A little acting, Walhalla and Schnitzel

After another lazy Monday morning, I was back in school. I ended up arriving too early due to not being required for one of my normal classes, so found myself hanging around until my class with the Year 5s began. Once again the class were well behaved and this time, dare I say it, I even enjoyed it - a little bit. I like to think they have changed their ways, but I'm not hopeful. I was again teaching together with the class teacher and it works well. There was one particularly odd moment of the lesson though. The students were copying some work from the board, but it soon emerged that not everyone was doing so. The pupils who hadn't written anything (and I mean nothing!) were then told, a little more forcefully, to start copying. And for those pupils who had already copied the work, the teacher had something else planned. She simply said the word 'meditate' and suddenly the pupils hopped off their chairs, sat on the floor, crossed their legs, closed their eyes, put their middle finger and their thumb together and literally began to mediate. I was very confused, but didn't question it. I think I just stood their for a few moments, mouth open, wondering what was going on! This is something I've never come across before and it is a little weird - I think it must be a technique unique to this teacher. After 8 months of teaching here I thought I had seen it all, but I was wrong! To be fair the pupils liked it and it did mean we were able to enjoy just a few moments of silence, so I will definitely have to remember that one. Once the others had caught up with the work, we continued the lesson. We were also able to enjoy a cake break since one of the students had baked a cake, a 'punishment' he had received for misbehaving the previous week. This is a concept I really like! The weather on Monday was nice and I enjoyed an evening walk later on. In an effort to explore a little more of my surrounding area, I soon found myself lost in the thick Bavarian woodland - a pretty scary experience! But getting lost is the best way to explore a new area, right?!

Since I'm not often in school for the first lesson, by the time I arrive all the bike stands and places to leave your bike are often occupied. This is especially the case now. Whilst a few months ago, when it was cold and grey, I had no issue finding somewhere to leave my bike, but now since every pupil seems to be riding to school, it is becoming a little more difficult. It's not really an issue, it just means I may have to walk to the other end of the playground in order to lock up my bike. On Tuesday I was in my usual lessons and just helping out. My afternoon class was with the Year 10s and together with the teacher, I discussed their homework and offered corrections. I had not seen the homework until I was at the front of the class and the teacher passed me the sheet. The teacher had written the answers down, so I breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed I had it easy. That was until I realised some of the teachers' answers were wrong! I had to quickly find the correct answer, whilst also asking students for their answers and then seeing if they got it right! Once again I found it very difficult when the students asked me why something was so. There were a few awkward silences as I tried to offer some sort of explanation - but the explanations I did eventually give, made no sense at all and I think just confused them more.

One thing that occurred to me on Tuesday was how open the Germans seem to be with swearing (and I mean English swearing). I hear expletives coming from students everyday so this has occurred to me many times before, but on Tuesday some of the clothing being worn made it even more apparent. Two students in the Year 7 class were wearing what I would class as 'inappropriate' clothing for school. One had a t-shirt emblazoned with 'I don't give a F**K' (in big bold letters - and let me tell you, the asterisks weren't present on this particular t-shirt), whilst another wore a hoody with lewd references to 'rude parts'. I've seen bags and satchels with swear words, hats with expletives and lots more. I guess it's because I'm English that I take these a little more seriously and I don't think that the students really know how strong these words are in England. Furthermore, this highlights one of the problems with a no school uniform policy and makes me feel lucky, proud and fortunate that in England school uniform exists. In my opinion England definitely has one over on Germany here!

Wednesday was a busier day and I helped out in several classes as well as doing some dual teaching too. Many teachers keep asking me when I'm leaving and then panic when they discover I only have 3 more weeks left! They all seem to want me to do a last lesson with their classes, so I think the next few weeks could be a little busier than I thought they would be.

On Thursday I was asked to help out with one of the referendars and was asked to do a little acting. He was teaching his Year 5 class about arguments and they were studying an example in the book. He briefly explained what we should do before the lesson, but even then I had no real idea of how it would work out. It started with him asking me about football (All Germans love football, so this seemed a perfect topic). What followed was a disagreement about the teams we support and how good or bad they are. I was surprised and shocked to learn that some of the vocabulary the students are to learn are the words 'stupid' and 'idiot'. So as the 'argument' got more and more heated, we began raising our voices and calling each other 'stupid' and 'an idiot'. The argument ended with the teacher 'telling me off and telling me to sit at the back of the room'. The students giggled and gasped, so despite acting not being my thing, and despite it being totally improvised, it seemed to work. I was further surprised when the teacher asked the class to repeat the words 'stupid' and 'idiot' in unison after him. Hearing a whole class of young German students shouting words like 'stupid' and 'idiot' all together was not something I had ever expected to hear. After that I was in another Year 5 class and this time I was teacher. We did a dialogue from the book, and as always there were too many volunteers for the actual number of roles, which I think is a really good thing, and then we did some written exercises. With a large gap until my next lesson I spent some time in the staff room talking with teachers, which is a situation I now feel much more confident in, as opposed to just a few months ago. I've been asked lots of questions about how I've found my year here and I've had to turn down lots of offers of meals at teachers houses or evenings out with the staff due to the packed weekends that me and Lois have planned! My school day on Thursday ended with the first of my 'news' classes that I've been asked to offer. We talked about technology and discussed some articles. There were only 6 girls who were present and we got everything done pretty fast, so I ended up finishing the lesson pretty early. (When you're the teacher, you can do these things ;) ) Lois' arrival that afternoon signalled the end of another week and the start of another weekend - the last full weekend, in fact, that we're spending purely in Regensburg - now that's a strange thought!

On Friday we went into Regensburg and did a little shopping as usual. Following a browse and the purchase of a book about German 'Jugendsprache' or 'youth speak' (I'm going to be able to know exactly what my students are saying now!), we went to the cinema. We went to see 'Bad Neighbors' or just 'Neighbors' in England. It was a comedy and it must have been good because it made us both laugh. This was the first time we had been to the cinema together in Regensburg and we both really enjoyed it. The film is an American film but is obviously dubbed in German. Once we were over the fact that the mouths of the actors stopped moving way before the German dubbing had finished (strange for us, but almost every film is like this in Germany, so I guess they're used to it), we found ourselves absorbed in the film. I've said it before, but it's quite a rewarding experience being able to watch a film in a foreign language, laugh when you're meant to and also follow the story. After the film we came back, made tea and spent the evening glued to the TV since it was the final of 'The Voice of Germany: Kids'. We've been watching this singing competition for the past few weeks and have really got into it, so we enjoyed our chilled Friday night in.

This is in the cinema. Why take the stairs when you can
take the slide!?

 On Saturday we made a trip to 'Walhalla' (Valhalla). 'Walhalla' is a hall of fame, a memorial, that honours famous personalities in German history. It is a temple, modelled on the Greek Parthenon, constructed in 1830 by King Ludwig of Bavaria and is located just outside Regensburg. It's a very popular and well known sight and teachers have been shocked to hear to that I had not yet visited, so we felt that we had to do it. We caught the bus and after a short walk found ourselves at the temple. As you can imagine, it's a very big structure and very different to anything we'd seen before. The Greek design seems out of place in Germany, where the buildings, churches and general architecture is so much different. Walhalla offers a good view over the Danube and the city of Regensburg is just about visible in the distance. Inside the building one big hall contains busts of the famous German personalities - from Alfred the Great to Otto von Bismark, from Albert Einstein to Beethoven and many many more who we'd never heard of! We enjoyed the views and just enjoyed seeing such a different building. The temple gave off a very powerful feel and it was a very impressive building to see. We didn't stay for long and came home via a visit to one of the modern shopping centres in Regensburg which we don't often visit. We relaxed in the afternoon and spent another evening glued to the TV, this time for Eurovision. As always it was very entertaining and we enjoyed discussing each act together and giving our own predictions. Although, even after 9 months in Germany, we were reassured to find that our loyalties still remained with the UK, despite a pretty poor entry. 

The interior houses the busts of many famous German

Just taking in the view

You can call me Zeus

On Sunday we joined the rest of the German population and enjoyed a day, predominantly, of rest. We spent the morning doing a little lesson planning and then organising next weekends plans. Lois packed her things and then we left to go to town around mid-afternoon for some food before we said goodbye. Sundays choice of restaurant was Kreuzschänke, famed for it's picturesque biergarten and huge schnitzels. This was another restaurant we had not yet been to, so we were excited to try something new. We had heard the schnitzels were big but we still gasped in awe as the waitress served us with a great big schnitzel each, so big that it was hanging off, the already big, plate. We were sat out in the biergarten and it was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The schnitzels were absolutely delicious and obviously very filling. Once again, we found ourselves saying that we're disappointed that we haven't the chance to re-visit this restaurant. Regensburg simply offers too much choice!

I told you they were big! But the clean plate should indicate how delicious
they were!

 

This week coming is particularly exciting. On Friday it's my 21st Birthday and since we celebrated Lois' 21st in Vienna, we thought we had better choose an equally spectacular destination to spend my birthday in too... So on Thursday evening we are travelling to Venice! Thus meaning I get to spend my entire 21st in Venice and I cannot wait! We have two days to soak up the sights and then return late Saturday night meaning we have chance to recover before back to school on Monday, but more importantly, providing I don't have too many Peronis, I can update my blog and let you all know how we found it. Like I said, we're both really excited, so roll on Thursday!

Until next time,

Tschüß