My Newfound Professional Acting Skills

This week has gone so quickly! Miranda and I have spent the past week co teaching at Uhlandschule Elementary School. This school is very different from Anne Frank Gymnasium. We teach five English lessons a day. All of the students are taught English, but because they are younger, the students do not know very much. Each lesson is a different class and grade level each with very different content for instruction. First grade is learning about school supplies and body parts, second grade is learning about hobbies, third grade is learning about storytelling, and fourth grade is learning about Australian animals. My favorite lesson to teach is storytelling. We have been teaching the students about Goldilocks and The Three Bears.During this lesson, Miranda and I really have to use our improv acting skills to become Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I also enjoyed teaching our rendition of "Old McDonald lived in the Outback" for our Australian animals lesson. We have to use our hands and our acting skills ALL day to make sure the students are fully comprehending what we are talking about. Although we only teach from  8:15 to 12:45, we feel like we have been teaching a seven hour school day because of how active we are while teaching.

A student's bingo card of school supplies

My artistic abilities are limited

Australian animal sort activity

During our time at Uhlandschule, we have met some amazing teachers. Sanja Rosic is a teacher we have been working closely with throughout this week. She came to Germany thirteen years ago and spoke only English and Serbian. She now speaks perfect German. We naturally assumed it was her native language. She shared with us her love for teaching English and having native speakers in the classroom. She is an amazing teacher and such an encouragement to us! It was very exciting for me to be able to connect and dream to be like an elementary school teacher so far away from home. I am looking forward to keeping in touch with her when I return back to the States.

Planning has been a huge factor for us this week. Thank you, Kerry Sams and Christi Beam, for teaching me how to plan like a pro! We have four different grades and each grade is split into four classes. We had to plan for the whole week on Sunday. We laid out what we would do with each grade. Some classes got through all of our plans and some classes got through more than what we had planned for that day. So as the week went on, after each class, we would have to discuss class’s progress for the day and what we were thinking about doing with them next time. Before the next class came in, we had to talk about what we were doing and what they had already done. This probably sounds easier than done, but this small task required a lot of collaborative thinking and flexibility.

The school day is very different from American schools. Like I said before, the students get to school by bike. Once the day starts, the students have a lot of breaks and free time throughout the day. Between each class, students have a break where they can go outside and play. The students have a long break between second and third that lasts thirty minutes.During this time, students have time to eat a snack and play outside. Each class period is forty-five minutes long. The teachers follow one class all the way through fourth grade. After fourth grade they can go to a high school that will prepare them for college, like AFG, or a high school that will prepare them for getting a job.

Because our day is done at 12:45, we have the whole afternoon to plan AND explore the little town of Werne. One of my favorite things about Europe is that you can pay for a coffee or an ice cream and sit for however long you would like and no one will ever say anything until you are ready to pay. We have so far tried all the ice cream shops in Werne and we have now moved on to coffee. Erin and I have picked our favorite coffee shop, Oma's cafe. Look how cute it is!

Hi @erinjackson

Our typical afternoon

 As a group, we were able to take our first day trip. Yay! We went to Münster, it was wonderful. I love this city. It is home to one of my favorite cathedrals, St. Lambert’s, and trust me, I have seen a lot (once again, thank you, Birgit). If you look closely, you can see three metal cages. The story behind the cages interests me greatly. These cages have hung there for nearly 500 years and during the Protestant Reformation three leaders of a rebellion were held as prisoners and displayed in them. There’s more to the story, but I’m guessing you get the idea. We also went to the Münster city museum where we learned so much about the city during WWII. It was an amazing museum and I recommend visiting if you are in Münster.

I am excited to see what adventures and challenges this next week brings!

This quote is fitting after this past week:

“A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention, then he can teach his lesson.” - John Henrik Clarke