Today was a GREAT success!
We found cat litter that works!!!!!!!!
I'm sure most of you are rolling your eyes, but NO NO NO...this makes me a VERY happy woman! I think the kitties were getting mad at us because we kept bringing home crappy kitty litter.
You should have seen BooBoo when we brought home the good stuff. She was just beaming. It's like she was saying: "Gee, thanks mom" like Cindy from the Brady Bunch.
Now, if only we could get them to scoop their own poop.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
British? I think not!
I've (Emily) been teaching here in Aalen for about a month now. I really like it so far. 99% of the time anyway.
I'm teaching two 5th grade English classes, two 8th grade English classes, two 8th grade Geography classes, two 7th grade Geography classes, a 9th grade English class and an 11th grade English. At the moment I'm teaching a 13th grade (yes Germans go to school for 13 years, though this is changing) English class because the teacher is on an exchange to Pennsylvania with some students from my school.
I love my 5th graders. Both classes are so CUTE! On Thursday and Friday mornings I get to ride the bus with some of my girls to school in the morning. They are just the sweetest things.
One seventh grade class makes me crazy. I call them "little monsters" and they know it too. Last class period one kid flicked a little piece of plastic into another kid's eye. Yes, they were boys. I swear boys at the middle school level are the same in EVERY country!
The other other 7th grade class is my favorite class. It is full of the sweetest girls who actually want to learn and have a sense of humor. This is the class I carved pumpkins with. Click the link to see the pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2175347&id=185005169&l=6bf053f4b8
My 8th grade classes are good too, although the hormones tend to take over sometimes.
9th grade is great. Puberty is over for the most part and the students are old enough that you can joke around with them, but still young enough that they still see you as an authority figure and listen to what you say.
The 11th grade class I have is interesting. It's one of those classes that makes time drag on and on because nobody participates. Their regular teacher tells me they're always like this, even when I'm not there. I guess they have the reputation of being the quietest class in the school. They literally just stare at you when you ask questions. I've asked then if they can understand me and they say yes and I know they really can understand me because when one of them FINALLY gets the guts to talk, it's always really good and interesting. I don't know if this class is just made up of a bunch of quiet people or if they're afraid to make mistakes in front of each other, but I swear I hear crickets when I work with this class. It's such a contrast to the other classes I teach and to the classes I've taught at home where you can't get the kids to shut up!
The 13th grade English class is pretty easy. I feel bad for them though. They have to read these REALLY boring stories about the Brits colonizing places like India and Africa. It's a real snooze-fest for the most part, but the kids have to learn it because I guess on their "Abitur" (sort of like a graduation test) they ask specific questions about each story. UGG! The students are all really nice though!
I only have one complain about my school so far....
They seem to hold British English to a higher standard and sometimes make me feel as though my American English is somehow ugly and inferior to British English. One teacher even tries to correct my pronunciation and spelling. Like, I'll say something and then she says it three more times to the students as if I'm saying it wrong because I'm not saying it the way the British would. It can get annoying. She seems to get annoyed with me because I spell things like favorite without the "u" and organized with a "z" instead of an "s". I guess I didn't realize how many differences there are between American and British English before starting at this school.
The other day in 7th grade Geo. I was teaching the students the parts of a tree and I came to the word "branches" I said it how an American would say it and then she said "No it's branches" with the British pronunciation. I felt like she was telling me that I don't know how to speak my own language and the worst thing is that she did it in front of the students. Yea, thanks for making me look like an idiot. I feel like she could say: "That's the way an American says it and this is the way the British would say it", but to just flat out tell the kids that the way I was saying the word was wrong is kinda of ridiculous, I think. I think this teacher learned British English a long ago and hasn't come to the realization yet that American English is also considered proper English.
If the school finds British English better somehow, ok, I can respect that. I'd be more than willing to teach kids things the British way if that's what they need to learn, but I feel like expecting me to do it with no time to prepare is unrealistic. It's almost like expecting me to speak a foreign language.
.
I'm teaching two 5th grade English classes, two 8th grade English classes, two 8th grade Geography classes, two 7th grade Geography classes, a 9th grade English class and an 11th grade English. At the moment I'm teaching a 13th grade (yes Germans go to school for 13 years, though this is changing) English class because the teacher is on an exchange to Pennsylvania with some students from my school.
I love my 5th graders. Both classes are so CUTE! On Thursday and Friday mornings I get to ride the bus with some of my girls to school in the morning. They are just the sweetest things.
One seventh grade class makes me crazy. I call them "little monsters" and they know it too. Last class period one kid flicked a little piece of plastic into another kid's eye. Yes, they were boys. I swear boys at the middle school level are the same in EVERY country!
The other other 7th grade class is my favorite class. It is full of the sweetest girls who actually want to learn and have a sense of humor. This is the class I carved pumpkins with. Click the link to see the pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2175347&id=185005169&l=6bf053f4b8
My 8th grade classes are good too, although the hormones tend to take over sometimes.
9th grade is great. Puberty is over for the most part and the students are old enough that you can joke around with them, but still young enough that they still see you as an authority figure and listen to what you say.
The 11th grade class I have is interesting. It's one of those classes that makes time drag on and on because nobody participates. Their regular teacher tells me they're always like this, even when I'm not there. I guess they have the reputation of being the quietest class in the school. They literally just stare at you when you ask questions. I've asked then if they can understand me and they say yes and I know they really can understand me because when one of them FINALLY gets the guts to talk, it's always really good and interesting. I don't know if this class is just made up of a bunch of quiet people or if they're afraid to make mistakes in front of each other, but I swear I hear crickets when I work with this class. It's such a contrast to the other classes I teach and to the classes I've taught at home where you can't get the kids to shut up!
The 13th grade English class is pretty easy. I feel bad for them though. They have to read these REALLY boring stories about the Brits colonizing places like India and Africa. It's a real snooze-fest for the most part, but the kids have to learn it because I guess on their "Abitur" (sort of like a graduation test) they ask specific questions about each story. UGG! The students are all really nice though!
I only have one complain about my school so far....
They seem to hold British English to a higher standard and sometimes make me feel as though my American English is somehow ugly and inferior to British English. One teacher even tries to correct my pronunciation and spelling. Like, I'll say something and then she says it three more times to the students as if I'm saying it wrong because I'm not saying it the way the British would. It can get annoying. She seems to get annoyed with me because I spell things like favorite without the "u" and organized with a "z" instead of an "s". I guess I didn't realize how many differences there are between American and British English before starting at this school.
The other day in 7th grade Geo. I was teaching the students the parts of a tree and I came to the word "branches" I said it how an American would say it and then she said "No it's branches" with the British pronunciation. I felt like she was telling me that I don't know how to speak my own language and the worst thing is that she did it in front of the students. Yea, thanks for making me look like an idiot. I feel like she could say: "That's the way an American says it and this is the way the British would say it", but to just flat out tell the kids that the way I was saying the word was wrong is kinda of ridiculous, I think. I think this teacher learned British English a long ago and hasn't come to the realization yet that American English is also considered proper English.
If the school finds British English better somehow, ok, I can respect that. I'd be more than willing to teach kids things the British way if that's what they need to learn, but I feel like expecting me to do it with no time to prepare is unrealistic. It's almost like expecting me to speak a foreign language.
.
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