News

Splot has always been strong in foreign languages and next year will try to broaden its offering to include Spanish as a second language option in lieu of French or German. This school year the middle school opened a bilingual class with math and geography being taught mostly in English. We intend to expand this offering in middle school and by opening a bilingual option in high school as well.

It will be challenging to find teachers who excel in teaching their subject AND can do it equally well in English! It requires extra preparation and in most cases the creation of educational materials and finding resources in English. There are currently no English-language textbooks for teaching the “Polish” curriculum in English. In addition to lacking English-language materials, teachers in bilingual classes are looking for activities and methods to make the classroom learning more effective. Initial contact with teachers at other bilingual schools throughout the country shows that this is a niche which needs to be filled. We are uniquely positioned to organize workshops for teachers throughout Poland using active methods of teaching as well as engaging programs such as Public Achievement, Street Law and Socratic Seminars. We have a wealth of materials in these areas in English and trainers who regularly run such workshops in English.

The first workshop took place in Nowy Sącz in November. These workshops for teachers will also enable us to build upon two ongoing CEC projects. Our partners from Albania and Serbia will be invited in 2017 to participate in the Socratic Seminar training in Nowy Sacz so that they will be able to implement this in their respective countries.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to our partner organization in the US, Citizens for Engaged Community (CEC), for their initiative, understanding and support.