Schedule for the quarter

I finally have a fixed schedule for the coming quarter!  I will be working 12 hours a week (that is the max they’re supposed to give us…not sure what they think we’re supposed do with the many many other hours in a week), with 7 different classes, and 5 teachers.  So far, I’m thinking it’s going to be quite manageable, although I only started this schedule Tuesday.  I have both Mondays and Wednesdays free, although some Monday afternoons I might go in to spend extra time with one of the classes. 

Tuesday, though I was with a group of 10^th graders for the first two periods; they definitely will need some prodding to be more communicative!  Then, I spent the next hour in a 6^th grade class, they were adorable and very eager about reading aloud and talking.  The teacher in that class asked me if I want to lead a lesson Thursday, and I said yes pretty quickly without really thinking about it…now I’m terrified!  I’ve got a little plan laid out in my notebook, but have no idea how the students will react to the listening exercise, ie, whether they will actually be able to understand any of it.  But I’m hoping they do and we have a successful first lesson!  If not, we’ll be moving onto describing pictures and maybe I’ll be able to get them to talk about their own vacation experiences.   Tomorrow, I’ll also be reviewing the 9^th graders blogs with them, going over common grammar and vocabulary mistakes…I’m hoping that goes well too and they actually learn something! (I’m ridiculously nervous if you can’t tell.  I came here to learn about teaching but it seems so scary right now!)

Updates on that tomorrow, onto more fun social topics…let’s start with smoking.  As you may know, smoking is far more prevalent here in Europe than in the States.  Many of my friends in Tübingen smoked and everyoneeeeee I’ve met from the Music School here smokes as well.  However, many of the teachers at school have told me that it’s really going “out of style” and young people are smoking less, although that’s not what I’m seeing.  It’s definitely an interesting difference between here and the States, especially because they’re frequently smoking in bars, although I’m told this has technically been made illegal. 

Today, Oct 3, is the Day of German Unity, so no one had school!  So yesterday I went down to Paderborn, where another American Teaching Assistant lives, and we had dinner with an old host family of hers.  They were incredible welcoming, fed us an absolutely delicious dinner, and just spent the whole evening hanging out with us and chatting.  It is so incredibly nice to hang out with German families – it’s something I never did in Tübingen, and it’s great to see their homes, how they interact, what they cook, etc.  Then, we went down into the city to a bar, and even in the dark, I could tell that the city was really pretty.  I’m super-excited to go back and do some more exploring, especially since it’s a very very Catholic town and there are what appear to be beautiful churches eeeeeeeverywhere.