Lohmühlen

Today was finally sunny and warmer than it has been recently.  I managed to get to school on time for once.    I got my EC bank card so I can get paid cash dollas.

Here's a brief list of the classes I help out:

LK 12 with Conny.  LK=Leistungskurs, sort of similar to an honors course in an American high school.  I like this class more every day.  Yesterday we had a mock press conference and they asked me all kinds of questions about what it's like to live in the US and that seemed to encourage them to talk to me more and not be intimidated (for some reason, I'm intimidating.  Cool!)  These kids are really nice overall.

GK 12 with Lothar.  GK=Grundkurs, or a regular, required course that isn't as intense as the LK.  I have a hard time remembering the people in this course because it's at 8 in the morning and my mind is fuzzy.  They're probably nice, though.  I forget.

V 11 with Sandra.  This is one of my favorites.  It's a bunch of kids from a Realschule, which is like a school inferior to a Gymnasium, or college-prep high school (the school I'm at is called Lohmühlen Gymnasium). Here's the deal:  these kids aren't doing great in English.  They are not stupid and they do try hard, but at the Realschule they simply didn't get much quality English education.  My colleague James from the UK runs a Förderungskurs, or remedial course/extra training course, for kids who need more help learning English.  Now, James' course only has room for maybe 25 kids out of the 100 who probably need it.  The kids had to take a test to get in.  They could score a possible 23 points.  Most of the kids in my V class scored less than 14 and therefore didn't get in.  

I think this is really unfair.  It's not their fault that they got transplanted to a more rigorous Gymnasium, and they need to catch up a bit so they can do well on their Abitur (everyone takes the Abitur test in order to graduate from high school).  And I like these kids a lot.  So today I talked to Sandra about creating my own Förderungskurs for the V class, so that they can get the help they need and improve their grades in English.  She was ecstatic about the idea and we immediately started planning it.  I'm pretty excited about it and I don't mind putting a lot of work into it because I really want to see these kids do well in Gymnasium.  They can give me topics they need help with, like grammar problems or how to form certain sentences, so that they have a say in what we work on.  I'm also going to bring stuff like American music and base lessons off of the lyrics, or use American tv or clips from movies to make the class interesting, because who the hell wants to have to sit through another lecture.  Basically...this class is pretty much my baby.  

Also, Sandra is only 29 or so, and really cool.  She has only been in Hamburg for a year, so we exchanged numbers and stuff so that we can hang out and be friends.  And she even offered to help me get a futon from Ikea for my new room, because she has a car with fold-y seats.  I feel warm and fuzzy.

GK 12 with Beate (pronounced bay-AH-tuh).  I like these kids too...Beate has me correct and grade some of their work. I like her because she's very direct and doesn't bullshit around.  She liked my grading style too, which was reassuring.

7/e with Frau Bauer.  This class is pretty much adorable.  They are well-behaved and use microphones to talk because there is a hearing-impaired kid in the class.  Frau Bauer is also UNBELIEVABLY good-natured and patient.  She disciplines them in such a great way, it's gentle but they actually listen to her.  I gotta observe this one a lot.

8b with Tanja.  THIS CLASS IS FREAKING CRAZY.  It's like, the 8th class of the day and they have RIDICULOUS amounts of energy.  I don't know how Tanja does it.  It took us half an hour to establish that yes, I am American and not German despite my last name. Yes, I can speak German.  Yes, I am a teacher, etc.   They thought it was a prank or something.  One kid is always singing 80s songs in response to the teacher's comments.  They were just out of their minds.  It was the most mind-draining class ever.  Except for one boy who did not speak at all.  Bless him.

9/e with Lothar.  I'm starting to get to know these kids better.  I graded a bunch of homework and today Lothar had me spend ten minutes or so reviewing the difference between "then" and "than," subject-verb agreement, and the difference between "perverted" and "perverse."  They behaved pretty well, which gets them a thumbs-up from me.

My camera still isn't working. :(

To Shannon:  BANANA JUICE IS DELICIOUS.  You be trippin'.