Well today was a really good day! I had some time during the day to prepare for lessons (although I was mostly using the materials the teachers wanted me to teach), so I wasn't flying by the seat of my pants as much, and the lesson that I planned and found materials for on my own went really well! I also got a ride back to Baden from school, which meant that I got back to Baden at the time that the bus would've been picking me up in Bad Vöslau.
I think the most challenging part of the day was teaching another 6th form class. The teacher told me that it would be an easy day, because all the boys were gone, and apparently the boys and girls in that class fight constantly. They're the only class in school that has to have an extra class per week just to teach them how to behave in school and how to treat each other! So far the lowest level class I've been in was 3rd form (so they had 3 years of English), and I think today's 6th form class was at the same level as the 3rd. The reading that the teacher gave me to do with them was way beyond them (except one girl who speaks English with her parents), so it took a long time to get through the text, and I don't really think they understood it. It's hard going into these classes and teaching students I don't know with lessons and materials that I didn't choose. I also don't really know what they've learned and what sort of topics they're working on this year.
The 4th form class that I taught today was pretty good. They were very chatty, but the teacher said they're always that way so I wasn't surprised by it. My best moment in that class was catching two girls passing notes. I didn't say anything I just gave them a look, which they both saw, and shook my head; they didn't pass another note for the whole period! Teaching tip of the day: practice "the look" it really works.
The lesson I prepared on the Death Penalty (die Todesstrafe) went really well, hence the post title. I started the lesson asking them some questions to get them interested and to make the death penalty (and the issues around it) a little easier to relate to. They don't have the death penalty here, and the government is strongly against it, so it isn't a topic they discuss in school or really even think about. Then they had to do some research online with questions I provided. The teacher I worked with really liked my questions, and the kids worked hard at finding very complete answers so they learned a lot. Talking about their findings as a group didn't go as well as their research did, but most of the class is in the school's semi-professional handball team, and had spent the morning at a big tournament/game, so they were a bit brain dead. Then they started reading an article about why some Americans still support the death penalty, but we didn't get very far before we ran out of time. Even so I was pleased with how hard they worked and how much they learned in an hour and forty minutes, and we had a few laughs during the lesson too, so it wasn't all death.
And now for something completely different (there seems to be a Monty Python theme here today): As I was turning onto my street I saw an elderly woman being taken out of the Heurige (wine garden/restaurant) on my street on a stretcher. There was a minor traffic jam as the ambulance tried to turn around and there were actually other vehicles on the road (there's normally no traffic on Rohrgasse). It was rather strange, and slightly funny (don't worry, the old woman was awake and talking to her husband, so it's not totally morbid).
Since I'm home early I'm going to relax and read a bit before dinner!
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