• University of Rochester, 585-275-2121, classes to be offered during Fall semester 2008:
  80374, POLISH 101, ELEMENTARY POLISH I, 4.0 Credits, POLAKOWSKI Krzysztof, LATTIMORE 413, 0900-0950 Mon,Wed,Fri
  80395, POLISH 151, INTERMEDIATE POLISH, 4.0 Credits, POLAKOWSKI Krzysztof, MOREY 502, 1105-1220 Tue,Thu
  Spring classes will include two levels of Polish, Elementary Polish II and Polish Review.
  Also, Saturday morning classes for pre-K to grade 8, and possibly for adults at the St. Stanislaus parish building will start in September, 2008. More information to follow. Also check the Skalny Center at the University of Rochester and their newsletters, which sometimes include information about language classes.
• Polska Szkola Sobotnia, Rochester Polish School
• A web page containing characters of the Polish alphabet not found in the English alphabet, useful for copying and pasting when you're typing Polish text.
• Poltran Polish/English online translation.
• Translation-Guide online translation.

Email to the parents of children attending Polish School.

Please save the following dates: June28th & weekend of August 7th!

Hello Everyone. Hope you are having a wonderful break and enjoying your free Saturdays. We have been busy planning the next year of Polish School as well as some events that will take place during this summer. We would like to share those with you and ask for your input.

Changes in leadership

As most of you know, Polish School will now be managed by St. Stanislaus Church. This is a great opportunity for the school to grow stronger as a whole. Polish School has had great leadership through the last decade thanks to Ania Jurkowska. We would like to thank Jurek and Ania Jurkowski for selflessly promoting pride in Polish heritage for the next generation of Poles in Rochester through their hard work. Ania and Jurek have decided to take a break from teaching Polish school. Both Ania and Jurek have volunteered to keep participating in the life of Polish School to assure smooth transition. Ania will be walking our new principal, Ann Marie Hilmi through all elements of Polish School this upcoming school year and hopefully in years to come. The Teachers will also be active in guiding the schools progress. Pani Gosia, Pani Slawka, Pani Bozena and Pani Maria will continue teaching. This leads to the next point….

Looking for teachers for Polish School

We are looking to fill 2-3 teaching positions in the absence of Ania and Jurek. Also, because we are planning on adding another class to make sure that the needs of all of our children are met. Please look for the Ad that will appear in the Church Bulletin this coming weekend and will run throughout the summer. Please, let us know if you are interested in a teaching position and pass it on to your friends and family members. There are many opportunities for strengthening our school, if you have experience that the children will benefit from even as a part time or one time lesson please apply.

Curriculum

In response to last year’s questioner, the school will be purchasing books and workbooks from the Zrzeszenie Nauczycieli Polskich. This curriculum is geared towards teaching students that are raised outside of Poland. The School feels that a prepared curriculum would help us meet the needs of our school. The System provides a guide for teaching and helps the children accomplish established goals for learning the Polish Language.

Sign up for 2009/2010 school year

Before the school makes it final purchase of teaching material, we would like to make sure that the children are in the proper class and have the proper books for the upcoming year. The school will be administering a placement type test to the students. You will be informed of the details of this test at a later date. Since we would like to buy the books before the start of the school year, it is important that you let us know how many of your children will be continuing their education in Polish School in 2009/2010 school year. Please, send an email aniahilmi@rochesterpolskaszkola.com.

PTA

Polish School needs your help. To coordinate this, we need to establish a Polish School Parent Teacher Association. There have been many eager parents willing to help and contribute to Polish School this will be your chance for involvement. The PTA will enable us the work together efficiently. The first meeting will be held on June 23rd (Hall available on tues the 23rd of June ) in the Parrish Auditorium. At this meeting, we will be discussing the goals of the PTA. This will include the hiring new teachers, organizing social events, fundraisers and future planning. We would also like to establish the structure of the PTA and elect a president, vice-president, secretary, and any other officers that may be necessary to help things run smoothly. Please, let us know if you are interested and if the meeting date will work for you. It is critical that there is as much participation as possible. Below, are some events that we are participating in this summer, as you can see it is important that we get organized as soon as possible.

Sunday, June 28th is the annual St. Stanislaus Picnic with games sponsored by St.Stanislaus’s Polish School! For the first time Polish School will be joining in the festivities. This will give us exposure and other families a chance to see pleasurable Polish School can be. You,the families from Polish school will be providing some fresh excitement with games at the picnic. If there is any ideas you might have for added fun please call me and just bring them with you! Examples; game ideas, balloons, balls, cones, goals and your own team sport skills …

Participation in the Polish Arts Festival

We are planning to participate in the Polish Arts Festival organized by the St. Stanislaus Church the weekend of August 7th. There are two major goals that we would like to accomplish with our participation: To gain exposure for Polish School and to teach the public about Polish culture.

Here are some of the ideas we had for the festival:

1. Folk dance performance by the kids organized by Krystyna Lizak, please let us know if your child would like to participate and what day would be good for practice. Please, also let us know if you have any of the traditional costumes or if you can help with making new ones.

2. Adaptation of “Cinderella” directed by Mrs. Slawka and Mrs. Maria Weldy. This will be in the form of summer camp for the older children. Let us know if your child would be interested in participating in the camp and if you would like to help with it.

3. Art Show with various forms of art done by our children and if possible tapping into the talent of fellow parishioners.

4. Paper flower crafts like the ones used in making the Easter Palms. Having some made ahead for purchase in forms of palms and head wreaths. Also volunteers for instructing the making of the flowers themselves and application to the various craft forms.

5. Information Station for Polish school: registration, curriculum, and a picture poster describing activities our students participated in past years.

Please, contact aniahilmi@rochesterpolskaszkola.com To let us know if you would like to participate or help organize any of the events or if you have any other ideas of Polish Arts/Crafts that you would like us to do.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, please contact us for further information.

Ania Hilmi 872-1037/704-7546 or email Ewa Budzynski (Polish) 503-7072 or email ewa_budzynski@yahoo.com

Closing Notes…

Polish Language School is a tremendous asset for our community! It teaches our children skills that will help them in their future. There is no value that can be placed on these experiences. Polish School is a journey and the reward can be great. The children may not understand it at this time and this is why, we as parents needs to set the example for them to follow. Any opportunity to learn should be a positive one; if we come together with the priority of enriching our children’s lives; every moment will be memorable.

POMOST INTERNATIONAL

In 2006 we made our first trip to Rzeszow, Poland to participate in Pomost International. Pomost is the name of a group formed in Buffalo in 1990 to offer a two week summer session in English conversation to Buffalo's sister city – Rzeszow. The city of Rzeszow has been extremely supportive of Pomost and provides a liaison from the city government to aid the group. They also provide lodging and meals for the two-week period. The individual teachers must provide air transportation to Rzeszow. Teachers do not have to speak Polish, as the whole purpose is to facilitate speaking English.

The students apply for the program in the spring. There are two groups of students – one from age 14 to 18, and the other - adults. The purpose of the program is to facilitate English conversation. All the students have studied English, but their skills vary from beginner to advanced. The students are evaluated by interviews as to their skills and placed in a class with those of similar abilities. The day begins with a meeting of all students before breaking into class groups. There is a morning lesson that lasts 90 minutes followed by a short break. The lessons are taken from a class book written by Pomost members during the winter and spring of the year. Then there is a workshop that is designed by the teacher to provide an activity that will promote conversation. The afternoon session is similar. There are also special activities that replace workshops during the two weeks. Some of these are Bingo, Field Day, Themed party (i.e.; Mardi Gras, Halloween, etc.). Finally, there is a graduation ceremony attended by Rzeszow city officials (usually the mayor, if scheduling permits).

The program has provided us with a wonderful way to get to know Polish children and adults. We treasure the contacts we have made in Rzeszow. Each year former students have come back to visit with us in Rzeszow and share their accomplishments. We have had some very successful students (one is now doing doctoral work at the Univ. of Virginia and another received the State University of New York ‘s Governor’s award). We have had a chance to host one student in our home here in Victor. We are in constant contact with students via e-mail. We are given many wishes for Wesołych Świąt and Wesołego Alleluja. The weekend between the sessions has also provided us an opportunity to travel to areas in southern Poland.

If you are interested in the opportunity to go to Rzeszow for Pomost, you may e-mail us at bpippin@frontiernet.net or call (585) 924-3905. We'd be happy to discuss Pomost with you. We host a visitors night at our October meeting and try to give those interested an idea of what the experience is like. This year we will be leaving July 10 for the 2009 session and will return Aug. 10.