Monday
I stared my first full day at the school with my Mentor Marcin - I had a Polish lesson, i to była świetna zabawa?
Then, I spent two hours in swietlica with Ula conducting a painting workshop for the children. I asked the students to recreate Monet's Water Lily Pond or at least gain inspiration from the famous masterpiece.
Photo by Ula
The iconic motif that artists often follow as well as numerous variations of the composition recreated by them and Claude Monet himself have made room for authentic interpretations, which is certainly helpful for children. Because of that, everyone was able to reach authentic results they were satisfied with and proud of while following some basic rules and recommendations I gave.
Then, I had an English class with the 7th grade. After I briefly introduced myself, Emilka suggested I share about the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and I delivered a speech focusing on my experiences, the disruption of social life, education, infrastructure, and the environment.
After that, I had another hour in swietlica, where children had the opportunity to create and present their individual works. Then, we tried some tabletop games, and my first day was finished.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, Emilia invited me to join her class' afterschool gathering.-
Photo by Emilia
There, we were mainly discussing the types of classes I can organize at the school, and I shared my ideas as well as my past materials and projects.
So, we decided that after my on-arrival training in Warsaw, I will focus on these classes:
Art workshops: creating drawings, paintings, and handicrafts
Thematic English classes: discussion-based lessons focused on various topics including social, scientific, technological, environmental, artistic, etc.
Minecraft-based classes focuses on using the virtual platform for designing and recreating various structures and planning sustainable communities
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I spent several hours in swietlica, where I had English classes.
I was reading Peter Pan to the students while they were drawing. Then, we discussed the words and phrases which we found in the text.
Lastly, I had a visit to the mayor of Wasilkow at the city hall together with the principal. It was a nice and pleasant episode, which also concluded my first week at the school because on Thursday and Friday, I had a training by ANAWOJ, my lead organisation, with other ESC volunteers in Bialystok.
Monday
I stared the week in swietlica, where we were mainly making Christmas gonks with wool.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, I joined the welcoming ceremony for the visiting teachers from Romania and North Macedonia through Erasmus.
After that, I offered a bit of help for some students with mock interviews they had to have with the visiting teachers later.
Later in the evening, we had a tour in the center of Bialystok, and then had a dinner together with some of our teachers.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, we had a workshop about non-violent communication and active citizenship.
After that, we visited Swieta Woda and the Museum of icons and the waterfront in Suprasl
On Thursday, I spent my entire day in swietlica, where we were decorating the classroom with Christmas handicrafts
Friday
On Friday, we had the final meeting about the Erasmus project in the principal's room. After that, I joined the teachers along with the visiting group for a farewell party in the evening
The last week before my on-arrival training is Warsaw was mostly spent in the pre-Christmas hustle.
During the first half of the week, I was staying in świetlica, where the students and I were decorating the classroom.
After the Christmas break, there were several changes in my involvement at the school.
Firstly, at the beginning of January, Eliška, another volunteer, has arrived. Together, we started to lead art sessions on Mondays and occasionally work in świetlica together.
In swietlica, after creating numerous Christmas handicrafts in December, we shifted towards drawings and handicrafts on subjects like nature and spring. I also came up with an idea of decorating paper cards with colored pencil ornaments inspired by pysanky, traditional Ukrainian Easter egg decorations somewhat close to Polish pisanki.
Lastly, we began setting up a Dash robot and tablets to later use them in świetlica and for Informatics classes.
Also, I started tutoring a displaced Ukrainian student in English and Math on a one to one basis.
Finally, I started to lead Minecraft classes for 4a and 4b.
After Christmas holidays, Eliška and I started to lead a new activity - extracurricular art sessions that happen on Mondays after students' classes (currently lessons 8-9 in czytelnia)
We welcome all students to join us, and so far, we have already had 4 sessions. We have been painting landscapes with watercolors, yet we are planning to try other mediums and forms of visual and applied art in the future
16-010 Wasilków
ul. Adama Mickiewicza 2
sekretariat@sp1wasilkow.pl
+48 85 71 85 291
