My First Weeks at GERMAN SCHOOL campus

Monday, my internship started at the Newport Beach campus. Right from the start, I noticed that the German School campus places a lot of emphasis on cooperative learning. This is particularly evident in classroom management. For example, the students sat down in a circle of chairs and introduced themselves in turn. I also introduced myself, and the students were able to ask me questions. It is remarkable to observe how much German the students already understand and speak, even though they have not been learning German for a very long time. A central focus is placed primarily on vocabulary acquisition. Students are given a lot of information that helps them quickly and fully express themselves. Also, there aren’t too many students in each learning group, so teachers can meet the needs of each student. On Tuesday, January 25, the AATG exams were written in levels 2 and 4. The exam consisted of a reading and a listening comprehension section.

On Wednesday, I helped with the cooking classes at the San Clemente campus. The German School campus offers several cooking classes: European, German, and Austrian, world recipes, and baking and cooking in general. It is Mrs. Schoeneich’s goal to teach the children basic things in the kitchen. This includes first washing their hands, tying their hair, putting on an apron, and preparing their cooking materials. That day, crepes with strawberries, bananas, and chocolate cream were baked. As always, nothing was left over. So, it tasted good! The children also liked the “Berliner” (German jelly doughnuts) and the French vegetable waffles that were made the following week so much that they took them home in small tins for their families.

I also participated in the German and Spanish classes of Ms. Schmelzle. Ms. Schmelzle manages to inspire the children for a foreign language and to take away their shyness in speaking. Here, too, it becomes clear that the most important thing is to speak a foreign language. During the second week of the internship, I also gave a PowerPoint presentation about North Rhine-Westphalia, the state where I grew up. This provides the students with new information about a region of Germany. The students listened with interest, as they had not yet heard much about the coal industry in the Ruhr region.

I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks and what they have in store for me.