Teaching über Deutschland

On Thursday and Friday afternoons I have the privilege of teaching the first graders Social Studies!

Ok, I'm going to be honest, this does not always feel like a privilege. In fact, if I'm completely honest, sometimes I dread Thursday and Friday at the end of the day.

Here are some of the reasons why:

• The first grade class has 16 German students who only understand a little English (however, they are getting much better at this point in the year!) and there are 4 English speaking students. Needless to say, discipline and communication are rough.
• I teach them the LAST 1/2 hour or hour of the day at the END of the week.
• I'm exhausted. They're exhausting/exhausted.

We started the year doing an "All About Me" unit and book. Then we moved to "Our Families" followed by "Our Community". And now we are on "Our Country". This means I'm teaching about Germany!

When I first realized this I thought, "Me?! Teach Germany? I've only lived here 6 months. I don't know that much about Germany! There are 4 or 5 other German teachers at our school who are way more qualified and would do a MUCH better job teaching the students about Germany then me. I'm not even German!"

However, the Germany unit started last week and I was running the show. I began to learn more of the important details about Germany and I was determined to help the students celebrate their own country. We made German flags and memorized the order of the colors. We traced a map of Germany and found where we lived. We learned the number of German states, the capital, the three major rivers, and the name of the big forest in southern Germany (The Black Forest!).

Here's a picture of them with their cute German flags!

The students will often correct my pronunciation as I try translate words from English to German for them or say the name of the rivers or our state in German. It is a stretching, but good experience for all of us. =)

While I don't always feel up to the challenge of teaching these students, The Lord strengthens me every time. I know I am building relationships with these students that will give us a head start when they are in second grade next year. And I'm excited to help them learn more about their world! I'm grateful for the patience and energy Jesus gives me each week Thursday and Friday rolls around.