Volunteer's Story: Timo, Germany  

Teaching German!

I got the Chance to teach German for one week, because of another volunteer who has hurt herself so much, that she had to cancel her stay. So I went to her school and took her place in her German classes, as their new 1-week-teacher! And, I can tell you, that it was totally fun!! First, we introduced ourselves to each other – first me, then the students. Afterwards, I decided to repeat their Vocabulary with them. I decided not to teach something new, because of my really short stay and another reason was that they had already taken their semester-test in German.

So that means, I would make an effort to help them get their knowledge to a secure point in their mind. We did this by playing Galgenmännchen (German for "Hangman") and by using "ABC-Rally" - that means to bring the German alphabet to the Blackboard by repeating it together with the children and afterwards, letting them point out single letters and build a word with these letters. It was really fun!!

In the second lesson, I told them something about German Christmas, about the differences between Germany and Britain and stuff like that. That also created a very good mood, for the pupils as well as for me!! They had a big laugh about the German word Baum. They find the sound quite funny - so I began to realize that, as a native speaker, I needed to make it possible for these these little kids to hear it. After we learned some new Christmas vocabulary, I gave them some "presents" - that meantI drew some presents on the blackboard with mixed words in them and the pupils had to put them in the right order. Afterwards, we made sentences with these words and so they learned something about the structure of German sentences just on their way!!

After spending this week, I can say that it was really a great experience for all, the students, the teachers and the whole school staff were really, really frindly to me!! The students were absoloutly motivated and worked a lot!!

So if you get the chance to teach German - whether you come here to do that or get a chance to stand in for someone like I did, have a good time. Enjoy it, it is worth it!