Where Germany, the United States, & school intersect #globalteachers

Before I even get started in what we did today, I have to say how ingenious the Germans can be sometimes.  Since taking care of the environment is such a huge part of their culture, it only makes sense that they have edible jam cups at breakfast in the hotels!!

Ok, on to our day!

Today was the first day we were able to visit a German school!  We started our morning by visiting the JFK School.  This is a German-American bilingual school that accepts both German students but mainly serves American students whose parents are in the military, work for the embassy, are living in Germany, etc.  It is a K-12 school and was really, really fascinating to visit.

However, that being said.  I am going to preface this description by stating right out, the JFK School is basically a charter school.  It is application based, has highly motivated and involved parents, few resources for students with disabilities, and less than 20% of the students are low income or struggle academically.

I believe that in the current US system, and NC in particular, most charter schools are exclusionary and a form of modern day segregation.  When you do not provide transportation, free and reduced lunch opportunities, or classes/resources for students with disabilities, you are automatically setting up a system that is inaccessible to low income (and often minority) students.  Even when these resources are provided, low income families do not often have the time, knowledge, or experience to seek out these opportunities or navigate the school of choice world.  Add in to that charter schools that are run by for profit companies or ineffective boards and you have these schools getting public funds not being held accountable to the same standards as public schools.

I say all of this to help people take the information about the JFK School with a grain of salt.  Yes, their school is amazing.  There are things we can learn from them and maybe even take back to the states, but it is not a representation of an average German school.

Disclaimer over!

So we started our day at the JFK School speaking with the managing director (he is one of 4 principals elected by the group to be the managing director).  Fun fact: all of the principals still have to teach at least 6 hours/week!!  The school is completely bilingual and we definitely witnessed this!  The kids start at the school in the Entrance Class.  This class is a mix of both German and American children.  Everything is said in both German and English (this continues for two more years).  Once they hit 3^rd grade reading/writing classes are conducted in their Mother Tongue and they also get language class in, what they call, their Partner Tongue.  Science, Social Studies, Math, and Music are all mixed language.  We observed a discussion in a 4^th grade Social Studies classroom that started in German and midway switched over to English.  Both the kids and teacher switched effortlessly between languages!

The number one thing I noticed at that school is how normal everything was.  It could have been any school in the US.

We kept saying, “kids are kids are kids”.  Many of the school projects hanging on the wall were things that would fit right in back home (some I’m even going to share with my teachers for ideas!).

The other thing I noticed was how little technology there was.  Each classroom had a projector and a Smartboard but very few classrooms had computers and those that did only had two or three.  The principal stated that that is not a huge priority for them right now because they don’t believe that technology should replace the teacher and technology won’t just be an easy fix.  While I agree with those statements, it definitely sounds like they have not embraced many of the ideas around digital learning.

We ended our visit at the school by eating lunch in the cafeteria with the kids (we were there while 4^th -6^th ate).  Lunch was freshly cooked, though many students chose to grab a sandwich or wrap from the little snack counter.  Everyone used real plates, glasses, and silverware!  Students came into the cafeteria, ate lunch, and then went outside to play.  ALL ON THEIR OWN.  Let me emphasize that.  There was one adult floating around the cafeteria, but the kids all came in and sat wherever they wanted, bussed their own trays, and went outside with no direction!  I wish we had been able to stay long enough to see the primary grades eat.  They were putting out all of the plates and silverware on the tables for them when we left.

During the afternoon we visited Humboldt University to talk with some of their staff about the initiatives they’ve implemented to provide university studies to immigrants and refugees.  It’s really disgusting we don’t have the same mentality about trying to welcome and integrate those coming to the US.  We also were presented information about multilingual education in Germany.

The evening was spent walking around Berlin, visiting a German bakery and doing a little souvenir shopping.  Afterwards I got to do a Google Hangout with a 4^th grade class and had so much fun with them!  They asked a TON of really, really good questions and I was so excited to share this trip with them.  It went so well, we’re going to try for one more time before I go home!

Tomorrow is an early day. 5 am departure for the airport to fly to Stuttgart.  It will be interesting to fly to a different region and see how it differs from Berlin (Brandenburg), Germany.

Getting lost has never been so fun! #globalteachers

What an adventure today!  Sometimes the best laid plans don't work out.  And sometimes those mistakes can lead to great experiences.  Today a large group of us were going to start the morning with a boat tour down the Spree River and then visit a museum.  Well, two other teachers and myself got held up and separated from the group.  We worked on catching up, but unbeknownst to us, we were going in the completely wrong direction.  However, we got to see a lot of the city (not to mention get A TON of steps in) and ended up going straight to Museuminsel (Museum Island).  Getting to Museuminsel so quickly allowed us to see both the Altes Museum (ancient Roman & Greek work) and the Neues Museum (ancient Egyptian works).  My favorite room of both was, by far, the Rotunda in the Altes Museum (which was built in the 1820s!!!).  Along the wall are lifesize statues of Greek gods and on the dome ceiling are images of winged figures and zodiac symbols.

Along the same plaza as the Altes Museum was the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral).

The first half of the afternoon included a short bus tour on our way to the Reichstag (German Parliament building).  We saw the Konzerthaus Berlin (I bet you can figure out what that is), the French Church (built in the early 1700s because the French wanted to go to a church that spoke French), and the German Church (built for the same denomination as the French church but with services in German), Checkpoint Charlie (the third, and most famous, Allied checkpoint between East & West Berlin), Trabi World (Trabant are a car unique to East Germany).

I've always considered myself fairly knowledgeable about history, but I'm realizing there is SO much I don't know about the second half of the 20th century, especially concerning world affairs.  I'm starting to see just how superficial my knowledge is when it comes to the years between World War II and the new millennium.  And what little knowledge I do have is very US-centric.  I definitely need to go back and learn more of the history of this era.

We also got to stop at a well known chocolate shop.  They had these AMAZING chocolate sculptures.

Gotta love German humour...

After this tour we traveled to see the Brandenburg gate.  Just a few blocks away was where the Berlin wall passed and also nearby is the Reichstag.

The Reichstag has a very long and, in parts, terrible history.  Home to the German government, it was set on fire in the early 1930s with the rise of the Nazis.  Severely destroyed, it fell into disuse until the 1960s when it was rebuilt, but did not become the seat of the German government again until after German reunification.

My favorite part about the building is that due to the nature of German elections, the number of people elected from each party can change.  So seats must be rearranged to accommodate the correct number of people in each of the party groups.  So flexible seating has even made its way to the German government! :)

 

That night I got my first experience riding the German Ubahn (underground train).  We traveled to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and then found a DELICIOUS German restaurant for dinner (I had the Wiener Schnitzel).

All in all, a very long, but exciting day with tons of new learning and appreciation for the city of Berlin and its history!