Action!
Two months after our Global with puppets and masks photo session, Nassim took to the streets with his camera to document his own work in the urban environment. See also the first outcome of the original session in the post below.
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Us 2009/10
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Było nam niezmiernie miło wspólnie z Państwem realizować projekt “Europejskie Podlasie mówi po angielsku – druga edycja”.
Zgodnie z założeniami projektu, w sześć miesięcy po jego zakończeniu, uczestnicy proszeni są o wypełnienie ankiety pytającej o wpływ kursu na ich obecną sytuację zawodową. Uprzejmie prosimy wszystkich Państwa, z którymi nie udało nam się skontaktować osobiście, o przeczytanie i wypełnienie poniższej ankiety oraz odesłanie jej pocztą elektroniczną lub listownie. Serdecznie dziękujemy i do zobaczenia w przyszłości.
biuro@gv.pl
Global Village
Nowy Świat 17
15-453 Białystok
Pobierz ankietę (PDF, 197KB) (DOC, 262KB)
Off to school
While you, Gobal Village students, are basking somewhere in the sun, or getting drenched elsewhere in the rain, your Global Village teachers are packing their laptops and getting ready for ‘teacher boot camps’ in Britain. Like warriors do. All in preparation for the challenges of the 2007/08 and beyond. Four of us go to various teacher training courses within the next few months. Chronologically:
- albs_t goes to ‘Creative methodology for the classroom’ at Pilgrims, Canterbury, Kent, 5-18 August
- justyna_t goes to the same course at Pilgrims, between 19 and 30 August
- michał_t heads for ‘Speaking activities that work’ at Horizon Language Training, Totnes, Devon, 15-26 October
- basia_t embarks on ‘Drama techniques in the English language classroom’ at International Projects Centre, Exeter, Devon, 13-25 January 2008.
All courses have been made available through Socrates Programme and its component called Grundtvig, implementing the concept of lifelong learning.
Lisbon, round midnight, by the sea
You have nothing to lose.
seven minutes of summer bliss (.mp3, approx. 7MB)
We met to brainstorm
| time and place: | last Friday, Wedel café again |
| brains: | basia_t, michał_t, albs_t |
| stimulants: | coffee, chocolate, sugar |
| topic: | GV identity |
There’s been a great deal of brainstorming at Global Village over the years, but that session was unique in many respects. A handful of us was still around and willing to continue with the matters we started last month in Slovakia. As for what makes Global Village special, we agreed that it helps to go over a simple checklist every now and then to know our standpoint better and stick to it. We’ll sleep on the list for a few weeks and perhaps turn it into a… song.
We finally made friends with Sylwia, last week’s entry ‘affogato girl’. Kept confusing her all the time so much that she brought us the wrong bill.
Affogato al café
If the misery of recent weather puts you on the brink of a coma, a simple remedy is within reach:
- On another wet afternoon, when you seem to be mentally and physically at your lowest ebb, head straight for the Wedel place next to Akcent bookshop.
- You don’t want to have any of those fancy desserts laced with chocolate.
- Pick a knowledgeably looking member of staff to speak to (the tall girl with glasses is really professional) and explain in plain Polish what you need.
- Ask her to place a scoop of vanilla ice-cream into a coffee cup, then pour two cups of strongest, freshly made espresso coffee over the ice, and serve it immediately. If not sooner.
- Sip your coffee slowly and spoon the melting ice-cream. From your seat by the window watch the building/excavation site in Rynek, waiting for the caffeine to enter your system.
- When you feel power run back into your limbs, leave the table and go singing in the rain.
Straight from printing press
In October 2005 a group of philosophers, sociologists, historians and geographers from across Europe gathered at the conference in Białowieża to discuss the frontier identity in the New Europe, as seen from the countries they represented. Last December, when professor M. Kowalska (the faculty of sociology at University of Białystok) came and offered Global Village the job to co-edit the proceedings of the conference in English and French, we took the promising challenge. Six months on and the book has just been published.
These are not the kind of texts you’d run your eyes over if you shy away from history or current affairs. But if you don’t, you qualify as a dedicated reader.
An excerpt from Marek Siemek’s article:
?…the collapse of communist systems in Central and Eastern Europe was insufficient to fill, or at least substantially diminish, the gap between the West and East of the continent. This gap was created by a tough and merciless difference between the pre-modern and modern forms of socialization rather than by an ideological and military confrontation between “the totalitarian Communism” and “the democratic capitalism”. The gap can be gradually closed only on the way to social modernization, whose essence is building of an enlightened civil society organizing its life and actions in a rational manner within the framework of modern institution of the state of law.
This means that the essence of modernization is, for European countries known today as “post-communist”, constituted by the demolition of the East which exists in us. It is in this sort of East that the all-embracing immaturity of these countries and their incapacity in the face of the twentieth century’s challenges is today concentrated and symbolically expressed. This East, understood as the quintessence of parochial provincialism, intolerance and aggressive hostility towards aliens, nationalism hidden behind the “patriotic” or “God and fatherland” demagogy, ideological obstinacy and blindness; in short: all the through-and-through irrational non-transparency of social and intellectual life, is rooted much deeper in people’s mentality that one could have expected. It is this factor that constitutes the greatest obstacle on the road to modernization?
Perfect timing, perfect place
Global Village teaching team is back from the High Tatras, where we rounded off the 2006/07 school year. It was part an evaluation of the busy months behind, part a mini-seminar establishing directions for the year to come, but also a quasi-retreat from a rather shapeless spell between the exhausting finale and summer.
Stary Smokovec looked its best in the mild June sunshine, a perfect backdrop to our cautious exploration of its natural rock and water environment. It turned into a meaningful metaphor for collective effort, collaboration and responsibility. What we probably enjoyed most was unspoken amazement at simple ways of forging that vital bond between creative professionals and the web of inspiration offered to each other through situations we otherwise have little chance to be in.
Appetite for more
Last Thursday’s school show was a big thank you to our students and teachers for the fantastic year we all had. Enjoy your holiday!
Special thanks to all who contributed to the event and proved that learning and teaching are not confined to the classroom.
Trouble in Verona
“Good night, sweet Juliet.”
“Benvolio, help me to stop them.”
