Value Resorts and Inside Staterooms? Bah Humbug! 30 days of Disney fun! 02/10 Day 30

[YukiPhnx]

That rope garden looks terrifying to me! But at the same time, I really want to try it

I think it's wonderful how close you were to your students. I only had that kind of a relationship with my high school teachers, not my elementary school ones, and I wasn't even in some of those high school classes!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

That rope garden looks so cool!!! And the area you live in is just gorgeous!

 

[dizneeat]

That rope garden looks terrifying to me! But at the same time, I really want to try it

I think it's wonderful how close you were to your students. I only had that kind of a relationship with my high school teachers, not my elementary school ones, and I wasn't even in some of those high school classes!

When we arrived and I got a first glimpse of the rope garden I wasn't sure ALL my pupils would go climbing. But once they had been through the training course they all just went for it and the giggling and shouting and waving didn't seem to end!

It's quite easy getting close to your pupils here. As a class teacher you are assigned a lot of different subjects to teach in "your" class - so I spend a lot of hours with them.

That rope garden looks so cool!!! And the area you live in is just gorgeous!

The kids LOVED the rope garden. They didn't want to leave!

Even though Linz is an industrial town there are lots of things to do and see. And the view of the city with all its churches and old structures is quite amazing. It's just that one takes things for granted and that day I was sitting looking at the castle thinking ......... "if I were a tourist, I would take a photo." Which reminded me that I HAD a camera in hand, so I just took the photo!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

It is amazing the flexibility in your teaching there in Austria. In the US, it's not like that at all. It's all about how smart we can make our children to be better than everybody else. The children having fun learning doesn't come first anymore. Part of the reason I'm not a teacher anymore.

 

[jenseib]

I want you for a teacher. You do the most amazing things!

 

[dizneeat]

It is amazing the flexibility in your teaching there in Austria. In the US, it's not like that at all. It's all about how smart we can make our children to be better than everybody else. The children having fun learning doesn't come first anymore. Part of the reason I'm not a teacher anymore.

I am quite happy with our system! Our students must reach a certain "goal" every year, but there is no limit to the ways you choose to get them there!
A lot of things have changed since I started being a teacher and believe me, it took a lot of getting used to, but we have come to embrace new ways of teaching and bonding with our students!

I want you for a teacher. You do the most amazing things!

Thank you, Jen!

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Oh my gosh! That rope garden is terrifying! Did you join in all the adventures? i wouldn't even be able to watch. It sure explains why European children are far more fit than American children.

Karin, you are an amazing teacher!

 

[dizneeat]

Oh my gosh! That rope garden is terrifying! Did you join in all the adventures? i wouldn't even be able to watch. It sure explains why European children are far more fit than American children.

Karin, you are an amazing teacher!

No, Christine, I did not join in the climbing adventures - it was more than enough for me to watch them and take photos!
There were some of them who were very afraid at the beginning, but once they had gone across the training course, they just took off and tried all the different courses. There were several ones from easy and not too high, to quite hard and real high. Most of my boys did ALL the courses! I was really proud of them!

 

[dizneeat]

Please take a moment and have a look at the ticker in my signature

The months are gone!! We started out at 11 months and we are now down to just 4 weeks and 1 day!

Time to celebrate - and finish off all my started topics on here!

So let's start this with the end of my last week at school!

 

[podsnel]

Karin- this is by far the BEST last week of school EVER!!! You are a wonderful teacher, and i am head-over-heels in love with Austria's school system. Do you need any accountants and baseball players over there??? I've got a house full, and I'd LOVE to sign us up!!

And a HUGE CONGRATS!!!! on your big ticker countdown!! You will be here before you know it!!

 

[dizneeat]

Last week of school activities - continued!

Okay, where did we leave off? Oh, yes, we just returned from our climbing adventures.

Once back at school we all freshened up a bit and then it was down to the school kitchen to prepare dinner.
Our headmistress'/principal's husband, Hubert, who was a teacher at our school too, was to retire on Friday, so my class thought it would be a nice idea to invite him and Bruni to dinner.
Since I was sure there would not be much time left, we decided on just having pizza. We had prepared the dough ourselves before we had left for our climbing spree, so I divided the kids, one half was going to the dining area to set the tables, while I got the pizzas done and into the ovens! We made 8 large sheets of pizza and I was stunned to see all of it gone at the end of dinner!

Bruni and Hubert

Yes, they ARE allowed to act silly SOMETIMES!

For dessert we had ice-cream cookie sandwiches. Tom and I had baked lots of cookies for all of us and here we are filling them - not as big as Disney's, but yummy!!!

After dinner most of the kids wanted to go watch the soccer championship - Germany - Spain was on and while they watched, Heidi and I cleaned the dining room and kitchen.

 

[dizneeat]

Part 2 - too many photos and smilies for one post - sorry!

They were in a fantastic mood after the match and asked if THEY could play some soccer in the gym.
YES, they could - it was our night at school and everything was possible.

They actually played until 12.45am!!!!

By 2am most of them were asleep on mats and in sleepingbags in 2 classrooms.

I couldn't sleep any more by 6am, so I sneaked out and took some photos!

Two who wouldn't go to sleep and woke up the rest for a long time had to come and sleep in Heidi's and my classroom!

Sebastian looks like an angel when he's fast asleep!

Heidi, who helped out during the week

Once they had all woken up by 7.30 we went down to the school kitchen again to have some breakfast.

After finishing our breakfast we handed out certificates for the winners of Monday's tournaments and then we got everything back in order again before we headed over to the swimming pool for the last part of the project.
I had asked Bruni if we would be allowed to do that, as I thought we would all be pretty beat after a night on the floor, a very SHORT night!
Well, we WERE allowed to go to the swimming pool, even if this is NOT the norm. And I was right, we were ALL pretty beat and even though some of them jumped into the pool for a while, most of them just hung around on their beach towels and some of them even slept in the shade!

By midday our project and last week of school was over and I was real happy with it being over - I was dead tired!

Oh, just in case you wondered - Friday we all came back, we had a mass at 8am, then walked back to school, everyone was handed his/her report card and off we went - 9 weeks of bliss with NO school!

 

[dizneeat]

Karin- this is by far the BEST last week of school EVER!!! You are a wonderful teacher, and i am head-over-heels in love with Austria's school system. Do you need any accountants and baseball players over there??? I've got a house full, and I'd LOVE to sign us up!!

And a HUGE CONGRATS!!!! on your big ticker countdown!! You will be here before you know it!!

Basketball needs a push here anyway - WHEN can you come?

Thank you for joining in on my ticker excitement! If you watch that thing tick away from 11 months down, it gets REAL exciting once the months are gone!

 

[KatMark]

Karin, sorry I'm so far behind. I love all the pics...the kids looked like they had such a great time. And I love how you got the "little angels" sleeping.

 

[Stefy]

Looks like you had a great week with your pupils and the weather looked gorgeous

Yay for being in the 4 week mark, not long now

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

It sounds like you had an exciting time! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Your trip will be here before you know it.

 

[HeatherBelle614]

Thanks for the reassurance about DLP!

Wow; school activities there look so much more interesting than here! What lucky kids to be able to spend days doing the activities that you took them on!

 

[tinacaplan]

Hi, Karin! Looks like you all really enjoyed the last few days of school. I just chaperoned a trip with mine today (see my PTR for details). I will miss them, they were a great group. The kind you only get every once in a while!

And, wow, you're awfully close to leaving.

 

[Kellybelly777]

After being away for a week I'm all caught up!!!

I still can't find the jumping stitch emoticon-- am I missing something incredibly obvious here?

We felt the same about Planet Hollywood in both disney and New York City- that the food was good but nothing special. Still, It's always a cool place to visit, especially in a giant globe in the middle of a lakeish thing (sorry, I'm a little to tired to make much sense )

Just wondering, how old are your students? And this may be a silly question but about how many are able to speak english? (i'm going to assume most speak german (which I've heard is the main language in Austria) but I'm not sure)

Enjoy your holiday also, sounds like a tiring, but fun, last week of school!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Karin, sorry I'm so far behind. I love all the pics...the kids looked like they had such a great time. And I love how you got the "little angels" sleeping.

Thank you so much for stopping by, Kathy, even though you have a lot of other things to think about!

There are a few little tricks we "love" to use, to get those little angels to sleep - one of them is the "privilege" to stay in our room!

Looks like you had a great week with your pupils and the weather looked gorgeous

Yay for being in the 4 week mark, not long now

We were blessed with wonderful weather for our project week - and yes, there are only 26 more days until we will be on our way to WDW!

It sounds like you had an exciting time! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Your trip will be here before you know it.

We had a blast! Thanks!

Thanks for the reassurance about DLP!

Wow; school activities there look so much more interesting than here! What lucky kids to be able to spend days doing the activities that you took them on!

You are going to love DLRP! It's a fun place to be

There are lots of activities going on here during the school year. Barely a fortnight where we don't have any extra activity, but the project week as the last week of school has been established lots of years ago and its a real fun opportunity to end the school year.

Hi, Karin! Looks like you all really enjoyed the last few days of school. I just chaperoned a trip with mine today (see my PTR for details). I will miss them, they were a great group. The kind you only get every once in a while!

And, wow, you're awfully close to leaving.

We did! I read on your pre trip report about your trip to the amusement park and was glad to read that you had to look after a small group of kids. There are 24 in my class and even though they would all have cell phones I would be terrified to take them to such a park!
They have the funniest of ideas sometimes!

After being away for a week I'm all caught up!!!

I still can't find the jumping stitch emoticon-- am I missing something incredibly obvious here?

We felt the same about Planet Hollywood in both disney and New York City- that the food was good but nothing special. Still, It's always a cool place to visit, especially in a giant globe in the middle of a lakeish thing (sorry, I'm a little to tired to make much sense )

Just wondering, how old are your students? And this may be a silly question but about how many are able to speak english? (i'm going to assume most speak german (which I've heard is the main language in Austria) but I'm not sure)

Enjoy your holiday also, sounds like a tiring, but fun, last week of school!!!

If you are looking for the use the more button at the bottom of the smilies It's in the Disney section!

My students are 13 at the moment. As a class teacher you take over a class when they are 10 and you stay with them until they are 14 and out of school, so we have 1 more year of fun ahead of us!
As for how many are able to speak English - well, all of them are - writing that's another topic! First and second ability groups are quite good at expressing themselves in English in a written form, third ability group would make lots of spelling mistakes.
Yes, and the language we speak here is German - so ALL of them are able to speak it and communicate in a written form! We do not get many foreign kids here, so we all have German as our mother tongue.
And with German it is about the same as British English and American English - Austrian German has a lot of different terms from German German!