My new school

When I completed my teaching program back in 1994 (yes, 29 years ago), one of the discussions we had at the end of the program was what type of teaching placement we wanted to find.  The head of the program was very much in the camp that the smaller the school the more impact we can have on the learning processes as reflective teachers.  Over the years, I have experienced a variety of school sizes, my first one being a large public high school in Jackson, Michigan.  I got used to teaching several sections of the same subject, and was responsible for 160 students daily.  Working in international schools I started working in a small school with less than 80 students in Riga.  Over the years the school grew to close to 300, but the numbers fluctuated periodically as Latvia joined the EU and dealt with a financial crisis.  After that, my experiences have been within schools with student numbers around 800, K-12. 

With 29 years of teaching experience, I begin to see the wisdom of my professor as the last years have meant that I have taken on responsibility for larger numbers of students.  As the DP Coordinator in Vietnam, I was responsible for the academic and social emotional support of 100 grade 11 and 12 students, and worked with another 70 making decisions regarding entering the program.  Additionally, I worked with about 30 teachers in order to move the learning forward positively.  It was exhausting as we also had no special needs or counseling support, besides career counseling, and I had to be everything to everyone.  I found it hard to balance life and work. I was very lucky to have a great team of people to work with and lean on when needed.

In selecting this role in Germany, I had to really consider how it would be to work in a small school. The school here has only 150 students,  Pre-school to Grade 12.  Last year's graduating class was only 5 students, This year there are 12 students in both Grade 11 and 12.  There are only 9 teachers across the programme, including me.  My responsibilities are the same, just with fewer people.  In accepting the role I felt like I might finally be able to do my job to the best of my abilities while being more balanced with my own life.

The first month and half have not been as simple as I envisioned as we have had to deal with work permits taking time to be processed, and we have one teacher out with a broken arm. This has meant covering lessons for all of these teachers, and developing lessons for the students.  Over this time period, I have covered lessons in Grade 1, Grade 3, Grades 6-10.  It has been a good way to get to know the students across the school, and I love that the Grade 1s still greet me by name every day. We also are still looking for a teacher in the subjects I teach and, therefore I have an extra subject to teach. So besides being the DP Coordinator, I teach DP History to Grade 11, Theory of Knowledge to Grade 11 and Grade 9 MYP Individuals and Societies. 

Overall, the school community is lovely.  The teachers are caring and supportive of each other.  We have a staff room where they hang out together to not just eat during the breaks, but also where they work because most of us teaching in secondary do not have our own classrooms.  Everyone is ready to jump in when needed to support someone with cover or questions that need to be answered.  The new staff has been kindly supported with filling out of forms, making calls on our behalf, and helping with translating information.

The students are really quite sweet, but as in all schools they are regularly testing the boundaries surrounding behavior.  The whole school has 3 recesses during the day, and the older students are supportive and respectful of the younger students.  We also have houses here.  I am in the Earth House.  I will have to buy something green...  The picture below is of the pigs that represent the houses and where students put in house point vouchers that their teachers hand out. 

The school also works to care for the staff.  There are generally drinks and fruit available for everyone, dishes and cups in the staff room, along with a dishwasher and coffee maker with pods. During orientation we had both breakfast and lunch of traditional German food and beer. Yes, I have returned to a land where alcohol can be served and shared within the community.  And check out the pretzels! They are even better than they look.

I am looking forward to seeing how the teaching, learning and over all school life continue to develop. I think my decision to accept this job has been a good one.