20 February 2009

Last Sessions

February 2nd and 5th marked the last days of my classes for the semester in Eichstätt. Most of the classes were filled with any unfinished work and last minute explanations of how I would calculate students' grades. At the end of each class I thanked my students for the semester, wished them luck, and told them that perhaps we will see each other again in the spring.

On Monday the 2nd I said goodbye to U.S. Current Events and Debate and Discussion. As they have been requested several times, following are pictures of the classes. In the first photograph is a view of U.S. Current Events. From left to right, the names of the students, with their country of origin in parenthesis, are Audrey (France), Deborah (France), Maria (Italy), Anna (Poland), Giorgia (Italy), Annachiara (Italy), Evelyn (Germany), Olya (Russia), Liliya (Ukraine), Xavier (France), and me. Not pictured because they either didn't need credit or simply missed the last day are Marat (Ukraine), Tonya (Russia), and Yan (Russia).




In the next view you can see my Debate and Discussion class. From left to right are Konrad (Germany), me, David (Germany), Gesine (Germany), Renate (Germany), Marat (Ukraine), Deborah (France), Martin (Germany), and Katarina (France). Not pictured because it was the last session and she didn't need credit for the course is Cornelia (Germany).



The week progressed and Thursday arrived. In American Culture the students had to write a brief essay as their final assignment in class. Actually, the essay wasn't necessary for me to assign in order for them to receive credit for the class, their presentations during the semester would have been enough, but I was curious to see their writing ability and to grade essays. I have to say though that most of them wrote at a fairly impressive level considering that they are not native speakers. In the picture below, from left to right, are Maximilian (Germany), Katharine (Germany), Elena (Germany), Benedikt (Germany), Anelor (France), Anna (Germany), Elaine (France), Aurelie (France), and Xavier (France). Not pictured are Julie (France), Cornelia (Germany), Bruni (Germany), and Manuela (Germany). All of the not-pictured students did not need credit for the course and therefore did not need to attend the last session of class when everyone else wrote the essay.



The next picture shows only about half of my students in English Conversation on U.S. Current Affairs. From left to right, including those sitting at the table, are me, Jil (Germany), Anna (Germany), Lisa (Germany), Elena (Germany), Julia (Germany), Julia (Germany (the semester actually started with three Julias)), Martin (Germany), Simone (Germany), and Jörg (Germany). Other students not seen in the photograph are Julie (France), Anelor (France), Tereza (Czech Republic), Birke (Germany), Annika (Germany), and Anja (Germany). As you can see, this was the class that I had with the highest majority of German students. All in all, teaching to such an international group of students in all of my classes made things more interesting and allowed for several perspectives to be incorporated.




This is a view of one of my three classrooms. In this room I taught American Culture and English Conversation on Current U.S. Affairs back-to-back every Thursday, usually standing behind that podium and delivering my slideshow presentation for the day's lesson from the computer.



I spent the following Friday and weekend grading essays and calculating final grades for my students. In total, I had about 50 students, and, yes, I knew each of their names. All paperwork was turned in on the next Monday and my semester officially ended.

On that same Monday, Dylan came to visit me for a few days. On Tuesday we traveled to Ingolstadt in order to pay a visit to the Deutsches Medizinhistorisches Museum, or the German Medical History Musesum. More than a century ago Ingolstadt was the location of a renown medical university; this was partly the reason why Mary Shelly chose the city as the setting for her novel Frankenstein. The museum showcases medical instruments and advancements through the centuries, and exhibits on the human body. On display are perserved human corpses with skin and flesh removed in order to see the details of the circulatory system or organs in the body. While the views are rather morbid and uneasy to one's stomach at first glance, they do reveal the amazing complexity of the human body. Photography in the museum was not permitted.

Dylan returned to Salzburg on Wednesday, and, due to boredom, I started making preparations for a short trip. My destination was Switzerland.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nicholas,
Geat-Klassbilder /
Sie hatten mehr Studenten, als ich dachte / auf Ihren Reisen / Sie einige Ihrer Studenten besuchen /

Liebe
Vati-O