Chapter 22 - Nearly the holidays again!

Monday 1st - Sunday 7th February


As the title suggests, it is, indeed, nearly time for the holidays again! It doesn't seem like I've been back at work very long at all to be honest, and certainly I haven't been to many places! I have only got one week until the holidays arrive, during which I shall be heading to the Berlin, which I'm very much looking forward to!


School was pretty standard this week. One of my 7. Klasse at the Gesamtschule have now been divided from a class of 31 to classes of 15 and 16, which is apparently a 'normal' class size for languages. The teachers were somewhat surprised to discover that 31 was a pretty average class size when I learnt French at school! 


I have also begun to to undertake some private tuition. The reasons for this are two-fold; the primary reason (seeing as I live in a capitalist society) is financial gain - I offer my services and receive money. The second, somewhat less fiscal reason, is that it gives me something to do in the evenings. One of my students is a trainee English teacher, and the other a psychology student from the uni. It's nice to get to meet some new people, and certainly from the teacher learn some new things myself (e.g. teaching methods, materials etc.).


The Gymnasium at which I work held its Tag der offenen Tuer (Open Day) on Saturday, which involved me being at work for 8 in the morning! I shan't discuss my thoughts about holding open days on a Saturday on here again, those of you have read this blog up until this point, will undoubtedly be bored by them! I was able to actually teach a lesson on Open Day. I taught a 6. Klasse (Year 7 equivalent), who had only been learning English since September. It was an eye-opening lesson; the kids were pretty much able to understand everything I said, and the lesson was conducted wholly in English for my part - something of a difference to the Gesamtschule, where they are able to understand a fair bit, but they have been learning English for one year longer, and are probably not as good! What was also interesting about Open Day was the different amounts of effort the teachers went to in terms of deciding what to wear! The Schuldirektor (Headmaster) had a suit and tie on, other teachers had also dressed up a bit (i.e. suit without tie), some had dressed as if it were a normal day (shirt and jeans), and others had got up, gone "It's Saturday, all my work clothes are in the wash, where are my DIY clothes?" (Naturally they would have said this in German, but as it's a ficitious, imagined occurence, I shall allow you the ease of having it in English). 


Following the Open Day, I met up with Claire and Esther and we had a nose around the Art Gallery in Saarbruecken. This was OK, there were certain things that were eye-catching, interesting, some more traditional works of art, and some that I could have done (and I missed the artisticly talented gene when I came onto this Earth - my sister seemed to get my share!).  Following the art gallery we headed for lunch in the city, and had a drink there, when we heard that Will was coming into Saarbruecken to watch the rugby at the Irish Pub. So, we thought we'd do the friendly thing and tag along! So, the evening was spent watching the England v. Wales match in the Irish Pub, drinking some Stowford Press Cider! Those of you who know me, will know that Sport wouldn't be my Mastermind Specialist Subject. However I learnt more about the rules of rugby in that one evening than from the 5 years of compulsory PE I did at school. The key principle, which, to be fair, I did already know, is that you run forwards and through backwards. If you have the ball, it's a good idea not to stand still as there are likely to be some rugby players with the finesse and elegance of a Tomahawk cruise missile homing in on you! Still, the result was approved by the majority of the pub (mainly English and Irish ex-pats, who took the mick out of the sole Welshman there). One thing that did become apparent is that during the time when Wales had the ball, Jones and Williams stood a good chance of having posession! 


Sunday was a day spent tidying my room, I decided that it needed doing, and as everything is closed on sundays I set about it. It actually didn't take as long as I had envisaged, and so I had intended on writing this blog entry then, but just forgot about it, so here it is, slightly late again!


Coming up next week, is the day trip to Worms, and the preparations for my week in Berlin during the holidays!

Chapter 19 - Returning to Normality

Monday 11th - Sunday 17th January

Again, I would like to apologise for the tardiness in this entry - it's been on my "to do" list every day for quite a while, but has repeatedly been overlooked or given simply a cursory glance!

So, after the first week of hand-shaking, snow, and trying to remember how to speak German it was time for life to return to some sort of normality. This week itself will probably be one of the shortest blog entries, simply because not a huge amount happened!

School was pretty standard, although I did start a 4 week project with the 8. Klasse (Year 9 equivalent) whereby they will produce 5 minute presentations about different counties. This should be quite interesting, not only for them, but I intentionally chose counties about which I have a limited and hazy knowledge - so hopefully I, too, should learn something new. I'll report back at the end of the project to tell you how it went!

Friday, my day off in the week, was an interesting day - I met up with one of my fellow Bathonians who I'd not seen since she was in Strasbourg, and we had a nice day just wandering round the town; seeing the sites. Here's a good time to mention that Saarbruecken is not a particularly big city, and so it can be difficult to drag out seeing the sites to a whole day - so I ought to own up to the fact that a fair amount of the afternoon was spent in a cafe; people watching and catching-up!

Saturday was the Open Day at my Gesamtschule, to which I had been heartily invited (which is one step down from being expected to go!) It involved having to get up at 6, and be in school for 8, and finishing at about 12.30. It was a knackering day; I worked with a class I hadn't worked with before, but they weren't really interested! Still, it gave the parents, remarkably few in number as they were, the chance to see the school. I, personally, have reservations about holding an open day on a Saturday. It is a compulsary school day for the kids (and teachers too, obviously), which immediately causes alarm bells. It's difficult persuading kids to see a Saturday as a school day - so many simply didn't turn in, others forgot to check the bus times, and as such turned up up to 45 minutes late. Also, the teachers were tired, and not really able to continue their normal lessons due to the high absence rate, so had to do something less productive. I think a system, similar to that which we did at Sheldon (my old secondary school) whereby the Open Days were held on normal school days gives a far more realistic overview of school life than opening at the weekend. Still, it gave me something to do on Saturday morning.

Sunday was my hermit day of the week, where I spent it inside doing some uni work, lesson planning, and catching up on TV!

Also, I'd just like to further comment on the weather situation over here in Saarbruecken. It's still winter, so it's still cold, it still might be icy and it still might snow - but everything is still carrying on as normal!

So, hopefully, in the next couple of days you should see the entry for this last week,which was slightly more interesting!