Hello all, I want to start by saying this entry won't be as long as normal. It's getting late here and I have a class I'm teaching first thing in the morning... With that said, let me share a bit about my first day as a teacher in Berlin.
I started my day feeling pretty confident and ready to teach my class, but as the time drew closer I got more and more nervous. I was only teaching a year 8 (which is 7th grade back home), 40 minute period and I felt like I had too much, and yet not enough, crammed into my sore brain. Its rare that I have every taught a lesson shorter than 50 minutes and so I quickly realized I had crammed too much into my presentation and had to do some on my feet editing.
Well to make a long story short, I survived my lesson but I learned two very important lessons while teaching. The first lesson, this school is a private school and so there are no low-income kids, and they are all paying to be here. This means that I am in a classroom where students do all the work I ask them to do, and most often they do it silently. Many of them are highly driven (even at 12 years old) and if they aren't, their parents make up for the drive and keep them on task.
So today I found myself feeling awkward and out of place as I silently waited for my students to answer the questions I had asked them... I am use to chitchat and off topic tangents that somehow relate to the greater themes of life, yet these kids were perfectly on task and I was itching for some off task behavior. Funny, right? You would think I'd be in heaven having a class that was so attentive and quick to work, but I miss the craziness my past classes have had. I also miss the diversity in life experiences. Now, don't get me wrong. This school is an international one so there are many different stories and kids who have lived all over the world. But they all seem to come from the same upper class society, no matter the country. It is a school that I am so far detached from in experience I end up feeling a bit out of place. This actually ties into my second lesson of the day...
I now realize how valuable knowing a specific education system is to teaching in a classroom. One of the comments my teacher had about my lesson (other than the usual polite 'nicely done') was that I should have defined a specific term for the class... Well I didn't because if I had been teaching back home it would have been a term that had been covered in multiple classes before this year. Basically, what I'm saying is that I have no understanding of what these kids may have taken and what they haven't had. It leaves me feeling out of place as I attempt to discover the kids knowledge while also trying to not hinder their progress. Since these kids seem to catch on so quickly, I don't want them believing I find them stupid simply because I'm teaching something they already know, but didn't realize they knew.
Anyways, in a long winded way, I'm letting you all know I survived teaching my first lesson. Tomorrow I will be teaching a double lesson (80 minutes instead of 40) and I'm going to start it a little bit more like I would start teaching back home. It is a new class, so I want to introduce myself, and more importantly I want them to introduce themselves. I will let you know how that goes in tomorrows blog...
Now for the tourist side of the blog... I have now been here for 2 weeks and I am already dying for American food! Not just McDonalds (I mean a girl can only eat so many Big Macs), but other foods and sweets that I never realized I'd miss. This is my roundabout way of telling you all that I went on an adventure to try and find a very specific, and apparently very American, piece of candy... Twizzlers. I kid you not, I have been dying for them...
So in my desperation I decided to delay my lesson planning for the evening and head off on another adventure... I did as much research online as possible before I finally decided on a store. It is called KaDeWe and it is huge! I mean, if the other store I told you about was like Macy's with groceries, this store was Nordstrom's quality with groceries and everything else imaginable. I mean I walked in and my jaw nearly hit the floor... It's like 7 floors of insanity and it's a good thing I'm poor or I would have been walking out with bags full of stuff for the fun of it! I wanted to take pictures but I didn't because I didn't want to be that 'tacky tourist,' so you'll just have to visit for yourself or accept my pathetic description.
So anyways, I chose this store to visit because I had done research online in an attempt to figure out who Might have Twizzlers and it was the one that popped up with having an "American Ethnic Foods Section." Yup, that's right, we are an Ethnic food group... and let me tell you it isn't overly flattering. It was the funniest collection of food I'd ever seen in an ethnic food section. So just so you know, we are known for things like our Mac and Cheese, Poptarts, Marsh mellows, Betty Corcker cooking mixes, BBQ sauce , and lastly specialty sodas (which to them means Dr. Pepper). This section made me giggle, but sadly it had no Twizzlers. It's funny to think that America is now known for our highly processed foods... And for some reason Marsh mellows really are seen as American, go figure.
Well after I didn't find my Twizzlers and everything was way over priced (like 9 Euros for poptarts), I decided to head out and just stop by just a regular grocery store. I was able to find poptarts for a reasonable price and picked those up, but still no Twizzlers. I have all but given up on my search for Twizzlers, and it may need to just be added to my list of things to indulge on when I get home (right there with Olive Garden soup, salad and bread stick meal).
Everyone should be proud of me, because today's trip involved me attempting to figure out not only the trains (which I can easily use), but also the U-bahns (which are the subways here). Though I did make it successfully to and from my destination, I have realized I am not a fan of the subway system. Firstly, it is confusing! Not only do you need to know your train, you need to figure out how to get to the right stupid platform... I walked around one station for a good ten minutes before I finally figured out where my train going the correct direction was located! I also hate being underground. It feels a bit unnatural, and it's just crowded and I can't see where I am in the city. The upside to this trip, I found the zoo. I may just need to go visit it later...
Anyways, this blog is turning into a ramble because I am tired but I need to leave with my word of the day... Sonnenblumenöl it means Sunflower Oil. I know not very useful, but I was trying to get some oil for frying up potatoes and cooking some other things and it was what the girl recommended at the store. So I guess its useful because of that, but I'm not sure if it counts for my word of the day. So, time for me to call it a night. I'm sorry there where no pictures, I didn't take enough to make hooking up my camera worth while, maybe tomorrow! Well good night all!
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