Many of you are probably
wondering exactly what I am teaching while I am in Germany. I have been asked if I will be teaching
English or will it be at a military school.
At first I was unable to give a clear answer to these questions. I knew that the answer was no but I didn't have
an explanation as to what JFKS was about until I was enlightened by my wonderful
cooperating teacher, Elisabeth. She
explained that JFKS is a German public school, but is affiliated with the
American government. Founded as a
friendship project in 1961, JFKS maintains the idea of teaching both from the
German and the American curricula and tries to foster not only bilingualism,
but also biculturalism. It is not a military
school, though they did have some military kids while the wall was still
standing. Now there are American kids
from the Embassy, companies, artists, and other ex-pats. The rest of the students are German and other
nationalities (English, Irish, Indian, among others). One interesting fact that I recently learned
is that Elisabeth’s mother was one of the founding American teachers at JFKS!
 |
| Good morning from JFK! |
From the moment I stepped onto
campus I found the school to be fascinating.
The faculty, staff, and students all greeted me warmly with smiles and
even hugs. I very quickly felt at home
and fell in love with my adorable second graders. My
cooperating teacher, Elisabeth, is loving and a breath of fresh air. She has had these students since they were in
kindergarten because at JFKS they do a form of teaching that is called
looping. This is when the teacher moves
up to the next grade level with the students.
Most teachers only loop two grades but Elisabeth had the pleasure of teaching
three grades for this particular class.
With looping the teachers are obviously able to get to know and
understand the children much better and are able to skip times of having to
review or learn about a child because they already know their capabilities and
where they left off from the previous year.
JFKS has a schedule that is similar to a year round schedule in America
which also helps with this area. At JFKS
they have six weeks off in the summer, two for the fall break, one for winter,
and two more for spring break. Not to
mention they celebrate all national holidays for both America and Germany.
Many aspects of JFKS are the same
as most of the school that I have been in previously, however, there are also
that are quite a few areas that are differing.
Here are some tid bits of
information about JFKS.
·
At JFKS the schedule changes every day. Unlike American schools that have the exact
same schedule every day of the week for the most part the students at JFKS are
used to a different schedule each of the days of the week.
·
At JFKS the students split for langue arts which
is called mother tongue. The German
students go to a class where they only speak German and the English speaking
students go to a class where they only speak English. This only lasts until the 2nd
grade though and then the students switch they begin having mother tongue in
the opposite language to help strengthen that language as well. Students at JFKS attend religion classes
several times a week. Some students
attend catholic classes while others attend protestant classes. The students whose parents appose to this go
to a classroom for religion rest where they have time to play or do as they
please.
·
The students at JFKS PLAY IN THE SNOW! I was dumbfounded by this when I saw the
students in their cute little snowsuits running around before school started
romping and rolling in the snow. In the
U.S. we NEVER played in the snow at recess.
·
The students in my second grade class arrive at
school between 7:30 and 7:45 and play outside until 10 till 8. At this time they go inside to change out of
their jackets and shoes. They wear “house
shoes” while in the classroom. By doing
this they keep out dirt and sand from the playground. School for 2nd grade lasts until
1:10 and then the children are dismissed.
·
The children eat lunch in the classroom every day
and they eat the most DELICIOUS lunches.
They look they just arrived from Panera. After lunch the children have 30 minutes to play
outside.
·
The children also have a 10 break to play
outside. In Germany they believe that
being active helps children to learn. I
completely agree!
·
Almost all of the students in my class are
bilingual. They are brilliant and full
of beauty inside and out.
·
The students enjoy attempting to teach me German
and love to laugh at the ridiculous sounds that come out of my mouth. I am trying so hard but German is not the
easiest language to learn.
I have so much more to tell you
but I am spent for the day! Tomorrow is
our last day before our two week spring break and I will be doing lots of
traveling which I still have to finish packing for. :) I am thrilled to be
visiting Munich, Prague, Florence, Barcelona, and London over break. I know I will have lots of exciting details
for you upon my return!
Tschüss!
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