Starting Off

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah. I am a French Teaching and German Studies double major at ***** in *******. I am currently on my way to becoming a French and German teacher at the secondary education level (meaning Middle and High School).

Right now, I'm just starting on the education track in my studies. I already love it, and it's given me a lot to think about. I wanted to start this blog to keep track of all the thoughts I have about what kind of teacher I want to become. I won't graduate for another 3 years (making me a "super senior" because of my two majors) and I'm afraid that, by the time I actually am certified to teach, that I'll have forgotten the important things I learn along the way.

My favorite class this semester is called "FLANG." It simply stands for "foreign language," but it's really the introductory course in to the secondary education program. It's purpose is to explore different teaching methods and things of that nature. It will only last for the first block and I've completed 2 out of the 8 weeks total so far.

This past week, we had the opportunity to observe a German class at a middle school in ****. (Just so you know, we break up into groups according to language. I'm with the German students right now since there are only 3 of us, but I'm going to beg and plead and cry to get to visit French classes too haha.)

This teacher - the first and only one I've observed so far - taught me a lot without even meaning to.

My first impression of him was not a very good one. He didn't seem to be teaching his students much of anything at all. In fact, I was horrified by the fact that, by the third week of school, his 1st year students had yet to learn the German alphabet. He told stories, many of which lasted more than 15 minutes and had little to no purpose at all, and joked and didn't do much in the way of teaching.

But the students respected him. All of them. He didn't have ANY discipline issues while we were there. And in middle school? That's impressive.

That caught my attention - as did his frequent grammar mistakes that even I caught (I only started taking German in January, so I figured his German should be far better than mine since he's been teaching for 10 years). But that's beside the point.

He taught me the importance of continued study and of revisiting the countries where your language is spoken (he hasn't been back to Deutschland since 1993). But he taught me something even more important.

He built his program up from nothing. He had 2 classes at the beginning. Now he has 1 less than the SPANISH department and he is the only German teacher in the school. The kids obviously love him and enjoy his class. He fights for the program, which I know is a difficult thing to do.

He incorporated fun in to his lessons. He's friendly and open with his students. They probably think of him more as a friend than anything. He relates to them and knows the "slang" and all the jokes they know. He makes a big effort to be on the same level they're on. He plays German music and films and has books available to anyone who wishes to read them. He offered anything he has to us (myself and the other 2 German students). He told us about conferences and forums and made a great deal of helpful information available to us. He gave us his email address and told us to come back if ever we wanted to whether we told him before-hand or just showed up. He talked about a blog he keeps for his students and their parents to see and use, especially for the times when students are absent from class. He gives them projects they'll enjoy and does everything he can to make them interested in the German language.

But at the same time, he told us there is currently no German program at the high school in that school district. He will teach those kids all the German they will probably ever learn, and he's wasting time trying to keep them entertained. Not that that's always a bad thing - you can't be strict all the time - but having a lesson that's more than 10 minutes long out of an 80 minute class isn't an unreasonable thing to expect. Even if half the class were lesson and half fun and games, I still think it would be better than it is now.

So, while I have to admit I still question some of his methods, I respect him. And he's taught me that earning your students' friendship and respect is an extremely important aspect of teaching.

I don't want to be like him, exactly, but I can learn a lot from his open and laid-back attitude.

I want to find a balance between the way he teaches and the way my own German teacher is going on with us. One is too lax, the other slightly too intense.

It's only the third week of school (or nearly I suppose, since it's Saturday) and I already have learned so much.

I also know that he enjoys teaching them and he really cares about and loves them. That's an extremely admirable and rare quality in teachers these days and I want to be like that. It's hard, trying to find ways to make it work when you have nothing else to go on but your gut instinct and when you haven't spoken German to anyone but your beginning students in years. It's got to be discouraging at times, but if he thinks so I couldn't even tell.

Thanks Mr. Sigafus. You taught me a lot.

And I still have a long way to go.