Schule (School)

On Friday, I visited Freie Schule Anne-Sophie Berlin. The school has a very different philosophy than those at public-school-America. There is a heavy importance on self-motivation, self-focus, and self-control. I'll run through a day and see if you can pick any of that up.

Jess and I took the S Bahn into Zehlendorf and walked a couple blocks to get to school. From Wedding (pronounced with a "V") to Zehlendorf, it's about 45 minutes if you don't stop at any bakeries! The school, or should I say my school, is located on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floor of a beautiful building. Before going on the location is amazing, too. An extremely safe part of Berlin with many shops and cafes. Now I don't know about you but when I think of school, I think the whole building is the school. Not here - the first floor there is a gym (this may be good for me) and on the second floor is a doctor's office (even better). 

After walking -yes walking- to the fifth floor, I was directed to hang up my belongings and put on house shoes if I had them. I was prepared for this; however, I don't own cute house shoes so I decided to keep my black heels on. (I regretted this later on.) For those of you who don't know, house shoes are shoes they wear in the school. Some are more slipper-like, others are Crocs - it depends on what is comfortable. Each child, teacher, staff has a pair of house shoes they keep there. I need to find a cute pair, of course!

Then as we bumped into people, Jess introduced me to some of the high school teachers and then took me to the 4th floor - primary school. The teacher I had been emailing with, Meta, was out ill. I did meet Andre, one of the teachers I interviewed with and Verna, the teacher I will be replacing. 

By this time students were coming into the open classroom (more soon). As they came in, each knew what they needed to do. They wrote their assignments down, completed work and spoke quietly to friends. It was a very different atmosphere than an American school. There was no notes handed in, no lunch count to take, not even attendance it seemed; when the music started to play each student found a seat at their meeting place. This meeting place is created from large square wooden boxes that forms a big square. It is a circle idea but shaped in a square. 

Quick Fact: These boxes are their desks so to speak. Each box is for a student, their picture is on it, and the top opens up. Inside there is room for hanging folders and other things. Some keep a sweatshirt in there, just in case. 

They sat boy-girl-boy-girl during this time and each student wore a shirt that was embroidered with "Freie Schule Anne-Sophie." Verna led them in "I like the flower. I like the daffodils. I like the mountains..." song. Then they broke into two rounds! I was very surprised. It was pretty cool because each child was in control of their voice. No one was shouting. Not one was doing anything other than singing this song at the right tempo, right pitch. For teachers, you know the difficulty of getting your group to do anything all at once. 

The song ended and they took attendance by having each student count off in English. If the number was lower than 34, they knew they were missing students. That is 34 students from 1st to 3rd grade, so what 12 students per grade... can you imagine? Oh classroom teachers would be beside themselves with this number of students- imagine your focus on each child! Next teachers asked who was missing. I'm not sure if it mattered because it didn't seem to be noted anywhere. They did introduce me and had a student translate what I was saying. Afterwards, Andre and Verna talked about their expectations for the day and a little run down of what to do. Then they were off. That was it!

The next part is hard to explain. Each student has a schedule they follow. So after circle, some students met with Andre, while others worked on a group project, and others decided to use their time differently by reading in one of the nooks. 

I guess the easiest way to describe it is like a college schedule except they are in this big room and they don't go home in between. Students have a "class" or some form of lesson and then use the other time to do what they see fit. See why I said "self-motivated"? I use the word class lightly because the teacher is not all knowing in this school. The teacher guides, sets the learning goals and the students are to achieve them in any way possible. 

I think other than learning German, this will be the hardest part of my job. I love to teach. I love our American classroom where the teacher guides and helps students with the process but I believe this could be good too. I believe this allows children to use their mind and create solutions for themselves, instead of telling them a+b always equals c. Also, there really isn't any disciplinary plan and for most of the day, there doesn't need to be. 

Throughout the day, it seems students rarely talk. Well, of course, they talk but they are very quiet. The room is set up for this. Let me explain. When you enter into the room, (the table closest in the picture) is a group table. Students can sit here and work on a project together or the same task. They may not work at these tables for individual projects and to socialize. 

The next table, in which has no chairs, is used for mini-lessons. The teacher will gather students and use this space to get an idea across. Also, students use this table to write down assignments because they are posted on one wall or the other. 

The last set- by the windows. These are desks used to be individual work space. There is no talking here. Students are to work silently on individual work assignments.

For the teachers desk, there are four in the classroom. Two on the side closest to the group side and two closest to the windows. It is a table, I don't believe there are any drawers and parallel, behind it is two book shelves to keep books, tools, and lessons. So that's that. 

Now like I was saying students are quiet during the day. So when we lined up for breakfast at 10:05, I wasn't surprised that they were loudly talking and laughing. What I was surprised by was that the teachers waited. They waited until they were silent. May I add, we were not able to talk. This is just frustrating to me but I will wait until I can see if anyone will be into, "Here ye, Here ye - All Eyes on the Queen!" attention grabbers. Oh and as soon as they stepped foot into the hall -it was chaotic and so loud. It's like they have to get quiet for a minute before leaving the room. If it was my class, we would be turning around and trying again.

Yes at 10:10, we have a breakfast break. You should see these breakfasts -fruit, vegetables, and a bake good. So much food! Afterwards, they have a recess time and then back to their schedule. At 12:40, they have lunch and the teachers sit with their learning group. This is a set of students the teacher is in charge of. About lunch, there is two options regular or vegetarian. Other than on Thursdays and it's only vegetarian. This is why there is no lunch count.

After lunch, there are usually clubs of some sort. On Friday, we took a long walk to a playground. Remember how I kept my heels on... all day! Well, my feet ached like no other! Ugh -so painful. The last time my feet hurt so bad, I bought slippers. As we walked across busy streets and open parks, I kept thinking "No way! This would never be allowed in the States!" It was a huge lawsuit waiting to happen.

My schedule seems to look like this: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 8-5 and on Wednesday, Friday 8-3. I can already tell it will be exhausting, even if I do more supervision than teaching. I almost fell asleep on the train home. 

There are four students that I have met that speak English. They have already become my best friends and I'm very thankful! (more later) Well, this blog is long enough. I will later write about how I'm adjusting and any plans over Easter. Also, Saturday was a fun day that included an aquarium,  burgers, and a movie. I'm going to church tomorrow. Please pray that I may find a church I can connect with quickly.

(All pictures were taken from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Freie-Schule-Anne-Sophie-Berlin/152653048175997)