My knees are red and sore from kneeling all day, my feet are killing me, I can't speak either English or German right now, and I was in school today for 11 hours without a lunch...but we all made it through the first day! No one cried, was homesick, had a bathroom accident or was wounded; I'd call that a pretty successful day. It didn't go nearly as smoothly as I had hoped, though...we really only got through one or two lessons today. Apparently getting school pictures taken and learning how to walk in a line (which they'll all have forgotten by tomorrow) and quieting down take a really long time to learn, so we didn't get to other fun things like reading stories or touring the entire school. But at least that's one less thing to plan for tomorrow.
Also: it was all I could do not to reprimand the kids in English by the end of the day. They were little space cadets, not paying attention at all, and once I had the attention of three kids, I had to catch a few more, and by the time the second group was listening, the first had already wandered off. And the afternoon group, in particular, seemed to have the opinion: 'If I don't understand what the teacher is saying, well, I just don't need to pay attention anymore and I definitely don't need to watch what she's doing so that I could figure out the instructions by myself.' Quite the loooooong day.
I think everything for tomorrow is planned, so I'm off to watch 'Queer Eye' (thank god for cable!) and to bed early. Sounds like a good precedent for the rest of the year, or at least the post-school-day part.
2 comments:
Hi Bridget... you can do it! I know you can. They'll start paying attention eventually. :-)
Are these all American kids? Do they know any German yet or are they supposed to "learn by doing"?
What an awesome challenge, either way. You go, girl. :-)
Dude, just remember that these kids are acting the same way as they would if you had been teaching them in English. They're kindergartners; their attention spans aren't that long. It's not you. :)
Also, start watching "House M.D." if you have the time - it's a "mystery drama" starring Hugh Laurie. I've only seen one episode, but it was really good. Or, get the seasons of the West Wing from the library! I borrowed them from my Aunt Cathy :)
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