Wednesday, May 24, 2006

A letter from Mary Rose

A letter from Mary Rose

This is a letter from Mary Rose that was emailed to me recently. I think it is a nice letter that should be read by all. For those of you who are lazy and just skim I put some of it in bold. I will be out of toch with many of you and will be missing the Balaton gathering so I too hope all well if I do not see you before you leave. laura

Thanks Everyone for the Great Job of Teaching this Year!
This is Mary Rose back in Portland. All year you’ve been so great about sending me invitations to all of the festivals and get-togethers, and each time I’ve been pea-green with envy!
But more than that, I want to thank you for the great job you’ve all done in your teaching careers! You know how Hungarians are—so no news is truly good news. We’ve acquired quite a few new schools for the coming year, due not only to Hajni’s efforts, but due also to word of mouth. The schools are happy with our wonderful CETP teachers and are spreading the word.
I have a favor to ask (but really, I wasn’t just buttering you up!) A couple of our teachers have mentioned that our website features photos and quotes mostly from before 2000. You’ve been such a great group and seem to have had such a wonderful time—would you be willing to write short blurbs for us to add to our webpage and also send photos of you teaching, traveling, and just living during this year? I am working on updating the website and this will be of great help (plus you will be slightly famous!)
OK, I have two favors to ask. If you’ve had a positive experience, would you spread the word about CETP? Hajni and I are so proud of our organization—like Hungary, it seems a little hidden jewel—but we’d prefer that it not stay hidden! Talk to your friends, write a nice message on Dave’s Internet Café (that would be a BIG help!), or whatever comes to mind. I mention CETP whenever I can—just last week a man walked his dog past my house and after he mentioned he was retiring this summer, I said, “Why don’t you come teach English in Hungary this fall?” He’s seriously considering it, as is my mailman, who retires next year. It pays to speak up. Talk to your folks—wouldn’t they like an adventure? Have them come teach!
I’m so happy that so many of you are coming back for another year! Last year we had about a quarter of our teachers return, and this year it’s more like a third. And for those of you who are following other dreams, please let me know if you would like me to write you a recommendation letter. My new email address is cetp@comcast.net, although I have kept my cetp@att.net address as well. Unfortunately, AT&T blocks most email from Hungary due to excessive spam from certain Hungarian ISP’s (I feel so fancy when I can throw around a term like that). For months I couldn’t correspond with Hajni via email so I finally switched to high-speed internet and I must admit I love it.
If any of you are going to be in or near Portland this summer (I know you are Rosemary), let’s get together at Jim and Patti’s for coffee.
For those of you leaving, enjoy your last weeks in Hungary, and good luck with whatever you decide to do. For those of you staying, hopefully I’ll see you in Budapest for orientation. I’ll write more about orientation when I know more.
Again, thanks! You’ve been a great group. I remember how proud I felt when we all met for the welcome dinner and there were tables and tables full of exuberant faces (maybe you were all jet-lagged and dazed and I just misread your expressions). Now a new group will be coming in. I know that you who are returning will help them feel at home just like you did during winter orientation. Won’t it be fun to be an old-timer?
If there is anything I can do for any of you, please let me know. Last year at this time you were mostly all just names to me with a few resume-type facts to go with, but now you’re all friends and I’ll remember you forever. If you would like to be listed on the web’s alumni page, let me know and make certain that we have your current email address.
Mary Rose

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

A recipe from Liz

Kokuszkocka
(coconut and chocolate covered honey cakes)
Ingredients for the honey cake
30 dkg (300g) flour
20 dkg (200g) sugar
5 dkg (50g) butter
12g baking powder
1 egg
2 TBSP honey
Ingredients for the chocolate coating
20 dkg (200g) melted butter
6 TBSP sugar
3 TBSP cocoa powder
6 TBSP milk
The Honey Cake
1. Grease and lightly coat a 9x13 pan with a flour and baking powder mixture.
2. Beat together by hand or with beaters the Sugar, Butter, Egg, and Honey until it reaches the consistancy of whipped egg whites. (The suggested time is 20 to 40 minutes).
3. Gradually mix inthe flour and baking powder mixture stirring each time.
***If the mixture seems to thick add 1 dl (1/4 cup) of milk, keep adding until the mix is at the right consistancy.
4. Bake slowly at a low temperature for at least 40 minutes. Check with a toothpick and let cool. When finished cut the honey cake into small squares.
The Chocolate Coating
1. Stir together all of the ingrediants until soft.
*** If it seems to thin add more cocoa powder until it reaches desired thickness.
2. Cover the squares with the chocolate coating.
3. Cover with a thin layer of coconut.

Some helpful travel tips

Here are some web sites that will make travelling in Hungary a bit easier.

www.elvira .hu train schedules
www.volan.hu bus schedules
www.mozi.hu movie schedules and play lists


Also something that many of us may know already, but I seem to always need a little help are the letters in front of the times on bus signs. Liz was smart and wrote them down so here they are...

M working Monday thru Friday
O Saturday only
+ Sunday only
X every day but Sunday
e school days
Z Saturday and Sunday

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Messy Room, by Shel Silverstein

Thanks to Nicole for sending in this idea:

I've done this with a few of my 5th and 6th grade classes, but it has been kind of a bust in one larger class that has problems staying on task and being quiet.

I printed out sheets with the following poem on it:

Messy Room
by Shel Silverstein
from A Light in the Attic

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

First we define the words poem and poet, and in most of my classes we have just the right amount of people for everyone to read a line. So we go through it once, stopping after each line to work on words they don't understand, and then one more time practicing reading with expression in our voices. Then I ask them to draw a picture of this room using each line as directions...I check to make sure their pictures correctly reflect the prepositions used in the poems (eg: scarf and one ski beneath the TV, not next to).

This usually takes close to 45 minutes. I'm being optimistic and hoping with my 7th and 8th grade classes we won't draw pictures, but rather everyone will create one line describing something in a messy room for an entire class poem.

My younger brother claims Shel Silverstein got his start drawing cartoons for Playboy. (True; according to Wikipedia he also lived in the Playboy Mansion for "an extended period of time")

Good luck and thanks for all the other good ideas.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Questions Game

All right, it’s an unoriginal name, but it was the best I could do. But I promise it’s a good game, much better than the name would indicate. It’s great for if you, ahem, forgot to plan a lesson or something, because it takes zero prep work and can be replayed every few weeks.

Divide the class into teams of 3-5 students. Each group needs one person to be the writer. Let each group pick a topic (or theme, Hung: téma); ones I offer as examples are things like Animals, Sports, Music, Food, Films, Szolnok, Hungary, Geography, History, Politics... you can come up with more complex things for higher levels (I’ve done this game with 5th through 8th grades). Each group picks one, or makes up their own, and then writes 5 questions about their topic (or 7 or 10 questions, depending on time and level). The important things about the questions:

-Question #1 should be easy (nagyon könnyü), and question #5 should be very difficult (nagyon nehéz). This is because question 1 is worth 1 point, 2 is for 2 points, etc.
-The questions need to be factual. To explain to lower levels, you can say the questions need to have one answer only. “What’s your favorite food?” or “How are you?” don’t work.

While the kids are working on questions, you need to write the groups’ chosen topics on the board. Under each topic, write the numbers 1-5. Also find some way of keeping score. Usually I just draw a scoreboard, but sometimes I’ll give out pieces of colored paper or playing cards as points.

When they’re finished writing their questions, check them, then start playing: Team 1 looks at the board and selects a topic and a point value, for example, “We want/would like Animals for 3 points.” You (or a game keeper) crosses this question off the board (so it can’t be asked for again), and whichever team wrote the question reads it. If Team 1 can answer correctly, they get the 3 points. If not, no points. Move on to Team 2; keep playing until all the questions have been used or the bell rings (hopefully the latter).

Variation one - if the class is small, you can also be a team yourself. It takes about 1 minute for a native speaker to come up with 5 or 7 questions; I usually use a topic like America or The English Language. One time with a 5th grade class I did the topic “Emily” and the questions were all things like “What is Emily’s favorite color?” “What state is Emily from?” Self-indulgent, yes, but they loved it.

Variation two - if you have a class which is easily distracted, the game can fall apart when Team 1 is asking Team 2 a question, because the other 2/3/4 teams are doing nothing. To counter that, you can let them steal the points (lehet rabolni, according to my 6a). So everyone has to listen to the question being read (only once, and only in English!) and if Team 2 can’t answer the question after a certain time, the first group with a hand up and the correct answer gets to take the points.