The first week of school is officially over! It feels like it's been more than a week since last Monday, but probably just because the week was so crazy and there was so much information every day. The school is not like American schools where there is one giant building housing all the classrooms and students, but instead three different buildings around the city that belong to the school, as well as two more buildings for the daycare. Each building is referred to by the street name, so mine is called "Trollstrasse."
Another difference from our American schools, is that each grade has a teacher (Klassenlehrer), who is their main teacher. They do, however, have other teachers for other subjects. This Klassenlehrer stays their teacher for a number of years--so you better hope you like him/her! Each Klassenlehrer has his/her own classroom, but the teachers who only teach one or two specific subjects (Fachlehrer) do not have their own classroom and move to different rooms, basically wherever one is free. It's generally consistent where they teach, but during the first week, all the details are still being ironed out. So, at times it can be confusing about who is supposed to be where--for both the teachers and the students!
The daily schedule is also quite different. While school starts every day at 7:45, and the various lessons are all the same length, the lessons being taught are different each day of the week (I guess like block scheduling, but still different than that), and the day does not always end at the same time. I'm still trying to figure out when the school day is over for the students, because some classes get out earlier in the day, while other students have another class to go to. I guess the best way to explain that, is that it is more like college, where some people are done with their classes earlier in the day than others. Lunch is also only served on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and is not obligatory for all students to attend. They can go home and eat if they are not signed up for lunch at school! I'm not used to so much freedom given to the students, but I think it's a great thing--as long as they can handle it!
As an intern, I wear many hats for my job. I help out with lunch, I supervise the school cleaning (the students do the cleaning!), I work after school for Homework Help, I make sure the Teacher's Lounge is clean and tidy all the time, and really whatever other little odd jobs people ask me to do. On top off all this, I work with some teachers during certain lessons as an assistant--the main reason why I'm here! So, as you can imagine, there was quite a lot going on this week and quite a lot to learn!
I am assisting in both English and German classes and have so far done mostly Small Group work or observing, but that won't necessarily be all the time. I also am leading an elective English Conversation class, for those that need or want some extra English speaking practice and I'm leading an elective Keyboarding class--which, I must laugh a little about, because the Swiss German keyboard differs from the German keyboard, which differs from the American English keyboard! Luckily, I'm there mostly to supervise and make sure they work or answer questions if they have any, and the students are just working on individual laptops.
The beginning of the week was very crazy and honestly, a bit overwhelming and stressful. At times it felt unmanageable to remember everything I need to do, and I'm still learning to remember it all, but now that the first week is over, it's all feeling a bit more manageable. I'm also very lucky that there is another intern at the Trollstrasse who worked at the school for the last 7 weeks of last year, so he knows quite well what is going on and how to do everything!
I'm sure I'll think back in a few weeks to how stressed and overwhelmed I felt and wonder why I felt so confused at times. And I'll try to get some pictures of the building to show you in another post :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment