This week was good, but kinda crazy. I feel like I say that a lot...maybe that goes along with teaching kindergarten? On Wednesday we had a health inspection at our school because it's the last step in completing our PYP accreditation. Apparently, we aren't a registered school in Wroclaw because their laws are so crazy. The school's board thinks we wouldn't be able to teach our curriculum and that we would have extra crazy rules to follow or something, but in order to be accredited we have to be a recognized school in the country, hence the health inspection. So anyways, we are told we have a health inspection the next day, then we get an email saying all the guys need to wear collared shirts and ties and all the girls need to put their hair up, and that we can't have any food in the room (my kids keep their lunches and snack in the room and eat both in the classroom). Then, when I get to school on Wednesday I'm told that Pre-Kindergarten (we have like 16 kids in this class) does not exist as of today, they will be going on a field trip and we are supposed to say it's a community room, that we have registered as a community center not school to avoid the crazy rules, so our kids need to be doing arts and crafts while they come in, and that my kids are only allowed to use certain bathrooms and I am only allowed to use other ones and it has always been that way... WHAT?!?!?! So, I figure out a crafty lesson the kids are doing during the time when their supposed to be inspecting and guess what they don't come and we're told won't come till the very end of the day so the kids might not even be there. YAY! Ohhhhh guess who shows up as all of my kids are eating their lunch in my classroom....All the inspectors! We'll see how we fare, we don't have the results yet. It was a crazy day and one of those days where you think "this would never happen in the U.S." Poland's laws are just so old and people are afraid of changing them and just scared in general. It's like their so scared of ever going back to Communism and being ruled by another country that they just want to keep everything as it has always been because that is how Poland was, even if it makes no sense! Another funny story semi related, but I learned this when I first got here. The head of our school is really into technology and very North American, so he wanted t wireless internet in the schools. The board head (semi like superintendent I guess and an extremely educated, smart, great guy) won't allow us to have wireless internet in the school because he thinks then people could watch us. To me this idea seems insane, but I also didn't grow up in a country that was strictly ruled and people were watching you and telling you what to do all the time. It's the little things that make me take a step back and remember "Oh ya I'm in Poland!"
We had a school potluck for both campuses yesterday and all the parents and staff were invited and asked to bring a dish from their home country and then label the countries origin. I had a really hard time thinking of food that was American, because I pretty much each other countries foods only in the U.S. I discovered. I decided to make apple crisp. It actually turned out really well and people liked it!! The potluck was amazing though! There was so much food and it was so interesting to try foods from all over the world. I have now had authentic Korean food 3 times and I like it! I like sushi. I actually don't know if I disliked anything I had and honestly don't know what everything I ate was :) I'm loving the international experiences and cultures I'm learning from the kids and all of the families from all over the world that are in our school and my class.
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