma hustling tourists down in the Rynek! The men strolled around from patio to patio, playing songs like 'La Cucaracha' and other nice Roma tunes. The women and children however were running a very different type of scam. They would send the kids onto a patio screaming and making a raucous, pinching tourists and tossing around chairs. Then the older ladies and teenage girls would follow behind them screaming and shouting pretending to be trying to catch the little scamps to give 'em a good backhanding for upsetting us nice foreign-folk. The sucker tourists, feeling bad for the little kid about to get a whooping, were to pay-off the irate grandmas to show that no harm was done and that the little rascals meant nothing by it. But the ruse was pretty weak, and most tourist just stared at them like they were all crazy as the day is long. I only saw one person fall for it. The best part was the whole family would regroup right outside the patio they just finished working to consult each other before moving onto the next one. I love it! Talk about most interesting people watching imaginable!

Quiet May Day and a Holocaust Doubleheader

Well I've wrapped up another great week of teaching here in Wroclaw. It was a bit of an eye opener though for a couple of reasons. I realized something this week; teaching social studies has challenges that no other discipline does. We have to cover some really, really heavy stuff in this class that can tug on human emotions pretty strongly.

As mentioned, I am teaching the Holocaust to the grade 8's while I am here. When I found this out back in Victoria, it was a little overwhelming, but I really felt up for the challenge. Especially because this unit includes a three day trip to Krakow and Aushwitz coming up in 2 weeks! So I did all of the normal, super keen student-teacher stuff. I planned, picked great texts, thought up different ways to assess. I even got to write some IB Curriculum on the Holocaust that future teachers can use. But when the wheels hit the pavement, my initial gusto hit a roadblock.

Do you know how hard it is to sit there and try to educate a bunch of wide-eyed 14 year olds about the ugliest corner of the twentieth century? Let me tell you, its REALLY freakin' hard. It physically drains you. Added to the fact was that this week had a double period where I was formally assessed! That sure ratcheted up the stress level nicely. And you have to make sure the kids understand the gravity of this historical event too, so you kinnda create this somber mood in the class that also has a big effect on everyone. Do kids have to leave you class depressed in order to have had a successful lesson in teaching the Holocaust? I don't know. Depends which part you're teaching, I guess. In All in all, I can tell this will be a very demanding, very long unit.

So I was really looking forward to this weekend to regroup and rest. But I completely forgot about May Day, and now everything is shut down for who knows how long here behind the Iron Curtain. Looks like all I will be doing for a while is enjoying a Zubr , catching up on sleep, planning for my upcoming trip to Prague and maybe even streaming some hockey if I am lucky. I feel as though I've earned this one.

Art Week

Everyone is stone-crazy around WIS right now, including me. My workload doubled this week, and I have been spending alot of time helping with the spring concert and art festival. I wont have time for a proper posting for a bit, so I figured I would just share a few of my favorite submissions from the elementary students' display. Enjoy!


Hanna Montana! I wonder if a boy or girl drew this one...


A vegetable animal that reminds me of the Beagle!


Painting with water colors is so tough. This was done by a very talented second grader.


This mask just cracked me up because it looks exactly like a black version of my old pal Ben Leon.


Last but not least, and my vote for best in show is 'Anthill' by Pre-K.

See you in a few days!

Caution: Long Blog Posting Ahead

Before we begin, I just want to give everyone a heads up that this is going to be a pretty dry posting about the theory behind my first unit of teaching, so if your looking to be entertained, may I suggest you go here instead.

Well week two is in the bag! With the exception of the odd bump in the road (man, field trips and school concerts can just DESTROY your lesson plans!) my unit on the Cuban Missile Crisis went off without a hitch.

As I only had one class, I found myself with quite a lot of time to really pine over my plans and make sure they were bulletproof on a theoretical level. One thing UVIC really does quite well is fill your head with an arsenal of teaching lingo which you can call upon when the time comes. So when my supervisor came to check out the class, I pretty much hosed him down with jargon-filled, over the top lesson plans. Poor guy didn't know what hit him.

Anyways, the lesson was pretty standard really. It was all built to Bloom's, and so the first day was pretty basic geography, names and dates. Then on the next day we ran an ol' Zero Sum Game to deduce what could have transpired in the crisis. The ladies really over-thought this exercise I felt, which is definitely something to consider in future planning, but they got the big idea in the end. The next day I tracked down the EXComm meeting minutes and arranged them into a sort of play. I assigned the ladies different personalities to take on (ie JFK, McNamara, RFK) and we read through it dramatically together. I was JFK and busted out my best impression (thanks Clone High!) which they really liked. It worked so great! Everyone of them is ESL, but they picked up on all the subtleties and nuance in the speaker's words and again, fully nailed the concepts I was going for.

I couldn't have been happier with the hand I was dealt for my first week of teaching. I made one massive faux-paus infront of them, which they called me on instantly. Did you know the capital of Turkey ISN'T Istanbul?! I would have bet my bottom dollar on that one! Ankara?! Man, I am looking at google maps right now and I still don't believe it.

So now I know that I can really push these ladies mentally. Next week is 'Human Demographics' for my grade 9's and we will be analyzing a really cool art film called Koyaanisqatsi to determine what push/pull pressures we can see placed on the society depicted in the movie. I am going to have my grade 8's read a chunk of Art Spiegleman's hit comic (or 'authentic text' as we high-falutin' teachers call it) Maus to learn about the early phases of the Holocaust. All in all... I am really, really liking this gig!

Anyways, thanks for sticking it out through this one!
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My Marvelous Mentor

With the exception of perhaps the students, the best thing about my time at WIS so far has to be the fact that I have been working with Miss Kristin Hutton as my mentoring teacher. I couldn't have asked for a better fit. Kristin began her teaching career by cutting her teeth a few years ago in some very tough vocational schools back in Ontario. She has since kicked off a career in international education and plans to travel extensively over the next few years before settling back down in Canada. Its like working with the futuristic female version of myself!

She is such an inspirational teacher in so many ways. On a pedagogical level we see completely eye to eye; she has a huge focus on current affairs, building community in the classroom, global citizenship and she hates homework. But what I am learning most working with her is about the personal side of teaching. The rapport she has with students and the way she can navigate being a nurturing and caring role-model while demanding nothing but the best from them is pretty astounding. Maybe it comes a little easier to female teachers, who knows? With out a doubt my favorite thing about her teaching is the little personalized details she injects into her lessons. She superimposes her students faces on a portrait of Karl Marx when studying political systems and surprises them with them in class . She slips them inspirational cards after particularly difficult weeks or really good assignments. She hogs up all of the school newspaper and hallway bulletin boards because she is so freakin' proud of her students' work. Ms Hutton is going to be that one teacher that so many of her students will never ever forget.

One of the things I hate about the PDPP program is the potential student-teachers have of being paired up with washed up burn-outs during their observations and practicums. In my mind, its down right criminal to be mentored by a walking bummer at this stage in your career. You know the type; they can barely wait half a school day before they break and start talking shit about the students, the faculty or 'the system' to the new comer. I am incredibly grateful for everyday I spend at WIS, working with someone who truly loves what they do.
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Sights and sounds of Dresden

So due to the ash-cloud of doom which has europe by the bag right now, I was able to accompany a bunch of the staff on a road trip to Germany this weekend. They were originally supposed to go to Scotland (which I definitely was not budgeted for), and so when that whole plan got ash canned *budum-ching*, I got invited along!

Germany is so nice. Alot less of the eastern european, Stalin-esque architecture everywhere which can be kind of a bummer. Its a country with all of its ducks in a line, ya know? I can honestly say I have never felt safer in a city; Calgary at night is like Baghdad compared to Dresden. And the trains are actually soothing they are so nice! Being on the euro, things were a fair bit more expensive, but like all sly travelers, I can sniff out the deals with the best of them, so it wasnt too bad. Dresdin was blown to smithereens one bleak Valentines day, and they recycled all the stones when they rebuilt it. So its pockmarked back and white everywhere you look. The food was also great; from now on I am eating nothing but fine salami and cheese for breakfast. Last but not least, the German nightlife is also completely worth the visit. I havent had that much fun at a club since the Night Gallery shut their doors!

PS. If anyone can identify the AMAZING trashy electro track in the club video for me, I would greatly appreciate it!

FIRST WEEK!

Holy sweet Jesus, what a first week. Going international for this practicum has to be the best educational decision I have ever made. Its completely reaffirmed my commitment to international teaching! The school community has welcomed me with open arms, the city is unbelievably stimulating and everyday I feel better about the path I have chosen. Here's a list of why life is so fantastic right now;

#1 The Kids: They are happy, bright, worldly and get this... THEY WANT TO LEARN! I sometimes feel like my university education is preparing me for going into battle rather than a classroom. To know that there are groups of students out there who actually like school does a lot to brighten my horizons. I mean they even say 'Thank you' after class!

#2 IB Curriculum: You can basically teach kids anything. ANYTHING. Forget about some weak list of 50 topics that you can never ever stray from. In the IB program, as long as you can get kids to thoroughly show what they have learned, then you can teach them whatever you feel like. Free at last, free at last. Thank god almighty, I am free at last.

#3 Life in Europe: I am about to head out for a road-trip weekend to Dresden. No big whoop.

#4 Jared Barnes: Possibly the world's most accommodating host. I live for free in a swank pad in the middle of the city. Without this guy, I might be keeping a blog on life in Sicamous right now. Yeesh. I can't thank this guy enough.

Warsaw Mourns - Video Clip

Warsaw Mourns

I landed in Warsaw about 24 hours after the death of the Polish president. And of all the places and things I have seen in my life, what I saw in Warsaw yesterday had to be one of the most amazing. The entire city square was lit with paraffin lanterns. Despite the huge crowd that I saw in front of the presidential palace at 2AM, you could have heard a pin drop. It was an entire city in mourning. Irregardless of how individual Poles felt about Kaczynski's politics, everyone here has banded together to get through what is being called the most devastating event since the end of the war in Poland. A new leader has to be picked in the next 60 days, and investigations will begin shortly, but right now this entire nation is unified in their grief. I am so lucky to be right in the thick of such a historic time and place.

YVR -> AMS

My geography prowess is something I have always prided myself on. I have a tried, tested and true mental image of the world burned into my brain which I call upon at least a couple times a day. So when I was sitting there in FlightCenter, buying the ticket I am traveling with today, I had it all laid out. “Hmmm...” I thought, “We'll probably fly due east over the prairies and transfer in either Toronto or Montreal. From there it is straight burn across the pond, nipping the south end of Britain and touching down in Amsterdam. Yep. That's how you do it.” Let's just say Travel Agent is probably not a good career choice as the route I imagined would have taken approximately 107 hours to complete.

No friends, the way to fly from Vancouver to Amsterdam is to fly north! It's a giant arch over the arctic circle, with the apogee of the turn being the far northwest corner of Hudson Bay. That's right. The northwestern corner of Hudson Bay is halfway between Vancouver and Amsterdam! Sweet lord, I live in a huge country. By the way, it's an amazing, completely bewildering flight. You leave Vancouver right at sunset and after only a couple hours in the air, the dark of the night peels away and all of a sudden your in daylight that reminds you of noon, when it is approximately 11pm your time. When you head north in Canada, the other side of the world is really, really close. It was a bitter pill to swallow when I realized that my superior geography skills are deeply flawed; on some subconscious level, I seem to think the world is flat.

It got me thinking about why today is a pretty exciting time to be involved in education. The 'tried, tested and true' ideas we have about schooling are going to be surpassed by far better ones in the coming years. These new ideas will be so much more efficient and conducive to student learning it will make the old methods look archaic and ridiculous. Most of them are right in front of our eyes now, and will seem painfully obvious once we finally adopt them. Sort of like realizing you can reach Amsterdam by a short flight north instead of a long, long, looong flight east.

I promise that is the last corny metaphor you will find here at EducationDiplomacyAnticsCabbageRolls.

President Kaczynski Dies!

I am stepping on a plane to Warsaw in a few moments, hours after the president and most of the upper-cabinet of the Polish government was just killed in a tragic plane crash. The country is in deep week-long state of mourning, and snap-elections are going to be called shortly, according to the BBC. Pretty wild time to be flying into a nation. Hopefully the day I have to spend in Warsaw will go smoothly. Stay tuned.

Bon Voyage

So I have EducationDiplomacyAnticsCabbageRolls up and running now. I guess the first thing i should talk about is why I chose going to Poland rather than staying in uber-pleasant Victoria and teaching here. Well, if there is one rather simple lesson I have learned in my life it's this; always play to your strengths... it makes things easier. I was raised all over the world, and the ability to adapt and reground in new places is a skill that is a direct result of my upbringing. I definitely feel predisposed to the lifestyle that international teaching demands!

The winds of change are blowin' in the field of education. And in my eyes (and from what my education at Uvic has led me understand), this change is going to vastly favor the dynamic over the sedentary. With the exception of maybe Calgary, most of western Canada's urban education job market is locked up tighter than a tick and is pretty inhospitable to newcomers. New teachers have to make a choice; fight against the current or cast your sails into the wind. I don't think I need to tell you which choice I've made.

Anyways, I LOVE the feeling when you're just about to leave on a journey! It can sometimes even eclipse the trip itself! If there was a theme song to the feeling of being Jet-set, it would have to be this little ditty by James Pants! Enjoy!
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Polish Stoke!

For anyone looking to keep abreast of the goings on in Poland this spring during my 6 week education practicum in Wroclaw Poland, this is the place to check. Personal reflections and educational philosophy from the front lines of international teaching. Plus travel stories and tips from the pros! I promise it will be worth the bookmark.

See you in April!
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