Every year as June winds down, several teachers, friends from Scotland and the USA, and all the sophomores go on a weeklong teambuilding to get to know each other better and to focus on English. This teambuilding is unique from the others the students experience in that it involves the whole sophomore year, rather than just one or two classes. The last two years in particular we have found a way to bring the whole year together at a place called Planinka.
The topic that we discussed this year centered around the contexts we both grew up in and live in currently and how we are influenced by and affect the context and people around us. We challenged the students to step out of their comfort zones by using English the whole week and by opening up and meeting some of their schoolmates that they did not already know well.
This year's specials
There were two new factors to our teambuilding this year. The first is that we had the opportunity to welcome nine high school students and two staff members (Julie and Emily) from Minnehaha Academy, a school we have built a relationship with for almost two decades. They flew here for a two-week trip to see our school and spend time with the Bilgym students, two of whom will study at Minnehaha for half a year next year. Our goal with this trip was also to provide our Bilgym students with a chance to speak in English with foreigners their age.
The second major change was that we began our adventure in Bratislava in order to give the students an idea of the history of our school and the people who founded it. The students first had to work in their homeroom classes to find “foreign agents” in the local shopping mall and then to split into new groups. Once they were in those mixed groups, we gave them a series of challenges that ended with smuggling C.S. Lewis texts through Old Town. The “foreign agents” were a mixture of Scottish volunteers/friends, Minnehaha staff, a few of our native-English-speaking colleagues, and some Bilgym alumni. The whole group ended the day at the Cirkev Bratská church, listening to Milan Čičel discuss living through communist/socialist times.
Photos: 1. Group time in Bratislava 2. Milan Čičel answering Jana Kerekrétyová’s questions
Games and discussions
The rest of our Language Building adventure took place in Planinka, where we played games, discussed our lives and contexts in small groups, made delicious goulashes, went for a day-long hike, played a variety of sports, sang from our freshly-minted songbook (courtesy of Jana Kerekrétyová), and spent our free time in various activities. Our students spent some time in their specified groups during the regular program, but they also had time to hang out with friends during our longer afternoon free times.
Photos: 1. A group challenge 2. Discussions/reflections in small groups 3. Hiking group 3
Some of the most popular activities included basketball, football, American football, board and strategy games, coloring in coloring books, henna tattoos, and buying “toasties” from the dream team of homeroom teachers in our snack shack. Our goulash challenge was also a hit, the students competitively fighting to win the coveted prize of the tastiest goulash (the “I” class took home the prize).
Photos: 1. Football 2. Card games
Hitom bola aj naša gulášová súťaž, v ktorej žiaci súťažne bojovali o prestížnu cenu za najchutnejší guláš (cenu si odniesla trieda “I”).
All in all, this year’s Language Building was both challenging and fun. We hope that the sophomores both deepened old friendships and built new ones and that they came away from camp more confident in their English and with new friends from other places.
Photos: 1. Hanging out with friends 2. Some of the goulash judges 3. “I” class winners! 4. Writing notes for the camp mail
Text: Sierra Stopper