Dobbs in Deutschland: Six Weeks in....

Just to preface, we still don‘t have internet at home. Everything here takes about twice as long as in the States. I guess that’s a fair trade for living in such a beautiful country. We expect to have phone and internet in our flat on October 9^th. In the meantime, we did get German cell phones and can use the data there as our Wi-Fi (a little costly though).

Teaching in Germany

For all those who have inquired about the school here and what it’s like, I will respond that it has surpassed my expectations in many areas and has been a challenge in others. Overall, I still cannot believe how fortunate I am to be a part of this school and this community. The school is located 4 miles north of Augsburg and our flat. Using public transportation, it takes about 45 minutes to get to school. I leave the flat at 8am and walk around the corner to the tram stop, which then takes me to the Hauptbahnof, the main train station in Augsburg. There, I meet the “school bus”, or rather a small city bus which the parents pay extra for the purposes of transporting their children to the school. As a teacher, I can ride for free, provided that I do not take any seats from the children. Some days I stand, some days, I sit. At least I’m not sitting on 75 Southbound in traffic. Back to the bus… I prefer the school bus over the other public transportation because it drops me off directly at the school. For the first few weeks, I took random buses from the nearest tram station, and ended up on a tour through Gersthofen, a little town about a mile or so north of the school.

When I arrive at school, I have Homeroom, which runs from 8:45am to 9am. I take attendance online and send the kids to their classes at 9am. My homeroom is 7^th grade and only has 17 kids in it. They are all very polite, but a bit more talkative than I expected. Again, they are very sweet, but they are definitely 7^th graders!

As for my schedule, I’ll give you a little math problem. If there are nineteen 80-minute class periods in a week, how much free time do I have if I teach the following?

1- 8^th Grade English – 3.5 periods

1- 7^th Grade English – 3.5 periods

1- Humanities – 2 periods

1- 6^th Grade Reading – 1 period

1- Study Hall – 2 periods

If you answered “a ton”, you are CORRECT! For example, on Mondays, my first class doesn’t start until 12:10pm. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, my first class is at 10:20, followed by several breaks during the day. My favorite day is Thursday – I start with two 40-minute English classes back to back and then a study hall at the very end of the day. This means that I am free from 10:20 until 2:10pm EVERY Thursday! And did I mention that the students get 2 breaks (in addition to lunch) every day? The first break is a 15-minute snack break for the whole school. Ninety minutes later, the whole school gets a 15-minute recess outside. Then, the whole school eats lunch from 1:30-2:10, which includes another ample recess.

As for my students, I teach a total of 40 different students. My largest class is 18 students, and my smallest is 10. I have a few who have limited English, but for the most part, they speak fluent English. I do have to be careful of the vocabulary I choose, because most of them have only been speaking English for the past 3-4 years. Regardless, their English is MUCH better than my German!

As for the challenges, supplies and resources are limited. I don't have a Teachers Edition of ANYTHING, and am still trying to order some supplies. The students have textbooks in a few of the subjects, but I find it difficult to plan from them when I can't see a copy of what they are using. As for English, they don't have a textbook and most likely will not get one. This hasn't stopped me from coming up with great lessons, but again, its a challenge. I guess I shouldn't complain when I have so much free time to create outstanding lessons ;))