Weiter (further)

Tuesday, June 12: Another class day and we met at the Institut. We had another language lesson with small activities and ice breakers to help with use of language mechanics. Manfred, our instructor, likes to break class up into small chunks of time to reduce the sitting time (I think) and to keep our brains going. We also went into the mediothek (computer/book room) to get oriented and introduced to the available materials for our use while we're here. That took most of the morning and then it was lunch break. We've been eating at the university dining hall (called Mensa). The food has been ok but it's been lots of potatoes..very heavy and sometimes not that tasty. Ha! Anyway, we eat there many times for lunch because we put some money on a lunch card and get 3 meals with each fill up of the card. This day we had afternoon class and it was a song lesson. The instructor gave us a packet of songs she has either collected or written herself. They're really cute and fun songs and she showed us some ways of how to incorporate these songs into either theme lessons or grammar lessons. They can also be used just for fun. It was a pretty good lesson and we are continuing next week since we didn't get all the way through. The afternoon/evening is always up to us. We can go into the city and shop or hangout or we can go back to the dorm and chill. Wednesday, June 13th: This day was used for an excursion to a nearby town called Staufen and we visited a school...it's our equivalent to a high school and it's called a gymnasium (pronounced with a hard G). The most interesting thing about this school is that most everything in the school is student-led. The teacher presence is very minimal ecxcept of course in the classroom but extracurricular activities and such are very independent. Sometimes there are adults for safety reasons if it's a sport. What's also interesting is the kids can smoke near the campus. It just has to be out a certain distance and not right on the grounds next to the building. The philosophy is that the more rules and restrictions, the more problems tend to happen and the least likely the kids are willing to work together with the adults to make a successful school. It makes total sense and this is not to say that they don't have their problems, they do, but the problems are decreased when there is less of a strict authoritarian presence. Their test results are one of the highest in the Baden-Wurttemburg region. The kids are all very self-motivated and the parents are behind their kids all the way to ensure success and are willing to do what they need to do in order for success to happen. With this parental eagerness, however, does come the pressure on teachers to perform under high expectations and high standards. This isn't a bad thing but I could see how maybe teachers could burnout possibly BUT the students, for the most part, come to school WANTING to learn!! A teacher's dream! So maybe the teachers aren't as easily burned out in that respect. The leader of tour says it always is heartwarming to see the students coming into the classroom with the willingness and eagerness to learn. They also have peer tutor groups that are student-led as well and the kids who may need the extra assistance come in free willingly and have their own intrinsic motivation to get the help. Simply breath-taking! Needless to say, it was a day filled with more new, exciting information to share with the kiddos when I get back to school. Thursday, June 14th: A day spent in the mediothek again actually checking out the teaching materials and sources. We were told that we could each pick out a book of teaching material and we could order it since there was money set aside for this reason. We can think of it as a free book! There were lots of choices and options for books so that makes the choice obviously hard but it's still an awesome opportunity to get something that maybe isn't as easy to come by where we live. The afternoon was spent learning grammar activities and games. That was really useful as well. Well, once again, it's gotten late and I need to head to bed. A group of us are headed on an excursion tomorrow and I will write more tomorrow about what we did. Until then!