Herbst

I don't really feel that I have much of interest to share from this week, but for those of you who keep checking here's a couple of pictures of the setting sun lighting up the trees in all their prettiful autumnal colours :)

Just a quick synopsis of my week then.

School passed fairly averagely, no problems, but equally nothing that exciting to report... Friday I finished teaching at half 9, so with effectively a 4-day weekend I went off to explore a town called Königswinter, which is home to Drachenfels, one of the Siebengebirge ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siebengebirge ... Apparently it's quite a popular tourist town in the summer, but needless to say it was somewhat quieter at the end of October. The little train up Drachenfels still runs though, and the view from the top is stunning. Add in a couple of trips to Köln, and there you have it, the end of October. (Also totally didn't realise that being paid in advance meant that Friday was once again pay day - bonus!)

November 1st is a bank holiday here thanks to the Catholics celebrating Allerheiligen (all saints day), meaning tomorrow is 'unterrichtsfrei'. Not such a big deal for me seeing as I have Mondays off anyway, but I still appreciate the notion.

Hat es schon geklingelt?

Well, I wasn't planning on updating this so soon, but my first day back in school proved a touch more interesting than an average day.

Firstly, it was still properly dark when I walked to school, and the with clear skies you could still perfectly see the moon and stars. I would probably have appreciated this much more however, if it wasn't so freezing cold, and I hadn't had to drag myself out of bed.

Secondly, I somehow managed to miss going to my first lesson today, despite being in the school and only about 30 seconds walk from the classroom - fail. But the teacher didn't know I was meant to be there either, so all's okay.

Thirdly, I have now been assigned the role of sitting with the kid in 'Klasse 5' who is somehwhat slow at understanding even really basic English, and starts to cry if she gets asked a question too many times. Challenge set.

Fourthly, I have already been picked up on having a Kölsch accent! I guess that's a good thing really, as it must mean that I am picking up some German, but I didn't feel it was necessary for it to be pointed out to anyone else who was around at the time.

And fifthly, I actually did some proper teaching today. Not just helping out, or going through exercises etc., but actually teaching a grammar point - 'The Present Perfect Progessive' to Klasse 8. No I wasn't entirely sure what it was either, and even nearly wrote the wrong title on the board, but a hiccup or two aside, it all seemed to go quite well. Must practise writing with chalk though.

Anyway, now to find something beginning with a vowel to have in my bag ready for tomorrow's 'a' / 'an' lesson...

So long Herbstferien, so long future assistants...

So firstly, having Mondays off means I have prolonged the reality of term re-starting for as long as possible. Had a good last few days of the holidays though, with a couple of trips to Cologne as well as to Bensberg, but procrastination only works so far!  Time to dig out the textbooks and remind myself what I'm meant to be doing tomorrow. The dark and cold early start could prove painful!

Secondly, thanks to the government's spending review, it looks like the year below won't get to have the same amazing opportunity we have:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/centuryold-teaching-programme-suspended-after-spending-cuts-2114235.html

Unless you are in studying on Scotland of course, which *touch wood* has yet to have its recruitment cut...

http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistants-ela-how-do-i-apply.htm

What a joke. Don't get me wrong, I study Economics, I know we need to make cuts and drastically reduce our deficit if we're to have a sustainable economy in the long run, but surely this would be one of the things that's worthwhile protecting? Plus, it's not even as if we, as assistants, are paid by the UK, it's the host country local authority who foots that cost. And they wonder why there is a decline in people learning languages. Let's scrap incentives for language learning and opportunities for cultural understanding, and instead reinforce the image of ignorant Britain's belief that 'everyone speaks English'. It's not like languages might acutally be useful in aiding the economic recovery anyway...

Sigh. Rant over.

Let's hope students and schools can make private arrangements without the British Council / Department for Education.

On a plus point, however, it has been gloriously sunny today - all helping to take the edge of the winter chill :)

A trip to the East - Leipzig & Berlin

Next stop on my Germany travels / Herbstferien adventures was a 5-day trip to Leipzig, staying with Kristina who was in Leeds last year for her Auslandssemester - Morten would be proud of his little 'make friends with the Erasmus students scheme' working out! After a 6+ hour train from Köln it was time to experience the East, and once again take too many photos...

East German Ampelmännchen

Leipzig

There's many many tales to be told of my time in Leipzig, but I'll try to keep this (relatively!) short and sweet!

Friday: most of the day was spent sitting on a train, but after a pizza tea with a couple of Kristina's friends, many more rocked up for a party / gathering in her flat. It was at this moment that I realised not being a smoker was automatically going to put me in the minority of people there. In fact after 2 people had left relatively early I was the only one left who didn't smoke, fantastic.

Saturday: after a lie in and late German-stylee breakfast, it was time for a grand tour of Leipzig ... Problem 1 - it was pouring down with rain. Problem 2 - the neo-nazis were protesting that day :/ talk about timing. 1500 of them had registered to hold a protest at the train station, but apparently only a couple of hundred actually turned up. To be fair all we saw of it were lots and lots of police people/vans stationed through all the city centre, and a group of anti-nazi demonstrators letting of some kind of fireworks  in a park (or some kind of thing that went *bang* - can't say firearms are my are of expertise!). Anyway, Leipzig is quite an impressive city with lots of big, old, typically German buildings, and of course the Ampelmännchen. Saturday evening was a burger pub tea, sadly another opportunity for much smoking as apparently "ein Pub ohne rauchen ist kein Pub". I miss England's smoking ban! :(

Leipzig, the next day when the sun decided to shine!

Sunday: another lie in, and long German breakfast with Kristina and a couple of her friends ... we finished at about half 2!! It was still absolutely freezing but today the sun was shining so we went up the MDR tower to their viewing platform and saw Leipzig from above with perfectly clear blue skies. Afterwards it was time for coffee with another girl who had been in Leeds last year, before a trip to the cinema to see 'Goethe'. Germany readers - definitely worth a watch, it was a really good film, and I understood it without knowing anything about him / his work!

Berlin

With Berlin being (comparatively) soo close, I could hardly not go and visit, especially as I've always wanted to go, so on Monday whilst Kristina was in uni I went off on a jolly to Germany's capital city. It sounds stupid, but it's a lot bigger than I had expected! 6 hours is definitely not enough to see the whole city, but I did manage to visit many of the tourist sights - Reichstag, Brandenburg Tor, Unter den Linden, Checkpoint Charlie, Friedrichstraße, East Side Gallery... A longer visit is definitely required at some point in life.

Berlin Wall

 Tuesday: there isn't much to report other than a snotty woman on train snapping at me auf Deutsch for saying 'Entschuldigen Sie bitte', and having not such an enjoyable journey back. However, once I was back in Köln Hbf, this was when my day was made. Feeling a touch grumpy and massively fed up of public transport (or more the people on it!), as I was walking through the station to get my next train a piece of chocolate cake was calling to me from one of the bakeries... Well I could hardly ignore it's pleas now could I? Anyway, long story short, the guy thought I had asked for 2 pieces not one (I'm not that greedy!) and said I could take the second piece for free! :)

All in a good weekend filled with many more things to go in my 'experience box' and not to mention lots of German spoken! Back in Bergisch Gladbach now, but a compulsory trip to Düsseldorf and a teacher training / bonding day in Hattingen await in just under a fortnight.

Finally, I have now been paid - woop! If only I had a working bank card to actually access it though...

(Wednesday 20th October 2010)

Autumn - blink and you miss it

Don't be fooled by the autumnal colours and rustly leaves, Germany seemed to skip autumn. A couple of days ago, it was hot and sunny, perfect ice cream weather, in fact it was the summer we didn't get in England. Now it's freezing, still sunny (temporarily!) but really quite cold. Here comes the German winter.

Anyway, just a quick update on the Herbstferien. The weekend stayed gloriously sunny with clear skies and prettiful starry nights for my parents' visit, some near miracle! Twas a good few days involving over 500 steps up the south tower of the Kölner Dom, a lift to the 28th floor of the KölnTriangle, another dinner party with my pensioner possy, a trip to Beethoven's birthplace and much more...

Now for a day or two's rest before jetting (ha, chugging on a 6 hour train!) off to Leipzig for a long weekend :)

Happy Herbstferien!

It may have been on the last day before the holidays but today I had proof I have officially made it in the staffroom, and have my own designated place! Well... I still have to share chairs with the Referendare but today I arrived to find some lesson prep left ready for me on "my" seat - impressive.

I have also found my two favourite classes. There's Klasse 6's Förderunterricht where the class is split between 2 teachers for writing and speaking development lessons. I help with the speaking half, which basically entails spending 45 minutes talking and playing games with about fifteen 10/11 year olds. This group also has the sweetest ever little lad, definitely my favourite pupil of the moment. (Nb. their teacher is also reallyyy camp, and went to Leeds uni for a year!) My second favourite class is my Friday morning double lesson with Klasse 5. They have only just started learning English (today involved performing an alphabet rap and learning objects in a classroom) and worksheets involving colouring in are still exciting. Also Frau Neumann always makes sure I'm properly involved and have things to do which is lovely :) The only slight problem is they need a lot of basic vocabulary, and I am fast dicovering that my basic vocabulary is somewhat lacking. Ah, maybe I should take up reading a dictionary....

Anyhow, holidays are here, and I now have 2 weeks where I don't have to beat the sun getting up every morning. Nice as it is have seen the starts of many sunrises on my way to school (Yf readers take note!) I wouldn't mind sleeping through a few! Muchly looking forward to having visitors as well as being a visitor :)

Also, Leeds Uni 'desktop anywhere', I ♥ you. You may crash sometimes, and your sound and video may be out of sync and a little poor in quality, but you let me watch iplayer, and for that I am greatful.

"Do you have cheese in England?"

Today I was back in school, only 3 of my 4 lessons turned out to be either cancelled or 'Vertretung' (cover lessons) - grr. It would be nice to be told some of this information rather than solving the mysteries myself!

For one of the cover lessons I was spontaneously landed with about ten 10/11 year olds who had already finished their work. Apparently I was to go to the library and talk with them for the entire lesson. Don't you love teachers who solve their problems by just handing them over to you? Challenge one - I had no idea where the libary was. That hurdle overcome I was then greeted by the librarian who had no idea who I was and proceeded to babble at me auf Deutsch. Sadly I didn't catch most of what she said, but was surrounded by kids who had understood every word and probably thought I was completely stupid. Ah well. Once I had finally comprehended what she was saying, and most of my group had started to run off, it was time for challenge two - what on earth to talk to them about. I had no planning, no textbook, and no idea what they had already learnt in English. Also turned out that they don't know the future or past tenses yet... half an hour just using the simple present then?!

Anyway, a couple of highlights of our 'conversation':

Boy 1: "Do you have cheese in England?"
Boy 2: "He asks because he had nice cheese in France."

The inevitable "Do you have a boyfriend?" question.

I'm not sure if he was trying to console me, but one of the kids then proceeded to say auf Deutsch: 'No that's okay because my aunt is 30 and doesn't have a boyfriend, but I also know some people who got married and they were 20'. So I asked him how old he wanted to be when he got married. Answer: "Never!"

Me: 'Would you like to have a King or Queen in Germany?'
Answer: 'No! We have a democracy.'

So that's Geography and Politics that need addressing then! Apparently when they returned to the classroom they were very enthusiastic, if only it were for the right reasons... Kids, eh?