Melanie Eckert, Edinburgh Council
At Boroughmuir I often worked with smaller groups of pupils as a part of a German period, focussing on speaking practice and conversational exercises, but also to help prepare the pupils for their upcoming exams. However, I was also asked to prepare whole lessons on cultural topics, such as German TV or our school system. Furthermore, I also had the chance to do a German Conversation Club, called “Laber Rhabarber”, for S3 to S5 Higher German pupils every Thursday during lunch break, which was fun to do.
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Ann-Katrin Biehl, Stirling Council
Working with the students, who are most of the time cooperative and interested, is not only fun but I also learn a lot. With my mentor, I get along very well, and although she is most of the time very busy, I always feel supported and taken seriously. Just like her, my contact person at the council is always ready to help me. I also had the chance to observe Biology lessons (Biology is my second subject besides English and my third subject Maths) and help a German exchange student there for a couple of weeks.
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Benedikt Franke, Angus Council
Apart from being a native speaker of German, which sometimes goes along with serving as a linguistic contact person and a walking dictionary(!), my presence also creates the ideal learning setting for making pupils aware of the basic function of foreign language learning. Through authentic situations with a real representative of the German language, the pupils experience the true purpose of learning a foreign language, which is being able to understand and communicate. Consequently, the pupil’s perception of German shifts in the sense that they no longer see it as just one subject among many others but rather as the key to a broadened cultural awareness. » Read more
Fabienne Brucker, Dunbartonshire Council
In all schools the staff and the pupils are very friendly and I feel very comfortable. Especially the two teachers at Vale of Leven Academy take care of me very well and I can also talk with them about out-of-school-things (...) In the primary schools, for example, I taught the pupils the months of the year in German and showed them the German song “Die Jahresuhr“ by Rolf Zuckowski. It was a great feeling to come back one week later and the pupils started to sing this song to me! They learn so fast and they really appreciate all the German lessons and so do I. » Read more
Jenny Dismon, Stirling Council
At my school there is a good mixture of students. That is why I think that every day that I work at this school is a day of very good experiences for me. I have learned a lot for my later life (as a teacher) since being at Stirling High School. However, the very best thing that has happened to me until now, was when one pupil, during our period of one-to-one tuition, said that he really enjoyed working with me, that it was the only period of the week that he looked forward to, and that I was such a great teacher! This made me feel so proud and happy, and reminded me of why I want to become a teacher. » Read more
Marc Henn, City of Edinburgh Council
My main tasks as a teaching assistant consist of leading discussions in German about a range of topics, helping pupils when they have questions, recording German texts, and helping pupils to prepare for upcoming exams. As a native speaker of the German language, I can support both the pupils and the teachers. The teachers always appreciate a little assistance while explaining complex sentence structures and sometimes like to be corrected when even they make an obvious mistake!
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