First Impressions

Hello everyone! I am writing this blog in the garden of my host family’s house on a beautiful 80 degree day, which is hot for Germany. I have almost made it through my first week of International Student Teaching. This week, all eight student teachers have been at Anne Frank Gymnasium, or AFG for short. We have all LOVED our time here. We have been given opportunities to teach, observe, and interact with the students and it’s only the first week.

AFG has grades fifth through twelfth grade. It is a school that prepares students for university. I have been observing and teaching in fifth and sixth grade. The school is so different from American schools. First, we ride bikes to school, which I personally really enjoy. Nina, my host sister, and I ride to school together in the mornings. When we get to school, we park our bikes in a bike parking garage and Nina walks me to the teachers’ lounge, I think she wants to make sure I don’t get lost :).

Walking into the teacher's lounge, there are many desks where each teacher has their own desk. Teachers have to travel around to different rooms for each class period and the students stay in same locations. The classrooms are pretty bland because teachers are always switching classrooms. The first class begins at 8:00. The classes last for ninety minutes but they typically get a five minute break halfway through class.

I have already been given the opportunity to teach, which is the main purpose of this study abroad experience. I co-taught with another student teacher on my very first day. It was an educational learning experience for myself and another student teacher to be the only native English speakers in the classroom. I had to figure out different ways to explain vocabulary, come up with meaningful examples on the spot, and co-teach with another teacher. I adjusted quickly and was fast on my feet to think about examples and definitions for vocabulary words and little sayings. The students loved asking questions and learning from native English speakers. All of the students are so intelligent. Most all of the students can speak German and two additional languages. All of the students have a high respect for teachers! I am so excited because the fifth grade class I am observing in Germany, has been communicating with the fifth grade placement I was in at home! We have been sending videos back and forth asking and answering questions the students have for each other!  Yay! Big thank you to Jessica Roberts for making my crazy ideas a reality!

For the majority of the students and the teachers, the school day ends at 1:15. After, students are able to eat lunch in the cafeteria and then go home or they can go home for lunch. All of the students usually go home because they say, "The food is not so good." But all of the American student teachers have thoroughly enjoyed lunch each day. After all of our classes and our nice lunch, we have been able to go to town where we can get an ice cream cone and discuss our project which will showcase our experience during out time in Germany. This project assignment was given to us by Heike, our wonderful German facilitator.  

My favorite spaghetti ice

On Tuesday after classes, we were able to take a tour around the town. A very knowledgeable teacher, Birgit Berendes, showed us around. Birgit knows more about history than anyone I know. Last year, I went to Rome with her and she was able to tell us every detail about nearly everything we saw, except for the tour in the French Embassy :). She was able to share so much with us about all of Werne! She told us about all the important buildings and history. She also showed us the best spaghetti ice shop! Birgit went out of her way to arrange a tour for us to walk into the bell tower of the church and see the library at the monastery which housed over 20,000 books! We were all very grateful for the arrangements she made and everything she taught us. She and Heike are AWESOME!

The library at the monastery

Sister Maria and the group

The "young" monk teaching us more about Werne

The community we are in is amazing. Everyone is so friendly and so helpful to everyone, German and American. All of the children, yes children, ride their bikes to school alone and no one is worried about them! This is one of my favorite things about Werne.

Next week, I will go to a school called Uhland Elementary School. It has kindergarten through fourth grade. We have our content and Miranda and I are beginning to plan! These students know little English so it will be very different than AFG. We are so excited to be in an elementary school!