First Day Teaching!

My first weekend went by smoothly and quickly. Sunday I visited the local Black Forest Community Fellowship Church that many of the local North American families and dorm students attend. The service is run very much like a North American, non-denominational church with worship team, sermon, and a good, old-fashioned, Baptist potluck afterwards. :) I met with my teacher, Jill, for coffee and cake at a local bakery. We discussed the classes and material for a few hours. She showed me the classroom and I was able to ask all of my questions. This time was really relieving and I feel a lot better about it all now. I really like Jill; she’s down-to-earth and genuinely cares for her students. I know I can learn a lot from her; she’s a really good teacher!

Alec and Jan’s brother David came back from a weekend men’s retreat hiking on Sunday. David lives in Essex, England, but came down for the week. He has a near-Cockney accent, “lazy English,” similar to Eliza’s father in My Fair Lady. We had tea at five and I enjoyed learning more about how to have “proper” English tea. Afterwards, David and I had a long conversation about 1960’s music, most of which I followed slowly between his accent, foreign names, and lack of British 1960’s music knowledge. I could follow the Beatles talk, however! At the end, we moved to sports. He expressed much surprise and increased respect at my knowing who Chelsea and Manchester United were. Thanks, Josh. :) We had a tv dinner of sandwiches and yogurt in front of Extreme Factor (Simon’s British version of American Idol). I’m still trying to find the balance between spending time with my host family (where I can’t get work done) and holing myself away. It’s going to get even more difficult after I start teaching full time.

Monday was my first day of school! I was so excited to begin. The school begins at 9:00, teachers arrive at 8:00. Each class period is 50 min. I will be teaching 1st,2nd, and 7th period which are all 12th grade British lit. Jill also teaches 3rd and 4th period AP British Lit, which I’m not allowed to teach. I didn’t realize I’d only be teaching 3 classes, and need to quickly find other things to fill up the remaining hours. Otherwise, 3 periods will not meet the requirements for student teaching. I’m investigating working with the ESL and/or Discovery (special ed.) program. I made a small power point presentation with slides about my home state/facts/arch pictures, family, dogs, and college. I showed it in all 3 classes, and they seemed to enjoy learning more about me.

I met so many people at the school today! I typically try hard to remember a person’s name the first time I meet them (I hate that excuse “I’m not good at remembering names”) but this will prove a challenge. The students are assigned seating in the 3 classes for the next 2 weeks so I can get used to their names. I’ll start memorizing them tomorrow. Overall, I was very impressed by the students. They are much more polite and well-behaved than most students I’ve had in the states. The teachers kept telling me I’d be spoiled by BFA students, and after today I can see why. One student today asked me if I was a Cards fan. :)

I talked to Laird Leavit, the school principal, for about an hour, during one of my free periods. He’ll be the one to observe me teaching, fill out critiques, and take the place of my supervisor from Cedarville. He told me all about BFA school history, German connections, demographics, staff, faculty, resources, sports, etc. It was very interesting, not just to hear what he had to say (he’s originally from AZ) but to hear his way of thinking, a missionary, international school principal’s perspective.

After I got back from school, I took a short nap (a combination of a bad night’s sleep and remaining jet lag made me pretty fatigued in class today. I tried everything in my power not to nod off. That’d be a great first impression to Jill and my students!), and then had a “tea party” with the family. We had “cream tea” which means having milk & tea with scones, jam, and cheese spread. We are having Yorkshire pudding tonight. At the tea table today I decided that I’m having to learn 2 languages here: German and English. I don’t know if I’m learning more about German culture or English culture. :)

I had some little funny stories to report, but the facts took up too much space. I’ll be more succinct next time! Tschus!

An English tea. The cat is a tea pot warmer.