SEAN
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
SEAN
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
As I visited the schools in Germany I thought to myself how it was going to be with the language barrier. I don't know any German and the students know some to no English at all. I won't lie, the first couple of days observing in the classroom was awkward, but I had to tell myself to start thinking differently.
The 1st grade class that I was mostly in, as that was my host's main classroom, the students didn't speak any english. It was my goal to figure out how to communicate with them so that we can both understand each other. Body language. Body language was very important in communicating with each other, I realized it was universal. This is something that will help me in my own classroom because I now know how to communicate differently to students who may not understand something. I know that I will have to take my time with these students.
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Our first week in Stuttgart Germany was getting acquainted with our host and their school. I won't lie, observing their classrooms here at first was very awkward. The language barrier is huge, you have no idea what they are saying and it was very hard to try and focus on what they were doing. With that being said, after a few days you were able to grasp the idea of what they were saying when they were teaching in German. I am the type of person that wants to help the students when they need it, but I had to just sit back because the 1st grade classroom I was in, the students didn't speak any english. The awesome thing about that is that the students and I learned a way to communicate with our bodies and it was actually very rewarding. I learned that we don't need a certain language to communicate with each other.(I'll write more about this in another blog.)
The schools in Stuttgart compared to the schools in Buffalo are very different but also some similarities. The teaching schedule is not the same as in Buffalo. A full-time teacher works 28 hours out of the week. Two out of the five days is 8-12:30 then 2:30-4 and the other three days are 8-12:30. There are 2 built in breaks for the students during the 8-12:30 part of school. They are two 15 minutes break between every two periods, It's a wonderful thing as it allows for the students and the teachers to give their brains a break and reset. You would never see happen in the schools in Buffalo, we should probably take some notes. The students were very excited that I am here and were filled with lots of questions. "Who's your favorite president?", "Did you go to Harvard?", "What's your favorite sport?", "Are you married?".....I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Everyone at the school have been super nice to me and are always willing to help me out when I feel lost. Some of the teacher have said that they were super nervous to teach in english when I observed their classroom, because they didn't want me to judge them. I told them that they have nothing to be nervous about, I only speak one language and they speak two and that I so much respect for them. I am so thankful for my wonderful host, Lukas. He has made sure that I felt like I am home here. He has shown what Stuttgart has to offer and how to live like a German in this city. He has made me home cooked meals, provided me with the local beers from around here, and also shown me how to be a wonderful teacher. We were all assigned a role before we traveled to Germany. These role were to help keep the trip going smoothly, as well as for us to take responsibility for each other and not always counting on our two leaders. The roles consisted of The Banker, The Ambassador, The Herder, The Planner, The Guardian..etc. My role assignment was The Herder, I had to make sure that we always had everyone while traveling throughly out Germany/France. I had to keep track of attendance and gather loiters when leaving a destination. At times I felt like I was a border collie dog herding sheep. The role made sure that I was alert of where everyone was and constantly keeping and eye out that we didn’t loose any one in our fast paced walking and transferring from train to train or from train to bus.
Being the herder has given me the chance to see what it is like to keep an eye on students while in big crowds or on a field trip, or even just walking the hallways of the school. I would be constantly counting heads making sure we had everyone. It also gave me a new appreciation for my past teachers who took us on big field trips while I was in school. We visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, which I'll be honest, I didn't know much about this concentration camp. You only usually hear about Auschwitz and those horrific events.
Originally conceived as a place to subjugate enemies of the Nazi’s, some 200,000 people were imprisoned here and subjected to systematic torture, starvation, forced labor and some of the worst living conditions. As I toured the memorial, I was educated on the truths about the camp where 50,000 people were brutally murdered by the Nazi’s and 60,000 held captive until 1950 during the Soviet era. Seeing this historical sight from a horrific time in history was something I won’t forget. The feelings that I felt from walking around the memorial was anger & sadness. I still can’t wrap my brain how something like this happened more than once. Last year I visited the beautiful country, Rwanda and two of their genocide memorials. I saw how history repeated itself, the Rwandan Genocide and the Holocaust had rulers that wanted racial purity. All I can think about is how much we need world peace(cliche I know). We also need to make sure that we don’t forget about these horrific events. I feel that these are slipping away from memory, let’s keep on education ourselves and especially our youths. As an upcoming teacher, I plan to educate my students on these awful events. The Holocaust/Rwandan Genocide provides one of the most effective subjects for examining basic moral issues. It deepens reflection about contemporary issues that affect societies around the world, such as the power of extremist ideologies, propaganda, the abuse of official power, and group-targeted hate and violence. I think, if we are to stop any events like this happening ever again, the whole world must educate its children about events like these. We arrived to Berlin on June 16th after our 7 hour plane ride from Toronto. We checked into our Hotel and had a little it of time of get settled into our rooms and freshen up before we started a walking tour of Berlin.
We used their train system for our travel. It was very cool to use how their public transportation system worked and looked like. It was very clean which I was surprised to see. I’ve only done NYC’s trains, which the stations and the train cars are not clean at all. Seeing a lot of Berlin’s historic sights and how important it is to their city was something I am glad I got to experience. History is what makes a city so unique. We saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, as well as the Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted under Nazism. Berlin is very open to everyone, which is something we don’t see in the States. It was great to see a city that accepts everyone. One of my favorite things we have done was going to an authentic German Biergarten. It an open area with open seating. It is encouraged for people to sit with strangers and talk. Which is a wonderful thing and something we don’t really do in America. I feel that I am getting the true german culture at the biergartens. I have enjoyed eating the German cuisine, which has mostly been sausage, sauerkraut, pretzels and beer. Berlin has been so much fun to experience...now to Strasbourg, France!! This adventure to Germany is approaching very fast and I cannot wait. I just graduated with my Bachelors of Science Degree in Childhood Education and I am ready to take the next step in my chapter of teaching. Last summer I had the most rewarding experience traveling to Rwanda with The Anne Frank Project. That trip truly changed my life for the better and now I am ready to see what else the world has to offer.
I am thrilled that I get the chance to travel to Germany to experience how they run/teach a classroom in Germany. I will being staying with a host and observing how he runs his classroom. I will also get the privlage to teaching a lesson or two. This is exciting because I am always looking for new ideas to add to my teaching tool box. I cannot wait to immerse myself in the German culture for 3 weeks. I am also extending my trip for a couple of days so I can travel to Paris. And if you were wondering, yes, I am going to Disneyland Paris. =) |
AuthorI am a Childhood Education Major with a concentration in Social Studies. I am very active in the Buffalo theatre community and have performed with many local theatre companies. I studied musical theatre in NYC and have worked at Walt Disney World as a Character/Parade performer. Last summer I had the privilege of traveling to Rwanda with The Anne Frank Project and I'm very excited to be traveling to Germany. ArchivesCategories |