schooling

I was able to get in touch with the school in London and they said I can actually start soon after I have filled up the forms and paid the fees of course. I'm happy that I don't need to do any more unnecessary exams for the application. The admission's office told me my credentials are good. Thank goodness I cannot be bothered with admission's test and all or doing that Cambridge diploma (an english profiency test of sort) etc. etc. I saw that in the website and I thought to myself - oh no, another money making device! Those exams normally cost so much money.

I would be assigned to a teacher and I would be sending her my papers and do my exams here in Frankfurt. After finishing some modules I need to go to London for a seminar. Well this have to wait till August. I need to show the program to the boss and of course we can finalize the financial aspects of it. Then I am back to studying again! My goodness, learning never ends!

Summer Break

Yahoo! Finally it's summer break, we will be having a 7 week holiday. Actually for the kids it's 8 weeks but for teachers it's 7 weeks. I will be working a week in the summer school (of course this is paid extra) and then it's 5 weeks of bliss :)
I just had a year of the end evaluation with my boss and she gave me positive feedbacks (to which I was of course very happy). I told her my future plans of getting the Montessori diploma either here in Germany or in London. Well she told me she is more for London because this is a correspondence course and I would need to have a teacher from the UK and send her my papers and go once in a while to London to do some training and have the exams here in Frankfurt. This would take about 2 years if I am good with my work. The german diploma is a bit harder because it takes so much energy, you have to go to school every Friday 5-8 pm and Saturdays 9-5 pm. Imagine??!! That's for 2 years too (ok except during the holidays). I wonder what they do in that school. I assume I would be repeating some of the things I learned before. The good news is they will pay half of the tuition and when I get my diploma they will pay the half of what I paid. So technically they will pay 75% of it.

Four Weeks

Yup, just four more weeks and it's summer break. I can't believe it went so fast. I have been in this new job for three months now. Nevertheless I am still on probationary till end of September. My official contract started April although I started working there end of February. There were some minor problems with my old job but everything worked well in the end.
This coming Thursday, there will be a Teacher's Appreciation Day. From what I heard, the moms will whip up a wonderful meal for the teachers and they will take care of the class, while we have a break of 1.5 hours to enjoy the sumptuous lunch. I am excited about this and will let you know how it goes. Unfortunately, I cannot make pictures of that meal, the school is quite strict with not having any mobile phone in the classroom or within the confines of the school.

So how's the new job?

Some of my old colleagues or other friends from my old school are curious about about my new job. Here goes a normal conversation:

Ex colleague: "So how's the new job?"
Me: blah blah blah, it's ok,.. blah, blah, blah, I'm fine
Ex colleague: "How's it really?"
Me: I'm fine, blah, blah, blah, ...can't complain
Ex-colleague: And??? (with big, wide, eyes)
Me: (getting puzzled with the look) Huh???
Ex-colleague: "But?"
Me: (aha!!!) No, honestly, I'm happy with the new job. This is how I imagined it to be
Ex colleague: (shows disinterest from now on) Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Me: saying to myself - what did i say wrong now this time???!!!%&$&§/!!

I guess people are used to hearing negative things and so on that when you start to talk about good things, it becomes boring. What a shame! At the moment, I don't have that part of the story at work.... of course life is not perfect, there are things you need to learn, get used to, new challenges but that's part of life - nothing special at all.

Two months

It's my 2nd month in my new work and I thought I would be updating this blog often regarding my work and its new methods of teaching - sorry to myself and to whoever out there who would land in this blog. I failed to do so. Nevertheless, I still don't know how to go about with my future training if I would decide to get the Montessori diploma, go to school every Friday evenings and the whole day of Saturday. This is so unfair, I don't know why I need to do that when I already work in a school. This is maybe for teachers who are not working in a Montessori school. I have to do some more research on this!! and soon!!!!
So far I have discovered a new task for me in my work, which is of course - ta ran, none other than doing computer work or website work that is. I volunteered to go in one of those trainings in the school and this was a good idea. I wanted to look like a team player and show interest in the school so I joined my boss together with 2 other teachers. I hope I will live up to the expecations of my boss and my colleagues. I kind of told them I used to do it my old job - I shouldn't have said it but I was also proud of my achievements in the old job doing administration work and all for the kindergarden. I need to do more work with the kids during circle. I kind of just breeze through it allowing my co teacher to do all the reading and explanation. I should do more this month of May and will let you know how it goes. So far - so good.

Spring Break

It's Spring Break but where is spring actually?? Yup, I know I almost just started my new work but this is the benefit of working in the international system - the perks of getting more holidays. Yes, I deserve this break but the weather is not cooperating with me. Today, I woke up with a good view of snow outside the window. When will winter get out of this country???

Nevertheless, I am happy about my 2 week off. I'm getting the hang of things at work but still is not so easy being the new one with the kids. I still have a lot of things to learn about the Montessori method but I am finding my way around the classroom which is good news. There is a strict way of using the materials, it always has to adhere to the M. method.

As you can see from the pictures, we are quite organized :) Hope this applies to me in real life too. For those of you who really know me well - I know what you are thinking - that is next to impossible.

Missing Key

Unfortunately, the missing key hasn't turned out yet. This is really very embarassing. We would post a note to the parents if any of their children has brought home a key. Of course not mentioning that this is the house key. So wish me all the best. Hope it would still come out.
Aside from that I was terrorized by a little girl yesterday. Kids can be really mean sometimes ( well in their own way). Today I tried to win her by asking her to teach me some words in danish (she comes from Denmark). Let's see if I remember them.
goodbye - farvel
hello - hej (pronounced like hi)
thank you - tak
yes - ja
no - nej
She really liked it and was very friendly to me till the end of the day. Let's see if this works out tomorrow. Meanwhile, another boy took her place. This boy is american so I cannot lure him into teaching me another language. Hmm.. I have to be creative. This is how it is when you work with kids, there's really never a dull moment.

So I thought

Well I just started this blog yesterday with good news that I'm quite doing well in my new job - of course with the usual uncertainties and stress. Little did I know that I spoke too soon... Last Friday just before ending my work day, the boss gave me the new key to the school. I was quite proud to have it, because it meant they trust me already to give me a key. Not to mention that it's a master key opening all front doors, back doors, classrooms and all the secret doors in between. I was able to use it yesterday and this morning. Then it was gone. Lost between the fine confines of those walls and I don't know where. I looked everywhere but no success at all. As I have told you this school is very organized to almost insanity so losing the key is a complicated manner. I have to change all those locks and give everyone a new key. For sure this would cost a fortune! Well the smart hubby checked if my insurance covers such disaster. Thank God, I just have to pay a fixed amount (also not little!) and the rest will be covered by the insurance. I thought I would give all my pay this month and next month just for the whole set of locks. Did I mention that the school is a bit exclusive catering to elites, diplomats and top managers etc.... so security is a priority in this school. That's why you have to have the key all the time with you. No door is ever left open!!!

This post is to end now except as I have promised you on that little thing about M's method. I will use M as Montessori so in the future if you ever see M then you know what I mean.

2. Pointing out an error in the middle of an activity is not good because it leads the child to a defensive reaction making him crawl into his shell.
(I have to get used to it and stop myself from correcting the children all the time.)

I survived the first week!

Well as some of you might know, I just started a new job last Monday! It's still pre-school but this time I just changed location and changed the whole teaching style and the teaching environment. From a german system, I now move to an international system dealing with children of expatriates and the elites. It sure will be an exciting or not so exciting career change.. who knows actually. I just know that with this job I have about 14 weeks paid vacation and of course I am intrigued and fascinated with the whole Montessori concept. So I'm not such a bad person at all changing jobs because of the perks (hey I'm only human here, don't you think so?) So bear with me. I want to develop my skills and expand my horizons. At the moment I will work as an Assistant Teacher. Since I don't have any Montessori Diploma I can't be a Montessori teacher. Well no worries about that because I have aspirations to take this degree in the next few months (or even years) to come.
A week is over and I have survived it! Yahoo! Whew this whole Montessori system is my ideal self. At work (I have to make a picture of the classroom the next time) each object and equipment has a definite place on the shelf. Marked with big signs you'll never miss it. At home I am the chaoitic me who drives her husband to insanity because of the chaos she creates. I think I'm going to be a new me after about 6 months of doing this job. Who knows? I might adopt the same system at home so the husband can find his staples and pencils and pens.
Nevertheless, my new colleagues have been helpful and accomodating to me. The kids have been nice (sometimes ), sweet and adorable and of course nasty and naughty. Well this is not new to me. Those little ones can be terrible especially if you are the new teacher. They test their boundaries and test you too. All this is tolerable and normal excepf this one mother who has been rather weird and unfriendly talking to me like a child uttering the syllable bel-la... (like the italians do it but she is english or american or who cares actually!! ) it seems the child had said I called her ....bel and she should be ...bella ... my oh my.. what a tragedy. well my colleague is my witness and she claims i have always uttered bella (the way the italians do it) oh well. so far i am learning new things here so that's what counts. Patience is the key to success. So I gave her my most polite smile.

So at the end of my post I'll end it with what I am learning as a Montessori (Asst.) teacher. If you find this not interesting you can stop reading from here. Thanks and till next time.

1. I learned that you should never point out to a child that he has made a mistake. You take a mental note of that mistake and let the child do it some time later again to give him the chance to correct himself. In the mean time you can get a new child to do the same thing again. If she does it correctly the other child will see this and will learn from it. The reason why you don't correct it immediately? I'll let you know in my next post.