Salzwedel: Venturing into East Germany

After spending the morning on our own, we had a rotary lunch meeting in Uelzen and gave our presentation for the first time. It went really well, and the Germans appreciated that we had the German on our slides for those who spoke no English. Then, it was on our way to Salzwedel.

We made a quick stop at the location on the roadway where the wall used to be. There was an obvious difference between the towns on the East side of Germany and the towns when we were in West Germany. We arrived and did a quick tour of the town, including old buildings that date back to the 1300s. The town is built where there is a high water table and many of the buildings are sinking or buckling from the weight of the buildings without a strong foundation. It seems like a very poor area...definitely different from where we have been so far. I am glad we get to see some of the old East Germany, but I am glad we are only here a few days. I'm ready to get back to large populations again, and of course, wifi :-). Others had different impressions of this village and will hopefully post a blog with more info.

We finished the day with dinner, which included the famous white asparagus, and returned to our host family homes.

Day 8

Today I visited the Jahn Gymnasium, a 5-12 grade school. They are on block scheduling and so I got to see three different classes (11 grade english, 5 grade english, and 10 grade english). It was very exciting to learn about what a school is like in another country. They start teaching English in Grade 3, sometimes earlier. They focus on all aspects of language. Each class I saw had some aspect of vocabulary, literature, speaking, and listening. It is amazing how much a student can learn in a short time when language is taught this way. In the first class, the students were doing a reading so they had to summarize, and then they read another act and worked in groups. In the second class, we spent a good amount of time allowing the students to interview me and hear a natural English speaker. Then they had a vocab quiz and worked on words relating to school. They used a lot of brainstorming and small group work. The third class was focusing on the emancipation of women and had a group discussion followed by a book discussion. All three of the classes used a variety of teaching techniques which really made up for the lack of technology in the classrooms (most only had a blackboard).

Class starts for the students at 7:30 and they are on block scheduling. They have 90 minutes of class and then 30 minutes of break in between. On Tuesday (today), their last class block from 1:30-3 is reserved for club activities..for example: choir, sports, robotics club, etc. Students who are not in clubs will just go home at 1 on these days. The clubs are run and organized by the students.

Also interesting was how the grading is done. Students up to grade 10 receive a mark from 1-6 for each assignment. 1 is the best and 6 is the worst. For grades 11-12, students receive points from 1-15 for each assignment, with 15 being the best. At the end of the term (of which there are 3), the student grade is based on an average of these marks. They have no final exams, except in grade 12 when they have their exit exam consisting of both written and oral examinations. The term end times are dependent on the government. Each state in Germany is given a different end of the 3rd term sometime between June/July so that all schools are not out on summer break at the same time. This helps with vacations and road traffic, etc.

Following my school visit, I went with lindsey to her Zumba class. It was a lot of fun and the people enjoyed it!

Things I learned today:

1. Apparently, 5th graders really like to ask if you have a boyfriend. I think I answered that question about 3 times today. I think it is the same in the US...what is this fascination with this question anyway?

2. The block scheduling works really well for the older kids and allows multiple methods for instruction in the course of one lesson. However, it is more difficult for the young students, especially at the beginning of the year, because 90 minutes is a lot of time on task, even for adults, let alone 12 year olds.

Day 9

Today I went back to the school and was able to observe a 6th grade English class and an 8th grade Geography class. The geo class was part of their "bilingual" class where they receive one course other than English taught in the English language. Which course usually depends on the background of the teacher. What was most noticeable for me here was that even though I was at the same school, the discipline was more of a problem in these classes than in the other classes I saw. It showed that even if the system itself is a better learning environment for the student (i.e. block scheduling), a lot still relied on the teacher and her ability to manage the classroom.

Following the school visit, we went as a group to Wolfsburg for lunch and to visit the VW factory and the science museum, Phaeno. For lunch we had Curryroast.

The VW factory was fun but we did not get to see much. Phaeno was pretty cool, and it was set up beautifully for a museum. I think it was a little overwhelming for the rest of the group, but I really enjoyed it!

Then we returned to Salzwedel and went to Debby's host family farm for an evening meeting and cookout. We did our presentation and Lindsey taught everyone Zumba. That concluded our stay in Salzwedel.

Sara