Hello World

As always - I have a number of posts in my mind to write about but nothing came out of it - obviously. Spring it seems is finally here - hurra! Just had our February break which was really nice and spent it in Munich - will post some pictures soon! What a beautiful city - I have never seen a city here in Germany with so many tourists in such a slow - non peak season! It's probably the most visited place in this country - on the way to Neuschwanstein - the famous castle where Disneyland is modelled after.

Today was a not so significant day but very touching and interesting with regards to my work - the class I have at the moment (since end of October)  has been handled by almost 4 teachers within a year so you could imagine how  that class is. Nevertheless - despite being seen as the wild bunch in our school - truly love the personalities I have in that class.

One of the kids (girl who has been almost in the class for almost 3 school year) came to me  just out of the blue (we were putting things for our snack  in the oven)

Girl - You know what Mrs. G, you are the best teacher ever!
Me: (trying to look very non-committal but indeed very pleased to this child's comment - sorry I am easy) why do you think so?
Girl - Because you are the only teacher who does so much with us - differnt work, adventures, projects, cooking  - LOTS of things! Mrs. So and so did just this,, Ms. so and so did nothing ......Mrs.....
Me: Thank you very much. I'm glad you're enjoying our class (beaming inside - truly the girl analyzed this and was not just trying to be a teacher's pet -haha!) 

Although I am a Montessori teacher - I try to include different things in my curriculum - things I've learned from the German system or things I remember from my own childhood and things from books of course.  I still have a lot to learn! But this comment really made my day! Not only because of the positive comment but the child can see my effort in bringing in different ways of learning to our class (the girl is by the way only 5 but very smart - already does multiplication and comprehension sheets in reading!)

Updates

It was supposed to be an exciting week at work. I am doing a project with the kids on the different continents and of course I started with Asia - I also got a lot of involvement from the parents. Unfortunately I got sick so was out since Wednesday ... so sad to miss the event and the food!!!... in the end I missed Indian, Chinese and Japanese day.. But had to stay at home - I could not even get out of bed . To make matters worst, I had to go to the doctor's and sit in the most uncomfortable chair for an hour and half with the worst headache and pain from all over! I hate these doctors appointments here - they tell you to come at a certain time but let you wait nevertheless for at least an hour!!!

So that was the start of my February - aside from that I have started the procedure for my Mom's trip - well there are a  lot of things to organize behind it but just gotten started with  getting an approved  inviation from the Aliens Department in our town. I even made a mistake when they asked for our mortgage.. and The V said this might affect the duration of the visa -they will be computing our earnings plus mortgage plus cost of living and costs of  having a guest!  Good thing The V was able to reach the woman who got my papers- Whew - I just hope my mom gets her visa and on time.

Children's Quotes - stories from work

Here's another set of interesting - funny quotes from the kids at work

I work in an international kindergarten so we have children from all over. Most of them start learning english at the kindergarten. At the start of the school year we have a new dutch boy who does not understand english at all . I approached one of our older children, also a dutch

Me:  Boy. please could you help me  tell Boy2. that we already fed the fish, he does not understand me

Boy1 to Boy2: We already fed the fish

Me: No Boy1, tell him in dutch

Boy1 to Boy2 :.  in dutch

After a few days one of youngest children started exploring his new world and is even going to other children

Little boy (18 months):  in little strides approaches big girl (one of the oldest girls in the class just 2 years,10 months) and starts hugging her too tight
Big Girl: started moving away did not really like being crushed by little boy
Little boy: shocked at this rejection and started crying... waaah .Mamamamamamamamama
Big Girl to little boy: I'm not your mama, your mama's coming later after lunch

While working together on coloured tablets (teaching children to learn different colours) Big Girl,same child as above stopped and was looking around
Big Girl: Mrs. G, something stinks here (intently looks at me)
Me: where?
Big Girl: Here, I think it's you
Me: no way maybe it's you ..
Big Girl: of course not, i just took a bath last night
we later found out it was the box with the coloured boxes

Kids are honest and say things they don't really mean but.. yes it hurts..

Girl1: (touching my tummy) Oh this is big -is there a baby there inside?

Me: No - just lots of rice  ;) (quickly inhaling and holding on to my breath to make tummy firmer)

Bang!

Did you ever have on those days that you think the world is against you and yet you have a trillion things to do and then in the end you mess it all up unknowingly with just one of those littlest of things you did that just exploded??? I feel that way today - crap.. I don't know how I will get on through  tomorrow with this big weight on my shoulder.. The big bang hopefully will not come.. through this blog entry I hope to fight against the universe and call on my God to help me out. Peace! God help me.

Stories from work

I love my work and on most days I really don't complain. A day at work is full of emotion from happiness (love the snack/present that parent brought in, wow! child A could go to the toilet on his own!), surprise (what no school today!), fear (uh oh, was not supposed to say that s word and the child might repeat it, hope not at home!), curiousity (who forgot to tidy up this mess?), panic (boy B has a big bump and full of blood), bliss (silence when all children are busy working on their own)  and best of all - love (a big hug and a big kiss for my dear teacher!) The list could go on and on - such is my day full of excitement and when I go home energy goes down to zero - zzzzz I end up sleeping while watching TV at 4 p.m. after work.

Anyway, just was telling another friend about some funny stories from work when a thought came in - hey I could blog about this so here goes - some famous quips from my dear children at work

Last Tuesday we had Fasching (carnival party) where each one of us at school put on a costume. Mine  was of a medieval queen of course with a crown. We were having some snacks sitting around the table when I annouced to the children
Me: Dear children, enjoy your snacks and give the queen (pointing to myself) a big round of applause thanking her for the snack you are having now
Children: (clapping their hands)
Meanwhile a little boy half dutch, half english sitting beside me was looking at me intently from head to toe and not clapping his hands, suddenly he leaned over and sheepishly whispered to my ears
Boy half dutch-half english: Are you really the queen?
Gosh I don't want to disappoint the boy, after all the Dutch and the English do love their queens

My boss turned 60 this year and a little girl came to her
Little Girl: Happy Birthday Ms. M
Boss : Thank you very much dear, that's sweet of you
Little Girl: How old are you today Ms. M
Boss: Well little girl I turned 60 today
Little Girl: (looking shocked and appalled) Oh my Ms. M you are sooooo old, YOU ARE going to die soon
Boss does not know if she will laugh or get scared

I was getting upset with a 2 year old boy because he was not listenting to me, and kept on hitting another boy
Me: Boy C stop it please. I don't want you hitting Boy B again
Boy C : walks away from me but looking upset , he goes to Boy B again
Me: Boy C,  I'm watching you, don't upset me again
Boy C: Then stop watching me!
Yeah right!

Teacher B: Hey Girl A, I have not seen your mother for a long time, how is she doing?
Girl A: Yes, my mom does not bring me to school anymore she says she does not like seeing you
Teacher B: Me, why?
Girl A: Well my mom said she hates your guts! Teacher B what does hate your guts mean?
Uh oh... happily that's not me

Back to school

Today is the last day of my Christmas break and school starts again for the little ones tomorrow. The last 3 weeks has been good, was able to meet up with friends and even family. Also was able to submit an essay in between :) whew! It would be really difficult to get up tomorrow for work!  I did try my best to do some work beforehand and organize the classroom so when the kids come back tomorrow - they will be happy to see the classroom with a different set-up.

Oh and remember I spoke about my so called salary increase that did not happen? Well the boss is kind enough to tell me that she would give me some sort of bonus, it's 70% of my salary and comes after tax! Not 70% and then with tax which would in the end turn out like 40% for the government and 30% for me. So that is good news really. Salary increase might come next school year?? Well who really knows??? I really did not expect this after all of that drama.

Anway, I wish you all a wonderful start to your new week.

Christmas gifts

My Christmas break started yesterday, that means I have a 3 week off from school :) I am so happy about this - this means I could eat, sleep, and wake up when I want to. Although there are some things to do - like finish 2 essays and submit it on 4th of January, spend Christmas with dear cousin in Bavaria and have some friends over the New Year's who would stay with us for 3 days. Busy calendar indeed, on top of these things, I plan to meet up with a friend, colleagues and ex colleagues too... so you see it is neverthless a busy 3 week break for me. I really want to finish my essays before all these things but I just don't have the motivation and concentration for it. We could have had a free month and need not do all these academic things.. oh well...

Anyway, being a teacher, you always get some little presents at the end of the school year or during Christmas (if parents are really generous and thoughtful) . some kids would give you something they made out of their tiny hands, some would give something really, really nice:like a voucher for a nearby perfmerie (only happened twice in my teacher-life!), cash (also only happened twice in my teacher- life) and some give  normal things like a box of chocolates, flowers, soaps  and  in most times candles!I have a big plastic case filled with candles, different sorts, sizes and scents that I should blog about next time to show you.

It's not that I really want to get presents but I would really like to see some appreciation from the parents. Even a wonderful written card (which I got from one parent, I was so touched I cried in front of her) would be fine with me. This year I got one of the most weird, thoughtless present ever - to think that I take care of this family's twins (2 amazingly active toddlers) believe me I am not really asking for gifts but a little thank you  from the heart would have been much nicer! Instead this - the photo makes it big but it it just very small, the size of a little cookie. Well, it is really a cookie with some icing on it. My colleague got a little santa and the boys wanted to eat it too so she gave it back to them. Me I wanted to keep it as a souvenir. To remind me about some people who are so thoughtless and not to be like them!

Well in the end I had my usual set of gifts, some candles, mugs, chocolates galore, soaps galore, a bottle of sparkling wine and soaps galore again!

Work

I had a chat with my boss the other day regarding my supposed to be pay raise for doing this new work I do with the little ones.. She said it's not happening this year, I thought she meant year 2009, but then she said no, she meant defintitely no pay increase for school year 2009-2010 and we'll see what the next schoolyear brings us. So that means not until when?

I know, I know, with budget cuts and lay-off nowadays, we should be happy with what we are getting. I am thankful for my job. However, the only thing I don't understand was:  why she lied to me that she would give me and my colleague a new salary package when she told us that she and  the board  decided to add more children in my class than planned till end of the year (3 more) and give me another assistant.

It's probably just to calm me down with the extra work of having more children. Well what can I say? Nothing. I did my best. I said all the arguements I could think of. At the moment I really cannot do much, just be thankful for a job, carry on and study more. At the end of this , I really learned not to trust my boss especially after  after doing all that hard work setting up a new class and a new curriculum.

So I need to count my blessings, I really get on well with my colleague. The other one I am still training and she is already giving me the headache but at least it's better than not getting anyone and still getting more work.

November

Winter is quite early this year with a few snow, minus temperature and frost. I don't remember last year's November like this so I checked my entry last year and the November two years ago. Two years ago was the weather really wonderful and last year's entry just reminded what I have to do this coming week which I am not at all looking forward to - again the Punch evening with the parents (in short alcohol drinking made of rum, wine, with fruit juices and lots of sugar ). Some of the parents who signed up put a note that they will start to come after 9:30 p.m. - so that means they will miss the Happy Hour Specials or what??? To think we the teachers have to work the next day starting at 7:30 a.m. I wonder why the parents don't think about what might happen to their kids if the teachers go to work with hang overs and splitting headaches !!! What a weird, distorted, complicated kindergarden it is, don't you agree so?
Aside from that I am quite excited this weekend - I will be having a little corner, exactly 3 meters at the flea market this coming Sunday. I am not a good flea market buyer because I cannot bargain or haggle at all. I wonder how it will be to stand at the other side of the flea market. I guess I might be shocked how cheap those people will pay for my stuff and all sort of things I wish I'm not getting rid of but I just can't have so much of them. I'm sure it will be an exciting day. I will try to document it through my phone camera.

Going Medieval For A Day

Two Saturdays ago we've had a wonderful Summer Festival at work with the theme Medieaval Market. After long weeks of preparation and getting on the nerves of each other at work. We finally made it and even landed on the Region's Top Newspaper. Here are some of the pictures I've got. I removed the faces of the kids to avoid any kind of conflict with parents of any sort. But you can see me of course and my dear colleagues in their costumes as well. Thank God for good colleagues who can sew good costumes :) Most of the clothes of the kids were also done by them. I told my boss she ought to open her own shop!

We've got animals on the loose, a roasted lamb and different market stalls selling - oil with herbs, home made jams, dried sausages, dried lavander and dried herbs and a whole lot more! The stalls were all manned by kids from 3-6 years old. I thought this would be the hit with the kids but as soon as they saw all the animals, they just forgot about their other duties! Of course such a festival is not complete without any sort of song and dance from the kids. I finally handed to the parents that yearbook I told you about and it was such a hit! The parents were so overwhelmed by it. Well that hardwork finally paid off (I did all of it in my own private time!!!) This was a first in this Kindergarden (and probably in a lot here in Germany). The would be first graders were also given their "Schultüte" a german tradition as shown in this picture. It's a cone shaped bag with lots of goodies inside like sweets and school stuff. I find this tradition really good because it marks the beginning of a child's life (School stress starts from here up!) Since our Festival had the theme of Medieval our "Schultüte" were also either a Knight or a Princess. Mind you this was all hand made except for that cone. On the kids's hand is of course his Yearbook :)