My students here in Germany have repeatedly impressed me with their willingness to learn, their enthusiasm, their intelligence, and their ability to quickly absorb and remember English. I am so proud of the progress they are making. Working with them makes me incredibly happy and I’m extremely thankful that I get to teach them every day. Here are some of the highlights so far:
I’ve discovered that most of my students, especially the younger ones, LOVE artistic activities. By integrating creative activities into my English classes, I can vary the structure of each lesson, intermixing content-heavy lecture periods with a simple song they can sing and dance along to, a couple games that will get them up and moving, or a relaxing coloring activity to calm down. With art, I’ve also found the students don’t become bored, they stay engaged with the topic until the very end of the hour, and they continue to engage with each other and me in English, like proudly presenting their art and declaring, “I’m finished!” Of course, the art they create is always directly related to the topic of our lesson. The monster pictures, for example, helped the students learn English numbers because the students were given a specific number of eyes, arms, legs, horns, and teeth they had to include in their drawings. For the travel brochures, the vast majority of the work was the writing, but the drawing portions helped disguise it and kept them much more energized than if they simply had to write a paragraph about their given destination.
This week, some of my students participated in their first Spelling Bee! None of the teachers or students I talked to had heard of a Spelling Bee before I presented the idea to them. Even with the pronunciation differences between German letters and English letters–which are particularly tricky for vowels–they persevered through tougher and tougher words and thoroughly impressed both me and themselves.
For my elementary students, I often include at least one simple English song per class to get them moving and engaged, such as “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. In the days leading up to Halloween, I used the song “The Skeleton Dance” to help teach the students about parts of the body (“The foot bone’s connected to the leg bone”). After introducing them to the English words for parts of the body, we listened to the song once to identify the vocab, then we all danced along to connect the movements to the lyrics. They LOVED IT. Each class that danced along pleaded, “Nochmal!” (Again!). From the way everyone participated, I could tell it was one of their favorite lessons.
I love any gifts the students give me, especially drawings. The final lesson before Christmas break, one student even gave me a small box of chocolates!
At least once per lesson, I give the students a chance to answer questions and discuss the topic with a partner or a small group. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for me to hear from every single student in the span of one hour, so these discussions ensure everyone in the room speaks English at least once per lesson. For those who are quiet or insecure about their English, I’ve discovered they are more open to speaking English with a peer than when the whole class is listening, which I completely understand.
My oldest students have repeatedly impressed me with their thoughtfulness, their knowledge of US affairs (I’d estimate much better than the average American high schooler’s knowledge of German affairs), and so much more. They’ve asked me how specific American policies have affected me personally, they’ve told me about their own ambitions of going to the States or attending Harvard Law, and they’ve even taught me new information about Germany. Frankly, many of my oldest students are more skilled with English than I am with German. With them, I try to allot at least one-third of class to student talking time. The answers one student provides often provokes another to respond with an opposing perspective, and the question I posed quickly becomes an organic class-wide controlled discussion, which I’ve found can be more beneficial than just listening to me present the information.
In my position, I’m lucky to have the time and freedom to create unique, engaging, fun lessons that get the students excited to learn English. Their energy and intelligence brings me so much joy each time I’m in the classroom. Their desire to learn is so infectious that it strengthens my desire to teach tenfold. They inspire me to be a better teacher and to continue improving my German.
