Monday, October 1, 2007

Surprises...

Surprise #1: After our first Thursday of just speaking German (15 minutes in 2 and 45 minutes in 3), I have had many students asking for and looking forward to that Thursday. On top of that, Annaliese asked me to ensure that Thursday we were going to go on a walk again with the German. Apparently the "real-life" application of seeing things and being able to talk about the things around us every day has been meaningful and other students asked for that as well. When I feared that we wouldn't be able to go for the walk (due to time) I asked if they wanted to just do the German in the classroom. It was unanimous that we should go for the walk. This time we stayed in the building. It was nice. I often get a couple stragglers, and the students look forward to the stamps if they just spoke German during that time (I tell them it is their own integrity and ethics on the line if they lie). The kids are reacting positively to this at this point. I'm glad I'm doing it.

Surprise #2: Last Wednesday was the talent show and one of my students wrote and sang her own song. It was AMAZING. I've been pestering her ever since about it... and she's doing some recording this week! I hope I can get her music.

Surprise #3: Friday after the carnival, each of the returning speech coaches found an envelope with a 10-page letter along with a personal letter full of gripes, complaints, venting and castigation. It was hurtful and did not make for the start of a good weekend.

Surprise #4: We returned a letter... and received a surprisingly positive e-mail in return. Alles wird besser... aber nichts wird gut. (Aber besser ist auch jetzt gut.)

So that's it for these parts! More about an idea in a moment.

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