The days fly by so quickly here. There are not enough hours in the day...I need more time!(:
In the past few days I have been busy exploring Hamburg, observing in my school placement, and I also got to tour Hamburg University, which was quite a treat.
On Tuesday, after school, I visited Bergedorf (Bah-ga-dahf), a beautiful section of Hamburg that had an area of cobble stone streets, old buildings, and quaint cafes (what I stereotypically expected Germany to look like). As soon as I stepped off the train, we saw a delicious bakery and everyone grabbed a treat.
In the past few days I have been busy exploring Hamburg, observing in my school placement, and I also got to tour Hamburg University, which was quite a treat.
On Tuesday, after school, I visited Bergedorf (Bah-ga-dahf), a beautiful section of Hamburg that had an area of cobble stone streets, old buildings, and quaint cafes (what I stereotypically expected Germany to look like). As soon as I stepped off the train, we saw a delicious bakery and everyone grabbed a treat.
Afterwards we visited a beautiful church and a castle. This is a picture of inside the castle and an entrance to a small cafe. Looking at this picture makes me want to grab a pastry and a coffee and enjoy (and I do not even like coffee)!
Following that, we ventured on our way to get our first beer in Hamburg. And it was delicious! I would expect no less in a place so well known for their beer.
On Wednesday we toured the University of Hamburg and also went to a lecture where we got to learn more about the intricacies of the German school system. Honestly, I was not looking forward to the lecture because I wanted to be out enjoying the day and exploring, but after going, I am so glad I went. Our speaker, Andreas Bonnet, was chock full of information and after his presentation, we had a very interesting discussion about German and American school systems and began to share ideas and experiences. The picture to the right is of the first building built at Hamburg University. The school opened in 1919 and now has about 40,000 students who go there!
Comparisons, conversations, and ponderings from the lecture:
1) Schools in Germany seem to place much more accountability on students, rather than on teachers. In turn, teachers seemed much less stressed in Germany compared to my experiences with American teachers. In America, teachers' stability in keeping their jobs, rely on student performance. If a student does something wrong, it almost always falls on the teacher and he or she is blamed. In the school I am at in Germany, if a student does not want to participate, they are allowed to not participate. Instead, they might sleep or draw or just sit there. But it is a choice they are making, and this makes students in charge of their own learning. None of the teachers are going to go out of their way to force a student to learn if that student make the choice to not participate.
2) The special needs children are COMPLETELY ISOLATED from the rest of the students at my school and the same situation is present at other placement schools. There is zero inclusion in classrooms. And I think because of this, there is little to no academically leveled differentiation. In school thus far, I have not seen a guided reading,math, or extension group.
However, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, students go to "free courses". These are courses of their own choosing that allow them to explore and do the activities they want to do. Some of the options they have include dancing, reading, crocheting, learning Turkish, going to gym, playing in a padded room where they can just go play wildly and be kids, practicing German or Math, and participating in games. This IS a form of differentiation, where students are in charge of differentiating for their interests and needs. This form of differentiation is very innovative and creative and is like nothing I have seen in American schools.
I could spend all day talking about this topic, but I will end my blog here with my Student Teaching in Hamburg Survival Guide:
#7 Some Kids NEED time to just be silly and active in order to focus and learn. Today I watched students go into a room called the Psychomotorik (I think that is how you spell it...). This room is a padded room where children could swing and climb and jump and just enjoy themselves. This provided an opportunity for children to get out all of their excess energy safely, while being active, developing motor skills, and socially interacting with other children. Overall, it is very developmentally appropriate for young children (K-2/3) . I would love to see such a place in an American school for our students who are hyperactive and are often labeled as behavior problems. Such a strategy could help them to get out all of their sillies and energy and be ready to focus!
Alright, it is a beautiful day here in Wilhelmsburg and I am going to go enjoy it!(:
1) Schools in Germany seem to place much more accountability on students, rather than on teachers. In turn, teachers seemed much less stressed in Germany compared to my experiences with American teachers. In America, teachers' stability in keeping their jobs, rely on student performance. If a student does something wrong, it almost always falls on the teacher and he or she is blamed. In the school I am at in Germany, if a student does not want to participate, they are allowed to not participate. Instead, they might sleep or draw or just sit there. But it is a choice they are making, and this makes students in charge of their own learning. None of the teachers are going to go out of their way to force a student to learn if that student make the choice to not participate.
2) The special needs children are COMPLETELY ISOLATED from the rest of the students at my school and the same situation is present at other placement schools. There is zero inclusion in classrooms. And I think because of this, there is little to no academically leveled differentiation. In school thus far, I have not seen a guided reading,math, or extension group.
However, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, students go to "free courses". These are courses of their own choosing that allow them to explore and do the activities they want to do. Some of the options they have include dancing, reading, crocheting, learning Turkish, going to gym, playing in a padded room where they can just go play wildly and be kids, practicing German or Math, and participating in games. This IS a form of differentiation, where students are in charge of differentiating for their interests and needs. This form of differentiation is very innovative and creative and is like nothing I have seen in American schools.
I could spend all day talking about this topic, but I will end my blog here with my Student Teaching in Hamburg Survival Guide:
#7 Some Kids NEED time to just be silly and active in order to focus and learn. Today I watched students go into a room called the Psychomotorik (I think that is how you spell it...). This room is a padded room where children could swing and climb and jump and just enjoy themselves. This provided an opportunity for children to get out all of their excess energy safely, while being active, developing motor skills, and socially interacting with other children. Overall, it is very developmentally appropriate for young children (K-2/3) . I would love to see such a place in an American school for our students who are hyperactive and are often labeled as behavior problems. Such a strategy could help them to get out all of their sillies and energy and be ready to focus!
Alright, it is a beautiful day here in Wilhelmsburg and I am going to go enjoy it!(: