Just a little different...

I have come to find that Germany has a much more relaxed and laid back way of life. They enjoy sitting out in their garden and just eating cakes and enjoying time together. They like sitting at cafes and enjoying their drink without grabbing it to go and rushing to work or another appointment. I’ve even started to enjoy riding my bike everywhere and just enjoying the weather and being outside. So much so that sometimes I even go the long way home to get a little more time. I just feel like they aren’t always rushing around places like we do in the U.S. And this relaxed life style definitely shows in their schools as well.

The students only come to school for part of the day, depending on how many classes they have each day. The elementary school starts at 8:15 and a lot of the students are done at about 1:00. They also have a lot of breaks. In between each class they have 5-10 minutes outside to run and play. Then between 2^nd and 3^rd class they have a 30 minute break that I guess acts like their recess. And when the bell rings to signal class time, we have noticed that some kids take their time coming in and don’t really feel like they have to be in class on time. The supervision while they are outside also isn’t as strict as it is back home. One day, while parking our bikes, Maddie and I saw some kids wrestling on the concrete fighting over something and playing keep away. There were probably only 2 teachers even outside with all the kids and none of them seemed to notice or care about what was going on. Even the content seems to be less structured. Back home, we have the standards we are supposed to be teaching and everything our students should know. Here, we were given broad topics and told to just do whatever. No teachers told us what they wanted their students to get out of it and basically just wanted them to hear us talking and have some exposure to the vocabulary.

I’m not at all saying that the school was horrible because of all these things. It works really well for them and I’ve really enjoyed getting to experience it. It’s just very different from home. It definitely makes you think about things like do the kids do better here with a shorter day? Do they deserve a little more freedom? Now I can’t change some of these things back home, like the length of the school day. However, I could incorporate more brain breaks throughout the day to let the students have some time to recharge and maybe focus better.

I am sad that my time at Uhlandschule is over because I have really enjoyed getting to know the students and teachers here and getting to see how their school works. Only a couple days left and they will be spent at AFG. There were some times in the beginning where it got a little frustrating because it was like talking into the universe and nobody understood. It has also been very tiring even with a short day. There is a lot of charades and trying to come up with activities and reword things so the students understand you. But it has been a great experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.