So let me paint you a picture of where I will be living for the next two months. I had told you before that its dormitory living, but that might give you the idea that it’s just like a college dorm, not so much. Through more in-depth observation I’m starting to see that many of the students we are currently living with are high school students as well as some college students spread out around the building. Being that much older than most of the residence as well as not speaking the same language will help make our time here quite interesting. Last night Chris found out about a 10 o’clock curfew when he tried to leave to get some food only to be told to go back to his room and go to bed, lesson learned for when we head out for a night on the town (leave before 10).
The fear of gaining a bunch of weight while receiving meals from both the boarding house and school left my head the first day with a breakfast of bread, cheese and cardboard cereal with warm milk (not sure on whether I like warm milk or not, but I do think that Happy Gilmore's grandma would enjoy it) followed by a lunch of buttery soup and noodles with bland sauce and a dinner of noodles with ground beef and maybe A tomato for entire pot. My quick fix for the lack of taste was the purchase of a bottle the all powerful Tabasco sauce at the price of 4 Euros (more then I spent on two bottles of wine during the same transaction). To drink they either usually offer a type cool-aid (Doug you would be in Heaven) both warm and cold.
My first two days of observing the students have been quite interesting. I’ve been able to sit in and help/observe the 5th, 6th and 7th grade classes. The 5th grades students are still in the primary school style with one teacher who has them all day while the 6th and 7th are similar to our middle school. The school week is Monday through Friday 8 am to 1:30ish for the primary school (k-5) and till 2:30ish for the middle years (6-8). The student’s schedules are different everyday and have each subject 2 or 3 times a week I believe (still not 100%, but I’ll this is what I’m going with).
The 5th grade class is awesome both the teacher and the students. The class size is 8 students which the teacher told me is the smallest she has ever had (apparently the recession is hitting them hard), but it really gives her the chance to work individually with the each student. The teacher tries to create inquiry based lessons where the students work to find the answers on their own or in groups. The students really seem to respond to the “find it on your own” type learning, but the teacher really needs to know how to scaffold what she is teaching.
I have observed the 6th and 7th graders in two different subjects; Humanities (History and Geography) and ATL (Approaches to Learning). The Humanities are taught by the teacher who I spend most of my day working with and to put it lightly his classes are a little chaotic. It seems as though he tries to implement inquiry based lessons where the students use their own understanding and build off of it, but from what I’ve observed in the 7th year class the students spend the majority of their time having side conversations and having confrontations with the teacher. Surprisingly (maybe its sexist of me to think opposite) it’s the girls who challenge the teacher the most, basically not listening to him and yelling at him when he tries to get them on task. The 6th year class is a lot better, but I still have observed a lot of confusion amongst the students during the chaotic class period. The principle has told us that the 7th years are a group of students that have been trouble for years, but during humanities it seems totally out of control. In ATL it’s a different story, I’m still not sure on what the class is all about, but it seems to work with helping the students understand how they develop knowledge as well as creating an appreciation for the world around them.
Today I went to one hour of 7th year Humanities, one hour of 5th year’s science and ATL followed up by a tour of the city center of Ljubljana from one of the schools teachers. It was a cool deal she was pretty knowledgeable of the area’s history and filled us in on the local goods that would make great gifts for people (sorry Chris nothing that would interest you yet, but might have some stuff for the Ma and Pa) and a couple restaurants that are dank sauce. After her tour she grabbed a bus home while we were suppose to go back to the school for dinner, but instead we decided to hold back and hit up the pizza place she had suggested. The pizza place had quite a variety options (all in Slovenian) so the three of us made what I would call a “mystery grab” and got random pizzas. Mine ended up being ham, olives, mushroom and peppers (not bad), Megan’s was bacon, oregano and Chris’s was sausage, egg, and pickles (weird, but not bad). After the Pizza we walked randomly around the city.
Well… that was a lot of typing I was planning on giving a candy review, but I think I’ll leave that for another time. Stay classy USA
Mr. Mike
Hi Michael, I am so enjoying your blog. It is very interesting. I would however, appreciate some pictures of your living arrangements, school and food. Keep on with your adventure. I am very happy for you. Love you very much, Mom
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