Educated Abroad

Time To Hit The Books, Again.

2015-03-30T12:56:00.001-07:00

It seems like ages since I last posted a blog here. Perhaps one of the longest periods of silence ever.

I haven’t had the time to write lately. Not because of a lack of content. As anyone with a child will quickly tell you, there’s always a story to tell. Children have an unending appetite for adventure and excitement so, there’s never a dull moment around our home.

I haven’t written for quite some time because, I’ve decided to return to university and study to become a teacher. Elementary education is where I think I’d be most beneficial, especially as I’ve spent the past nine years + raising our son. Plus, all the time I’ve invested in the various parent groups associated with school, gives me an edge. I think I know what parents expect from elementary teachers. I’ve experienced it from the view point of a parent, now, I’d like to see it from a teacher’s perspective.

My studies started middle of this month and will take about three years. Making the transition back to “student” has been a challenge for me. I last studied some ten years ago. I’ve literally hit the ground running—hard! I honestly don’t know how these young kids do it...you know, party and study at the same time?!

Managing a household and a nine year old is tough. Now toss in a professor who also demands your attention and time becomes even more limited.

So there you have it. My excuse for being silent for so long.

We’re off to Rome tomorrow. A trip my wife and I made some eighteen years earlier. Rome was a lovely city back then. I’m guessing it’ll be even better this time around. What makes this trip so special for us is that we can share Rome’s beauty and charm with our son. He has no idea what the next few days will bring, or how culturally enriching this trip will be for him.

I’ll try and post a few pictures.

Happy Easter!

The Cultural Divide

2015-03-05T02:49:00.003-08:00

Cultural differences between German and American schools, never ceases to amaze. I regularly see, for example, kids as young as six or seven, riding public transit alone, to/from school daily. Throughout the school year, I’ve eased up a little, allowing my son to ride part of the way to/from school by himself. Another example of cultural difference is young teenage kids hanging-out with school friends, all hours of the day and night. Eventually the day will come when my child will want to do the same. The cultural gap seems to be at its widest when it comes to swimming pool etiquette, particularly at German schools. What happened last week during swimming class left me speechless.

Our son has one swimming lesson per week, as part of the school curriculum. I got the shock of my life when, my son revealed to me that he was made to sit in his underwear and t-shirt during swimming class, despite having came to school with a note from home, asking his swim teacher to excuse him from all water activities. He not swimming was, on the advice of a doctor, due to a persistent cough. Our child wasn’t ill enough to remain home but, according to the doctor should avoid getting wet---meaning no swimming. Unbeknownst to us, children aren’t allowed to enter the pool area wearing street clothes or shoes. And since our child came to school without swimming trunks, he had no other option available to him other than to strip down.

We were completely unaware of this policy. And from what I can gather from a few other parents, they too had no clue. We did know that any student not participating in swimming that day is required to bring a note from home. Had we known the consequences beforehand, our son would’ve come to school with both an excuse note and swimming kit.

The school’s response was immediate and swift, when I contacted them for answers. I received a reply, within hours of writing. Several email exchanges took place between me and the school that afternoon. None of the explanations they gave seemed to satisfy me, or that they too were fully aware of the policy so; I personally showed up the following morning and had a cordial conversation with a senior school official. The school agreed to look into the matter and get back to me as soon as they had clarification on the swimming policy.

True to their word, they did; I received an email later that day. According to two swimming teachers, the swimming hall’s policy, set forth by local government in Berlin, policy they must adhere to, have strict rules and regulations which clearly states that no one is allowed to enter the swimming area wearing shoes or street clothes, for hygienically reasons. And since my child didn’t bring his swimming trunks, the teachers had no choice but to insist that he wear the bare minimum.

As it was explained to me, the swimming instructor’s hands are tied. And as they don’t have anywhere else to put the kids who can’t swim (lack of adult supervision), non-participates are forced to sit in the swimming hall for safety reasons.

Had this bit of vital information been communicated to parents, this would’ve never happened. The swimming teachers say they forewarned parents, earlier in the year during an initial meeting with all parents at the beginning of the school year. I’ve attended every meeting offered to parents by the school and cannot remember this EVER being mentioned. I remember the part about writing a note, but nothing about having the kids sit in underwear and t-shirt.

I understand the need to keep public pools and swimming halls clean and disease free however, the current guidelines need to be revised with the best interest of the children in mind.

Here’s why.

First, kids at the age of eight and nine are becoming self conscience, not only of themselves but of everyone else. Imagine having to sit next to someone you don’t know, especially if that person is older or of the opposite sex, wearing minimum clothing. How would you feel? Second, picture your own child sitting in front of all their classmates, wearing skivvies and a tank-top. How do you think they’re feeling? Would you want to sit in front of your peers, fellow classmates from college or co-workers, dressed this way? I wouldn’t. And finally, it’s just down-right humiliating and embarrassing. My own child said he felt uncomfortable and awkward by it all.

I swim at a local swimming hall three times a week, here in Berlin. Rules and regulations require swimmers to remove their shoes before heading to the changing rooms. Removing your shoes helps to prevent the introduction of foreign objects into areas in and around the pool. These and other precautions make perfect sense to me and I’m more than willing to comply. Anything that goes beyond this doesn’t make sense.

Two Days In Time

2015-02-17T04:55:00.000-08:00

After what seemed like a lifetime, reports cards finally came home, right before winter break. Overall, this is a good report. With the exception of one or two areas, I didn’t see any cause for concern. Although as a parent you wonder how teachers aren’t able to see the same child you see at home, at school. When Parent/Teacher conferences open up for business next month, I’ll discuss it with the teacher. The one discrepancy my wife and I did note was two days where he was marked absent. Collectively, neither of us could recall Christopher ever being absent from school. Imagine the thoughts running through our minds reading this on our child’s report card. Did he really skip school?

When we emailed the teacher, he wrote back saying that, yes, Christopher had indeed missed two days of school. In fact, according to him, another teacher also “thinks” she too marked him down as being away from school for the very same days. We continued to press the teacher for more information, specific dates, a signed excuse note by either my wife or me, anything at all to substantiate or backup his claims that our son hadn’t attended school two days. Finally, after a bit more research on his part, the error (the teacher’s) was discovered. He admitted to erroneously marking him absent two days—two days school wasn’t even on! He apologized, saying he didn’t have a clue why and agreed to correct it. We laughed and breathed a sigh of relief!

I guess it pays to be persistent about something when you know it’s not right.

If ever the opportunity would arise whereby parents are able to critique their child’s teacher—in effect, giving the teacher a report card of sorts, I’d jump at the opportunity. I remember having to do this in college for all my professors. Teachers aren’t above reproach and should be graded on how well they do their jobs. And who better to ask than parents themselves. While I’m fairly satisfied with our child’s teacher(s), I believe there are many areas where improvement is needed.

But that’s another blog topic.

Monday Morning Lice Alert

2015-01-29T07:05:00.001-08:00

Several weeks have passed since my last posting and, during that time, quite a bit has happened.

First thing Monday morning, I receive word, via email, someone in our class has lice. I guess it happens to the best of us, right. The parents took the bold initiative of quickly notifying everyone. Very quick thinking on their part! BRAVO.

I recall having to undergo bi-monthly health inspections for lice during elementary school. In addition to having our hair picked through, every child was screened for Scoliosis. As a small child, seeing my fellow classmates unceremoniously pulled off into a side room by the school nurse during these screenings, gave me goose bumps. Poor kids. I was just so thankful I wasn't one of them.

Thankfully I never caught it, lice, and neither has Christopher. Yes, I checked my child’s head for signs of life. You know, the creepy crawlers. It’s nothing life threatening. But they are a huge pain in the ass to get rid of, especially since most of today’s medicated shampoos are useless in killing the little bastards.

Nowadays, schools are far more proactive in helping kids stay healthy than ever before. And that's a good thing because so many children aren't seeing a doctor regularly, or going to the dentists twice a year. Speaking of dentist, my child's teacher casually mentioned to me that, a dentists will come to our school this year and examine all the kiddos teeth. Dental and medical care are both FREE in Germany, for those under 18, so there really is no excuse for not seeing a doctor or dentist if the need should arise.

Continuing on...

Walking home from school two days ago, Christopher told me when he’s married and all; he’d like to change his name. Hearing him say this was both hilarious and a little worrying. It was hilarious because I never expected him to come up with something so ridiculous. It was worrying because his mother and I both worked tirelessly for weeks trying to find a suitable name that sounded good, both in German and English. All of our hard work thrown to the wind in one brief moment. And of course no one else put this idea into his head. No one that he’s willing to name and shame! According to him, his current name sounds too babyish. The name he’s decided on, a more appropriate male name, is: Jack-Septic-Guy.

This week, Christopher started riding the S-Bahn alone to school. Granted the journey takes all of seven minutes and is just four stops away. But he's on the train alone. Minus Papa Bear. My heart raced wildly that morning, as the doors gently shut on the train, and I stood there, alone on the platform watching, as the train slowly crawled out of the station into the darkness of the early morning hours. This was a big step for him but, an even bigger hurdle for me. Keep in mind; I still pick him up at the day, so he’s not going to/from school entirely alone, just one small portion.

And finally....

Saturday, Christopher will spend the night at a friend's home. While not his first sleepover, (previous sleepovers have been with a girl) this will be his first with another boy-actually several boys. It's a birthday party/sleepover all rolled into one. Brave parents!

Until next time....

Engaged Teachers & The NRA in South Carolina

2015-01-16T04:32:00.003-08:00

I stumbled upon a couple of interesting news articles this morning, while riding the train back home. Though short, these few minutes of silence provide with enough time to scroll through my Twitter account, catching up on the latest news. I love Twitter! People call it the fifth news network, or so I’ve heard.

The first article I read was from Gallup.com focusing on how engaged, or not engaged, teachers in the top fifteen most populous states in America are. The State of Washington, with 35%, came in first as the state with the most engaged teachers. At the bottom of the list for least engaged teachers was The Great State of Florida at 17%. Gallup defines engagedteachers as those involved with, enthusiastic about and committed to their work. (Matt Hastings and Sangeeta Agrawal at Gallup.com)

You can read the full article, here:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/181139/washington-leads-largest-states-teacher engagement.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

How engaged do you think your child’s teachers are? Personally, all my child’s teachers are fairly well engaged. At least they give me the impression they are. One in particular, my sons’ English teacher is, the most engaged of them all. She’s Canadian, btw.

My reasons for saying this are quite simple. First, she’s well organized. Any class assignments are clearly communicated to parents. Next, I always know when her assignments are due. No guessing games, rummaging through book bags looking for lost papers or calling/emailing other parents. She has a website site too, which lists ALL class assignments. And finally, she’s quick to responds to my emails, should I have any questions or concerns. Of all the teachers my son has, he’s responded best under her guidance and leadership.

I’m of the opinion that no matter how engaged a teacher might be in his/her job, if parents aren’t engaged as well in their child’s education (at home), kids will suffer.

And finally, I came across this bit of “Southern News” from South Carolina. According to Mother Jones, if the National Rifle Association, commonly referred to as the NRA, have their way, three weeks of every school year will be devoted to teaching students, from 1^stgrade onward, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—The Right to Bear Arms.

Don’t take my word for it, read it yourself.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/south-carolina-second-amendment-education-nra

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Back To The Grind

2015-01-09T05:06:00.002-08:00

Now back from our holidays in Munich and what an absolute joy that was. Spending time with friends from the Middle East was great. And, the city of Munich delivered on what it’s well known for during the winter, lots and lots of snow. So much snow, in fact, it reminded me of our time in Ottawa, Canada many years ago. Just wasn’t as cold...but cold enough to make me yearn for warmer weather in five to six months time.

Germany’s biggest southern city has so much to offer its visitors. In just four days, we took a tour of Bayern Munich Football stadium, traveled to a small village north of Munich (via train), visited The Deutsche Museum, saw Schloss Nymphenburg and even tried several times to seat ourselves at the Hofbreauhaus but failed. To find a seat here is like playing the lottery. We ended up feasting at the Hard Rock Cafe across from it. That too was good eating! Have a look at the pictures below.

No sooner had we returned to the bustle and grind of our weekly school routine that, I noticed an article from a local newspaper here in Berlin, posted to the JFKS Parents Facebook page. The article was about how careful teachers, and parents, have to be when it comes to receiving/giving Christmas gifts. The long and short of it: because teachers are considered to be in a position of high authority, they’re forbidden by law from accepting personal gifts over €10. The rules are in place for a reason. That I understand. After all, no one wants to be accused of trying to bribe one’s instructor, or their child’s teacher, right?

Over the past few days, this topic has caught the attention of many individual parents and several of the school's associations like the Parent Council and Town Hall community. One parent suggested this topic be put on the agenda to be discussed at the next Parent Council meeting and Town Hall. I’m a member of both so I suspect I’m going to be inundated with varying opinions on proper gift giving etiquette.

Our homeroom teacher happily accepted our very modest gift, even thanking everyone in the New Year. I’m of the opinion that so long as a gift is given for all the right reasons and intentions, it’s perfectly fine. But I also understand why giving a gift could be easily viewed as trying to persuade someone, if given for all the wrong reasons. None of the parents in our class had any hidden agenda behind giving our classroom teacher a gift for Christmas.

Here’s the link to the article (in German). Google translator might help you to makes sense of it all. Well worth a read, if you have the time.

https://de.finance.yahoo.com/nachrichten/abschiedsgeschenk-kommt-berliner-lehrerin-teuer-zu-stehen-135752129.html

Underneath stadium right before players head out to the field.

BMW World. Beautiful car but I honestly wouldn't want one.

BMW bike....a very expensive one at that.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2014-12-23T09:58:00.003-08:00

In wrapping up this year, I’d like to thank everyone for stopping by and reading my blog. Many of you are regular readers while, many more just happen to stumble upon me by chance. Regardless of how you ended up in my little corner of the World Wide Web, do know that I appreciate your readership and encourage you to keep coming back.

Over the past several months, the frequency of my posts has gotten smaller and smaller. Surely you’ve noticed this, right? This has more to do with me being occupied with more pressing issues than not having a story (or two) to discuss with all of you. Have no doubt; I have plenty to tell, just not enough time to tell it.

Big changes are in the pipe lines for next year which could reduce even further the amount of time I have to write here. More on that topic as it develops.

During this Christmas season, please keep in your thoughts and prayers, those individuals who’ve just recently left this earth, by no fault of their own. Folks like Joe Cocker, Udo Jürgens and the two New York City police officers who were brutally assassinated for no apparent reason. My God bless them and their families.

We’re off to Munich in a couple of days, to visit with good friends from Kuwait. I look forward to blogging more in the New Year.

Until then.....keep safe and have a Merry Christmas!

Fostering in Change

2014-12-11T04:05:00.003-08:00

Aside from having lost a lunchbox, a warm winter hat and forgetting homework assignments from school, all typical characteristics of some eight year old boys, life has been relatively calm and uneventful here in the big city of Berlin. One thing is for sure, winter is here! And o how I miss the mild, sunny days in Kuwait. You know it is @25C there at the moment, compared to Berlin’s just breaking over zero temperature. And we had a sprinkling of snow yesterday afternoon. I’ve long forgotten what it’s like to wear a winter jacket, gloves and a scarf.

Any who.....

Several weeks ago, I had a one-on-one with the boy’s homeroom teacher, a meeting he initiated. During that get-together, it was agreed the time had come for Christopher to take the next step, and learn what it truly means to be responsible and prepared for school. My constant reminders of what of what to do, should stop. Otherwise, he’ll never learn to think for himself. In other words, it’s time for Christopher to either keep up with what’s expected of him or, fall flat on his face.

I couldn’t agree more.

Since the beginning of the school year, teachers have overlooked many things, allowing the kids to get used to their new surroundings and routine. None of the teachers has been overly critical of the kids when it came to remembering where one’s classroom is, or forgetting homework assignments (books, worksheets etcetera), or even remembering to bring something as simple as paper and pencil. Given time, the teachers say, the kids do get the jest of things and are able to cope; most are slowly making the transition, including Christopher.

A lot of what’s been going on at school is in preparation for the big leap after Christmas break and my wife I are doing the same at home. We’ve taped Christopher’s daily class schedule to the refrigerator door so that when he’s packing his book bag for the following day, he can see exactly what materials he should bring. Occasionally books, papers and pencils don’t make it into the bag but he has improved five-fold from the beginning of the year.

Writing down homework assignments is another area we’ve been working hard at mastering. There’s lots of room for improvement here, including not misplacing one’s homework book—we’ve lost one already this year! And other simple tasks like packing his lunch, picking out clothes for the following day and strategically placing all these things by the front door the night before. Swimming gear has gone astray when, it should’ve gone to school.

As a parent, you never want to see your child suffer, even a little. But there comes a time when a bit of “tough love” is needed and that time has come. When school starts up in January next year, I’m no longer going to be that constant reminder he’s used to hearing, day in and day out. The sole responsibility will be his and his alone. Time is up, young man. You either sink or swim.

Adventures In Time Line Construction

2014-12-03T03:32:00.001-08:00

How many elementary school children under the age of say ten, can remember their homework assignments from school each day? Sometimes they can but, more often than not they can’t. Mine can’t. They’re just too young.

At the beginning of the school year, our homeroom teacher told parents to contact other parents from the class if their child loses an assignment or can’t remember what to do with a particular homework assignment. If that doesn’t solve the problem, mom and dad are most welcome to contact the teacher directly, via email or by telephone. Each of us has our teacher’s home telephone number and mobile number, too. Although I’ve personally never had to phone our son’s teacher, I have had to reach out twice this year, for help on specific homework assignments. For both times, I received an overwhelming response. You could say we’re a closely tied group of people.

The first time I asked for help was over a math quiz my son supposedly forgot to return after correcting it. There were five or six students actually, who’d forgotten to return the quiz. After digging through a small pile of papers, I came up empty and emailed the others asking for help. Of the five or six kids, only one parent managed to locate the missing quiz. For the rest of us, it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. In the end, all of us emailed the teacher saying that we couldn’t find it. I haven’t heard about it since.

My second time emailing parents happened just recently—as in two days ago. The question I put to everyone was, “Do any of you have an idea about today’s Social Studies homework project--something to do with a time line and the oldest person in the family. According to Christopher, each child has to contact (by telephone!?) the eldest person in their family and ask them a series of questions. For us, the oldest living person in our family resides in America—that person is 85+ and still going strong! But do you think we’re going to go and phone them up from Europe? I think not!

Similar to my last SOS email, I received a hearty response to this one as well. The answers I received back were as diverse as the population of Berlin. Here are a few excerpts:

They can ask any question. How old is s/he?

The questions should help the kids make a time line about their lives.

_______told me that they have to do a Time line about themselves with at least 5 entries beginning at their birth, but _______ did not mention asking someone. But I can't promise that this is the whole truth and nothing else but the truth;-).

________told me they were supposed to contact at least 5 older people and “interview” them about things that happened in their lives then write those points into time lines for each. _________actually went around the neighborhood and interviewed some old ladies and called grandma and grandpa and some older people from our church and interviewed them all….No clue whether _______ went overboard but I thought it was quite amusing to listen in on ________ little questions and the old ladies in our neighborhood probably really enjoyed the unexpected attention ;).

_______said they needed to build a timeline and that by the end of the week the timeline was to have 20 points but that today they needed only 5 points. I heard nothing of interviewing or eldest?? ______ just made the timeline based upon their life.

________said that they needed to learn 5 points about the timeline of their life by interviewing "the oldest person they know."

Are you dazed and confused? Us too!

For the life of me, I can’t understand why the teacher did make the kids write down what they’re supposed to do. You can clearly see what happens when they don’t; several different ways pop up, any of them could possibly be correct. In the end, my wife volunteered herself—she is a wee bit older than I am. I’m not sure if it’s correct, but hey, it’s done.

A Thanksgiving Meal

2014-11-27T12:45:00.002-08:00

Last week, Christopher and all of his classmates celebrated Thanksgiving by eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal together. One parent hosted while everyone else brought in a food dish or other items like drinks, plates and cups. It was agreed that the kids would come directly from school that morning, eat and then, return to school early afternoon. And that’s pretty much how things played out.

When the class arrived around 11am, they took off their jackets, hats, gloves and shoes at the front door, and then headed off in all directions, except for one little boy. He immediately walked up to me and said, “I’m starving; let’s eat!” then, headed off to the table to claim a spot. Eventually, all the kids gathered around the table. I guess you could say that was the signal to start. Our original plan was to wait for the turkey to finish cooking, and then eat. So much for that idea, I suppose.

How to feed 24 growing 3^rd graders turned out to be quite easy. Instead of having each child circling through like in a buffet line, loading up their plates with food, we decided to serve them, one at a time. A couple of parents grabbed a dish and walked around the table, asking each child if they wanted a serving of whatever we had in our hand. I remember one little boy asking if I had any salt.

“No, we don’t have any salt” I said. “Everything is seasoned perfectly,” I promised him. By the time we finished dishing up all the food, very little was left. Even the pumpkin and apple pies were a big hit!

By 1PM, they’d all left and headed back to school, leaving the cleaning up to the parents. The meal was a huge success, with both parents and kids thoroughly enjoying the time together.

Later that evening, a BOLO (Be on the Look Out) email arrived from one worried parent in our class. According to the email, their child had had such a great time that day; they’d actually came home wearing another child’s shoes! Seriously, this really happened. I would understand picking up the wrong hat or gloves, but shoes? How’s that possible?

This was a first for me, a class Thanksgiving meal. Nothing close to this would’ve been possible in Kuwait. Here, however, these types of cross-cultural celebrations are encouraged as a way of experiencing each other’s customs and traditions—German/American. I think this is a great idea and look forward to many more in the years to come.