My journey for discovering

Dzien dobry, everyone! My name is Vicente Vicario, I am 23 years old and I come from Spain. First of all I have to say that becoming a volunteer here in Poland is a dream coming true and I couldn’t be happier right now. The city, the volunteers, the kindergarten where I work and the STRIM organization are all awesome and supported me since day one. Now that you see everything from a really positive view, I will tell you that not everything is easy in this journey. Every day you face a lot of different challenges and you have to be brave enough to overcome all of them. Some might be little things, like losing the bus that goes to work and getting late to work or big things, when for instance your phone dies and you are on the other side of the city and you don´t speak Polish to ask for directions. However, all of them make you tougher, smarter and way more experienced to deal with everything in your life.

Leaving the “negative part” aside, I will tell you that talking about my work also is talking about my interest in learning new methods and strategies for teaching. Since the first week I started noticing thousands of differences in between schools here and in Spain and I simply fell in love. In my kindergarten they believe that freedom is one of the main tools for the kids to learn by themselves, they work without pressure from the teachers and you can see them evolving and growing in every aspect. All materials and games are at the reach of children’s hands for them to use it.
In the end my last thought about being a good volunteer or better said, for you to feel comfortable in the project is to remain active in every possible initiative, to have motivation for everyday tasks and be open-minded to accept the culture and make others accept your differences. Of course, you have to believe in what you are doing and have enough self-confidence to consider yourself as an important part of the project.

Anna, the teacher

Working with Vicente is very satisfying. He is always cheerful and smiling. Children love him and he has a lot of patience for them.  All the time he teaches kids new Spanish words and they teach him Polish. Vicente is very helpful  and willing to help children and teachers. He has a great contact with children.  Working with him is a pleasure.

I would like Vicente to continue working with children in the same way as now.  Maybe we can learn more Spanish games and songs during this time.  He is currently helping us to organize a meeting for Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day. Parents will have an opportunity to get to know him better.  Together, we will also organize a family picnic next month.

Cherishing the differences

Hello! I am Jennifer and I am from Spain! As an EVS volunteer I would like to share with everyone how great it is to have this experience. For the first time I heard about this program when I was in Poland last year as a tourist. I met a couple of volunteers and they told me about this program. After  working in Spain for a year I took a break and decided to make a change in my life. Then EVS came to my mind and I thought that it could be exactly what I needed.

After checking for information and applying for some projects it was clear I would be working in the country that I had already visited. I came to Krakow and joined the ongoing project, the volunteers had been here for 4 months. It was convenient for me to join the project for a shorter period especially with a warmer weather, which was great!

It has been a wonderful decision! I am meeting a lot of new people, new things are happening every day and I am opening my mind in an unbelievable ways. I love living abroad and being involved with Polish culture in so many levels. As I work with children I can see how their education system functions from inside. I recommend EVS to everyone, not only for all fun they are going to have, but also for their impact in the community.

It is funny to remember how surprised I was when I first arrived in the kindergarten. I was surrounded by 18 blonde blue-eyed children looking at me while their teachers told them “good morning”. Now the main thought I have most of the time is how they behave so well. I think the children are very polite and independent. In Spain I wasn’t used to see kids doing everything on their own. Here they have to change their clothes including the snow boots every time they go to the garden and come back. And it was strange for them to see me trying to help, as their teachers were not doing it.

Children in my kindergarten are very calm, they don’t shout and rarely cry. At lunch time once they finish eating, everyone takes his or her plate and says thank you while tidying up and cleaning everything. Kids are so sweet and they hug me everyday, even though I usually work in other groups. I love them. 

Of course on the other side of this experience stand teachers I work with. At the beginning I remember myself thinking that they didn’t pay a lot attention at the children, kids did everything on their own and weren’t scolded or punished. Then I realized that it was not necessary or needed, as they learnt in a different way than Spanish kids and they already knew how to do many things without help.

I am still trying to discover my role as everyday I learn new things. Each volunteer is different, what I didn’t expect to face was the language barrier. However with time, everyone can manage using body language and signs. I thought I would have more responsibilities but my teachers are wonderful and help me with everything to help me adapt and feel comfortable.

I would like to participate a bit more in teaching process. From upcoming months I want to make memorable change in their lives or something they could remember even in some years. Although it can be a difficult challenge I am motivated for it. Also I have started to understand some things, because maybe am I getting used to the Polish language or maybe because of the context. In the future I would love to understand more of children’s funny and precious moments.

Agnieszka, the teacher

Working with Jennifer is a real pleasure for me and for the rest of the teachers. She is like our shadow waiting for our requests and we don’t need to ask again. Not only does she help with everything with a smile, but also she makes us smile due to her good sense of humour. And this is exactly what we expect – the helper who is not afraid of challenges and the person who we really like to spend time with.

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Collecting memories

Let me be banal and tell you about the background of our numerous meetings, after the time which spent together with the joyful and boring common memories, that I am Lasha from Georgia.
Hello.
Since October of the last year, I have been working as a volunteer with children of the age between 3-6 years old in Krakow. In this institution it is the only class of such age in this category and obviously we carry out a lot of activities during the day, as this is not a typical kindergarten. In short, we are creating and learning new things. All of this is largely the merit of the teachers,  working with whom really delights me every day. With Sylvia I learned a lot of English children’s songs. Thanks to them, now I can easily count from one to ten in English and repeat list of the colors of the rainbow in few seconds. If not Iza, I would never have done anything unimaginably beautiful as the pencils box from ceramic. Christmas toys and paper airplanes really fly well considering that they are made  of the paper. And if not Anya, I will tell you with confidence that I would have never played children songs in Polish without knowing what they really mean. However they sound really cheerful and sometimes I think that it is moe funnier for me than for children.

To sum up, it is all very cool. I am glad that I am here now, working in Krakow and in a wonderful place with amazingly positive and friendly people. What I do not like in Poland is snow, which does not help to make even a snowman  and “good food” that is not as good as in Georgia. (Do not be angry, every Georgian and everyone who has been to Georgia will agree with me).
So… Everything is going good with me, sometimes I am happy, and even more happy. I have chosen this project to create more happy moments, adventures and memories. And most importantly, it makes me happy that children know how lucky they are when they met an amazing person like me and my aim is to make them think the same at the end of the project.

Sylwia, the teacher

Lasha seems to be a very responsible person. He always asks what he can help with and is open to try and experience new things. This is a very good sign as we talking about a volunteer. The first meeting with the kids was for him a little bit hard, I guess, because two children (girls) said that they were afraid of him and started to cry. I remember that Lasha said : ” that’s ok” and was not worrying about the future. He was right. Kids quickly accepted him and they enjoy spending time with him, including these girls. I can say that all the kids really like him.
I think it’s because of Lasha’s patience and his gentle nature. I hope that Lasha is going to teach the kids some songs and simple poems in his own language. That would be great! We also started a new project called: “Flat Janek”. While Lasha was in Georgia for Christmas he introduced this project to some teachers and some group of kids and he is going to talk about it with our kids when winter vacation is over and the kids are going to be back to Dom Kultury.

The architect of future

Hello from Krakow! I am Antonietta and I live here since this wonderful project started in October! I am from Napoli, south of Italy. I am not used to all this snow, but I love it! I am an architecture student and currently I am preparing my thesis. I wanted to do more in my life so I was looking for something different and ERASMUS+ gave me the chance to be a volunteer in a kindergarten.

For me the best surprise was the way children were treating me: I mean I was a stranger for them, a different person, somebody that they didn’t know and for the same reasons they were always trying to talk to me, to interact with me and make me a part of the activities. I think also that it depends on their age: they are 3-4 years old, old enough to talk and interact, to be independent for the most common things as eating or undressing, but without any prejudice and experience about the foreigners: every thing is easy, everything is Polish for them!

For sure I was expecting less independent children, as I am used to think that kids at this age are always and fully in their parents hands, without any chance to do something by themselves. I am really impressed by the education in Poland and for sure I will try to do the same!

I think I will try to share more about Italian culture. Especially with older children, that are more curious and for sure know more about the world and the countries: sharing differences, the specific qualities of both counties and underlining the common things, all the connections between; teaching them about the beauty and the positiveness that we can feel.

Monika and Kasia, the teachers

In our kindergarten the adventures with STRIM volunteers began a long time ago. Although we are used to have a volunteer in our kindergarten, we still had a lot of curiosity and expectations to meet Antonietta and Ellie. The first impressions were very positive, both us and the volunteers integrated very quickly. There was no time for a shy atmosphere due to the specifics of work in kindergarten – there is always something going on and you don’t have time to get bored!

Our volunteers are certainly very helpful, they get involved in everything that we ask them and that is what distinguishes them. In addition, they easily make contact with children. After some observations we noticed that children liked them too and wanted to spend time with them playing games and making conversations. Ellie and Antonietta are ambitious – they have already learnt a lot of words in Polish and want to continue improving it.  We hope that they will like working in our kindergarten and will stay with us until the end of their stay in Poland. We hope that this cooperation  will be interesting and useful for all of us. We try to make them feel good and safe in our group. And maybe sometimes we are a bit overprotective, for example we constantly ask if they are hungry and we want to feed them. But as they are not complaining, we guess they are enjoying it too!

First beginnings

Hallo! My name is Hannah and I am a 19 years old German girl. It is the first time that I am living far away from home in Krakow and making my first awesome working experience in the Kindergarten 79.

To be honest I was having so much thoughts about my first days at work, like how work and tasks would be, especially without me speaking any Polish or having much experience with working with children. So it was a very pleasant surprise for me to come to work and have from the first second all children around me welcoming me without caring that I could not answer to all of their questions. And also in the next days and weeks their affection did not fade away.

Before I started my EVS I was never really sure what my role would be like. In the beginning there were moments when i was kind of unsatisfied with work because i did not really feel useful. But I have made up my minnow and started to see my work from a different perspective. Although I am not a teacher and children probably don’t need another one in their class, I can still be useful in another way. My role is something in between children’s friend and their teacher, I can share my culture with them and just be an addition to their daily life in the kindergarten. With this role I am super happy and satisfied.

My goal for the upcoming months is to keep my joy of working with children as high as it is right now. To achieve it I am planning my first activities with children to present my country and share my culture. I also want to try to put more effort in learing Polish, so I can finally understand all super interesting stories children are telling me every day and of course to talk more with my teacher.

Jola, the teacher

Hannah is an open and energetic young woman. She has a unique style which makes her unique and so special. She has a very good contact with children and they get along very well. Hannah is very kind and she is always willing to help. She is learning Polish, which hopefully will make our communication better. We hope that upcoming months will be productive for all of us. We want to learn more about Hannah, her country and culture, as well as share ours with her.

Children’s favorite guitarist

Hola a todos! My name is Joao, I am 24 years old and I am from the south of Spain, Seville. I studied Sport Science at the University and during that time, I was also working as an Animation Monitor in my city. Since October I have been a volunteer in the Kindergarten 38 in Krakow with children of 3 and 4 years old.

Spanish flag in progress

In my first week here I felt a little bit lost because everything around me was so new. When I arrived in the kindergarten, I was afraid of the language barrier with the teachers and the kids, but surprisingly, they received me so well and with big smiles. At the beginning, I was also surprised that the children were eating four times per day and that they had to attend a lot of different classes such as English, Physical education and dance class.

Team work is the best!

Afterwards, children began to interact with me more and to get closer. Moreover, I could organize activities about my native language and about my culture… I could even teach them songs with my guitar! Actually, more or less I expected that this was going to be my task here, but I always try to help as much as I can in my kindergarten and, since I like children, I try to be funny, responsible and close with them… I am willing to improve step by step.

So far, I think that I have had very many good experiences both in my kindergarten and with the rest of the volunteers. I will keep improving my skills by having a good and positive attitude and I will be willing to help in everything that teachers ask me. Also, I will be involved more in my tasks, always trying to keep a good work environment and live this experience to the fullest.

Ewelina, the teacher

Joao is a very nice and creative person. He has a very good contact with kids and they love him very much. He is always involved in our work, helping out during the meals, artwork, and dances. Joao always does things with us. For Christmas we will have a theatre play with our children and in the end of the play Joao will play the guitar. He is also teaching kids words, numbers and songs in Spanish. Our director was in our lessons and she told me, that Joao was one of the best volunteers we have had in our kindergarten. I hope he enjoys this experience as much as we do and keep making good memories in our kindergarten.

 

 

Ellie’s adventures

Cześć! I am Ellie, I come from Greece and I work in the Kindergarten 32. I am studying to become a teacher, so taking part in this programme and being a volunteer in the kindergarten makes me more than excited. To be honest, before going to the kindergarten, I had made up some of my own ideas about the kids, the school and even the teachers. I was impatient to meet kids from Poland for the first time and get to know students in a different country. What surprised me most though, as obvious it may sound now, kids are kids no matter the country! They all love songs and dances, they are always in for a hug and they are all definitely ready to make the mess of their lives the second the teacher leaves the classroom. They all remember that they need to use the toilet when it is time to sleep and they all hate to see anything green on their plates, but love pasta instead … plus pierogi in the case of Polish kids. And I could literally go on with this for hours, but when it comes to the differences I can only think of the language. Well, that is pretty surprising to me!

 

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My goal is to represent my country’s culture in a positive way for kids through activities, to make them interested in getting to know different cultures and become more open-minded to meet different people in general!

Monika and Kasia, the teachers

In our kindergarten the adventures with STRIM volunteers began a long time ago. Although we are used to have a volunteer in our kindergarten, we still had a lot of curiosity and expectations to meet Antonietta and Ellie. The first impressions were very positive, both us and the volunteers have integrated very quickly. There was no time for a shy atmosphere due to the specifics of work in kindergarten – there is always something going on and you don’t have time to get bored! Our volunteers are certainly very helpful, they get involved in everything that we ask them and that is what distinguishes them. In addition, they easily make contact with children. After some observations we noticed that children liked them too and wanted to spend time with them playing games and making conversations. Ellie and Antonietta are ambitious – they have already learnt a lot of words in Polish and want to continue improving it.  We hope that they will like working in our kindergarten and will stay with us until the end of their stay in Poland. We hope that this cooperation  will be interesting and useful both for us and for them. We try to make them feel good and safe in our group without lacking anything. And maybe sometimes we are a bit overprotective, for example we constantly ask if they are hungry and we want to feed them. But as they are not complaining, we guess they are enjoying it too!

Future full of surprises

Hello, my name is Robert Svensson. I was born in Sweden and now 21 years later I ended up in Poland, Krakow. I decided to go to Poland and do my EVS with children because I had thought about working with children in the future.

What surprised me when I started my work in the kindergarten was that there were 21 boys and only 4 girls in my class. Also, the behavior of the kids is so different from each other, some children are really calm like angels and some of them are like little devils. But overall I was surprised by the children’s reaction when they saw me the first week, they looked at me like I was someone special.

The role as a volunteer/teacher for the kids is pretty intense as there is always something happening around you. You always have to keep your focus on children and give meet their needs. I was thinking it would be easier to work with children but there is always something new. And each kid is a totally different person and has different kind of needs. Fort this reason it is a little bit hard to know what the kids want and need.

Drawing together

My plans for the next months of my project is to teach my group more about Sweden, how to count and present themselves in my language. I also have plans to make a power point or some kind of presentation for them about the most beautiful places in Sweden. I also want to show them the best places to visit for kids. Moreover, I am looking for fun games and activities that are from Sweden to show them to my class and play together.

My general feelings about the project in overall are great. I have time to prepare myself and the people around me make it easier for me to do what I need to do. Sometimes I need a little extra motivation, and my flatmates, my family and all the people around me motivate me to keep going and never give up.

Volunteers of the Kindergarten 38

Ania, the teacher

I think Robert is a very nice person. He is warm and open to the children. He is great with Jasek and to be honest, getting along with Jasek is difficult sometimes. For the next months I think Robert can teach us some songs, Swedish words. I hope to learn more from him about Sweden, Swedish culture and the way of living.

French representative

Czesc ! Bonjour !

Mam na imię Camille, mam 21 lat i jestem z Francji!

For those who don’t understand Polish, my name is Camille. I am 21 years old and I come from Reims, France. I will be volunteering this year in Krakow in the Kindergarten 38: I will be teachers’ assistant, children’s playmate and a representative of France and its culture.

I decided to join this EVS adventure after getting a bachelor degree in Geography. I felt the need to do something different rather than going to the university but I also wanted  to live in another country (the first time for me) and to learn more about a new culture. My two wishes became true with this EVS!

Camille showing her group a photo of her cat

As time passed, I came to fully understand what my mission for the year was and how different it was from my expectations. Indeed, I thought I would be teaching children around 6 but I discovered that my class was only 3 and 4 years old. They still take a nap in the afternoon! So I had to change my plans about activities and adapt to the group. I also discovered how demanding it was to work with children of such young age: you always have to pay attention, as some situations can go wrong in a matter of seconds. With those new factors and Polish language that I had known nothing about, I was under a lot of stress at the beginning! But I got to know better the teachers and the assistants I worked with and I learnt that even if I didn’t speak good Polish, sometimes just showing an action or shouting “nie” worked very well. Children are clever and perfectly understand if they are doing something wrong!

Following Pani Renka to infinity and beyond

When I arrived I thought that the kindergarten would be like the one I used to go in France. And if in general the lessons have the same goals (teaching colours, numbers, letters and so on …), the schedule is different. For example, children have two breakfasts (a salty one first and then fruits), obiat (soup and main dish) and then kolacja (a bit like goûter in France). I was really surprised during the first weeks about this: it seemed to me that the children were always eating! They also don’t always go outside during breaks: sometimes they stay inside for the whole day. And children learn to be disciplined: they have to clean up their toys after playing, they are all eating on their own, and sometimes they also clean their table after lunch. Additionally to normal lessons, they have a lot of activities: English lessons, dance, gym, music. They are never bored!

After the first weeks of observing and getting to know the class, I began to participate more and more by doing activities. Now my goal is to propose more things in the kindergarten, which are related to French culture or my personal interests (geography, travels, capoeira …) such as teaching songs, dances, activities or some words in foreign languages. These last days we are preparing a French Christmas song that children will sing to their parents for the school Christmas show. We will see how it goes! But children are not the only ones learning: every day I hear a new Polish word or expression, I get to know them better individually and I realise that I am less afraid than I was before.

 

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Now after some weeks of incertitude I feel confident in the classroom. I really hope that in the future this EVS will be an amazing experience. I can’t wait to see what is the next part of this adventure!

Joanna, the teacher

When I first aw Camille, I had the impressions that she was a very open and happy person. I was pleased when I learnt that she was in my group. She is always open for my advice and we are talking about different topics.  Whenever I need something, Camille is always there to help me. It is my first year with the volunteer and I expect that we will work well together. Camille is doing different activities, for example she has prepared a list of common names and it was funny to hear how our names were pronounced in French. I expect to learn more about France, French culture, traditions and language from her.

Georgian social worker

Cześć wszystkim!

I am Anna, I am 22 years old and I come from Georgia.

I graduated from Tbilisi State University with a bachelor degree in Social and Political Science, I am a social worker. Since 2014 I have been volunteering in AIESEC, I have done projects in Krakow, Poland and Budapest, Hungary. During this project I was working in integrated kindergartens, with children of different nationalities and cultures. In addition to my major in Social work, I was volunteering a lot abroad. I think extracurricular activities and non-formal education helped me to develop strong communication skills and use theoretical knowledge in different fields. Additionally, I have experience in different NGO-s that work with children with disabilities. Moreover, last year I was working in CENTER FOR CRIME PREVENTION and PROBATION AGENCY OF GEORGIA. In my opinion, last year I had the best experiences as a social worker and I am so proud of myself, that I did my best and worked as a community social worker with prisoners and ex-prisoners.

But I think the community which makes me happy and free is children and educational system, that’s why I chose to be part of this big family and progress my educational system knowledge and share my knowledge to others as well.

My new life experience has started from the 1st of October, when I moved to Krakow. I can easily say that I made this decision just for two reasons: to live in my favourite city and work with children. My Erasmus+ Project gave me opportunity to be what I am, to use my educational background and interact with children by methods my profession has taught me.

I clearly remember my first impressions when I stepped into my new work place. It was full of joy, positive atmosphere and I was welcomed by very hospital colleagues. My motivation level is getting higher everyday when I see how teachers are doing their best to improve children’s lives, habits and education. I see a lot of motivation at my work place and share the same values with teachers. Teachers are working so hard, but they always try to find time for us, sharing some ideas and giving us time to make our own lessons. These are reasons why I feel special at my work, I feel someone really needs me and I also need them. Of course nothing is perfect, and during the first weeks I was surprised when I saw children mostly were Polish and there weren’t many children from other countries (only some Ukrainians). Honestly, I have faced some kind of cultural shock when teacher told me that we shouldn’t let them hug us very often or kiss, as in Georgia everything is so different. We say that children always give back emotions you give them: if you give love and kindness you will get it back, however we aren’t allowed to show our emotions and be physically close. First days I also thought kindergarten was private, because they had a lot of materials for children, sport, music, religion classes with all necessary “luxury” materials. And I think that having so many opportunities makes me more enthusiastic to do a lot of activities with them.

I am really happy that I got accepted to this project, I moved to another country and I got what I wanted. My role is exactly what I was expecting, I feel extra special because of my director and my colleagues, they make me feel that I am doing not only good activities also I smile a lot and give them positive vibes, which is also very important for me. Every day I learn new things about Polish education, communication with parents and teachers, how much parents are involved in their children’s lives, how government works with kindergartens. I learn a lot of cultural things and of course I learn Polish and it is getting better everyday.

I am so happy that I work with my Turkish friend, we are making weekly schedules of activities. We already had: Georgian and Turkish week, and now we are preparing for Christmas weeks.

It has been already 2 month that I work in the Kindergarten 5 and I am very glad, that I will work here for 7 months more. I can honestly say that every child in the world is a special treasure, and I want to explore their hidden parts, emotions and hidden skills.  This experience will be extra valuable for me to get educational experience on how to interact with children of 5-6 years old, to explore their nature and needs. I will give my energy, experience, share my culture wiht my kindergarten and I hope I will get more in return, so I can use it in my future career and life!

Paulina, the teacher

Ana is a very creative person. She is happy to join our team in the kindergarten and because of that we can rely on her. She has got  many ideas of games for children. What is more, she is a great observer. It is easy for her to recognise children’s mood or character, their habits and even social problems.

We are impressed with our volunteers’ interest and desire to learn Polish language. They often ask about the meanings of words and make their own notes from what we say. That’s why they are making a big progress and now we can talk with them in our language about a basic things. We are very pleased to work with Ana and Arzu, so the only thing we want is to continue with such joy and desire to work in kindergarten and even more information, interesting facts about them and their countries – Turkey and Georgia.