The joys of being a young teacher...

One of my students came in during lunch today, looking very concerned.

Student: "Ms. A? What happened to your head?"
Me: "Uh...?" (Did I draw on myself with a whiteboard marker?)
Student: "This morning you had a big bruise on your head."
Me: "I did?"
Student: "Yeah, it's right there." *points to the side of my forehead*
Me: "Um... that's acne. I'm having a bad skin day."
Student: "Oops."
Me: "Thanks for checking on me, though."

I also accidentally wore the school uniform (khakis and a navy blue sweater) and was mistaken for a student in the hall.

Other recent stories:
- My school's VP walked into my room and looked around. He didn't see me standing in front of him, so he started to freak out a little. "Where is Ms. A? Where is she?" I was quite literally standing under his nose. When he noticed me waving my arms, he said, "Oh, I thought you were a student." In front of my class. Thanks a lot.

- An 8th grader shoved me while I was walking up the stairs. Another 8th grader said, "Dude! That's a teacher!" The first 8th grader had had no idea.

At the very least, looking the same age as your students gives you plenty of entertaining stories.

One of my biggest challenges this year has been keeping my post-lunch class in line.

I call one of my students in that class the Perfume Pyromaniac. As the name suggests, she once doused her hand in perfume and set it on fire.

In class.

(Fortunately, not my class.)

The Perfume Pyromaniac made catty comments, called out during lecture constantly, and drew as much attention to herself as possible. I bribed, wheedled, cajoled, and eventually started kicking her out and sending her to the other 7th grade pre-algebra class the first time her behavior prevented me from teaching. I was pretty sure that the way to reach her was by showering her with attention, and she was winning every day that I continued to fight with her. So, Perfume Pyromaniac spent a solid week and a half getting kicked out in the first few minutes of the class (the first few minutes that she deigned to show up for)... but when she was in class, I positive-narrated the heck out of her.

I started to see small changes.

She started coming in five minutes late instead of ten minutes late, and she made it a few minutes longer without getting kicked out.

She started coming in a minute after the bell, out of breath. (Hey! She was running to class!)

One day, she made it through an entire class. Granted, her head was on her desk, but she was only calling out every 5 or so minutes, rather than every 30 seconds, and she would stop after one hand gesture.

The following day, she was 30 seconds late to class, showed up out of breath, and asked for a pencil and paper. She solved the Do Now along with the rest of the class and made it through the first slide of new material before putting her head down.

Progress. That was three more minutes of engagement than I had gotten the previous day.

I spoke with her during the independent practice and told her that I was so excited to see her participating during the first part of class. She lit up. I asked her if she could commit to paying attention for just a little bit longer the following day... could she stay on track during the Do Now and during the first half of the new material? She agreed... and smiled! We're only a few days into the new-and-improved Pyromaniac, and I'm loving it.

Today, I was scanning the results from the district benchmark in the office, and she was sitting there as well. One of her friends was complaining about his math teacher, and you know what my Perfume Pyromaniac said? "You should switch to Ms. A's class; you'd like her."

20%

I'm officially over 1/5th of the way through my first school year as a real teacher.

Wow.

October is supposed to be the hardest month for first year teachers.

I'm hanging in there.

Behavioral issues are either going away entirely or getting magnified. At the beginning of the year, there were about eight students in my last period class who never stopped talking and/or talking back. Now, I'm down to two students who are off-task... but these students' behaviors are worse than they were at the beginning of the year. (On second thought, no, their behavior is not worse; it's just more visible now that fewer students are talking.) On the plus side, I've also gotten some (unprompted!) apology notes from students who realized that their behavior was preventing them from getting good grades. About ten of my previously underperforming students have really stepped up in the past week and are putting in ten times the amount of effort that they were in the first unit.

I'm so proud of my kids.

Yes, scores are low. Yes, some of my kids don't know how to multiply. However, every kid in my class wants to be in school. They don't storm out of class. They get upset when I send them to another teacher's room to complete a think sheet.

They're learning. I'm learning, too. I'll be honest: I wanted to cry and hit my head against a wall after grading the one-step equations quiz. It's just not that hard. The mean was around a 55-60% in four of my classes. I thought about reteaching one-step equations but decided to remediate as I taught two-step equations. I knew that if I taught two-step equations well and if my students paid attention, one-step equations would come naturally. The scores on the two-step equations quiz were higher in every class except for my honors class. I bet all of my classes will hit 80% mastery of one-step equations on the unit exam and maybe 80% mastery of two-step equations.

Did I mention that I'm proud of my kids? They're really, really putting in effort. Some of my kids are giving impromptu lectures to other students in class about how it's distracting when others whisper and why other students should turn in their homework.

A lot of my students are struggling, but I see them working independently now. The students who whispered and doodled during the first and second units are asking questions. They're raising their hands. They're asking to solve problems on the board.

Some days, it's hard to remember this. My students aren't perfect. I'm definitely not perfect. (I'm a first year teacher! I'm might be TFA Model 2.0 with my 3 years of TAing, but I've never been responsible for entire classes by myself!)

We're taking small steps every week. Nothing drastic. But a few small steps every day for 180 days? That's a lot of small steps.

Just when you're not sure if it's worth it...

I haven't updated recently because life just hasn't been going especially well. Teaching is the easy part of my life, if that tells you anything. I do have updates coming as soon as I have a more stable internet connection... well, once life gets more stable.

My lesson plan today was not good. In retrospect, I should have spent a full day on addition and a full day on subtraction instead of cramming everything together, and I'm going to have to spend that extra day remediating what I taught badly. Despite this, when I checked in on one of my students during partner practice, he looked up at me, smiled a little, and said, "I think I'm actually getting better in math this year." I gave him a handshake/high-five. :) When I called his mom to tell her what he had said, she told me that he has never had a grade this high in math and that he has never been motivated to work hard in math. Both of us are hoping to encourage him to come in to tutoring at least once a week so that he can stay on top of his work.

Yes, sharing a studio with two others is worth it... even though I'm typing this in a closet (the only place where I can steal internet from neighbors), and even though I've been sleeping on air mattresses and couches for six weeks. I love these kids.

What We Learned

One of biggest critiques of TFA is that corps members learn on students.

We do. (Student teachers do, too.)

Fortunately, the middle schools at my Institute site run enrichment programs over the summer, which means that students are previewing material that they'll see the following academic year. I really appreciated this model because it prepared us a little bit more for the learning curve we'll see when we start teaching during the school year. Summer school was also low-key and low-pressure for the students; they knew that if they struggled with a concept, they would see it again in a few months. I was going to say that the pressure was lower for us, too, but I'm not sure that's accurate because we were being observed constantly by CMAs (corps member advisors), our SDs (school directors). other CMs (corps members), and whomever decided to drop by the school that day. (The director of Institute visited my classroom! I got accolades on my lesson plans, but she was not too impressed with the fact that my INM lasted 25 minutes. Oops.)

I'm not sure whether the teachers or the students learned more this summer.

- I learned the most from video feedback. Until last year, I really struggled with talking too quickly and not enunciating well. After a year in Germany, I've gone too far in the other direction: I talk way too slowly and pause way too frequently.

- My students learned exponent rules and why they are the way they are. They really liked exponents, and they rocked that unit. They weren't pleased when I taught them the rules after making them show all of the work the long way, but I think that's for the best: now they know why the rules work!

- I learned that I'm really, really good at writing lesson plans (the director said I wrote the best LPs that she had seen at Institute!) and that I'm good at presenting content at an appropriate level.

- My students learned about malleable intelligence, and they were really motivated by the phrase "get wrinkly brains."

- I learned that I'm not very good at investing students. In fact, I can be downright boring when I talk too slowly. Several people commented that my students were more invested in me than in the material.

- My students learned one-step equations. (100% mastery of one-step equations with multiplication!) They still struggle with two-step equations (they learned two-step equations the same day I introduced one-step equations), but they understand the concept behind one-step equations.

- I learned that students work really, really hard on problems when you jazz up a worksheet. Give them a marker and call it math art... turn a worksheet into a detective story... write questions on construction paper and post them around the room... students do the exact same work (probably more work because they're happy!), and they like it a lot more! :)

- My students learned that being good at math is something you should celebrate! One of the girls wrote: "I learned that I am really smart and shouldn't hide it just show anybody." Even though the grammar is a bit lacking, that's a powerful statement from a 12-year-old girl, especially considering that she was talking about math class. This is the age where girls start to fall behind boys in math, and I hope both of the Ms continue to rock it. (I hope the guys continue to rock it, too, of course.)

My students were incredible. I wish I could teach five classes of identical students. The class changed a few times-- students started late; others left for vacation after a few weeks-- and I ended up with a class of 2 girls and 9 guys. They were funny, smart, insightful, and all-around great kids. We did an activity where they had to write one suggestion for changing their school, their community, and the world, and at the end, they had to write one way they could "be the change" in their classroom.

I'll be the first to say that we didn't make it to long-term transformational change this summer, but there was some great stuff happening in the room. We had a safe and supportive classroom. If a student answered a question incorrectly, I never worried that another student would make fun of him or her. Students asked each other questions, and they were expected to listen to each other's answers. Every person contributed to the physical classroom, which also made them respect the room. Students designed the welcome sign; teachers made posters. Class was fun, and the activities supported their work! Almost all of the students made dramatic academic growth (almost 50% higher than last year's average!).

Good times.

Also, I just have to say that TFA made me an immensely better teacher. It did. 5 weeks made more of a difference than 9 months of mentoring at My Gymnasium and 4 semesters of UAing with a faculty mentor. There is a lot to criticize about the training model, but I don't see how I'm doing worse than any other 1st year teacher at this point. (When my department chair peeked in, I apparently was holding up a stopwatch and telling my students to Do It Again.) More to come about week #1 in my new full-time position...

Survived Institute!

I wish I had a catchier title, but I guess this one will do.

We finished Institute about a week ago and moved back to our regions to prepare for the upcoming school year-- ahhhh!

So how did Institute work? I had 90 minutes of lead teaching and an hour of co-teaching every day, which means that over the course of Institute, I led-taught the equivalent of a week and a half in the 'real' teaching world. All of my kids were at grade level or above in math. My kids were awesome, adorable, and brilliant, and I miss them very much, but they probably weren't the best models to learn on. (On the other hand, a challenging class might have thrown me over the edge with the lack of sleep, so it might have worked out for the best.)

My class reached 92% of their growth goal, and the average growth from last year was only 63%! Could it have been higher? Oh yeah, but they went a 48% on the pre-assessment to a 74% on the post-assessment in 18 days. They hit 82% mastery of negative powers (pre-assessment score: 0%), and I was most proud of their 100% mastery of one-step equations involving multiplying and dividing integers. (I *cough* cried *cough* after teaching that objective.) Did I secretly want the highest growth of my school? Yes, of course-- I got into TFA; I am incredibly competitive-- but my kids rocked it, and I don't think anyone has any regrets.

Well, that's not entirely true: I do regret not asking for more help. In terms of seeking out additional resources, I think I did as much as I possibly could have, given my time constraints... I went to 2-3 workshops every week, visited the resource center a few times, and asked CMs and CMAs what had worked or hadn't worked in their rooms. My CMA wrote one AIT plan for me and gave me word problems for quite a few objectives because there was no way I was going to have time to write 60 word problems over the course of a weekend. However, I could have used a lot more help with writing problems for INM, GP, and IP (I had to write my own exit slips). I was allowed to ask other CMs for lesson plans toward the end of Institute, but it just so happened that most of my last objectives were the first objectives that the other CMs had taught. (In other words, the first LPs are uniformly pretty awful, and the only things I could take from them were problems.) (There were three other CMs at my school without partners, BUT someone provided them with the additional LPs. I was not amused when I heard this.)

The benefit to planning and teaching a double block is that I definitely got to hone my skill in writing lesson plans. While the others were working on CFUs, I was working on writing CFUs for particular students. While they were making sure their exit slips were aligned, I was scaffolding my exit slips so I knew to what extent the students had mastered the objective. (The same material that other CMs got at a recent "rigor in mathematics" discussion was material that I got during the third week of Institute. I still have a long way to go in pushing the rigor during instruction and on assessments, but I actually tend to overdo the conceptual material and forget to leave time for students to work on the procedural part. Most CMs privilege procedural knowledge over conceptual. This might be the English major in me coming out.)

The downsides to planning and teaching a double block at Institute? You don't sleep, and you don't get to take days off. When everyone else had TFA (Totally Free Afternoon) Day, I was in a workroom writing two lesson plans. My CMA tried to give me a bedtime at the beginning of Institute, but let's face it: if everyone else is up until 11 PM working on one lesson plan, I'm not going to be in bed by midnight. I worked every day of Institute until the last weekend, when my CMA forced me to take a day off after I cried for about an hour and a half at school. (An IL leader who shall remain anonymous told me that I should drink more beer and do yoga to relax.) Was that day off refreshing? Yes. Was I up until 2 AM on Sunday night/Monday morning to compensate? Yes. (Just for the record, even with that meltdown, I cried less than pretty much everyone else at Institute.)

I'd go through Institute again... but only with a normal workload. But hey, I survived, and I'm more prepared because of it.

According to my students...

My math kiddos recently filled out a classroom culture survey, and here is what they had to say (grammar and spelling left intact):

What has your teacher done to help you behave?
- She motivates us
- My teacher has made us to be silent by counting 5-0.
- She has taught us to respect, raise our hand.
- Ms. (A) has taught us to respect others when they are speaking.
- She has givin us warnings of how to behave and told us of what the conquences of not behaving
- Class Room Rules
- tell me how to behave
- She gives us rules.
- giving us warnings
- She has put a rule list on a poster.

I believe I can and will achieve the goal for this class. -- Can you explain your answer? Why did you select that response?
- because I want to pass this class to move on
- I selected this response because I know I could do a great job at math.
- I chose that answer because she helps us a lot.
- I believe I can achieve my goal for this class with confidence.
- I believe I can achieve the goal because my family pushes us hard enough to get a good career and future
- Because I know what I want to be.

If you do enjoy coming to class, what has this teacher done to make you feel that way?
- because she encourages us
- I enjoy coming because I enjoy math.
- She make class fun and we enjoy it.
- Fun educational activities.
- She has made it funn and cool than the other classes
- Because it is really fun in this class and etc.
- I enjoy math alot.
- I like it cause it helps me learn But fun.
- She makes math fun.
- Giving me College Bound Bucks.
- the teaching is fun

How do you know whether or not this teacher truly cares about you?
- because she is always taking care of you
- I know because my teacher wants me to be very smart.
- She is equal to us all.
- Go's over lessons slowly an carefully.
- I know because they give you a nice and good attitude and like you know because they are trying hard enough to help you learn
- She helps me in my work.
- They always check up on us.
- Because I just do.
- She goes through things slowly, and step by step
- You could see that smile on their face.
- she helps explain things better
(Editorial comment: not sure why they're talking about me in the plural. ELL quirk?)

Optional: Please use this extra space to complete any answers to questions or to share more thoughts or feelings you have about this class or this teacher.
- Ms (A) you are a good and awesome teacher I meet during the summer. :)
- Hi!! :D
- I really like math.
- :D Hello!!
- Hello! :)

Bye, Berlin... Hello, TFA!

As you might have figured out from the title, I am no longer in Germany; I left a little early so I could attend Induction and Institute for TFA.

I used to think that people over-exaggerated the difficulty of Institute. Boot camp for teachers? Ha. In college, I took 20 hours one semester, UAed for a class that I hadn't taken (which meant that I was essentially taking 23 hours), coached and judged gymnastics, and tried to get in shape for Nationals. The typical Institute schedule is much easier. For everyone on the standard schedule, life at Institute is very doable. A lot of people would want to smack me for writing that, but there's a reason that I'm saying this.

My summer school site put us in collabs that consist of two pairs. A pair consists of two people who are teaching the same grade, more or less the same subject, and the same group of kids. At my school site, most pairs share a classroom with another pair in their same subject area, but they share a group of kids with a pair in a different subject. (Basically, 4 pairs end up intertwined based on room assignments and students.) However, I only share students and a room with an English pair.

It seemed to be working out really well until my partner quit on the second day.

When I hear one more person whine about assignments that are due the following day, I try not to laugh or roll my eyes. Not only do CMs have more or less the same schedule, but a handful of lucky people like me are prepping and teaching double the number of lessons because their partner quit.

You think Institute has a bad rap? Multiply it by two. The others prep and teach five lessons each week, and they split AIT lessons with their subject partner; lucky people like me prep and teach nine to ten full lessons and write 10 AIT lessons/week.

TFA really needs to have some sort of a system worked out for this situation because it happens every year. (Plus, it's not exactly fair to make CMs do extra work just because they got a bad collab partner.) Even training CMAs would help! My CMA's partner also quit, so she knew how to handle my situation, but I've heard that other CMAs have been less than helpful. But... well, there isn't a system, and this happens every year. My CMA-- Corps Member Advisor-- is going to write half of my AIT lessons because I just can't write 10 more mini-lessons each week on top of my 9-10 regular lessons, and my faculty mentor is going to step in once a week for one lesson so I can observe other classes. All of this is great and greatly appreciated, but the workload is intense, even for a person with my time management skills. I put in 90-100 hours of work this week, and it's going to stay at that level for the rest of Institute. I may have to prep 10 lessons/week next year, but I doubt that I'll have to formally prep AITs. It will definitely help me next year, though-- by now, I think I LP faster than everyone else in my group.

On the plus side, I got my kit with teacher's supplies and a pad of chart paper, and I'm pretty sure my group has the nicest classroom in the school. LMU's campus is also amazingly beautiful. (It even smells good!)

I met my students on Wednesday, and I love them to death. They are sweet, adorable, and excited to learn. Once I have a little more time, I'll definitely brag about my wonderful kiddies (er, tweens). As it is, I need to sleep so I can crank out 4 lesson plans and 5 mini-lessons tomorrow.

Welcome to my life as a teacher.

(Also, I still have about 5 Fulbright-related posts in the works, but they'll have to wait until Institute is over!)

Why You Should Say 'Siezen' and 'duzen'

Just tried to explain the German Höflichkeitsformen as: "Okay, Mom, so, there are two ways of saying 'you' in German: du and Sie. You would use 'Sie' with people who are older than you, who have a higher rank than you, or who are strangers. You usually use 'du' with people who are the same rank as you, who are younger than you, or who are your friends. What's awkward at my school is that there is only one male English teacher at My Gymnasium, and he is the only one I Sie'd. When I met all of the other (female) teachers on my first day, I Sie'd them, but they told me to du them. Well, there was one teacher whom I didn't du, but she retired in January, so I would've felt weird du-ing her anyway."

Peinlich. The problem is that I didn't learn from that mistake: about 15 minutes later, I told my mom that I du one of my dad's German coworkers, too, since he has been a family friend for years.

And that is one reason why you should use 'duzen' and 'siezen' when referring to Höflichkeitsformen, even with non-speakers.

Abistreich

Ich gebe zu, I've encountered many new words this year, but I seem to have a serious mental block on Abistreich. (I always write and pronounce it as Abistreik.) Personally, I think teachers would have preferred a Streik to this year's Streich.

Basically, Abistreich is a long, drawn-out senior prank that the Abiturienten put on either immediately before taking the Abitur or close to the end of the school year. At my school, the tradition is to start during the first Hofpause, but at other schools, an Abistreich starts at the very beginning of the school day.

I haven't had especially good experiences with senior pranks in the past; in high school, some of the senior pranks at my school were pretty destructive. (The worst one was when the seniors released mice, rats, and birds in the commons, which was kind of like an indoor courtyard in the middle of the school. Runner-up: the year that the seniors dumped a lot of sticky stuff and goop in the commons.) My class didn't organize a formal senior prank because the administration had cracked down hard the previous three years, but one student decided it would be a great idea to hide a rude message in his last column for the student newspaper. (He didn't get to walk at graduation.)

In other words, I was looking forward to a good Abistreich, especially after hearing that other Fulbrighters had enjoyed their students' Abistreiche.

Most of the teachers were pretty sure that today was going to be Abistreich-Day, and we figured it would start after 2nd period. Towards the end of a Leistungskurs, the Abiturienten started blowing horns. I'll be honest: I was excited to see what they had planned!

Yeah, well, I was really disappointed. They had water balloons and stink bombs, plus some overly-excited Mittelstufe students with buckets filled with water. Come on, that's, like, a Grundschulestreich. Some of the Abiturienten parked a car sideways on the street to block traffic and had a dance party while still throwing water balloons, which (obviously) is, oh, just a little bit illegal. The neighbors ended up calling the police, who gave the sideways car a ticket and kicked out the non-students who were on the school grounds.

I knew that water tends to show up a lot in Abistreiche, so I was prepared for water guns or water balloons, but stink bombs? Blech. That's not even funny.

Abistreich Note: 5- (I still think the mice and rats at my school were worse).

At lunch, the teachers were joking about Germanizing the Abistreich by requiring the students to submit multiple drafts with introductions, a timed schedule, and a firm conclusion. After the Streich, they decided that the students should write an evaluation of how the day went and how the Streich could have been better, as well as a reflection of what they had learned by planning the Abistreich. I bet that would result in higher quality Abistreiche!

In the Beginning...

I've been trying to write this post for awhile now, so I hope it ended up being semi-organized. Skip to the bottom if you just want tips on improving your German before getting to Germany.

Getting around in the first few weeks isn't an easy task. Being immersed in your second language is exhausting, even for German majors who studied abroad. I do think that I would have had an easier time during the first few weeks if I hadn't taken a year off German and taken French, but either way, hearing and speaking German 24/7 is challenging and often headache inducing.

So, how did my first few weeks go? First, there's one thing that I want to clarify: I whine and moan about my speaking skills not being at the same level as my reading and writing skills, but I am in no way a poor speaker. (Die Leiden der former gymnast: I focus on my weaknesses and the things that aren't quite perfect and lose sight of the general picture. Bonus points if you caught the literary reference.) During the first few weeks, my biggest problem was that my brain was on overdrive from all of the German and wasn't focusing very well.

When I say that I'm a weaker speaker than reader or writer, I'm being honest but overly modest. To put my German level in perspective, I had four years of German in high school, and I scored a 5 on the AP exam. As 11th graders, we had conjugation questions on every vocab quiz, and we were responsible for every possible Zeitform in the German language, including those with modals. (Yes, that includes all of the weird passive modal conjugations.) We also read "Die Verwandlung" in 11th grade. I tested into the 300-level in college, but I really could have tested into the 400-level if that had been allowed. Research paper this, presentation that, blah, blah, blah. Basically, my conversation skills are "weak" for a German major who graduated with a 4.0, a senior award for German, and a Fulbright -- and they're "weak" primarily because I took French instead of German during my last year in college and ended up thinking in some weird version of Freutsch at first.

So, did I have problems at the beginning of the school year?

Mentally, yes. In other people's eyes, eh.

When I opened a bank account, registered, and got my residency permit, I had absolutely no problems with my German. I, um, may have whipped out my own Berliner Schnauze when the person at the Ausländerbehörde told me that they couldn't find my paperwork. Since the person at the desk spoke really poor English, I also translated for a few other English native speakers.

Interviewing for a WG was a little more difficult, but I'm not sure I would have been offered an apartment earlier in the search if my German had been better. When you compete against 30+ people for one room, the chances of you getting the room are really low even if you're German! I ended up in my WG because I was the first person who called, not because I amazed the interviewer with my winning personality. So... yeah. Small talk is obviously more difficult in German, but it's not the biggest barrier to finding a room.

At school, I speak almost exclusively German to teachers. I only use English for comedic purposes (American humor is better untranslated), when an English teacher strikes up a conversation in English, when an English teacher has a grammar question, or when the French teachers want to practice their English. I also hold mock conversations in French with one of the French teachers, but my French is horrible. 99.8% of the time, I can get my point across on the first try (in German, that is). I only remember one time when a teacher looked blankly at me and told me to try again, and there was another time when I cut myself off because I knew I was babbling nonsense. (In the remaining .1% of the time, I'm talking to the Schulleiter, who has a really hard time understanding me, dank meines Akzents.)

For me, the difference between the beginning of the year and the end of the year is that I now have a personality in German. I can get my point across more fluently-- and not just more fluently, but in more stylistically interesting ways. During the first few months, I had to concentrate on every sentence, but by now, I can do some serious plauder-ing in the Lehrerzimmer. I sacrificed a bit of precision in favor of idioms, more complex sentences, and a lot more speed. Unfortunately for everyone else, I now have an American sense of humor in German. (Other Americans and young teachers who have spent a lot of time abroad generally find me amusing. The older teachers, not so much. I guess you have to account for generational differences, too, especially since even the youngest teachers and Referendare are 8-10 years older than I am. It's common to be a certified teacher at 22-23 in the US. In Germany, the average age seems to be closer to 30.)

***

So, how can new ETAs can prepare for the upcoming school year? Here's a question for all of you: when was the last time you listened to children speaking German?

Yeah, most of you have only heard adults' voices lately. Figure out how to listen to kids speaking German. You could be a creeper on Youtube, listen to Rulf Zuckowski songs, buy some cartoons, or come up with your own way to get used to children's voices.

Even after 9 months of living with a 7-year-old and working at a Gymnasium, I have trouble understanding the younger students. The kids who enunciate are always easy to understand, but an excited 6th grader with braces? Now that is how you know if you've mastered German.

In the middle(ground)...

I've built up a bit of a reputation in My Gymnasium's English department for being a curious ETA who wants to know how things work. I've helped a few teachers with their Abitur corrections (and I just tried to type 'corrections' with a 'k'); I've looked at a number of 7th grade tests; I've looked at 10th graders' essays; I've gone on field trips; and I visited an Abitur presentation. Therefore, no one was terribly surprised when I gave up one of my unterrichtsfrei days and asked to sit in on some MSA mündliche Prüfungen.

I only planned on watching two or three groups (each group had three student pairs), but I ended up staying the entire day. Even though I've worked with all four 10th grade classes, I'm closer to two of them. Since I didn't want to add to students' stress, I decided to sit in only on those classes. (Students in another class become silent blobs when I'm around, and I wasn't sure how students in the other class view me.)

How it worked: all of the students in a particular group were herded into a waiting room. Since there are four 10th grade classes, there were four pairs of teachers in one wing of the school. At 8:00, teachers retrieved their first victims students. Each test was supposed to last about 15 minutes, and then the teachers could deliberate about their notes for a few minutes before getting the next pair. After every three tests, teachers were supposed to get a short break (10 minutes between most; I think there was a 30 minute break between the 2nd and 3rd groups). Of course, we ended up running behind, so we never really got a break. The deliberations could be cut-and-dry, or they could take 10+ minutes for some difficult situations. Each cluster of three pairs also had a different topic and different pictures to describe.

In one of the rooms, the main teacher-- the Prüfer-- sat by herself directly across from the students. The other teacher-- the Protokollant-- sat behind the Prüfer, took notes during the presentations, and filled out the paperwork. In the other room, the Prüfer and the Protokollant sat next to each other at a small table, directly across from the students, and I sat on one of the other sides.

For the most part, there were no surprises. Going into the exam, I knew who the stronger students and the weaker students were; I knew which groups worked together well and which groups were uncommunicative. However, there were a few groups that just blew me away. It was clear that they had practiced outside of class. I was also shocked at how charismatic and animated some of the students were, but I guess it makes sense that some of their personalities are muted at the beginning of the school day.

If there is one thing that I'm going to remember about the teachers at My Gymnasium, it'll be how much they care for the students. The MSA has the potential to be a very high stress exam because students have to pass it to move on to the Oberstufe; however, the teachers tried to make the environment as friendly as possible. Of course, that didn't prevent them/us from chuckling over some very interesting sentences after the students left the room.

Some examples include:
"She's the man in the picture." (Prüfer: "Oh?")
"In the foreground, I can see... In the background, I can see... In the middleground, I can see..."
"Do you can did...?" (holla, helping verbs!)
and, according to one of the teachers (auf Deutsch): "I may be 45, but I'm not incontinent." (I have no idea what the context was; all I remember is hearing that and cracking up.)

I quite like the "middleground" one since it's really applicable to my situation in Berlin. I'm not a full teacher or a Referendarin, but I'm also not a student. When I answer the door in the Lehrerzimmer, students often ask me if I'm a teacher. ("Ehmm..." is my typical response.) It also applied to my seat in one of the rooms: I wasn't in the foreground (the Prüfer) or in the background (the wall); I was, well, in the middleground. I <3 you, 10th graders.

***

Let me stop here and comment on the Gymnasium system in general. In Berlin, incoming 5th graders (Schnellläuferklassen or Schnelllernerklassen) or incoming 7th graders (the  'regular' students) have one semester (the Probehalbjahr, and dang it, I tried to type 'half' twice) to prove that they belong at the Gymnasium level. If they don't pass the first semester, they leave their Gymnasium. (I can't remember if they're allowed to fail one class.) At the end of each semester, teachers meet to discuss students' progress and to decide whether students should be promoted to the next grade. After the Probehalbjahr, students generally can't be thrown out after one bad semester; they "just" have to repeat the grade. It's not uncommon to repeat grades (in a given non-Schnellläufer class at My Gymnasium, at least one student has been held back).

The MSA is taken at the end of 10th grade, and it's the stepping stone to the Gymnasiale Oberstufe. To enter the Oberstufe, students must pass all sections of the MSA (I think?) and their 10th grade year. To graduate from a Gymnasium, you have to pass the Abitur with an average grade of a 4,0. I was shocked when I heard how many students in a given entering class end up passing the Abitur, although I guess it makes sense with the number of students that enter Berlin's Gymnasien. In Germany, I read that only between 25-35% of the student population ends up at a Gymnasium; I'm almost positive it's higher in Berlin. I was told that only about 1/2 - 2/3 of the students who enter My Gymnasium complete the Abitur-- but, to be fair, that doesn't account for students who switch schools on their own terms or move away. That's also supposedly a typical percentage for Gymnasien in Berlin, even the most highly rated Gymnasien.

Also, in Bezug auf the MSA, I love the fact that students have to be competent in writing, reading, and speaking. I've only had one speaking test in my entire German speaking life, and it was for a pass/fail conversation class. It's probably not great that other students lose two days of class for oral exams (for the Abitur and for the MSA), but I love the high expectations for speaking. Students also get individual grades for their written and spoken English, which are combined (the weighting varies, depending on the grade) into a final English grade.

19 Days

Realization of the Day: I have eight days left at My Gymnasium and 19 days left in Berlin.

I can deal with the 19 days in Berlin part; I like being in a vibrant city, but I'll get that in California, too. Eight days at My Gymnasium, though... I'm not ready for that. How did this happen?!

Unfortunately, I have to leave Berlin two weeks before the end of the school year because of Teach For America conflicts. (Fortunately, a lot of classes also will be traveling or doing internships, so it doesn't really affect My Gymnasium.) It doesn't help that my schedule is a blob of canceled school days. I have unterrichtsfrei on Thursday and Friday because of mündliche Prüfungen. Next week, Thursday and Friday are also unterrichtsfrei because of Himmelfahrt. Monday is my free day, but I'll go in once to say goodbye to one of the 10th grade classes.

I'm ready to work more than 13 hours/week. I'm also ready to explain concepts in my native language; stumbling through explanations of grammar rules in German pushed my language skills to the limit. (At times, they pushed my English skills more than my German skills!)

On the other hand, I'm not ready to leave Berlin, my Berlin friends, My Gymnasium, and the WG dogs. I'm definitely not ready for my German to atrophy immediately upon arrival at O'Hare.

I'm terrified about having my own classroom and teaching an entirely new subject... and I have to be effective right from the get-go.

Deep breath. No more caffeine today.

A Different World?

During the Fulbright Seminar, I attended a general ETA panel and then a separate, much smaller panel for the Diversity Program ETAs. Although I thought the DETA session was more useful and interesting, not to mention less whiny, I also felt somewhat disconnected from the others in my small group discussion.

I am one of the few Diversity ETAs who is at a Gymnasium and only at a Gymnasium. (I think 1/4 to 1/3 of the DETAs are at Gymnasien; I'd guess that about 1/2 of the ETAs in general are at Gymnasien.) The others in my group were in Grundschulen, Realschulen, or Gesamtschulen. In general, that doesn't seem like a big deal; ETAs are placed in all kinds of schools. However, I got the impression that I am one of the only DETAs who deals with diversity-related topics on a regular basis. The other DETAs said that they never (or very rarely) discussed immigration and integration issues in class, but I was on the opposite end of the spectrum: My Gymnasium made a deliberate decision to cut some units that discuss cultural and ethnic diversity because 1) the topic comes up again and again in other grades and 2) the students are sick of talking about diversity, immigration, and integration. The other DETAs in my breakout group had never discussed Sarrazin with their classes; I, on the other hand, was told to use Sarrazin and Merkel's comments as an 'ice breaker' (ha) when I met a Leistungskurs.

At the same time, we all had one thing in common: none of us were quite sure how the Diversity Program differs from the regular ETA experience. We go to classes. We help in classes. We help students prepare for the MSA. Sure, there are major demographic differences between My Gymnasium and a suburban Gymnasium, but we are not trained to address these differences. Moreover, Germany's curriculum is standardized within Bundesländer; unlike in American schools, the differences between academic standards in Gymnasien are negligible. I suspect the reason that I talk about more diversity-related issues is because it's built into the Gymnasium curriculum but is not emphasized as strongly in Realschulen, Gesamtschulen, Grundschulen, etc. (correct me if I'm wrong).

Many Germans complain that recent immigrants refuse to identify as German and stick to expatriate enclaves, but my students don't stand out as being unusually unintegrated. Many are proud of their Turkish, Afghani, Russian, Serbian, etc. ancestries and don't consider Germany to be their homeland, but most are also very forthcoming about Berlin being their home. (If you push them to go even farther in their responses, many don't consider Turkey, etc. to be their homeland, either.) Germany doesn't really have the concept of hyphenated identities that is so frequently used in the US, which complicates the identity question. Identifying as German feels like a renunciation of their heritage, and identifying as (insert ethnicity) looks like a refusal to integrate to ethnic Germans. (Let's be honest, some don't want the historical baggage that comes with identifying as German.) I think the vast majority would be more than happy to call themselves citizens of Berlin.

I've wondered if having a semi-Migrationshintergrund* myself has made the students more willing to open up to me. (Ironically, I'm more likely to identify as Korean or Korean-American when I'm in the US. I get more American when I'm abroad!)

*I'm a naturalized citizen.

**There are very few ETAs with a Migrationshintergrund.

***There is one other non-white (also Asian) American ETA in Berlin. At the beginning of the year, we went to a meet-and-greet at a 2nd year's apartment. The 2nd year asked, "Wow, your year is a lot more diverse than last year. Did they send all of the diverse people to Berlin this year?" Eek! on more than one level.

On the other hand, it's certainly not as simple as having a somewhat shared (but not really) background. I'm far from being the only person at My Gymnasium who has productive discussions about multiculturalism, immigration, and integration with classes. Of course, I don't agree with how some go about discussing integration ("You are a German citizen! You have a German passport! That means you are German!"), but no one shies away from addressing these topics.

So why aren't other schools having serious discussions about multiculturalism and integration? Why aren't they asking students to reflect on their own experiences? I thought it was very interesting how Gymnasium students seem to spend more time on diversity-related issues than students in other schools, especially since Hauptschulen (now Gesamtschulen) are often held up as examples of how integration has failed. Is it even possible to make meaningful progress in integration without honest dialogue about how the political affects the personal? I'm also very curious about how the structure of the German language may contribute to integration difficulties. Sorry, that was a totally disorganized blob of questions...

I don't know if I've met the expectations of the Diversity Program because I don't really know what they are, but I heart My Gymnasium, and I'm so lucky to have been placed there.

So You're an Incoming Fulbrighter... Now What?

1. Placement: I got my Bundesland assignment in April, and the actual placement didn't come until May. This year, it sounds like the placement process is taking longer than it did last year, so expect school placement sites any time between now and mid-June. (Contact PAD if you haven't heard by then!)

1b. For the incoming Berliners: you should be aware that about 1/3 of the ETAs are on the very outskirts of the city. Some of them are at the last S-Bahn/U-Bahn/bus stop before crossing into Brandenburg. If you end up in this position, you may want to ask yourself if you'd rather commute to school or live closer to school.

2. Where to live? According to my Google stalking, a lot of Betreuungslehrer help ETAs find a guest family or an empty room... if you're in a small town. In Berlin, that's not the case. Fulbrighters arrive at the same time as the other international students, which is a nice way of saying that you compete against 30-50 other students for every WG. On the other hand, it might be easier to find an apartment in Berlin than in small towns because there are so many students. Plan to couch surf with your BL for a week, possibly longer.

2b. For the love of all that is good in life, do not live with a young child (especially if there are pets and especially if it's a single parent household) without setting very firm rules for spur-of-the-moment babysitting and petsitting. If you're a pushover, you will end up caring for the entire household. (Yes, this was my living situation. I did learn to speak fluent Kinderdeutsch and Hunddeutsch. I don't regret my decision to live there, but I wouldn't wish it on others.) I'd recommend living with a guest family with older children (teenagers) or with other students.

2c. www.wg-gesucht.de is the way to go, but don't bother contacting people over the summer; they almost always want face-to-face interviews. I interviewed at 11 WGs before I was offered a room.

2d. If you're over your head in German, don't be afraid of asking if you can respond in English. I interviewed exclusively in German, but ETAs with weaker language skills may want to consider responding to easy questions in German and switching to English for more detailed responses.

2e. Unless you're in Hamburg, Frankfurt, or Munich, don't pay more than 350E/month for rent.

3. Anmeldung (registration in your neighborhood): not a difficult process. Find a WG, sign a Vertrag, and you're good to go. (Okay, it's a little more complicated than that; just read the outline that you get at orientation.) I was in and out in about an hour and a half, so bring your iPod.

4. Aufenthaltserlaubnis (residency permit): don't worry about it until you get to Germany. From what I've heard, getting the Aufenthaltserlaubnis is pretty easy in most Bundesländer. It is not a fun procedure in Berlin, though. Most of my friends waited for 4-6 hours. I went there in October, sat there for about two hours, and was told that I had to come back the following week. When I returned, I waited for about an hour before they called my name and claimed that they had "lost" my paperwork. Fortunately, my German had improved very quickly during the first month, and I told them to look again because I sure didn't have my paperwork. (Es lebe die Berliner Schnauze!) Have fun! :)

4b. Fulbrighters in Germany don't get visas.

4c. Pack extra passport-sized pictures. Before I left, I took a picture against a white wall, resized it, and printed a bunch of copies.

5. Packing: it's not necessary to bring a lot of dress clothes. However, it's nice to have a few nice outfits for the Berlin conference and for other events that might come up. Teachers dress less formally in Germany, and it's totally normal to show up in an acceptably-cut shirt and jeans. This year, the winter was horrible; it was cold, windy, and generally miserable for about four months (and I grew up in the Midwest!). The problem, of course, is that you only have two suitcases (one suitcase for the really good packers), so you don't want to stuff your suitcase with thick sweaters. It's also nice to have shoes that can handle the snow. Pack hiking boots or old snow boots that you can toss at the end of the year.

5b. I had to start wearing long sleeve stuff within a week of arriving in Berlin, and I still wear long sleeves to school most days. Don't go overboard with bringing summer clothes; pack short sleeve things that you can layer under sweaters and cardigans.

5c. My WG has a really old washing machine that did a number on some of my clothes. I ended up with holes in the seams of some of my old pajama pants and one of my (brand new, sigh) cardigans, and one of my sweaters has been thoroughly de-fuzzed. Puppy also destroyed my favorite jeans. If you have old clothes that are in decent condition but that you don't plan on wearing in the future, you could wear them in Germany and donate or discard them at the end of the year!

5d. Toiletries: you can get everything in Germany (except for cinnamon toothpaste and maybe your normal brand of deodorant). However, I am a planner, and I knew that I would buy clothes, books, and chocolate. I brought all of my toiletries with me, which means that one of my suitcases will have enough room for my new stuff. Yay!

6. Material to pack for school: Kids looooove California and New York, but they also want to know what your hometown is like. I made a mini photo album with pictures from my neighborhood, my university, and my life in general. The 8th graders liked seeing pictures of my house, my room, my car, and my high school. You could also pack some pictures or brochures of a major tourist attraction. The 7th graders really like silly bandz (they have something like them in Germany, but it's cooler when you win them from an American). I also clipped editorials and short newspaper/magazine articles to use with Leistungskurse.

6b. Almost every kid at My Gymnasium wanted to know about life at American schools. I rewrote one of my schedules (I changed teachers' names for anonymity reasons) and added a list of typical school rules at the bottom of the mock schedule, and it was a hit at all grade levels! (If you lived in a dorm in college, show the older students pictures of your dorm room! They will be fascinated and horrified!)

7. Some rules in the ETA contracts: do not take Vertretungsstunden, do not instruct a class by yourself without another teacher in the room, do not give out punishments, you shouldn't be required to work more than 12 hours/week, and do not grade students' work. Have my friends and I broken every rule on this list? *innocent look* (Actually, none of us have given out punishments; we just petz to teachers.)

8. Your Betreuungslehrer is your lifeline in your school, and s/he can make all the difference in the world. I rave and rave about My Gymnasium, but I would have been very lost if I had had a more hands off BL.

8b. Get on the school secretary's good side, too. It makes your life easier. My Gymnasium has a Kopiekontigent, and she gave me the same number of copies as a teacher with a halbe Stelle! Always siezen with the secretary.

9. Register at a university unless you're in a Bundesland that charges tuition. You'll get a Semesterticket! It might not lohnt sich for Sommersemester, but it's definitely worth it for Wintersemester.

10. The Diversity Program does not "just" place in Berlin. (This year, only 4/20 were in Berlin.)

11. It looks like someone posted a link to this somewhere on Facebook. So, Liebe Grüße from Berlin, congrats to all of the new Fulbrighters, and tell me about yourselves! ETA/research/professor/media? Bundesland? Interests? Anything in particular you'd like to know more about? (Pretend that was slightly more eloquent, please. Just got back from 6 hours of oral exams.)

A Collection of Quotes

Alternate title: the story of my life in Berlin.


Situation 1: Puppy was misbehaving on a walk (wie immer), and I was calling her name.

A random man yelled a garbled version of: "Dein Hund kann dein Deutsch nicht verstehen. Du sollst Chinesisch sprechen." ("Your dog can't understand your German. You should speak in Chinese.")

- My German is better than the man's German.
- I'm a Sie, not a du.
- Hau ab (oops, Schimpfwort), I don't speak Chinese.


Situation 2: In February, I started working with four new classes, and some of the newer classes have only heard me speak English. In a 9th grade class, the students were whispering about me in German (and not very subtly).

Then, a student muttered, "Sie kann aber kein Deutsch..." ("But she can't speak German.")

"Doch." (In this sense, doch means: "Yeah, I can.")

There's nothing in life that a nice doch can't fix. The students turned several shades of red after they made the connection between my doch and my ability to understand their side conversations.


Situation 3: I took half of a 9th grade class to another room to do a conversation exercise. While they were working, another teacher came in.
"Habt ihr eigentlich eine Lehrerin?" (Do you have a teacher?) ~ the other teacher
"... Das bin ich." ("... That's me.") ~ me

The teacher apologized and said that he had seen me in the Lehrerzimmer a few times and should have recognized me. (No hard feelings; I was dressed like a student that day.) The entire class thought it was very funny.

Situation 4: I was chatting with half of a LK, and the topic of the day was Bin Laden's death.

"I don't think Bin Laden is actually dead because they didn't show any pictures or videos. I think Obama just wanted to get reelected." ~ the entire half of the LK

"Well, I think some people believe in all kinds of conspiracy theories, that is, Verschwörungstheorien, but, um, Al Qaeda also announced his death. And I don't think governments usually release pictures of dead bodies with head wounds..." ~ me

I don't want to sit through another two hours of this next week, so I'm just going to write a new lesson plan about violent rhetoric or something cheery like that...


Situation 5: I was working on gerunds with half of a 7th grade class, and I was getting frustrated because the kids kept talking. I eventually snapped and semi-yelled, "Hey Leute? Ihr seid zu laut!" One of the boys decided that it would be a brilliant idea to mock me, donned a slurring accent (which sounded more drunk than American), and said:

"Hehe ihr seid zu laaaut. Ich bin keine Muttersprachlerin von Deutsch, hehe."
"Haha, you're too louuud. I'm not a native speaker of German, haha."

My far-too-nice response was, "I don't make fun of your English, so don't make fun of my German." I lästerte about the class and the student in the Lehrerzimmer, and the other teachers actually reacted much more strongly than I did. This came right on the heels of the dog walking disaster, so meh... I'm semi-used to it by now. My new BL wrote him a Tadel because it's against my ETA contract to give out punishments. (Oh, bureaucracy. On the other hand, it's probably good that a native speaker wrote the formal letter to the mother.)

Situation 6 (which is just a funny story): One of the 10th grade classes was supposed to choose a partner for the MSA.
"You have a week to try out different partners and see which one you like best. Oh, that sounded... bad." ~ one of the English teachers

We couldn't look at each other for the rest of class without giggling. (She said that right at the end of class, so we weren't being too immature!) It also went *whoosh!* over the students' heads, even after we both cracked up. :)

"If the world ends today, we're in the right place!" : Osterferien Part Two: Jordan

Thanks to Ohioan taxpayers, I was able to live in a dorm all 4.5 years that I was a full-time student at Miami. During my victory lap, I was in the Scholar Leader program, and it just so happens that the Scholar Leader RA is a Fulbright researcher in Jordan! We didn't know each other especially well, but when both of us ended up with Fulbrights, we joked about visiting each other at some point. P may not have realized that I'm pretty serious when it comes to making travel plans. :)

I got the impression that the German Fulbright Kommission was less than thrilled when they received my email requesting permission to go to Jordan for a week. I had to go on the American and German embassy sites and prove that there were no travel warnings. The paranoia was unnecessary: at the moment, Jordan is an oasis of calmness and peace.

I was fascinated by the mix of modernity and history. It's not uncommon to see shepherds riding camels while talking on cell phones. At malls, women wear everything from burqas (least common) to hijab and modest clothing (most common) to the latest Western fashion trends (semi-common). Some women work outside the home, although I get the impression that they're encouraged to choose stereotypically "feminine" jobs. Women are treated better in Jordan than in many MENA countries, but that's not to say that Jordan isn't sexist. It is. Some examples of little things that I had to respect, even as a tourist: I had to remind myself not to run every time I crossed the street (in my defense, I don't have the modesty issue that many women have...!); I couldn't sit up front with a taxi driver; and I had to wear fairly modest clothes to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Other interesting combinations: P's apartment has high-speed internet, but you can't drink the tap water. There is hot water for showers, but you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet. (There's a garbage can.)

On Thursday afternoon, P and I drove down to Wadi Musa with two British guys who live upstairs. We got there just in time for a quick dinner and for the Petra at Night tour. (For the record, I preferred Petra in the daytime.) The following morning, we wandered through Petra for about five hours. The hotel drove us down to the entrance gate, and we rode with three British tourists (two were English, one was Welsh) who had just arrived from Israel. One of the women was very chatty and told us all about Biblical predictions, complete with Scriptural references. Apparently, Petra will be very important during the End Times-- and it's getting closer! We're almost to the end of an age! For the rest of the day, P and I joked about hoping that the world would end that day: I'd take great pictures and videos and would sell them to National Geographic!

There aren't synonyms that can do Petra justice. Stunning. Amazing. None of these really encompass my thoughts, but maybe some pictures will do. P and I looked at the Great Temple for a few minutes before climbing up to the monastery (about a 25 minute climb). After stopping for lunch back at the bottom, I decided that my legs were feeling all right, so I told P that I wanted to climb to the High Place of Sacrifice (about 30 minutes uphill). Somehow, we took the wrong trail back, and it took 30-45 minutes longer than we had anticipated to get to the bottom. The back route is more interesting, though, so it was worth it!

The Treasury 

An assortment of tombs

The following day, I went with S (one of P's flatmates) and her mom to the Holiday Inn resort next to the Dead Sea. Yes, you float. I tried to walk as far as possible, but I lost my footing when I was about waist-high in water and ended up on my back.

I'm running out of steam, so I have a few more shoutouts. We had Easter with a group of Americans and Brits. Thanks to everyone for cooking, to L (I think?) for hosting, and to S for giving me a tour of the neighborhood! I also want to woot-woot at Hashim's for having amazing food. Garlicky hummus, beany fuul, all vegetarian. Go there. Mmmm. And, of course, Vielen Dank and shukran to P for letting me sleep in one of her beds!

Osterferien Part I: Copenhagen

"Where'd you go for Osterferien? You got a sunburn!"
"... Denmark?"


When other ETAs and I started to plan our spring break trips, we had one requirement (relatively inexpensive) and one want (sunny and warm). Not too hard to find a place that fulfills both, right?

Well, Spain and Portugal were out-- too expensive. Southern France was out-- also too expensive, and none of us wanted to hang out on a beach for more than a few hours. Greece was a possibility, but the discount airlines were out of tickets. None of us had a strong desire to go to Italy. We tossed around Prague, Budapest, and Croatia as other possibilities but decided against all of them. Eventually, J, K, and I settled on Copenhagen.

Fortunately for us, Denmark had a heat wave while we were there, and K and I ended up with a sunburn! (Mine was limited to my left ear; K wasn't quite as lucky.)

At first glance, Copenhagen looks exactly like a stereotypical European city: colorful three- to five-story buildings with big windows, a lot of big churches, and a lot of bike paths. My friends and I joked that Copenhagen was a smaller, upscale version of Berlin. The differences can be subtle, but by the second or third day, we were pointing out little differences between Copenhagen and other cities: sculptures near churches that resemble Greek or Nordic gods, exercise stations for adults in the middle of the city, and very slight architectural differences. (Oh, and the boats, I guess.)

We flew out on Friday morning, left our luggage in a storage room at Absalon Annex (a budget hotel in a great location-- pretty clean, pretty good breakfast, very thin walls), and wandered around the pedestrian area of the city while waiting for the official check-in time. Somehow, we ended up in a toy store and comparing our childhood toys to the current trends. Nostalgia, anyone? After checking in, we went to the National History Museum and learned that Vikings were not actually as bloodthirsty and violent as most think-- after all, they founded several settlements around the coast. (J and I had a few issues with this explanation.)

On Saturday, we went to Rosenborg Castle and Amalienborg Palace. Personally, I preferred Rosenborg, but I was also a little distracted because I was appointed the official group photographer. It was a little rainy, so we called it a day mid-afternoon and went back to the hotel.

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day: we went to the botanical garden and to the Glyptotek before taking a short break. I'd recommend the botanical garden in Dahlem over the one in Copenhagen, but it was such a beautiful day... When we were climbing around in the garden, we were joking about making it to the top (one section is a mini hill with steps), and a grandmother started singing, "We Are The Champions" to us. Very random. It was definitely directed at us, too, because she kept sneaking looks at us. We looked at her and started laughing, and she smiled, finished the stanza, and then sheepishly said, "Sorry." We're the champions for climbing 10 feet? Go us!

The Glyptotek's layout is a little confusing. We wanted to see the French Impressionism first, but somehow we ended up in the Degas section (which was fine; we wanted to see the Degas anyway). We continued to look for the French Impressionism and then ended up in the Danish art (which was fine; we wanted to see that, too). On our third attempt, we ended up in ancient art (which we didn't want to see; we have the Neues Museum in Berlin, and we really just wanted to see the French stuff)-- and then we decided to ask for directions. (Eventually, we did find the French art, and it was worth the wait! I was hoping for a little more Monet, though... oh well.)

For dinner, we went to a restaurant around the corner from the hotel that had a deal on burgers and drinks on Sundays. Our burgers were huge. We ended up taking off the top and eating it with forks and knives, European style! Mmm, it was the best veggie burger I've had in awhile.

We decided to save the canal tour for Monday because the weather was supposed to be really nice. We thought it would be a good idea to take a boat from the southern end, switch at Nyhaven, and then ride up to the Little Mermaid statue. Yeah, well, it turns out that only one boat line was running, but the boat company didn't advertise that at all. We waited for almost an hour before giving up, walking to Nyhaven, and learning about the one open line. (NOT COOL, DFDS!) Honestly, I was disappointed in the tour. It might have been a great Day One activity, but it was less informative than I had expected. (The tour was in three languages, so that didn't help.) We got off at the Little Mermaid statue, took pictures with it, and then wandered around the Kastellet for about an hour.

Next up: Osterferien Part II: Jordan!

Abiturprüfungen

I wrote this shortly before leaving for Osterferien and never got around to posting it for some reason:

Last week, I had a few days off from school, thanks to the Abitur and MSA presentations. Students write a paper (usually about 15-20 pages, I think) about a topic that they're interested in, and then they give a 20-minute presentation of their research to a panel of two teachers.

My New BL invited me to sit in on a presentation by one of her most impressive students ever. The topic was definitely interesting (the Republican/Democrat "culture war" in the US), although I have to say that I disagreed with her conclusion to an extent (that Americans themselves don't see a culture war because they're politically disinterested; it comes only from the political parties). What was particularly impressive is that she has never studied in the US. A handful of students go abroad every year, but she has only been to English-speaking countries for short trips.

Her English is better than my German-- I was seriously impressed. She has a stronger accent than many of the students who were abroad, but her vocabulary and command of grammar was extremely strong. New BL told me that "this student gets 15s" on tests because she has nothing to correct. (She really does write better than the average Miami freshman. That said, I could tell that English is her second language: she makes very, very minor stylistic errors, and she has trouble with academic register at times. I'd still give the paper a 15, though, because it is far ahead of what I'd expect from an EFL 13th grader. A non-German speaker probably wouldn't be able to tell that she's an EFL student; her mistakes are really that minor.)

After the Abi, I'd love to sit down with her over a cup of coffee and talk about her paper. :)

Enjoying Osterferien

Back next week!

Thinking Like a Teacher

I TAed for four semesters in college and coached gymnastics for six years, so even before I got to Germany, I was decent at creating an authoritative presence when it was my turn to lead class or present a project.

Now, I don't just play teacher; I find myself thinking like a teacher.

Last month, some of the 10th graders were so excited to say hello. Really excited. In retrospect, suspiciously excited. I stopped and chatted with a circle of guys for a few minutes before heading to my next class. When I walked through the door, I realized that I had tape connecting my head to my bag. 

The next day, I greeted the guys with: "Oh, hey! I have a really silly question: did I have tape on my head when I was talking to you yesterday?"

It was a simple yes/no question, ne?

One of them responded, "It wasn't us! Ms. A, do you really think we did it? We wouldn't do that! We like you! We would never put tape on your head!"

Guilty!! Ha! I gave them a knowing smirk and left it at that. Good thing they used masking tape and not a stickier tape, right?

Fulbright Berlin Conference: "Networking in the Fulbright Family"

What do you get when you mix about 500 American Fulbrighters in Germany, American Fulbrighters in other European countries, and future German Fulbrighters going to the US?

Answer: a very loud week that was definitely not designed by introverts.

For me, the week of networking kicked off on Saturday, when I met J and E's ETA friends from Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland. Since Berlin was actually sunny, we headed to Treptower Park and the former Tempelhof airport (now a park). I also brought Puppy because she's always up for a little exercise. :)

On Sunday, several of my friends and I went on tours of Berlin. I've been to most of the government buildings, major museums, and tourist attractions, so I decided to go on a tour of Neukölln. It wasn't quite what I had expected (we only went to a mosque, and I thought we were going to see more parts of Neukölln), but the mosque was beautiful, and the tour guide was informative. After we got back, we had dinner with plenty of free wine* and chatted with a few Germans who are heading to the US next year.

(*I mention this only because we supposedly drank more wine than any other previous Fulbright group. Of course, that's also because we had the highest number of participants.)

I attended panels, of course, but I think my favorite part was the music gala on Tuesday night because the performers had such different talents and interests. (The Marlene Dietrich impersonator was definitely a hit amongst the German-speaking crowd!) Closing with "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" is also always a good choice. (Wenn ich nur fleißiger geübt hätte...)

During our trip to the Rotes Rathaus, someone asked Ingeborg Junge-Reyer (Berlin's mayor and senator for urban development) where you could find the best Döner in Berlin. She gave a very diplomatic answer about finding the best döner stand next to a very busy, very good currywurst stand. Unfortunately, most non-Berliners thought that this was general commentary on the ubiquitousness of good currywurst and döner stands. She was actually referring to Curry 36 and Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap in Kreuzberg. :) (Sadly, that day was the first and last time that I ate/will eat at Mustafa's. I'm allergic to one of their spices, most likely cumin.)

Since I live in Berlin, I had to commute to and from the Park Inn Hotel. However, that didn't stop me from taking full advantage of the breakfasts and dinners! Even as a vegetarian with food allergies, I was able to find plenty of things to eat. I also greatly appreciated the free trip to Weimar that I won through the nametag lottery. :)

When I got back to My Gymnasium, one of the teachers (Musik/Ethik) approached me and said (auf Deutsch), "I didn't know that you're a Fulbrighter." (One of the English teachers interjected, "I didn't know that, either! Not bad.") Musik/Ethik teacher: "My daughter was at the conference last week and saw 'My Gymnasium' in the program. She had such a great time, and she came back raving about the Fulbright family atmosphere." I told him that if she has any questions about studying in the US, she should email me, and he responded: "See? Networking in the Fulbright family."

Teaching and Historical Integrity

One of the highlights of my week is planning my lesson for the Leistungskurse-- I have free rein to whatever the heck I want for one Unterrichtsstunde each week, as long as it's educational and related to the US. I also placed certain requirements on myself: I do NOT want to try to trivialize, embellish, or blatantly ignore unfortunate moments in the US's history. No Texas-ized or Arizona-ized versions of history for me, thanks.

I recently finished a 3-week unit on the civil rights movement. Even though I do think that calling February "Black History Month" is a problematic, especially when you don't talk about Black (or Chicano, or Latino/a, or Asian-American) history for the rest of the year, it did fit in perfectly with the bigger unit that I've been doing on contemporary civil rights (Westboro Baptist Church, the Dream Act). They've heard of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King, Jr., of course, but I think this was the first time that they focused on specific events or topics.

At the same time, I sometimes wonder if I'm going too far in the other direction; I hope the students don't think I'm being Debbie Downer and ruining their romanticized idea of the US (although this may not be a bad thing). However, I think it's a good thing for the students to see an American being critical of the US's history and being honest about ongoing societal injustice. I've gotten unsolicited positive feedback from one of the teachers, so I guess that means that they enjoy my topics. (I'm still working on the content delivery part of my lessons; I have a hard time shutting up.)

I'm often jealous of the ETAs who get to do cultural lessons, sing songs, and make hand turkeys for Thanksgiving, but I heart planning these lessons. :)


And, as always, here's a random story: one of the teachers keeps telling me that I need to stop by her Leistungskurs. (I had asked her if she'd rather have me in the 8th grade class or in the LK; she wanted me in the 8th grade class.) I had a free hour earlier this week, so I decided to drop in for an hour. As I was sitting in class, I thought to myself, You know, all of the teachers have distinct voices and accents, but this teacher has a really adorable accent. And then I wondered, Why am I thinking about her voice in the middle of class? ... It's because I've never heard her speak English! I pointed that out to her at the end of class, and she laughed and said, "I guess we should do that more often." I still can't believe that I've only spoken German with her for six months!

Friends in High Places

One of my gifts is my ability to network without putting in any effort. It has been wonderful for getting recommendation letters and even jobs, but it can also be a bit uncomfortable and awkward. The strangest thing is that it happens again and again and again, whether it's meeting a Berlin family who had been looking for an English native speaker to talk to their kids at dinner during my family vacation in the Harz Mountains (which reminds me, they never called me), knowing administrators who happen to be looking for another student to help out in the office, or knowing just the right combination of professors and administrators who were willing to fight for my ability to use my scholarship abroad. (Thanks again! It was a great semester!)

Several weeks ago, I babysat Dumpling and one of his friends while their mothers went to a film premier party. The mother and kid came back to visit the following week, which happened to be the first week of the Berlinale. I casually mentioned that I had tickets to The Guard and wanted to see another documentary film, and she said, "Oh, I recommended The Guard on my show! I don't know why you want to see (the other film), though..."

Long story short, the mother is a film critic, and she is invited regularly to film premieres and film festivals. My friends and I ended up watching the documentary for free, and she invited me to the Berlin premiere of "Mein Kampf" last night.

I got to see the red carpet, the "paparazzi" (almost non-existent, which should have been a clue about the quality of the film), and literally bumped into the actor who played young Hitler. Another bonus to being a press person is the free drinks! I snagged a free Bionade before the movie, and Redakteurin (as I will now call her) handed me prosecco after the film, possibly to wash away the memories of the film. You could also grab free soup and rolls.

Let me stop here and say that all of these perks made the evening somewhat enjoyable. Unfortunately, the movie itself was less than enjoyable, and not just because the characters spoke in Austrian dialect. To put it nicely, German-speaking Europe does not have a Mangel an Hitler films, and the world is not a better or more enlightened place after the production of this film. As Redakteurin ranted, the film couldn't decide whether it was going to treat the subject (Hitler's adolescence and "acquaintanceship" with some Jewish men) seriously or comedically. It ended up failing on both parts. It might have helped if the film had explicitly said that it mixes incredibly fictionalized scenarios (e.g. Hitler falling asleep on a patterned pillow and waking up with a swastika on his face? Hitler trying to hang himself but tying a crappy knot and getting it stuck around his stomach?) with a few actual events, but even that is doubtful.

A moment of hilarity from after the film: Redakteurin was talking with a German author about the age (and, therefore, cultural) gap between the three of us. Somehow, they got on the topic of Woody N., a very famous American director. They were flabbergasted when I admitted that I had never heard of this Woody N. guy; apparently, he's really well-known in Germany. Redakteurin stepped in and said that a lot of Woody N.'s films never made it to the theaters in the US, but they were picked up in Germany, so maybe that's why I had never heard of him. On the U-Bahn home, I finally realized that they were saying Woody Allen and mispronouncing his last name. Probably should have thought of that earlier; there aren't many people named Woody running around...

Betriebsstörungen, Death Threats, and a Trip to My New BL

New BL and I have been talking about meeting up one weekend for about two months, and we finally decided to meet on Saturday at 2:30 PM. It takes about 47 minutes with the U- and S-Bahn to get to her stop. Not a big deal, right?

Yeah, well, I wasn't paying attention, so I went the wrong direction on the U-Bahn. I figured out my mistake pretty quickly, but then I had to wait another five minutes for the other U-Bahn. Then, when I got in the S-Bahn, I realized that we were moving slowly. Very slowly. We waited at one stop for about three minutes for no apparent reason (no crowds), and then we chugged along at, oh, 10 miles per hour. And then we stopped. And waited. And waited. And waited. About ten minutes later, there was an announcement that told all of us to get off, no explanation. The train left, and another S-Bahn rolled in about 5 minutes later. We boarded. And then we waited, waited, waited... and another announcement told us that there were Betriebsstörungen at Friedrichstrasse. The S-Bahn was not running in either direction.

I still don't have a functional cell phone because I can't find a place to buy minutes for my plan, so I started to look for a pay phone. During my trip up and down the platform, a woman stepped into my path and started screeching.

I think her exact (translated) quote was: "I hate you Chinese! Go away, Chinese girl! If you come closer, I'm going to knock you dead!" In most cases, this would be slightly terrifying. However, even at that exact moment, I did not feel particularly threatened. Why? Because the platform was pretty crowded, and because she was running backwards, making shooing away gestures. To put it into mass market fiction terms, it was like she was one of Dracula's minions and I was a vampire slayer with garlic, crosses, and a squirt gun full of holy water. My first reaction was to be upset at the racism, but within five minutes, my line of thought was closer to, "Hey, is the Tea Party in Germany? This is going to make a great blog post! Oh. These thoughts make me a terrible person."

(Yes, I considered yelling back, "I'm not Chinese! I'm Korean! And American!" (with a number of inappropriate words mixed in there) or shouting, "BOO!"-- but I am classy, so I smiled sweetly, turned, and walked in the other direction.)

(I realize that making fun of an obviously mentally ill person is disrespectful and full of able-bodied privilege, which is very much not classy, but, given that I was on the receiving end of a death threat, I think I earned the right to a little black humor here.)

Anyway, after walking away from Dracula Woman, I determined that there were no pay phones anywhere at the Brandenburger Tor station. (Yes, that makes this story even more random: I wasn't exactly in Marzahn. Brandenburger Tor? I wonder how many Asian tourists she had scared off that day.) So I tried the next best thing: I asked strangers if I could use their cell phones. I'd pay them, of course.

Fortunately, I chose well, and not only did a very nice family let me use their phone, but they also asked if I wanted to join them. They were riding up to the end station, and they could tell me how to get from that station to New BL's stop. Sweet.

About 45 minutes later, I arrived at New BL's Haltestelle. When I spoke with her on the stranger's cell phone, I told her that I had email access, and I had emailed her from my Kindle on the bus. I waited for about twenty minutes before checking my email and realizing that she wanted me to go directly to her apartment.

I found the correct intersection, but then I was supposed to find a specific color building. I looked to the left and to the right, and all of the buildings looked pretty darn similar to me. I ended up walking up to every door and looking at the names on the bell. Eventually, I found her name, rang her bell, and was buzzed in. And then I didn't remember which floor she lived on, so I just took the elevator halfway and checked every door until I found her name. (I knew she lived semi-close to the top, so that helped.)

I had baked some cookies before the visit, so I brought a few for New BL and her sons. New BL's younger son asked, "What are the cookies called?" "Sie heissen... chocolate chip pudding Kekse." "Wie heissen sie?" "Auf Englisch heissen sie chocolate chip pudding Kekse." Then, New BL entered the room. "Mama, wie heissen diese Kekse?" "Amerikanische Schokolade Kekse, oder? Du kannst K fragen." "Sie heissen immer noch chocolate chip pudding Kekse..."

After we finished eating cookies, her chocolate marzipan brownies (which were AMAZING), and homemade cappuccino, New BL and I went on a 90-minute tour of her Stadtteil. It's a very green and family-friendly area with a lot of parks. We also saw the Stadtteil Rathaus and two churches, and she told me the history behind the names of two sections of the Stadtteil.

When we got back, New BL started dinner (a Tunisian dish-- eggs soft boiled in tomatoes, herb potatoes, and Kiba, also known as cherry-banana juice), and she thought it would be a good idea for me to play a game with the boys. "Sie spielen gerne V. Hast du von V gehört?" ('V' was pronounced like the English letter 'V.') I claimed that I had never heard of a game called 'V' and asked how you played, just as the boys broke out their Wii system. Ha! I won the first game of bowling (beginner's luck), but they demolished me in the second round.

After dinner, we played two rounds of "Zocken," which is a dice/gambling game that was actually a lot of fun. (I lost twice.)

Fortunately, the way back to my apartment was much less eventful than the way there. The most excitement was when a drunk guy fell and dropped champagne in the U-Bahn. Of course, the champagne exploded, and everyone jumped. Fortunately, no one was close enough to get sprayed by the champagne or by the shards of broken glass.

And so ended my day.

Erschöpft

The last two weeks have been incredibly draining, both at school and in the WG.

Last week, I put in 15 hours of face time in the classroom because I was transitioning between my old and new schedules. I'm back at 12 scheduled hours now (actually, I only taught 8 hours this week due to teachers being sick), but my workload outside of school has gone up!

I think I've mentioned that I seem to be the only ETA in Germany who writes the majority of her own lesson plans and who teaches large groups by herself in most classes. Just to clarify, I do not teach entire classes by myself (I *have* taught Vertretungsstunden with another teacher as a warm body in the room); I usually take half of the class (which is still 16+ students). Other ETAs do pull-out groups and/or take half of the class, but they don't have to prep 9+ lessons/week. :) The great thing is that I'm starting to work with a lot of parallel track classes, so I can reteach a lot of my lessons. For example, beginning next week, I'll use the same lesson plan with three Leistungskurse (LK), and since I'm in all of the 10th grade classes, I'll end up repeating quite a few lessons by the end of the year.

This week was also the Fachkonferenz for English. In the past, I haven't attended these meetings-- actually, I was never invited to attend. However, I was invited to this meeting for some reason, and I decided to go. Bonus points for collegiality? I have to say, I knew that the English teachers were a relatively non-dysfunctional and cohesive group, but I didn't realize how willing they were to do tandem work with other classes. For example, they're setting up an online Lernraum with extra practice material for all LK students, and they talked about working with other classes to set up opportunities for speaking practice, writing, and grammar practice during the normal class hours. (Snaps for My Gymnasium and the teachers!) They're also a flexible group: after E mentioned that she already was splitting her LK and giving me the stronger group for speaking, HJ decided to let me try the same thing with his classes. (Unfortunately, the main reason that we're splitting the LK is because the teachers have an abnormally high number of weak students.)

Even though I didn't have a lot to say during the Fachkonferenz, I got a boost of confidence in my German skills after realizing that I understood the entire two-hour meeting. The teachers only used four words that weren't in my passive vocabulary, and I could figure them out from the context. (Snaps for me, too!) Also, I have to say that observing the power dynamics at work at the Fachkonferenz was also very entertaining. The more senior teachers joked around, teased each other, and referred to things they've tried in the past, while the younger teachers and Referendare sat there quietly.

As for life in the WG, I've been overworked and underpaid. On Monday, I had to watch Dumpling for an extra four hours on top of the normal four hours, and Mama gave me 9 Euro and two wedges of cheese. On Tuesday, I babysat for two kids for four hours, and Mama bought me cookies. This weekend, I'm dog-sitting and guinea-pig-sitting, and I probably won't get paid at all. (On the other hand, I did whine to Mama about how the dogs peed and pooped all over the apartment last night, despite my 11:30 PM and 6:30 AM potty trips...) I think I am going to become extremely busy in the evenings all of a sudden.

At least I don't have any foreign language classes until April. I got a 1,7 in my C1 German class, which was about what I had expected. The strange thing is that I scored an 85 on the placement test in October, which put me solidly in the middle of C1. I just retook the placement test, and I got a 78. Bizarre. I'm going to chalk that up to a bad test day, but I probably should ask the professor if I should retake C1 or take C2. (I have an unusually large gap between my speaking level and my oral comprehension, reading, writing, and grammar levels. I think I am about B2.2 in speaking, beziehungsweise C1 3/4 in everything else.) To make up for not having German class, I decided to read all of the Harry Potters auf Deutsch. It's a great vocabulary builder, and I hope it'll help with lexis, as well.

One last thing: someone found my blog by searching "rice crispies berlin," which is all kinds of awesome. Yay for chocolate Rice Krispie Treats!