Second day in school

Today I had my second day in the school. For the next week or so I'm going to be going to a lot of different classes, introducing myself, and helping out with lessons a bit so I can get a feel for how it's done. So far it's been an extremely...varied experience to be sure. On Monday I was a little depressed at the end of the day, since the 10'th grade students I saw were so wild and unruly. They barely had any respect at all for their teachers, and half of the teachers' attention and energy had to be focused on simply getting the students to stop talking to each other and pay attention to the lesson. I was getting mental flashes of inner-city Baltimore schools and wondering if I'd be spending my Big Important Fulbright Year out here just working as a babysitter for uncontrollable kids.

Today, however, was a ton better. I started out with the 11'th grade classes, which is the highest level of class at this particular school, and there was an incredible difference in the students between 10'th and 11'th grade, like day and night. They were all very attentive, and their English was excellent, so I got to have some more fun with them and didn't have to simplify my sentences too much. It's a huge mental challenge trying to cut corners around difficult words and substitute in words and phrases that students will understand, especially having just gotten out of an environment like college where a heightened vocabulary is pretty much expected. The younger kids are a little more "fun" to work with, since their energy level is a lot higher than that of the older students, but it was still good to relax my brain a little bit in the upper classes.

Speaking of younger kids, I also got to work with a 6'th grade class today. That 45 minutes was quite a trip. Speaking 10-year-old English to a German kid is a challenge enough by itself, but simply interacting with children that young is something else entirely. There's definitely a reason that you have to get a specialized elementary education degree to teach at this level, the kids' needs are so different from older students, and they behave so differently. During the class the kids were working on the present tense ("I am going to work." "I am reading a book." etc.), so for most of the class I put on the best elementary teacher front I could and walked around the classroom helping them out with their worksheets.

Andy: "So what sentence do we have here little guy? 'My uncle sometimes _______ his pipe.' What could go in the blank?"
6'th Grader: "Ummm.....drink?"
Andy: "Noooo. That doesn't make sense. Can you drink a pipe?"
6'th Grader: "No."
Andy: "What do you do with a pipe?"
6'th Grader: "...smoke?"
Andy: "Yes! Exactly. You smoke a pipe, that is correct. So that's what goes in the blank!"

Every time I walk into a new class the students always sit me down and ask me a bunch of questions about the USA and about myself. I mentioned this a few posts before, but one of the most interesting things about this whole experience is seeing Amerika reflected through the lens of what the students at this school have learned. They always ask the same questions and have the same impressions. Amerika for these guys is a one gigantic Los Angelis, full of sunshine, movie stars, rap artists, money, and really hot girls on university campuses. I'm only half-kidding. They're constantly asking me questions like "Do you know any stars?" and "How much did your clothes cost?" I whipped out my iPod to check the time in front of a few younger students at the bus stop, and I was instantly the most important person in the world, just for flashing this one single expensive status symbol. If only they knew the truth--that the USA is just like any other country in the world. It has its fair share of homeless people, drugs, compact cars, grocery stores, schools, and normal, everyday people just trying to raise families and make a living for themselves. Maybe I'll be able to impart a more normal impression of the United States to them during my time here.

Still searching for an apartment, still zero luck. I am hitting these apartment websites really hard, but "nichts hat geklappt" as the saying goes. Gonna write a bunch of follow-up emails to the people I've already contacted and hope for the best.