Monday was my very first day at the primary school or what we call elementary school. I couldn't wait to finally be working with the younger children. Stephanie, Ashley and myself are at the same primary school. We have our own classroom and the teachers bring their classes to us. We teach grades 1 through 4 at this school. We had originally planned to play some games with them such as Sparkle but little did we know, they would not be able to understand the game. We didn't even think about how basic our directions and speech would have to be. It is especially challenging to talk to the Year 1 students who only know basic colors and counting to 10. Luckily the teachers are in the room and can help translate to the students so they understand what we are saying. On Monday we did basic introductions and had all the students say, "My name is ____ and I am ___ years old." They all did very well with this activity. Then we did a color scavenger hunt in the room. We asked the students to find an object in the room that was blue or red and they pointed to it. They enjoyed this activity very much. On Tuesday, we taught weather to the 2nd grade students. We brought a song about weather and hand motions to go along with the lyrics. They absolutely loved it! When I witnessed how excited they were about the song, I instantly felt so accomplished inside. They were starting to understand the basic weather terms such as cloudy, sunny, rainy, etc. After completing the weather activities with the students, I gained so much confidence as a teacher. Even on the first day I was very anxious and felt very lost on what to do with students who did not even understand me. After we finally understood that we were going to have to keep it very basic, use hand gestures and act out what we were trying to say, we finally started to adapt to these new challenges. It felt absolutely amazing to overcome that challenge. I now feel much more confident in my ability to differentiate instruction in my future classroom for my ELL learners.
On Monday night, my host dad, Peter, and I went to Munster. Peter drove on the Autobahn in his Audi and we hit 250 km/hr which is approximately 155 mph. It was an adrenaline rush and I loved it! In Munster we walked around the city square and even went inside an old Catholic church. It was massive! There were 3 cages at the very top of the steeple where they would put people inside. After we walked around the square, we went to a restaurant called Ja Piano! It was an Italian restaurant that had mainly pasta and pizza. I ordered the scampi pasta--it was absolutely amazing! On Tuesday afternoon, my family and Tyler's host family (they are cousins) went together to see a couple of castles in nearby cities. They were absolutely beautiful. Can I come back and get married at the "mini Versailles"? Today is my host mom, Rita's, birthday. Last night at midnight we celebrated with champagne and I gave her the book and card I bought her for her birthday. She loved it! Today we had cake and coffee around 4:30. Peter and Rita's parents came over to celebrate. It has been a great day! I've gotten very close to my host family this week and the thought of having to leave next week makes me very sad. I definitely couldn't have asked for a better host family. I cannot wait to see my family and friends back home though! Really starting to miss my family and best friends. So many mixed emotions going through me right now!
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