I managed to pull myself out of bed by 6 am, which is saying a lot since I have been sleeping almost everyday until noon, to begin my first official day at BBS. I got up, showered and dressed (into one of my lovely teaching outfits, maybe I will be a bit conceited tomorrow and take a picture in my teacher clothes!). I even had time to make myself a lunch and get out of the door perfectly on time.
So it turns out that by taking so long to find an apartment I was gifted with an amazingly close one to the school. The school itself is situated, and I kid you not, in the woods. Berlin has woods in the city limits, and that is where the school is located (more pictures to come on the campus). So since the school is located in the woods, the school offers teachers a little shuttle to get from the main road down to the campus (it would actually only be twenty minutes to walk from the shuttle sight but as of now it's still a bit too cold). In order to catch this shuttle I only walk for about 10 or 15 minutes to a little gas station that serves coffee lol. So when it warms up a little over a thirty minute walk to school, I'm very excited about that!
Getting on with my day, I headed out to meet the group by seven and was happily at school in what felt like no time. Like I said before the school is located in what will be beautiful woods once spring decides to arrive, and it is a small school. Just a few buildings make up the total of the classrooms (again, pictures to come). The classrooms are on the small size, but it has a lot to do with it being a smaller international school, and the number of students in a class remains small.
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| The desks in the main classroom I'll be working in. |
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| The super high tech smartboard I will also be using (and the teacher I'm working with). |
I was only observing today, and so far all the teachers have been very welcoming as we swap stories of living other places than Berlin, and those who have been here a while share their knowledge about the many questions I had. I was able to observe several different classes, and even different subjects! I began looking at history classes, before I got to observe a chemistry class (which really was fun and different for me). I also was able to observe a geography class (which I may also be teaching a bit of). All in all the observing went well and I was put on the path of finding out what I may be teaching!
It looks like I will be teaching Year 8, 9 and 10 (which I think is like 7th, 8th and 9th grade back home) across history and geography. I know as far as history goes I will be looking at the Roaring 20s in US history for one of the history classes, and then that African Slave Trade and the place of African Americans in US history in the other class. It's kind of funny that it doesn't seem to matter where I teach, I always seem to end up in the US history classes!
Anyways, I want to tell you all about the confusing time system that this school has but it is getting late here and I should call it a night. Ok, honestly I haven't figured out the system yet so I'm actually going to tell you about it AFTER I figure it out. So for now, I am going to sign off and say good night. I am already starting to feel much better about my time here, and as this really smart woman I know and love told me, it's just a long working vacation and I will be home before I know it.
Let me finish off tonight with my phrase/word of the day for you Dad. Today it's "sprechen sie English?" Which means "do you speak English?" Good night all, and I shall sign in again tomorrow! (Oh and you all are welcome to leave comments if you want to ask anything).
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