*

Looking through my posts, I realize that I have come short of sharing what's really inside as I rhymed at the beginning. Good that I put "I may" at least...

I could probably write a lot while in sight; yet I am in sight. I wouldn't like my words to say more than my life. I admit, I have been reluctant to write much here. My fear has been that of saying too much. It's so easy to pour out and flood your listener or reader.

It's somewhat different when you're asked. Yet, I know that the days are coming when I will speak not knowing the questions in people's hearts, praying that they would be answered...

On the other hand, maybe I could share with you a little, something that has been with me all last week. It's a parable from the Book, written down by Matthew. It says that "the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.*"

The merchant surely had some other pearls when he found that one of great value. He must have noticed it was worth all the other. One pearl that cost him everything. But it was worth everything. One pearl the beauty of which he would surely ponder since.

Some may wonder why I bring everything down to one thing.
It's because I have only one pearl.

I used to have other,
but I have them no longer.
There is only this one pearl
that in my heart I ponder.

*Matthew 13:45-46

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learning to teach - teaching to learn

I feel that the teaching experience I have been engaged in is still pretty complex to share. It began in September and has not finished yet. I started from teaching English at a junior high-school. I found myself striving for the students' liking for the subject and myself. I felt great sympathy and empathy towards the weakest learners. I didn't want them to miss out. I wished they could see and understand how easy English is. I felt not detached from their experience as learners, from their struggles. I was their teacher, but I did not fully feel like one. I rather felt their companion in learning; someone to assist them - share the little more I know with them. I really wanted them to enjoy the classes. I can only hope they did.

Teaching French followed. Here the quote matches perfectly: "To teach is to learn twice" (Joseph Joubert, Pensées, 1842). It was a bit easier with the first grade primary pupils. Our mother tongue was often in use. Yet it was so amusing when a girl asked me at the end of our last class if I was going back to France :-) Well, I did not, but I started teaching at a bilingual (junior) high-school. I had to speak French much more often, and I really did not feel I was competent enough to teach this language. It was tough, and I really sighed with relief eventually leaving the gates of the building which traumatically reminded me of my old high school. Another chapter finished.

Teaching English to primary and secondary students was still ahead. Teaching young learners was the highlight of my training. I found it a nice combination of my former culture animation-acting experience, English and - most of all - love for children. I think I can say that I loved the pupils I worked with. (Probably the more, that I know I will not have my own children.) It's amazing that as my rapport with a more naughty group developed, and my knowledge of the young learners' profile broadened due to my BA paper, the class discipline improved tremendously. I proved that sincerity of feelings, and even being able to admit one's mistakes in front of young children can do a lot of good to the T-Ls relationship. And again, so funny when a girl from one group asked me at the end: "Czy pani jest z Angiel?" :-) It was because, even though I happened to use L1, L2 was pretty much in use.

Now, I'm teaching at the International School of Poznań. It's surely challenging linguistically. One time we had a lesson about what makes a good teacher. Preparing for it, I browsed the net for some quotes. Here are my favorites:

* What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. ~Karl Menninger

* I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ~Lily Tomlin as "Edith Ann"

And one more, so true about my Teacher:

*A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. ~Author Unknown

http://www.quotegarden.com/teachers.html

Comanche

While I was preparing for my last year American History exam, a thought kept ringing… In fact, a lot has been done for the African Americans, although they had suffered through much more. Though some may consider it still too little, let us think of those for who even less has been done: the Native Americans - the Indians. What a poor testimony has the white man given to these tribal people! What anguish and oppression have the white men brought! We can think of the first 17th-century settlers; all the kindness and help the Pilgrims proved from the Indians in their time of hardship … And what did the white man give in turn? - The Trail of Tears, extermination of buffalo leading to starvation of so many tribesmen and the constraints of reservations can serve us as landmarks. One cannot but sigh sadly at a thought that these were so-called Christians who have shed so much blood throughout centuries. I said so-called, for I believe that a true Christian is someone that would rather be killed because of his or her beliefs than kill others. Anyway, it is this sympathy for the native tribes of America that has determined my choice of LaDonna Harris as a woman figure to describe.

Born in 1931 to a white Irish-American and a Comanche tribe woman later left by her husband because of the hostility the mixed couple faced, LaDonna was brought up by her grandparents. Her grandmother was a Christian, while her grandfather - a tribal medicine man. The example of mutual respect the couple had given to LaDonna bore fruit in her education in both white and Indian culture. Speaking the Comanche language only until the age of six, LaDonna learned English when she entered public school. Years later, she married Fred Harris whom she had met in high-school. Although not a Native American, Fred, a sharecropper’s son, had proven hardship and poverty comparable to that of LaDonna’s. Supported by his wife, Fred obtained his legal education and run for the office.

With Fred’s election, first to the Oklahoma state senate, then to the U.S. Senate in 1965, LaDonna, by then a mother of three, began an effort similar to the civil rights movement on the behalf of African Americans in Southeast, later overtaking her activity on behalf of the Native Americans. LaDonna Harris is considered an outspoken advocate on issues concerning not only Native Americans, but also women, children and the mentally ill. In 1970, Harris founded Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), seeking to unite the state’s tribes to combat segregation. She stressed the improvement of economic conditions for Native Americans, securing the civil rights to them at the same time. With time, expanding her activity in line with her interest in the cause of native peoples as a global and not merely national phenomenon, Harris had become interested in the U.S. Peace Corps as an effective instrument to assist in local development for indigenous peoples around the world.

This and much more information about LaDonna Harris can be found at http://www.answers.com/topic/ladonna-harris

shared

On a train we passed the places, sharing lives and experiences.
What was shared with me, I hid; found again in time of need.

I will share it now with you, having proven it is true:

"No one is truly free who is still attached to material things, or to places or people. We must be able to use things when we need them and then relinquish them without regret when they have outlived their usefulness. We must be able to appreciate and enjoy the places where we tarry and yet pass on without anguish when we are called elsewhere. We must be able to live in loving association with people without feeling that we posses them or must run their lives. Anything that you strive to hold captive will hold you captive and if we desire freedom you must give freedom."

childlike

In this world they were the first

My life in their arms embraced

No friends were so near

As my parents so dear

"so to say"

There are times it's hard to say
And it all seems "so to say"...

There are thoughts it's hard to share,
And I wish you could be there:
See and hear, and even feel -
Prove what has been within sealed.

Errors in speech and in acts
Do belong to one's life's facts.
Though I'm sorry,
I shan't worry -

Fresh is every dawn...
...Keep keeping on...