Day 2: Wednesday: Leipzig
Wednesday, March 25th, 2015 05:43 pm
( Leipzig )
Phillipp Möller - Isch geh Schulhof
A book about someone who studied adult education and works as a substitute teacher at a primary school in one of Berlin's poorest, most ethnically diverse and violent areas, his students, his struggles, failures and successes.
Another lower-class-zoo book. I worked with similar children, their fates are heartbreaking, though their lower-class second language acquired German does sound funny sometimes it feels uncomfortable to poke fun at them. They really don't know any better. Their lives are filled with neglect, loneliness, abuse, and deprivation, so a lack of grammatical correctness can be permitted under these circumstances, surely? Still, the book is entertaining to read especially for the school politics and recognisable classroom situations, though the occasionally very sanctimonious preachiness of the author does get old. He keeps saying he is no expert - which isn't entirely true - and then goes on to complain about his burnt-out, overworked, overtaxed co-workers as though it were a personal failure rather than a political failure that put them in that position. So, mixed feelings about this one, but entertaining enough to keep me reading. Bremen and Berlin have very similar school politics with staffing decisions and the release of official position numbers being delayed until seconds before the beginning of the holidays, untrained substitute teachers being employed instead of real teachers to cut costs, class sizes increased to unmanageable numbers, school reforms being employed frequently and haphazardly without any realistic plans being made as to their concrete implementation. It's a nightmare, and it's somehow good to see that this city is not alone in its chaos.
I have the sneaking suspicion that there are more and more aggressive and stereotypical gender-norm affirming messages in today's German EFL books than in the ones we had in my school days. You may say that I am only saying that because I have only vague and fond memories, but I checked. I couldn't find examples similar to the ones I fond in today's EFL books anywhere in the eighties editions I have at home.
While working with the new editions during the last half year, I found gems like these:Probably due to lack of sleep I've been ill or on the verge of being ill all the time last week, I hope that trend doesn't continue, I feel out of touch with reality and wrapped in cotton wool enough as it is, and I really, really do not have the time to be ill. Most of the time, I am tired and worn, anyway, and I really do not need a cold on top of that. I have already started becoming snappy. I hope that will change once I have finished some of the work piles ahead of me.
I finished Wicked a few days ago and it became one of my favourite novels ever instantly. As predicted, the end turned me into a depressive wretch for the entire evening, but it was well worth it, it is such a beautiful tragedy.
Somehow I wish I could see the musical, but at the same time, I am not sure what to expect, and the parts of it which I've heard do not strike me as particularly must-see-ish, but maybe it was just the quality of the recording or something. Still, it's probably fun watching it.
I'm also not sure about reading the sequel, because... I don't know. The only thing that made the world interesting was Elphaba, and I can't really imagine Liir being all that interesting all by himself, let alone the world itself. For now, I'm reading Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister although I shouldn't because of the two term-papers, and I like it a lot so far. Not much going on here. My family's still tidying things away into the redecorated rooms, but there's a lot standing about, still.
3.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire. Maguire has such wonderful characters, and he describes them in such a wonderful way.
I'm doing another internship, and tomorrow I'll know more about the exact procedure, when our first day is going to be (might be Thursday in my case) and which subjects we are going to teach. Last week, they've introduced two schools, and tomorrow the final decision on who's going to be in which school is going to be made. There are two grammar schools, and they could not be more different.
There is the Wichern Schule, which is a protestant private school that's funded by the church and private organisations. It's in a fairly upmarkety area of Hamburg and I daresay that since it's a private school, most students at that school will come from a background that encourages education. The classes in that school are not very big, due to the private funding even the smallest classes can be afforded if there is interest.
Should be very interesting. Our supervisor is a Biology and English teacher told us a few things about the projects the school's involved in and, frankly, I'm jealous as I would have wanted to participate in some of those as well when I was at school, so I'd like to have a look at those. Also, I'm interested in the difference between state schools and private schools in Germany. The school is also a bit closer to where I live. It takes less than an hour to go there, which is good. The benefits are that the school is trying out a lot of things for which other schools do not have the money, so new projects are easily introduced and tried out.
The other school is the only Gymnasium in Kirchdorf-Wilhelmsburg. It is the exact opposite of the school mentioned above. It is a state school, it is in one of the less well-off regions in Hamburg, the children at the school often have great problems with their German. The students in one year have up to 23 different mother tongues - although that situation was pretty much the same when my brother went to school, and it did not really cause all that much trouble. There are problems with the discipline, but that is not dramatic, either. What is different, clearly, is background of the students, in most cases the parents are apparently not that interested in their children's education.
Could be a challenge, which is always good. Sadly, it is farther away than the other school. The supervisor is nice, but less competent than the other from the look of things. We've only talked to the two of them very briefly, and I instantly loved her.
So I signed up for the first one, and now I'm a thinking about reconsidering that decision. After all, my first internship was in a peaceful suburb five minutes from my home, and the students from the first school will probably be very similar to those at the first school - and how much of a difference can there be between a state school and a private school? The second school is terrible for in-semester work because it is farther away and therefore be really unclever for touring there in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it would have been bright to choose it in spite of that. It would have been a challenge. It might have been a far better choice because it would have been something entirely new - student-wise - on the other hand, the other school might be more interesting, even though the students might not be as challenging as those at the KiWi grammar school.
Maybe there'll be a possibility to change groups. If there isn't, I'll have to stay in this one.
I have not been killed!! Wheee!
Called the local grammar school at which I am doing a month of work experience today and apparently I have not made any mistake at all. My "boss" told me he had wanted me to call this week to talk over the next week.
He has given me a provisonal time-table for Monday and told me we'd talk the thing over next week. That is sooo exciting!
I start on Monday, 8:00 with watching a lesson of the littluns (5th grade, all 10 or 11). I know the teacher, Mr.H., already, that is a big plus - I'll be able to identify him in the staff room, and I have also heard that he is a very good teacher. Not surprising that he doesn't object to having an annoying student watching him - he is one of the nicest teachers at that school.
It'd be great if I could somehow convince Mr M., the school's definitely un-nicest teacher, to let me watch. The difference must be amazing, because for some reason the students love Mr. H., the nice teacher, and despise Mr M., who is apparently very. strict. and also apparently very. cruel sometimes.
What scares me is the feeling that I don't really have anything to share. Yes, I know a few or maybe more than a few things about my prospective subjects, and a few things about things children ought to learn, but I don't feel that I have any really important things to tell them.
As a student I have always loved the teachers in whose classes we didn't only learn something about their subjects, but some things which seemed important in general, the teachers who shared their 'experience of life' and their views with us.
Well, some did that in too great an extent, I am not interested in their divorces or their love life, but in some of those lessons learned which appear on no curriculum I will never forget.
I don't think I'll ever be like that, that I'll ever know enough to teach them things worthwhile.
Ah, well, that might also just be a wave of very unhealthy idealism I might want to switch off before actually going into a classroom.
Anyway. I hope everything will be alright.
Love to all! :)
( We are lucky the days of Roald Dahl's teachers are over )
![]() | You scored as Lust.
Seven deadly sins created with QuizFarm.com |