Tales from Teaching

I work in two schools- I switch each week- and one is the "Ferrarischule." I originally thought it was a high school specifically for fashion students because that's what its full name translates to, but the students correct me that there are many different things kids study there, like languages and cooking. A lot of the high schools here have these crazy emphases. Anyway, whatever else they do in this school, I'm hardly interested. The fashion aspect keeps me interested because they have mannequins on display in the halls and each week they are dressed in different clothes that the students have designed and made. Of course I'm impressed, but also IMPRESSED. Especially this week because the theme is "Faschings Costumes," which is their Mardi Gras, and similar to how we celebrate Halloween. The costumes all appear to modeled after the Disney princess collection and designed by a team of grandmas and 15 year-olds. Of course the latter of those is actually true, so I shouldn't be surprised, but just imagine how good it is to wander the halls of this place.

A few weeks ago after second period, I went back to the teachers' lounge. In Austrian schools the students stay in their classroom and it's the teachers who move, so the teachers all congregate in their room between classes. We arrived to decorations and a whole hubbub because one of the teachers was celebrating her 50th birthday, complete with unlimited champagne. This was at 11 am. The birthday girl was a bit tipsy and knocked glasses off the table and then ran around yelling with joy.

I recently taught a lesson on common acronyms Americans use in text messaging and online chatting. They loved it. Their favorites were 'lmao' and 'byob.' At the end of the lesson I had them write a chat room dialogue using as many as they could. I was walking around reading through them and two girls had written theirs ending every line with "ly."

1: What's up? ly
2: What's up? ly
1: U coming to my party? It's byob. ly
2: lmao. I forgot u were having a party. ly
1: And bring ur bff. idk if u r busy. ly
2: wtf? u r such a qt. ly
1: rofl. omg. gtg. ly
2: np. ttyl. ly

I asked them what "ly" meant and they said, surprised that I had even asked, "love you." I told them that we don't use it like that and they said, "but it's English." And I said, "yes, but you should try and write this the way an English speaker would, and we don't say that." She said, "Well, I do."

This week in the same school I've been teaching about the "American Holiday Season" and I spend a lot of time talking about the Thanksgiving menu. I explain what cranberries, stuffing and pumpkin pie are, and then I tell them that after eating so much we often take naps. After using a word that I'm pretty sure the students didn't understand, I often follow up by asking them. I said, "Can anyone tell me what 'nap' means?" and one girl answered, "schnapps?" Good guess! Not correct, but I like your answer!

On that note, happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your naps/schnapps!