I realized that I haven't really said that much about teaching or my schools for awhile, and this week has been full of fun, teachable moments. Pretty much every week there are funny things that happen, or that students say, but I never really write about them- so now I'm going to.
My schedule right now at Bad Vöslau is a bit of a mess, I'm there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I ended up hanging out at school pretty much all day, just looking for a lesson to join. It's test season right now, so many teachers couldn't use me because they either had their last lesson before the test, or they were giving the test. There have been two or three teachers who have left the school to go on maternity leave, which is why the schedule is constantly changing. Instead of just getting a substitute teacher in to teach their classes they rearrange everyone's schedule to cover those classes. They actually don't have substitute teachers here, when a teacher is gone the other teachers have to fill in for those classes.
On Tuesday I ended up putting in two hours in 1st form classes (10 yr olds), which is a bit hard because they don't understand a lot of English, but they have a lot of energy and are pretty funny. In the first one we just did a Q&A- they asked me questions in German or English, the teacher wrote the English on the board that they didn't know, and I'd answer. I was surprised at how many questions they came up with in English, including, "How much are you, teacher?" This is funny for two reasons- 1) He was trying to ask how old I am- obviously didn't quite come across that way! and 2) When they ask a question in German here they usually either start or end with saying "Frau Professor", so he took that and changed it to English as best he could. Anyway, I had a lot of fun with them, and they were really enthusiastic about everything, even if they didn't understand much! The other 1st form was doing body parts, so I thought I'd teach them Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, maybe play some Simon Says (Simon Says touch your right elbow to your left knee!- you'd better all be doing it, or Simon will know!). When it came time to leave what was in the book and do my own thing their teacher jumped in and made us go back to the book, so I was a bit disappointed. We listened, sang, and danced to the song provided by the book writers- which was a very strange, awful techno song- it seemed like a bad joke to me. The kids all thought it was hilarious, and they got to dance around and be silly.
Wednesday I really filled up my day because I'd been so bored on Tuesday with only two lessons. I taught 5 lessons, 3 of which were about Thanksgiving. In one of the Thanksgiving lessons I asked them what they think we eat for Thanksgiving, and after giving me a few dishes (Turkey, mashed potatoes...) they broke down and started giving me ingredients they thought we might use (onions, butter, salt). The teacher and I just started laughing at them. One lesson was another book lesson- but it was the last lesson before the test, so I didn't mind as much that we had to stick with the book topics. In my last lesson (for the two hour Wahlpflichtfach) we wrapped up their last unit, and started talking about American High Schools- more specifically high school sports. Most of that class are guys from the handballer class, so I thought the topic would be interesting to them, and I think they like the movie I picked too; we're watching Coach Carter.
I teach at Berndorf on Mondays and Thursdays, and I have a pretty nice, set schedule. I only change classes once a month, so I get a chance to know my students a bit more (although there's still a lot of them!), and I'm only with 6th-8th forms (think Sophomore-Seniors) so we can do more advanced lessons. There's a class of 10 8th form boys- most of whom are footballers- that I saw twice this week (since we started the week in November, and now its December). I've been teaching them about US Government and Politics, and they've been telling me about Austrian holidays and family traditions. The teacher for that class told me last week that she had told the boys they were going to be doing some reading during one of my classes with them, and they all protested, "It's Allison's hour!" "We want to talk to Allison!", so I thought that was pretty funny. They've told me some pretty interesting things about the holidays and traditions around this time of year like the meaning of Advent Wreaths (nearly impossible for them to pronounce, they usually say reas-s or reafs), how they celebrate St. Nikolaus, what Perchten, Krampus, or Knecht Ruprecht are, how they celebrate Christmas (on the 24th of December- not the 25th), the history and importance of Christmas markets, and sort of randomly- one kid told me about Johan Hölzel, better known as 80s pop sensation Falco. I have no idea what Falco has to do with holidays and traditions (as far as I know he never put out a Christmas album- I hope!); plus I've seen the movie Falco: Verdammt wir leben noch so I know a fair amount about him.
This post is already getting a bit long, so I'll just fill you in on some of the stranger or more interesting things they've told me. Perchten and Krampus are nearly the same thing, and they're usually celebrated on December 5th (the day before St. Nikolaus). People dress up in creepy devil masks, the more traditional ones are carved from wood and hand painted. For Perchten they usually have a parade through the city center with torches and who knows what else (Perchten is on Sunday here in Baden- I'll fill you in a bit more after I've seen it). For Krampus the people dressed as devils wander randomly through the town with bunches of evergreen branches that they use to beat people (or just hit them once or twice), they usually go for women and kids (not the really little ones- more like middle/high school kids). As I understand it both of these traditions come from the story of Knecht Ruprecht. He would go around with St. Nikolaus from house to house, and if the children were good they'd get candy and fruit from St. Nik, if they were bad Knecht Ruprecht would put them in a bag and beat them with a stick, or throw the bag in the river. This is also where we get our Santa Claus that we have to be good boys and girls for- or else we'll get coal. Obviously we've tamed it down a bit!
Some other interesting things the students told me is that Silent Night was written in Austria in the 1800s, I always thought it came from somewhere in Germany. They also told me the first Christmas market ever was in Vienna (the one in front of the Rathaus that I'll be going to see today), and it was first mentioned in writings from the 1200s. I couldn't verify this, Wikipedia doesn't say anything about it. They also told me that we get the name Chris Kringle (Santa's name) from the German term Christkindl(markt), a German term for the Christmas markets. I can see that.
In one of my other classes yesterday we got a really good debate going about smoking in Austria, the laws involved with it, and where people should/shouldn't be able to smoke. I was surprised at how many people really stayed on their side of the issue and argued with people of the opposing opinion. In the US it's really not hard to get students to debate each other- but here it's usually like pulling teeth! They don't want to disagree- so they all end up changing sides saying things like, "I understand what you're saying and I agree." when they're supposed to disagree! If you assign them an opinion they have to argue for they have a really hard time pretending it's their opinion... so usually I avoid having them debate something because it's just pointless. However, this class did an excellent job, I even got to jump in and mediate, I was very proud of them!
I've also noticed that most students here want to be on exactly the same level as their peers- they don't want to be better than the others. So in one exercise when they were supposed to be comparing themselves to someone else if a student said, "I think _____ is cleverer than me." The student they named as cleverer always had to put up their hand and say something like, "I don't think that's correct, because _____ always does better than me at _____." or something similar... They don't mind putting themselves down as being bad at something, but they don't want anyone to think they're good at something. I find it a very interesting cultural phenomenon.
All along I've been seeing strange or wrong things in the textbooks here, but this week I've really been noticing it. Some of the stuff that I don't like turns out to just be British English, which I have a hard time not correcting (If I ever say "at the weekend" kick me!). One of the funny examples from this week is "a pot plant" apparently in British this is simply a potted plant, but I think of marijuana every time I see it. I asked Liz, a British friend of mine here, and she said it's just a potted plant, but when she googled "A pot plant" only one variety of potted plant appeared! Some of the other stuff is just wrong, especially when it comes to adding articles like "the" "a" and "an", but the teachers are sure that because it's printed word it must be correct and I'm wrong. I think I'll stop bothering trying to correct the book- it's just not worth it in most cases!
If you've read this far- congratulations! You're nearing the end, and this is the non-school related fun! Last night I met up with Liz (Brit), Steffi (Austrian), Kittle and Kate (both American) in Baden, and we went out for Punsch, Glühwein and other Christmas related drinks at the Badener Adventmeile (or christmas market). It was a lot of fun just hanging out, swapping stories, trying out all the different drinks and standing around a hot mushroom (the literal translation of the German word for one of those big outdoor propane heaters- they do look like large mushrooms!). There was also the most eclectic live band playing by one of the huts. They played everything from 1920s swing, to early 90s country; including My Achy Breaky Heart- which, judging by the crowds reaction, is an absolute favorite here! Everyone was tapping their toes, singing to the chorus, bopping their heads- it was pretty funny. After nearly 3 hours of standing around outside we were all pretty cold, and our feet hurt so we split up and went home.
Today I'm going to go get some of my Christmas shopping done, and check out some of the Christmas markets in Vienna. As of yet we don't have any snow here- which is turning out to be a really big problem for all of Austria- even the Alps are lacking in snow! Hope we get some soon!
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