Diary of a Trainee Abroad
It's the time of year when colleges and universities are overwhelmed with fresh-faced and enthusiastic new recruits, for whom 16 hours a day and a novella's worth of lesson evaluation seem reasonable; cynicism and bitterness unthinkable and the first teaching practice scarily imminent.
I have very fond memories of my first placement, which was in a rural, village school in southern Germany, so I thought I would reproduce a short diary extract for your (I hope!) amusement.
Monday
Today sees the start of my teaching practice at a village primary school in southern Germany. I will be teaching the children English as a foreign language for the next month. I introduce myself to the head using my first name. He then presents me to his colleagues and I smile as 12 teachers say in perfect English: “Welcome Mr Luke”. I notice that class sizes are somewhat smaller in Germany; the largest in this school has 23 pupils. This seems to have a positive impact on behavioural expectations as it is not unusual for a teacher to arrive at the classroom to find the whole class sitting down and working quietly.
Tuesday
I fall off my bicycle on the way to school and am forced to spend the day teaching whilst looking as if I had slept rough. When I arrive the staff are debating whether the introduction of an inspection framework will improve teaching in this part of Germany. One colleague went white when I told her that English schools can be inspected with only two days’ notice. It turns out that many of the recent reforms were influenced by ideas already implemented in England and she is worried that this aspect might be imported.
Wednesday
I observe an ICT lesson for the year five equivalent class today. The class teacher told me that ICT is officially classed as integrated into other subject delivery so German primary schools are lucky to have more than one or two computers. In this session the children have cardboard keyboards as they pretend to compose emails. After school I was taken hostage by mentor and we travelled to her house. She refused to let me go until I had eaten my own bodyweight in cake and told her everything I could about the English school system, much of which seemed bonkers when discussed with someone who has no real targets, performance management, national curriculum or inspection regime.
Thursday
There has been a significant drop in temperature and it is –10°C with snow and freezing fog; as opposed to the balmy +18° sunshine-filled day that greeted us only five days ago. I am finding it easy to engage the children in spite of, or perhaps because of, the language barrier. I find that a not-exactly-sparing use of comic mime can carry me a long way towards making them understand new vocabulary!
Friday
Slightly disconcertingly, I awoke from a dream in which I had forgotten how to speak English. I suspect that the cold weather and early mornings are doing something to my subconscious but my suspicions turned to conviction when I found myself singing nursery rhymes in German whilst cycling to school – turn left when you can see Switzerland and right when you can see Austria. I will miss this place.
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