YouTube is great!

I don't have a working TV at the moment because I was not home when the TV company showed up to make me pay a bunch of money for it.
That's why I sometimes just stay online a little longer and instead of watching stupid TV shows I watch stupid YouTube videos.
I found this really old one which was on TV Total a few years ago. It is about the garbage collecting teams and their job. It was taped 1976 for a show for kids (Sendung mit der Maus) ...

It made me laugh... :-)

I especially like the last two men who really seem to have missed out on a great musical career when they decided to work for a "clean Germany" and become "Müllabfuhr-Männer" :-)
I also think it is funny if you do not get the words.... But whoever knows German: Kölsch!!! :)

Here it is!

.... I have just noticed that there are some for the fire department and others... That's wonderful! :)

Being taught in a Second Language

As some of you know, I had a wonderful time at my practicum at the International School in Dresden. I loved going there and learning about being a teacher.
I chose this school because of its special programme and the unique way of bringing up the children. I did not know all about their programme and I still don't, but I got to know that there are maaaany positive but also some critical ways of looking at the school's system.
I will probably come back to a more specific blogging about the practicum.

For now I have some question for those of you who have been taught in a second language:

• How did the teachers explain the language... to you and how do you think this effected your learning of the language?
• Did you ever take a class in another language than your 1st language (like an American taking math in German or a German being taught history in French...) ? If so, did you notice anything difference from being taught in your first language? Like: Did your teacher translate words you didn't know? Did (s)he explain things differently? Did (s)he use more pictures, different books or anything elso you have noticed?
  

I ask this because I have to write a research paper about my practicum and my theme is: How does it influence the lessons when you teach in a different language than the kids' first language?

It would be pretty helpful if I would get some comments on this... You can also email it to me - peanutbutter_is_better_butter@hotmail.com

THANKS!!!

Post in wrong place ...

There is a new post underneath the old post... ;-)
The *10 things that made me smile lately* were posted just a minute ago :-)

Cannot help it... Or can I???

It took me half an hour to get into my account because I have too many different account, different passwords, ....

So instead of what I was going to post I will now re-think my signing up to everything and letting the internet steal my time...

I am a more or less active member of:

• studiVZ
• facebook
• myspace
• msn messenger
• icq
• skype
• ...

I probably even missed something...
Sooo... my daily routine of checking mail is the following:

1. opening firefox
2. going to web.de to check mail
3. *open another tab*
4. going to hotmail.com to check personal account
5. switching users there to check work account
6. switching over to me 3rd account just in case....
7. *open another tab*
8. going to work homepage to check for news
9. *open another tab*
10. go to university's (?) homepage to check for exam results
11. next to this opening msn, icq and skye at the same time (if I have half an hour to stay on this is...)
    
12. if there was any mail telling me I got new posts on facebook or studiVZ -> open those
    

This turned into a weird but automatical routine which I would prefer not to go through so much because it is driving me CRAZY but I am, I must admit, addicted to this stupid computer and to all this *wonderful* stuff...

It's just taking soooo much time... time I could use to read, to have actual one to one conversations and to think about real life ;-) But I guess it's good to take a few minutes off every ones in a while ... I just need to re-think what *every ones in a while* means to me... ;-)

Thanks for listening... ;)

Coming up soon:

• my first *for real* teaching experience
• the practicum at DIS - an awesome place to be ;-) and
  
• How I turn into a grandma... :-)
  

10 things that made me smile lately...

I have decided to post something like this because too often we forget that there ARE many good things happening in our lives... we are not looking at the good stuff...

1. A good friend from the Uni came to my house yesterday and we had coffee together and talked about sooo many things and I suddenly realised: I have been to Dresden long enough to have actual *friends*, not just people I say *Hi* and *Bye* to at the Uni! What a great feeling!
   
2. I tried to find the Theaterstraße and had to walk around for about 30 minutes to find it yesterday, but I actually had enough time to do that and I noticed how beautiful Dresden is and how close to the pretty *Altstadt* I live/work/study...
3. I saw a sign on the yellow trash cans that explained EXACTLY what needs to go into that can and what has to go somewhere else.... How hard can it be to seperate trash ;-)
4. On saturday I went to my old school (10-year-high-school) and most of the teachers still knew me (after 5 years -> not sooo normal in German schools), my math/physics teacher whom I really love gave me a hug! =)
5. I taught 7th graders in German last thursday and they were soooo kind and I had a wonderful time practicing what will soon be my job!
6. One of the kids in school told me yesterday that I should *really* try to get a job at their school because he would *really* like for me to be his teacher... sooo cute!
7. I listened to the Interlude of *Into the Woods*
   
8. One of the students from 7th grade said: *Essays are not for being interesting, but to show your knowledge.*
9. Another student said about the main character of *Kleider machen Leute*, a story about a poor tailor who is thought of as a rich earl (?) due to his clothes: *Wenn ich so richtig drüber nachdenke, dann erinnert der mich an Orlando Bloom!* (*The more I think about this guy the more he reminds me of Orlando Bloom!* - or sth. like that)
10. I can actually take pictures now because I have a new phone and it has a pretty good cam in it... It's wonderful, but I think there were quite a lot of people in the tram lately who thought I was weird because I kept taking pictures of myself... =)

Anyway... These things might seem weird to you or some people don't know why certain things made me laugh, but honestly: This is something I should do more often because it makes me smile again at those things and it helps me to stay optimistic, no matter how many things made me wanna say bad things and think bad thoughts... Life is too good to worry about those things more than to be excited about the good stuff!!!!

Aller Anfang ist schwer, doch wenn der Anfang nicht wär' ...

I must say, living in Dresden has at first been quite a challenge - this is, getting used to university.

European Universities are currently in a time of great changes due to the BOLOGNA-Process ( couldn't find the English Link :-( ). This is a program designed to allow European students and graduates more flexibility, the chance to switch from one university to another and to work all over the world (or at least all over Europe) with their degree. Therefore we do not get a *Diplom* or a *Staatsprüfung* anymore, but Bachelors and Masters degrees. This does -of course- sound wonderful and I love the thought of it...
But theory and putting it into practice are, let's say, not quite in balance and being a first semester student in a program which just started, having no clue and experiencing that neither the other students nor the university workers do actually have one either is not just scary but very frustrating at times...

So we ended up with about 500 students of German this semester... And that were way too many. Not only is it hard to concentrate on what the mentor is trying to tell you but also finding real *friends* is difficult. You sit next to a person which you never met before - not just during the first couple of hours but almost all semester long....

After all I must say that this challenge came unexpected but was very helpful...

There are two reasons why this has worked out even though it seemed hopeless sometimes. Really there is just one cause the other -> It's the amazingly great love that God has for all of us and the plan that really is His plan- one that always works out and one that I never seem to get right ahead :-)
The other *thing* are soooo many people who helped out (and who still do help out for that matter):
Dresden has a wonderful Church of Christ with a lot of great Christian brothers and sisters of mine who supported me in any way you could think of:
I stayed with Bri and Randy for almost 2 months (!!!), Steve went to class with me, I always had serveral people that I knew that I could always call, go to or ask for help. All of them are a wonderful gift of God, those are people who are unbelievable and who play a very important role in my life... THX!
Not to forget(?): my family and my sisters and brothers in the Chemnitz church ... They are simply awesome! That's pretty much all I can say because words could never express how much I love them and how thankful I am for them!

It's great to know that you are never really alone and that God works in our lives sooo much - something which an upcoming post will show as well ;-)

PS: By now, God has also blessed me with some good friends at the Uni... which I am am very thankful for as well ;-)

Yay for posting!

Wow...
It's been a long time... Nici left so long ago and I really do miss her a lot. She's so wonderful!

I have decided that even though I am going to be busy again soon (I wonder if there really has been a time in my life when I have NOT been busy, but I enjoy acting as if this was a new and temporary state of mine ;-) ... ) anyway... I have decided that I really DO want to keep this blog and I DO want to update it more often...

Some of those who know me well will go : Oooh, let's see when the next entry is going to be then... in 5 or in 6 months... But NO... I really will try harder to find time...

Sooo.... The upcoming entries will mainly be updates from the last couple of months.... University, random thoughts about *great* professors, talks to students, difficulties and laughs..
.
Hope that won't bore you to death... ;-)