Tuesday 30th August

Job shadowing  

Bremen

 Tuesday, 30th of August

8:00 – 12:00 Visit to school  

In the visits to the different classes (English, Spanish and Physical Education), it strikes to me that students have two tutors, what it is called, Tandem. The school tries the Tandem to be a man and a woman and these tutors accompany them from the 5th grade (5th primary school) to 10th grade (4th ESO).

What I really like of teaching languages in Germany is that much time is devoted to brainstorming and to enlarge their vocabulary, they even may have a vocabulary notebook and homework may be just learning the new words. Every two weeks they have a vocabulary test, but real exams are only 2 every semester, which makes me think maybe in Spain we are overcasting them. In these two exams, you cannot ask grammar or vocabulary, the exercises are centered on the 4 skills.

Another thing I like about German teenagers is that they don’t worry if there are words in the texts they don’t understand and that respect to the teacher, the other students and the class material is excellent, especially when in the higher courses. (3rd, 4th ESO).

Thursday 1st September

Job shadowing Bremen
Thursday 1st of Sep blog entry

Typical from a “Gesamtschule” is its projects. They may stop the normal program for two weeks and enroll on a project where all the subjects take part. Maybe we are two obsessed with the program, maybe we could do more motivating things for the students which in the end is what they will remember from their time at high school.
It really stroke me a partnership they have with a school in Ethiopia and I was thinking that it is good that we try to have contact with schools in English, France or Germany, but speaking of values, a partnership with a school in Ethiopia will make our students appreciate that they can go to high school and they have money to buy their school material.

(Selfie with Celia, :-)

Also very interesting is how they prepare future teachers and that every teacher has two subjects. My mentors here have been Celia (imparting English and Spanish) and Cecilia (imparting Spanish and German). 

Wednesday 31st of August

Job shadowing 

Bremen

 Wednesday 31st of August

This school is called “Integrierte Gesamtschule met gymnasialer Oberstufe", that means that is a school for all types of students - from the ones wanting to learn a more practical profession to the ones wanting to go to university). 

That’s why depending on the level of the students in the different subjects they are suggested to take a higher or a lower level. A students can be for example very good in English and take an E level, but his/her level in another subject may be poor and, therefore, join a G level (Grundkurs).

The building and its surroundings are great. Everything is open, which makes me think that maybe our students feel themselves more in a prison than in a welcoming place. I took just some photos of the surroundings.

Afternoon: Künstlerdorf 

Trip to Worpswede

Worpswede is what is called a “Künstlerdorf”. It is an old village with very beautiful houses and farms where many artists have decided to live and set up their studios there. It is quite touristic and there are cafés to have coffee and a piece of cake.   

Job shadowing 

Bremen

Monday 29th

8:00 – 11:15 Visit to school IV

       The head of languages department, André Schlenker, has a pretty free subject similar to our old IP (Practical English) in which he has time to collaborate with our school in the different projects we could suggest. 

The help to foreign students with German is also great. They do not only help them at the beginning of their stay but also with higher levels of German as A2.

I attended one of this classes with an Albanian girls and a Syrian refugee and it was very interesting.

8.00 pm English Theater: The Shakespeare Company in Bremen

Job shadowing 

Bremen

5^th Day / Friday

8:00 – 11:15 Visit to school III

Classes have shelves for material and for the students to use. Corridors have lockers for the students to use. 

Students from grade 5th are already in the centre, so that they mix with students in grade 12th (Gymnasium). Classes have much room, so that students can sit in many different ways. In many classes students can sit in U form, with fosters oral communications. Students don’t copy long explanations from the blackboard, they just take note autonomously and refer in their notebook to the pages where grammar explanations or vocabulary are. 

12:00- 15:00 Cultural Activity organized by „Instituto Cervantes“ in Bremen

Since the “Instituto Cervantes” is closed in August, we attended to an activity where the “Instituto Cervantes” is collaborating. That, is a little cinema in the centre of Bremen which displays original version films from different language. That night, it was displaying “El Olivo”. The cinema has a bar where you can have a drink and before the film, the film content of the film is explained and also we were introduced to an ONG created to employ disabled or borderline people for taking care of olive trees. Many German cinemas are supporting the initiative and collecting money for these ONG. 

The film takes place in the north of Castellón, as many of you may have watched but also in Düsseldorf; so the cultural contrast between a rural Spain and a German city is clearly seen.  

Job shadowing 

Bremen

4^th Day / Thursday

8:00 – 15:00 Visit to „Deutsches Auswanderer Haus“ (German Emigration Center) in Bremerhaven

The German Emigrant’s Museum in Bremerhaven has received numerous awards, that is not ashtonishing. It is a very modern museum, it has an enormous didactic value for children and teenagers and its topic is without doubt up-to-date. 

The museum describe the journey a German had to endure to travel from Bremerhaven to America. From the departure and goodbye to the arrival. One can listen to the sounds, see the people and get into the real atmosphere at the time.

Once in the ship, the visitor sees the difference between 1., 2. and 3. class passengers.

The visitor can also answer to the question a doctor would ask the newcomers to New York. 

It is a very interesting museum that also finds a place for the immigrants now arriving to Germany and the causes the may motivate their journey.

(PS: Bremerhaven es una de las dos ciudades que forman el Estado de Bremen en Alemania y su nombre significa "puerto de Bremen".Esta ciudad al borde del río Weser es la más grande de Alemania sobre el mar del Norte y el puerto pesquero más importante de Europa, con astilleros dedicados a la construcción de barcos. El puerto de Bremerhaven es también  uno de los puertos de exportación de automóviles más importante de Europa.) 

Job shadowing  

Bremen

3rd Day / Wednesday

8.00  - 11.15 Visit to school II

The timetable is divided in blocks and each block is 90 minutes, that means that students can have 90 minutes of English class and a little pause in the middle. In these pause, students can eat and drink inside the class. It’s impressive how clean and tidy classes are. Also teacher’s rooms are very spacious and have all facilities oven, dishwasher sink and big lockers for every teacher. 

Although there is a head of department of languages, teachers have different rooms for sitting together with the other teachers of the same level, in this way there is a lot of communication with the teachers of the same level. 

Compulsory classes take part only in the morning, students can eat freely in the “mensa” or a packed-lunch they bring from home. 

In the afternoon, students can join in, if they want, in the so called “AG”, these activities are taught by volunteer teachers and last 2 hours. Teachers are paid one hour from these 2 hours.

12:00 – 15:00 Cultural visit in Bremen (center) (Pictures from “Der Schlachte”)

Near the river, German people go in the summer to eat and to drink beer. It is one of their favorite pastimes.

Job shadowing 

Bremen

 

2^nd Day / Tuesday

8:00 – 11:15 Visit to school I 

English teaching in Germany is very communicative. There’s no great focus in communication as there is in Spain. Students and teaching devote much of the time to speak and it is no so important if the student are making mistakes but if the message is getting across. The number of students in the class is about 20 and there is plenty of space in the class for students to move around. 

Students are not shy to participate orally, they speak loud enough and all of them take part in the discussion. 

In the German educative system, students don’t have homework. Students have some hours devoted to the so called “Wochenplan”. The students distribute themselves the semanal tasks.

11:30 – 12:55 Get together: Feedback and first impressions

Free time

We’ve been discussing about the different approaches when teaching foreign languages and about the the cost of academic books in Spain. German teaching think the policy regarding students’ book is more social in Germany because they have books where students do not have blanks to write or and so on. Moreover, blank filling is not popular in Germany. Books contain more open questions where students have to express themselves in the foreign language.

Job shadowing in Bremen

Job shadowing 

Bremen

1^st Day / Monday 22/09/2016

8:00 Veneu: IGS Osterholz-Scharmbeck 

Introduction to Programme

Visit to school

 

As at our high school, in some subjects students have different levels to join in. Teachers and students decide which level the student has to attend. 

For example, an “E Kurs” in English is for 4th ESO (10th class) higher level and a “D Kurs” (for the 10th class) is for a lower level. 

I visited an “E Kurs” with Celia for the 10th class and it was impressive the silence the students where keeping and that students always raised their hands before speaking.

12:00 Walk through Osterholz-Scharmbeck

Osterholz-Scharmbeck is a very rural area and it doesn’t belong to Bremen, because Bremen is one of the few free cities in Germany and it’s an autonomous region (Land), this is due to his past as one of the cities in the Hanseatic League. 

Job shadowing in Bremen

Job shadowing in Bremen

                                       By Laura Pérez Rondán

Trabajo de difusión

Secondary schools in Germany

A brief informal introduction about the system

Germany: a true federal country own its own right

German schools as most of the countries in the north of Europe start their classes in August. They usually have only a month for summer vacations but as other countries like France, they have longer holidays during the academic year. That’s why, the 22. of August was the 1st possible day for me to start, just after they had their first arrangements and real classes start.

The German educational system is very different to the Spanish one. The 1st thing that strikes us is that they don’t learn to read, write or count till 1st year in primary school. That has two reasons, the first one based on studies that argue that many children at not still ready before in life for establishing a good basis and the profound belief that at early stages in life children need to play and not sit in chairs but sing, touch, taste and smell: use their senses for them to learn. Abstract learning will come later in life. And secondly because many parents choose to stay with their children at home and not to bring them to school till they are 6. That is compulsory education. They first day of primary school: Grundschule is a great party and celebration for families, something equivalent to the 1st communions we have here in Spain, being the most iconic item the Schultüte, some of them shown here.