Teaching, Teaching

This weekend I spent hanging out with Emily. On Friday, she moved into an apartment in Darmstadt. Her mentor owns the apartment, and no one is using it, so they are letting Emily stay there for the year. The apartment is right near the center of town and is super nice! Friday was also Emily's Birthday, so it was nice for her to finally get settled on her birthday.

Friday night we went out for dinner. We found a cheap, good Asian restaurant in Darmstadt, so we are pretty excited about that. After dinner we just went back, hung out, and went to bed early. We are both getting used to our schedules during the week...we went to bed around 11 and got up before 8am! Saturday we ran errands around town to help Emily get settled. Although her apartment is fully furnished she needed somethings like laundry detergent, trash cans, and groceries.

Saturday evening we took the bus back to Gross Bieberau. Again Saturday night we just hung out, watched a movie, and went to bed early. Sunday morning we went to mass here in Gross Bieberau. This weekend was a Family Mass (every other week was a family mass), which was nice. The whole mass was geared toward children, and although the message was simple, it still s important for everyone. I really like the church here and am hoping to get to know some people there. I'm hoping that as people start to notice I'm there, and as I get more comfortable, I will start talking to people.

Emily took the bus back to Darmstadt around 11:30, because she needed to get back and work on her apartment. In addition, I needed to get to work on my lesson plans for today. Today I taught a lesson on the "Roaring 20s" to the 10th grade bilingual history class. I think it went relatively well. We talked about various political happenings, inventions, fashion, and other important events. They seemed to respond pretty well. I really like the 10th grade history class. There are only 17 students, and they all seem very nice and are hard-workers. I think the plan is that I will teach them on my own every Monday.

This afternoon, I taught a double period to the 12th graders. I taught about the US Constitution, includng the branches of government and checks and balances, the electoral college, and the upcoming midterm election. It was a lot of information, but they seemed to get it. There are two students in the class who did an exchange year in the United States, so it's a lot of review for them. It's nice to have them in the class though, because they are less afraid to participate and are more comfortable speaking English.

Monika told me that both the lessons went well, so I'm happy about that. It's really hard to tell what the students think, but hopefully they learned something!