First day in the School

Heute I went to school for my first day in that weird role as a foreign language assistant. The school is definitely auf dem Land (in the countryside) so I was grateful the teacher I'm staying with could drive me the first day.  Orscholz is lush though, its situated right on the bend of the Saar (called the Saarschleife) which is a bit of a tourist spot, see below:

The school is a Gesamtschule, which is a little different to most German schools, as all abilities between the ages of 10 and 16 are mixed together. At 16 some go off to do the Abitur (like A levels) and some to a work training.

Anyway, I was introduced to my mentor, who is an english and german teach only a bit older than I and is lovely. She took me to meet some other teachers, then took me to her class, which was the youngest age, just 10 years old! They are very sweet and keen but I will have to adapt myself to how slowly they learn. I managed to earn my stripes a bit though by suggesting that the students write a small dialog with me as their homework when the teacher got a bit stuck as to what to set them.

General impressions of the school were good. The students are in general very polite (a few jokers, obviously) and my mentor incredibly helpful. I'm a little doubtful that they know how to "use" me so to speak (the teachers that is ) but I can bear a few weeks observing, if after a few weeks all I've done is sit and watch still I'll pipe up. I get to teach the 10 year olds on my own next Wednesday when my mentor is on a trip anyway, that'll be fun!

I managed to find a lift from the train station to the school on Tuesday morning, which was a relief, and am now complete with a set of keys to the classrooms and a reasonably well filled timetable (missing two hours but the school suggested I teach basic French, which I can quite keen about doing actually!). I get Monday and Thursday off which is nice :)

After school I collapsed into sleep until the teacher woke me for a meal, then her and her husband took me to see some of the sights which was nice of them. Anyway, now it is time for another meal and then I move to a flat tommorow, auf wiedersehn!