Alright so I'm already bad at updating again... A lot has been going on the past couple of weeks. I'll try to recap all of it without writing a novel here.
School:
School has been going really well. I've been working with the same handful of teachers each week in grades 6-13. I'm working 2-3x a week with an 8th, 9th, and 10th grade class, and then I go once a week to a 6th, 11th, and 13th.
In the 8th grade the students have been working on a textbook unit about Florida, so I've given a number of presentations on things like Kennedy Space Center, Space Camp, and Cocoa Beach. That's been a lot of fun since I've brought in pictures of my friends and me doing all sorts of typical Florida things, such as hanging out at the beach, going out on boats on the river, surfing, and wakeboarding. Surprisingly a number of them actually knew what wakeboarding was!
In the 9th grade class I've been holding a number of writing workshops. This year of 9th graders (all across the state of Hessen) has to skip a grade next year, so they will be beginning the 11th grade next year. This is due to the fact that Hessen is decreasing their schooling from 13 grades to 12 in order to better match up internationally with other schools. Unfortunately, this means the 9th grade needs a lot of work, and there's just not a lot of resources available. What they really need is some kind of mass tutoring effort, but I don't think parents, teachers, or students are capable of it. However, this has been one area where my experience teaching composition has come in handy. I've been able to develop some more interesting activities with the students to get them practicing writing and thinking critically.
In the 10th grade we've been working on writing as well. Their vocabulary is a bit better and they have a better sense of the structure of an essay, so we're working on the argumentative part of their writing, i.e. constructing better arguments and providing effective evidence for those arguments. Again, it's great that I've spent the last two years developing assignments for this kind of thing. It takes some adaption to adjust assignments for foreign language instruction and lower grade levels, but it's not as difficult as I had feared.
In the 11th grade the English class I'm working with is examining how influential language is (or isn't), and if language can really incite change. We've been reading a number of commencement speeches from Obama to Jon Stewart and discussing the kinds of advice they give, and how idealistic versus realistic they are. I'm finding it totally fascinating, but the students are talking as much as the teacher (and I) had hoped. So we're still working on that one...
In the 12th grade I've been discussing slavery and the Civil War. The students have been reading an excerpt from Frederick Douglass's slave narrative, which has been somewhat difficult for them, but usually once we discuss what's going on, they do quite well with it. They just got done talking about the idea of the American Dream, so now we're talking about the ways that dream is sometimes limited or twisted to conform to the changing ideal of who is "American." Again, I'm totally into this kind of thing, and at the very least I think my enthusiasm has rubbed off (a very tiny bit) onto the students.
In the 13th grade they've been covering Australia and issues of division/racism/etc there. We watched a film called Rabbit Proof Fence about the "lost generation" of aboriginal kids who were taken from their homes and raised as "whites" in British camps. This has kind of stemmed into a larger discussion of how societies define rights and citizenship, as well as what is 'wrong' and 'right' or 'good' and bad' for society.
There's one more week of school before Fall Break, and I think after break I'll be switching up some of my classes, though not sure how many. There are still teachers who I haven't had the chance to visit their classes, so I need to find a way to visit some new ones.
Exploring:
I've also been traveling/exploring quite a bit in the past couple of weeks. Here's a brief recap of some of the places I've been going.
Last weekend I spent in Luxembourg, which by far has been one of my favorite European cities. It's definitely a rich place. I saw more than one Aston Martin on the street. I think those are issued with your Luxembourg passport. I was there Friday night for a Researcher's Night, a European-wide festival celebrating the scientific research going on in universities across the continent. The University of Luxembourg had a number of tents set up in one of the city's main squares and the various departments had booths displaying the kinds of research they were doing. Many of the booths were interactive, so you got to play around with programming robots, microwaving CD's to see them crackle, balancing bowling balls on robots, and mixing liquids like red cabbage juice, baking powder, and olive oil. In the right combination, it's mildly combustible! There was also a hue after party with lots of free champagne! Saturday I was able to see most of the downtown area of Luxembourg proper (it's both the name of the country and the capital city). The duke's palace is right downtown and quite cool looking. There's also a ton of ruins of the old forts and monasteries, as well as the ramparts and walls built by the various ruling kingdoms. Luxembourg had a period of rule by just about every major European power, and each one built it's own fortifications, but when Lux became it's own country, it was required to take down a number of them. Otherwise it would have been essentially impenetrable. Which is pretty cool. Also, there's free champagne just about every where.
I also spent this past weekend in Frankfurt. Friday evening I met up with a fellow Fulbrighter, my roommate from the orientation in Koeln. We cooked dinner and hung out, and then met up with another Fulbrighter from Ireland for drinks. It was nice to compare schools and living situations and make sure we were all on the same page. We also talked plans for the 2 week fall break coming up. Then Saturday Liz (my Frankfurt Fulbrighter friend) and I checked out some of the museums downtown. The Museum fuer Moderne Kunst (modern art museum), had an exhibit of photography taken by a number of famous fashion photographers. It wasn't their printed work, rather a lot of backstage or "off-camera" kinds of shots. There were photos of lives of models and photographers throughout the 90's (one showcase was about a photographer's circle of friends and their struggle with HIV). So that was kind of cool, for the most part, although I'm not totally a modern art kind of girl. Some of it I didn't quite get... But overall it was cool. Saturday evening we stumbled across a Federweisser festival where we ate dinner and sampled Federweisser, which is a kind of young wine made from grapes that aren't good enough to be really good wines. All of the wine festivals were this past month, and now there's basically the left over wine festival...? Anyway, it was pretty fun since there was live music and people dancing. There was also a ton of festival food like Flammkuchen (really thin pizza), Reibekuchen (potato pancakes with applesauce), and crepes!
Travel Plans:
So Fall Break starts at the end of this coming week, and we have just over 2 whole weeks off from school. Unfortunately Fulbright is being skimpy on paying us our whole paychecks, which has limited my traveling options. However, I've collaborated with Liz in Frankfurt and I think we're going to head to Belgium for a couple of days this upcoming weekend. After that I may go visit friends around Germany for a bit. Then the following weekend Liz and I are going to head to Freiburg potentially so that we can do some exploring on the border. I was sorely tempted to do some extreme traveling to Italy or southern France, but I figure I'll probably enjoy that more after I've had a couple paychecks and been doing some tutoring on the side to earn some spending money.
Other Misc.:
Overall life is going pretty well. I'm connecting with teachers at my school and with other Fulbrighters in the area, so I have something mildly resembling a social life! :) I'm feeling more settled into my town of Eberstadt, and have gotten more familiar with Darmstadt as well. I hope to have a way to post pictures to you all soon!!!
Lots of love to all of you!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
First Week of School
I've now completed my third official day at the Schuldorf Bergstrasse. I'm also officially moved into my apartment in Eberstadt. Pictures forthcoming. Of many things, not just my apartment.
But on to the first (half) week of school! I went Monday morning and joined in on the English Department meeting for the month. It was basically about me, which was a little weird. I'm apparently kind of a big deal? :) There are two Annette's in charge of me at the school, one teaches English full time from grades 8-13 (they have more grades here than in the US) and the other teaches part time in the high school and part time in the English-language international elementary school on the same huge school campus. The first Annette with whom I've had contact all summer via email introduced me to the crowd and handed me over to the second Annette. This second Annette did some training on how to best utilize teaching assistants in foreign language so she is in charge of helping me sort out a schedule. She asked around the room who would be interested in utilizing me in their classes, and just about everyone said "me, me, me" which was nice. So she created a sign up sheet for those who wanted time from me. After that I followed the first Annette off to sit in on her two afternoon classes. They were both younger kids, what we would call middle school-aged, but they were very enthusiastic and thought I was super cool :) As an exercise Annette had them break into groups and write down questions to ask me about where I'm from and what kinds of things I like to do. Then they did a large class interview with me, writing my answers down as I spoke. It was pretty fun.
On my second day I showed up for a tour of the school campus and to find out more about the State International School which is one of the two elementary schools on the campus. Unfortunately - and most embarrassingly! - I was late. This is a big no-no in Germany. But I discovered that morning that the street car that stops in front of my building does not run all the way to Seeheim-Jugenheim each time it passes. Apparently every other car in the mornings stops halfway to Seeheim. Funnily enough, that stop was called Frankenstein. There's actually an old Fort Frankenstein which is part of the forthcoming picture montage of my time thus far in Germany. Anyway, I was listening to my ipod just jamming along in the morning on what I thought was my way to school when all of a sudden the street car stopped and everyone got out. It took me a moment to look around and realize what was going on, so I had to hurriedly jump out. Then I had to wait another 15 minute on the next street car to come through that was headed in the direction of my school. :( My first major faux-paux of this German expedition, but fortunately it wasn't too bad. I got to school about 10 min late, and apologized profusely to the second Annette. She was extremely understanding and took me on my tour regardless.
The tour itself was really helpful. The whole school campus has over 40 buildings that belong to 6 different schools. I may have gone over this briefly before, but there's a kindergarten, a German elementary school, the state international elementary school (where the language of instruction is English), then the three German high schools: hauptschule, realschule, gymnasium. Because the gymnasium offers a curriculum that incorporates a significant amount of European issues (economics, government, etc), the gymnasium has the status "Europaschule" which means they get more money from the state and it also looks good for those students who take such courses. This is mildly equivalent to the IB program in the US, but not quite. At any rate, I was able to look at a map as the second Annette pointed out all the important buildings to me. There's quite a bit of construction going on there at the moment since the school is ever-expanding, which means some walkways are closed off and there's a lot of mud. However, overall I found it relatively easy to get around. Once I was able to look at a map and visualize in my head where things should be, it made it a lot easier.
After the tour, I walked through the international school with the second Annette and met some of the teachers there. Many of them are British or American since the language of instruction in this school is English. I went along to two of the classes for an hour each to see what it was like. Since it was elementary school I was completely unfamiliar with the kinds of things they generally learn. I was also out of my element in terms of trying to identify ages of small children. I thought they were all 7 when in fact the class I sat in on was mostly 11 and 12 year olds...go figure. I'm sure they would have all been offended had they known. But they're just so little! While it was interesting to see, I'm not sure how much of my time I want to spend there. With so many teachers whose native language is English, I'm not exactly as hot a commodity.
Today I worked with some of the older kids, which was so far the most enjoyable. In a couple of the 8th grade classes the theme of the moment is Florida. Today's classes did exercises related to Space Camp - and I proudly told them all my sister had attended for a number of years. I also described what it was like to see the shuttle launches, in addition to describing things I did that were specific to Florida or that kind of environment. They thought I was super cool after I described wakeboarding :)
So other than getting an inflated ego here, I've also been navigating German bureaucracy. I had to go register with the city this afternoon - on the one afternoon a week they are open later than noon. Now that I've completed this step, I need to go to the city's department for alien residents or something to that effect to obtain a residency permit to live and work here for the next year. Since I already have a contract with my school, I don't have an open-ended work visa of any kind, but I show my contract and am then allowed to live here and work this specific job for the dates specified in my work contract. Unfortunately this office has even more limited hours than most. They, too, have "extended" afternoon hours on Wednesday, however they apparently don't answer the phone during these hours since a recording told me I'd have to call back between their regular open hours (7:30-12:30). Man I want to work in bureaucracy some day. Seems sweet.
Alright well I'm off to bed for now. Another day at school tomorrow, and I'm not used to waking up this early! (6:30am...ugh)
But on to the first (half) week of school! I went Monday morning and joined in on the English Department meeting for the month. It was basically about me, which was a little weird. I'm apparently kind of a big deal? :) There are two Annette's in charge of me at the school, one teaches English full time from grades 8-13 (they have more grades here than in the US) and the other teaches part time in the high school and part time in the English-language international elementary school on the same huge school campus. The first Annette with whom I've had contact all summer via email introduced me to the crowd and handed me over to the second Annette. This second Annette did some training on how to best utilize teaching assistants in foreign language so she is in charge of helping me sort out a schedule. She asked around the room who would be interested in utilizing me in their classes, and just about everyone said "me, me, me" which was nice. So she created a sign up sheet for those who wanted time from me. After that I followed the first Annette off to sit in on her two afternoon classes. They were both younger kids, what we would call middle school-aged, but they were very enthusiastic and thought I was super cool :) As an exercise Annette had them break into groups and write down questions to ask me about where I'm from and what kinds of things I like to do. Then they did a large class interview with me, writing my answers down as I spoke. It was pretty fun.
On my second day I showed up for a tour of the school campus and to find out more about the State International School which is one of the two elementary schools on the campus. Unfortunately - and most embarrassingly! - I was late. This is a big no-no in Germany. But I discovered that morning that the street car that stops in front of my building does not run all the way to Seeheim-Jugenheim each time it passes. Apparently every other car in the mornings stops halfway to Seeheim. Funnily enough, that stop was called Frankenstein. There's actually an old Fort Frankenstein which is part of the forthcoming picture montage of my time thus far in Germany. Anyway, I was listening to my ipod just jamming along in the morning on what I thought was my way to school when all of a sudden the street car stopped and everyone got out. It took me a moment to look around and realize what was going on, so I had to hurriedly jump out. Then I had to wait another 15 minute on the next street car to come through that was headed in the direction of my school. :( My first major faux-paux of this German expedition, but fortunately it wasn't too bad. I got to school about 10 min late, and apologized profusely to the second Annette. She was extremely understanding and took me on my tour regardless.
The tour itself was really helpful. The whole school campus has over 40 buildings that belong to 6 different schools. I may have gone over this briefly before, but there's a kindergarten, a German elementary school, the state international elementary school (where the language of instruction is English), then the three German high schools: hauptschule, realschule, gymnasium. Because the gymnasium offers a curriculum that incorporates a significant amount of European issues (economics, government, etc), the gymnasium has the status "Europaschule" which means they get more money from the state and it also looks good for those students who take such courses. This is mildly equivalent to the IB program in the US, but not quite. At any rate, I was able to look at a map as the second Annette pointed out all the important buildings to me. There's quite a bit of construction going on there at the moment since the school is ever-expanding, which means some walkways are closed off and there's a lot of mud. However, overall I found it relatively easy to get around. Once I was able to look at a map and visualize in my head where things should be, it made it a lot easier.
After the tour, I walked through the international school with the second Annette and met some of the teachers there. Many of them are British or American since the language of instruction in this school is English. I went along to two of the classes for an hour each to see what it was like. Since it was elementary school I was completely unfamiliar with the kinds of things they generally learn. I was also out of my element in terms of trying to identify ages of small children. I thought they were all 7 when in fact the class I sat in on was mostly 11 and 12 year olds...go figure. I'm sure they would have all been offended had they known. But they're just so little! While it was interesting to see, I'm not sure how much of my time I want to spend there. With so many teachers whose native language is English, I'm not exactly as hot a commodity.
Today I worked with some of the older kids, which was so far the most enjoyable. In a couple of the 8th grade classes the theme of the moment is Florida. Today's classes did exercises related to Space Camp - and I proudly told them all my sister had attended for a number of years. I also described what it was like to see the shuttle launches, in addition to describing things I did that were specific to Florida or that kind of environment. They thought I was super cool after I described wakeboarding :)
So other than getting an inflated ego here, I've also been navigating German bureaucracy. I had to go register with the city this afternoon - on the one afternoon a week they are open later than noon. Now that I've completed this step, I need to go to the city's department for alien residents or something to that effect to obtain a residency permit to live and work here for the next year. Since I already have a contract with my school, I don't have an open-ended work visa of any kind, but I show my contract and am then allowed to live here and work this specific job for the dates specified in my work contract. Unfortunately this office has even more limited hours than most. They, too, have "extended" afternoon hours on Wednesday, however they apparently don't answer the phone during these hours since a recording told me I'd have to call back between their regular open hours (7:30-12:30). Man I want to work in bureaucracy some day. Seems sweet.
Alright well I'm off to bed for now. Another day at school tomorrow, and I'm not used to waking up this early! (6:30am...ugh)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Endlich eine WG!
Well I just returned earlier today from Köln, from the Fulbright orientation there. It was a long three days with lots packed in that I will describe in a moment. But first I'd like to celebrate that I finally have an apartment!!!!! I confirmed the place on Monday as I was traveling to the orientation site, and am thrilled to be moving in this coming Saturday. The apartment is about halfway between Darmstadt and Seeheim-Jugenheim, in a town called Eberstadt. I'll be living with a girl my same age or a bit older who studies music part time, plays piano for several theater groups part time, and teaches music lessons part time. Needless to say, she's busy! We clicked immediately and I found her quite easy to understand and to talk with, so I'm looking forward to getting to know her better. I'll be posting the address as soon as I move in this weekend! Along with pictures, of course.
So, on to the orientation. I left Monday afternoon form Mainz to head to Köln (Cologne auf Englisch). The train ride was nice and quiet until we arrived in Bonn (nostalgia kicked in) and the train conductor announced that due to a serious accident of some kind on the tracks between Bonn and Köln, all trains between the two cities were canceled immediately and were being re-routed to their final destinations. Those of us who still needed to travel on to Köln would have to get off the train in Bonn and travel the rest of the trek on the subway. Fortunately for me, I know Bonn quite well, and I know the connections to Köln quite well. Unfortunately, the subway takes quite long to reach Köln (in comparison to the 30min the train takes), and it was going to put me at the main station after the time at which I was supposed to meet the Fulbright group in order to be bussed over to our lodging. All of the materials I received over the summer from Fulbright warned that we had to be on time to the meeting point in Köln because public transportation does not reach the Haus Altenberg where we were going to be lodged, and a taxi ride there from the city center costs about 50 Euro. Eek!
As I waited in the jam-packed subway station (with all the hundreds of people whose trains were canceled) I had to call Fulbright to let them know I wouldn't make the meeting point. Fortunately the lady who answered gave me alternate directions from the Köln main station with a train that ends quite close to Haus Altenberg, making the taxi ride a much more reasonable 16 Euro. Then, while in one of many jam-packed subway cars between Bonn and Köln, I happened to be standing next to a girl holding the same Fulbright leaflet in her hand, looking up the number to call. Again on the platform in the main station (after the 1:15min long subway ride in the most cramped subway car I've ever experienced) the two of us ran into another girl with Fulbright brochure in hand, looking a bit lost. I'm also quite familiar with Köln man station, so I sheparded both girls to the correct train connection, and we were able to split the taxi and paid only 6 Euro a piece! For an unfortunate afternoon of traveling, it turned out rather well. We arrived only shortly after the bus did from the main train station with all the other Fulbright students, just in time to hear the important parts of the welcome speech.
The place we stayed, Haus Altenberg, is a Catholic organization that caters to young people in conjunction with the huge, old cathedral it was built alongside. It was quite like a youth hostel, although with very sparse furnishings. All our meals were provided - reminiscent of high school cafeteria days - and the rooms we stayed in were doubles - reminiscent of college freshman dorm days. Quite smartly we were roomed with same gender students who had assignments in neighboring cities. My roommate was also named Liz. She's form Chicago, graduated from Colorado College, and will be spending the next year in Frankfurt (am Main), only 30min away from Darmstadt. We were also divided into groups for the various sessions we attended on German school systems and the roles of Fulbright Teaching Assistants. These groups included all the other students in each Bundesland. So my group was everyone assigned to Hessen. There are about 9 of us in total, and we made a plan to meet up once a month or so for dinner in each person's town. It'll give us all a chance to travel a bit and to keep up with each other.
Most of the sessions we attended were...mostly review for me? Is that diplomatic enough? Much of it covered methods of teaching that I've spent the last two years studying in much more depth than can be offered in two days worth of class time. However, I've never taught English as a foreign language, so there were still some helpful tidbits here and there. It was certainly useful to see for the first time what kind of material German high school students actually learn. The instructor assigned to our group is a teacher from Marbug, also in Hessen, who was able to speak at length about the ins and outs of Hessen's school system (since each Bundesland legislates its own education systems).
Overall it was a good few days chock full of Fulbright info. We learned how to get in touch with the network of Fulbright Alumni here in Germany. They had great tips on traveling, and since it's run by young people who have just returned from their various years abroad, it's quite in touch with what those of us currently abroad are in need of. There's even a message board for Fulbrighters who want to travel Germany. We simply email the local chapter and say we're planning on being in such and such a place at such and such a time, and they ask around to see if any local alum are interested in hosting us or touring us around the respective cities. (My response: sweeeeeet!)
Okay, well I should wrap up. I'll be moving in this weekend to my new place, and will be sure to update from there. Love to all!
So, on to the orientation. I left Monday afternoon form Mainz to head to Köln (Cologne auf Englisch). The train ride was nice and quiet until we arrived in Bonn (nostalgia kicked in) and the train conductor announced that due to a serious accident of some kind on the tracks between Bonn and Köln, all trains between the two cities were canceled immediately and were being re-routed to their final destinations. Those of us who still needed to travel on to Köln would have to get off the train in Bonn and travel the rest of the trek on the subway. Fortunately for me, I know Bonn quite well, and I know the connections to Köln quite well. Unfortunately, the subway takes quite long to reach Köln (in comparison to the 30min the train takes), and it was going to put me at the main station after the time at which I was supposed to meet the Fulbright group in order to be bussed over to our lodging. All of the materials I received over the summer from Fulbright warned that we had to be on time to the meeting point in Köln because public transportation does not reach the Haus Altenberg where we were going to be lodged, and a taxi ride there from the city center costs about 50 Euro. Eek!
As I waited in the jam-packed subway station (with all the hundreds of people whose trains were canceled) I had to call Fulbright to let them know I wouldn't make the meeting point. Fortunately the lady who answered gave me alternate directions from the Köln main station with a train that ends quite close to Haus Altenberg, making the taxi ride a much more reasonable 16 Euro. Then, while in one of many jam-packed subway cars between Bonn and Köln, I happened to be standing next to a girl holding the same Fulbright leaflet in her hand, looking up the number to call. Again on the platform in the main station (after the 1:15min long subway ride in the most cramped subway car I've ever experienced) the two of us ran into another girl with Fulbright brochure in hand, looking a bit lost. I'm also quite familiar with Köln man station, so I sheparded both girls to the correct train connection, and we were able to split the taxi and paid only 6 Euro a piece! For an unfortunate afternoon of traveling, it turned out rather well. We arrived only shortly after the bus did from the main train station with all the other Fulbright students, just in time to hear the important parts of the welcome speech.
The place we stayed, Haus Altenberg, is a Catholic organization that caters to young people in conjunction with the huge, old cathedral it was built alongside. It was quite like a youth hostel, although with very sparse furnishings. All our meals were provided - reminiscent of high school cafeteria days - and the rooms we stayed in were doubles - reminiscent of college freshman dorm days. Quite smartly we were roomed with same gender students who had assignments in neighboring cities. My roommate was also named Liz. She's form Chicago, graduated from Colorado College, and will be spending the next year in Frankfurt (am Main), only 30min away from Darmstadt. We were also divided into groups for the various sessions we attended on German school systems and the roles of Fulbright Teaching Assistants. These groups included all the other students in each Bundesland. So my group was everyone assigned to Hessen. There are about 9 of us in total, and we made a plan to meet up once a month or so for dinner in each person's town. It'll give us all a chance to travel a bit and to keep up with each other.
Most of the sessions we attended were...mostly review for me? Is that diplomatic enough? Much of it covered methods of teaching that I've spent the last two years studying in much more depth than can be offered in two days worth of class time. However, I've never taught English as a foreign language, so there were still some helpful tidbits here and there. It was certainly useful to see for the first time what kind of material German high school students actually learn. The instructor assigned to our group is a teacher from Marbug, also in Hessen, who was able to speak at length about the ins and outs of Hessen's school system (since each Bundesland legislates its own education systems).
Overall it was a good few days chock full of Fulbright info. We learned how to get in touch with the network of Fulbright Alumni here in Germany. They had great tips on traveling, and since it's run by young people who have just returned from their various years abroad, it's quite in touch with what those of us currently abroad are in need of. There's even a message board for Fulbrighters who want to travel Germany. We simply email the local chapter and say we're planning on being in such and such a place at such and such a time, and they ask around to see if any local alum are interested in hosting us or touring us around the respective cities. (My response: sweeeeeet!)
Okay, well I should wrap up. I'll be moving in this weekend to my new place, and will be sure to update from there. Love to all!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Apartment Update
Well the apartment hunt hasn't been as easy as I had hoped. I've viewed only one place so far and spoken with ten to fifteen people about places, and so far nothing has worked out. Luckily I have three appointments on Saturday to go look at places, so surely something good is on its way! Other than apartment hunting, I haven't been doing a whole heck of a lot. I was in Munich over the weekend with some friends from Florida. Any of you on Facebook can check out some pictures I'm tagged in there. I still haven't broken out my camera, so apologies on lack of picture updates!
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