Joanna G. from Poland is spending her year in Saco, Maine. Community Counselor Jennifer Molloy’s daughter’s 4th grade class was doing an immigration project with gave Joanna a great opportunity to share about her home country. This is what she had to say:
My first Global Awareness experience was great! My local counselor’s daughter’s class is doing an immigration project and they were looking for somebody who is staying in the US for the short term. I really like this kind of project, so I agreed to come to school and talk about my country.
The presentation took place in C. L. Burns School in Saco, Maine on 19th June 2017. There were 45 kids from 4th grade. I was introduced by their teacher as an Au Pair from Poland, who is staying in US for one year, is not a student or immigrant. I started with general information about Poland. I drew a map with the shape of Poland, the Baltic Sea, Sudety, and Karpaty Mountains, the Vistula River and capital city – Warsaw. I showed them pictures of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw and Tatra Mountains with the highest summit in Poland – Rysy. Then I spoke about the differences and similarities between US and Poland. They saw pictures of paper money and a few traditional dishes. I told them about being Au Pair and how to become one. I also taught them some Polish words – days of the week and counting to 10. They were really interested in Poland and asked lots of questions!
It was an amazing, but short time. I learned that kids want to know a lot about other countries and the best way to get them into topic is teach them some words! At the end I handed out the Global Awareness “My travel journal” books and poster.