Three days in the classrooms of a German school
It's Dance Project Week!
One of the activities I was most looking forward to during my time in Bonn was the chance to work with teachers and students in one of the surrounding gymnasiums. It may at first sound like a place to go work out, but German gymnasiums are actually part of their divided higher-level public schooling, usually encompassing grades 5-13.
Our team of five TGC fellows (Jean Marie, Joe, Kyle, and Laura) joined Hardtberg-Gymnasium just in time for their final week of school before summer holidays. We were excited to learn the entire school would be working a large-scale tanzen (dance) project to wrap up the school year.
Prior to jumping into the dance classes, we were pleased to meet our cooperating teachers for the week:
Our host teachers were all English teachers at various stages of their careers. It was wonderful to talk with each of them and their unique perspectives on their training, their classes, and educational interests. Mika is just finishing the required internship and will be a full time teacher next year, Anna just completed her first year of teaching at HBG, and Karina is a veteran teacher back in the field after being a punk-rock journalist. While all three are English teachers, all German teachers have to study two subjects each, unlike our single discipline focus. For example, Karina’s subjects are English and Philosophy.
Mika provided a wonderful explanation of the German education system both for students, and for teacher trainees. Then it was time to jump into the dance projects.
Read all about the dance projects here
Check out an overview of the German education system in this post.
Or general observations of German schools here!
"Über den Tellerrand hinausschauen"
"Beyond the Plate" Anna and I spoke for a while in the teacher's garden and she brought up this quote. It refers to looking beyond your 5 feet of space, looking beyond what is right in front of you or affects you directly. We talk about 20 square feet in Hilliard, so it was great to see this same idea being shared in another district across the world.
Our Hardtberg Educators
Our time with the HBG teachers extended beyond classroom and school hours. Each day we had some excursion with them. Our first night we shared dinner at an Irish pub in Bonn where we chatted about school, our lives, and what lead us each into education.The best part was completely nerding out over fantasy and classic literature, pop culture and music. I really feel like our two groups of teachers, German and American, mashed supremely well.
After our second day of school Karina, Mika, Kyle and I went to the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Museum of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany) It’s collection focuses on Bonn and North Rhine Westfalia, especially in regards to its role after WWII and as the capitol of West Germany. There were many fascinating exhibits that shed new light on aspects of topics I never really considered before. Like the missing persons or what happened in Germany after WWII. The experience was enlightening, even more so by the fact that I was walking through the museum with two Bonn locals. They were able to give insights into what they, or their families, had experienced during some of these situations. We talked about politics, the housing situation, and everything else under the sun as we walked through the museum. it was like getting insider information, and really helped since I couldn’t read all of the museum signage. Side note, museums are a great place to practice reading in a different language. I was very pleased when I could get the gist of a placard on my own.
Our last day at HBG was a little different. Students came to school in the morning for final practice sessions. I spent most of the morning with the higher grade art teacher, Betina Dosch. Link to Kunst page. Then there was to be a four hour break before everyone reconvened for the dance performances. Karina kindly invited our group of 8 to visit her village, Alfter, about 10 minutes away from the school. Again I was touched by the hospitality of our new friends as we hared lunch and conversation in the village center. After lunch we took a walk around the village with Karina as our guide pointing out historically and socially significant places. Schloss Alfter, the large yellow castle on the hillside of Alfter is currently housing refugee women and children. We saw the oldest house in town, with its delightful details like the shutter stays and leaning walls, and walked to the blissfully cool creek that wides through the middle of town. It was lovely to spend an afternoon in a smaller village and to hear some of its stories.
Over the course of three days I feel connected to these teachers in a way I do with colleagues I have worked with for years. It was a delight to talk school, policy, students and other things you run across in an educational setting. Despite it being a pretty non-traditional school week I thought our time at HBG was one of the best experiences of our time in Germany. 1000% of this is due to the relationships we made with Karina, Mika and Anna.
For a more detailed conversation with an art teacher at Hardtberg-Gymnasium, check this out!
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