Week 7: Erlkönig, Trump & Kiez
Eldonita: 05.11.2020
The first week of November and the first week of school after the fall break started off quite relaxed. I finished my blog post and taught recorder lessons in the afternoon. Since I have much more time than expected due to the lockdown, I decided to take a few seminars in Cologne because everything is happening online anyway. Since the semester is starting this week, I made the decision early enough. From Wednesday onwards, I will be taking a translation course in French and a musicology and music education course. And if it becomes too much for me, I can drop the courses without consequences because I have already taken enough courses for my bachelor's degree and this is all happening on top of that. In the evening, there was an online opening event for the semester at the university, and afterwards, I finally participated in a live yoga class after a long time. My former flute teacher Sally offers yoga for musicians on Zoom every Monday evening, and it's easy to join. It felt really good!
Tuesday was uneventful, except that one class group didn't come to my lesson. I thought that maybe the teacher forgot because it would have been the first time that a group from that class comes to me, and since I didn't know which room he taught in, I couldn't go and ask. Later, it turned out that he did send a group to me, but they neither came to me nor went back to his lesson. Oops!
When I got home in the evening, I took a long walk and found this fitting street art:
Wednesday was a really busy day, connected with many emotions. On Wednesdays, I always work exclusively with the teacher Julia, who is also German and very interested in music. In one class, we are currently working with two actors from the school, Bruno and Noémie, (how cool is it that the school has such actors?) and participating in an 'in-house podcast project'. Here, all participating classes and small groups record poems that will be published later. Of course, we are working on a German poem - Erlkönig. We divided the class into two groups that have already made a rough plan in the preliminary work: who speaks which role, how do we make the poem understandable to French listeners (translation?), how do we involve the size of the group, etc. Today, we worked on fine-tuning a bit. I was responsible for half of the group with Bruno, and since he doesn't speak German, I took over the main part. To bring more life to the performance of the poem, we talked about the emotions that the individual characters in the poem experience, what the son feels, what is the relationship between the father and him, what is the king's state of mind, and how can we make that visible in the text, especially in a foreign language? This whole work was in French, but somehow it wasn't an obstacle, neither for me nor for the students, because here, the timbre of voice, gestures, and facial expressions played a very important role in describing it. The group's final result was really great, and it was a clear highlight in my work at the school so far.
In addition to that, all the work took place in the CDI, a large library that every school has because it is normal in France for students to have free periods already in middle school, so they can use the time meaningfully. The view from the CDI's window front is also quite nice.
The following free period with Julia was also emotional because she told me about Monday, the first day after the fall break and the first day of school after the attack on teacher Samuel Paty. After one lesson, in which every class could discuss it, the whole school community gathered in the schoolyard. Speeches were held, the music teacher Stephane played 'One Love' by U2, and of course, there was a moment of silence. Many tears were shed, and even if I imagine this moment and type these lines, I get goosebumps.
On the way to the train station, I ran into Pierre, a teacher I had just met that day. We had a conversation throughout the entire train ride. He loves Germany and has many German friends and calls himself a 'Müsli'.
The main topic that dominated the entire Wednesday and every free minute was the election campaign in America! Trump vs. Biden, and contrary to many predictions, it doesn't look like a 'landslide victory' for Biden at all. On the contrary: it will take a few more days for the result to be final, as the votes of the mail-in ballots can only now be counted, and they could be sent until one day before the official election date. Everyone is constantly checking the news and hoping for some important changes, but so far, the result is completely open. However, Trump has already declared himself the winner of this election, as he had announced before. Let's see if he's right.
In the afternoon, I had the first seminar in musicology, namely 'European Music History'. This is important because my knowledge of music history is, let's say, very incomplete. Maybe this course will help. Right after that is my translation course, which I always enjoy. And because I didn't sit in front of the Zoom program for long enough that day, we had an appointment in the evening to discuss the final steps for the publication of our statement regarding the AfD professor. After that, I was ready for bed.
On Thursday morning, I did a lot of things and also had a longer yoga session, as I do almost every day by now. Unfortunately, my back pain keeps recurring, and as soon as I don't do anything active for two days, it comes back and I have pain again. It's annoying that something as silly as a joke on vacation leads to something that accompanies me until November!
But at lunchtime, I treated myself to a long walk along the canal and discovered a great surprise: a kiosk called 'Kiez', which sells only German products (mainly beer)! Originally a bar and restaurant, the owner spontaneously decided to transform his store into a kiosk or supermarket because of the lockdown. We chatted briefly, and he told me that another 160 (!) new types of beer will be added next week. Besides beer, they have products from Fritz, Maggi, German sweets, and all sorts of delicious stuff. I was particularly delighted about Fritz-Kola and the rhubarb spritzer. In beautiful sunshine, I sat down by the canal with my spritzer and enjoyed the sun.
On Friday, I was out of the house for almost 12 hours. But it was worth it! A really great day: I went to the Lycée for the first lesson, even though I don't usually work there on Fridays, but the class with which we worked on Erlkönig was supposed to record in the morning. And since it fit in time-wise, I could join them and work with the other half of the group today. Here too, it was mainly about fine-tuning, the intonation and the emotions that wanted to be conveyed. Currently, there is a German boy in the class who is in France for half a year, and of course, he had the easiest time putting emotions into his voice. But all the students from the group really came out of themselves, and then it was time for the recording: with two condenser microphones, the group split up and recorded the poem. After the first two takes, there was some feedback, but Julia and I were able to enjoy the third take with our eyes closed. It was really incredible, and I had goosebumps when the group finished. I'm so excited about the final result!
Afterwards, I went to the Collège, where I'm normally assigned on Fridays. Here, Anne-Lou and I divided the two 5th grades that we have together for the first time, and I was allowed to go to the CDI with 5 students each, where we sit at a table in a small room and cover the same content as the rest of the class. Anne-Lou and I have discussed and planned the lesson yesterday, which was cool. I also found teaching in a small group and especially at a table very relaxed, there was much less hierarchy than in the other classes, where the groups are only slightly larger, but the environment is a normal classroom where I stand in front of a whiteboard and the teenagers sit at two-person tables. In this room in the CDI, there are six of us sitting at one table and, for example, looking at my laptop together, and somehow the fear of the students of simply speaking out was much smaller than usual. I wonder what else can happen in the next months!
In addition to the 9th grade, I was also with a small group of the 7th grade in the CDI. It was really cute because the class thought that I didn't understand and speak French at all! So the entire class conversation actually took place in German, and if they didn't know how to say something, they asked me the word in English! It was productive, and I think it was also pedagogically meaningful because they realize that even if they don't speak German perfectly, they can still be understood. I'm supposed to help them overcome the fear of speaking. I'm also looking forward to the next weeks and months!
During the extremely long lunch break that Anne-Lou and I spent together, she told me about the last week at school. There is a very tense atmosphere, partly because of the corona situation, and partly because of the attacks in France. They also wanted to hold a memorial event on Monday, and some teachers asked the school management if they could be exempted from the first two hours on Monday to plan the ceremony. After this request was rejected, the whole teaching staff was so outraged that a very large part simply went on strike. There are signs with the inscription 'Je suis enseignant' ('I am a teacher') hanging in the teachers' room, alluding to 'Je suis Charlie' after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo 5 (?) years ago. I noticed a lot of excited email correspondence, but to be honest, I was so stressed (50 emails per day) that I didn't read them.
In the last lesson, I was with the sweet 6th graders, as usual, with the amazing didactic teacher who I try to take notes on everything to do it exactly the same way later in beginner's French lessons. At half past six, I finally arrived home again and was really exhausted. Nevertheless, I had arranged to have a game night with the Portugal group in the evening and of course, I was there. Quite quickly, I didn't feel tired anymore, and in my exuberance, I apparently talked and laughed a little too loudly the whole time, so at some point, Florence knocked on the door and asked if I could talk a little quieter. Oops! As I said before, you can hear the rustling of the duvet from the next room, so I can understand that she asked briefly. So it was a very nice and funny evening! Unfortunately, it is still not clear who will win the US presidential election.
Good news of the day: BIDEN HAS WON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!
Sunday started with the traditional breakfast of baguette, butter, egg, and croissant, as well as FaceTime conversations with Grandma, and Mom and Dad. Of course, Dad went out briefly to get Halloween decorations so she could say hello to me.
In the afternoon, I had a Zoom meeting that has to remain secret for now, I used my hour of free time for a nice walk (including a Tannenzäpfle from Kiez), and in the evening, I had a Zoom appointment with Philippe, my language exchange partner. All in all, it was a busy and beautiful week, and I don't feel that the lockdown restricts me too much. Unfortunately, I'm not making as much progress in the language as I had hoped, but that's not very surprising since I speak German all day, except for occasionally in the kitchen or once a week in a language exchange conversation.
I suspect that there will be a time with many restrictions until Christmas, that school classes may be halved, and the lockdown will continue, but hopefully, there will be significant changes from January onwards, so that I can spend the 'last' three months here. It would be so nice to just go to a café again!
Respondu