Neue Stifte, neues Maeppchen: new German school thread

[finknottle]

Am starting in positive manner as we're 7 weeks into the new school year and all 3 of mine are settled and happy.
Well, d won't be if she does have head lice and has to stay off because she loves school so much.
S1 is in the second year of secondary & still thriving. Is class prefect for the first time which was a great ego boost.
S2 is in Y4 & has been doing better in class but his test results are still lousy (unfortunate choice of phrase if we are lice-ridden) and his teacher is convinced it's the language issue. He's trying harder which is a good sign. He lost the prefect election by 1 vote to his best friend and was chuffed to bits to be his "deputy" and that so many voted for him.

Had forgotten how wonderful the "erste Klasse" is.

Ok, when do I start to panic? Finks are you there, please come and reassure me - ds came home with another 4 in German. Do I still wait or panic now or start packing?? He's never had 4's and rarely had a 3 even before.

He had to write a story from a choice of 4 pictures - so using his imagination. His idea was rubbish, he used silly words like kotzen, kriegen etc and forgot all about capital letters etc. He's been sitting at the table doing stuff on Nominativ, genetiv etc and has just stopped now - it's 17:32. His day started at 7am, how much more can I make him practise?

He's just started Gymnasium right? If it's a one off, panic not! What was the other 4 for?

From the hell that was Y3 & Y4 for s1, what I used to do was make him redo the essay so he'd learn to use a certain vocab etc. There is a pattern to the structure & a lot can be achieved once they've got the rhythm of what's expected iykwim. You have to learn to write an "imaginative essay" ticking all the boxes of what's required rather than be able to write an imaginative essay... Tis the system.

Didn't work with s2 mind you. We must have done 6 practice Bastelanleitungen and he still forgot it all and got a 4-...

Is the nom/gen stuff homework? Cos I discovered after quite a wasted heap of time that it was better to keep going over what the boys do in school and focus on that material rather than saying, here are 10 verbs, what's the Vergangenheitsform?
Sympathy though. I had a meeting with s2's teacher and s2 last week, came up with some good practical ideas (she is different...) and yet he's still in his own cotton-wool world.

The other 4 was also for German dictation. I'll try to get him to rewrite the essay after tea. Yes the othet stuff he did tonight was homework. I have no idea if he got it right either because I don't get nominativ, akkusativ etc although I can do genetiv. He ha sto ask wer oder was, wen oder was, wem oder was buut he just kept guessing and using the was which is where I get stuck too. I had 3 grammar books on the table too!

Dd had a Übungsdiktat this week which we got to practise through and she still got 7 mistakes. I gother to rewrite that again tonight and she had maths, quite a lot too. Now she's curled up on the sofa half asleep waiting for her tea. Parents meeting on Friday at 4pm for ds so I need to get calm and have a list of questions. Thanks for answering.

Yes, by the way he has got a list with boxes to tick about imaginative writing - he doesn't seem to take it seriously so had to have a serious talk with him and make it clear that his beloved nintendo ds will not be in the house if he doesn't make more of an effort. I hate doing this.

what on earth is this list with boxes to tick about imaginative writing? Really cannot imagine it.

Here's a simplified version of what ds had from school on how to write an Essay.
He forgot to write a title to his essay which made his grade worse too.

Überschrift

Einleitung

Hauptteil inklusive:

Richtiger Satzbau wird verwendet.
Treffende Adjektive und Verben beschreiben.
Die Satzanfänge wechseln.
Die ICH- oder ER-Form wird durchgehalten.
Die einfache Vergangenheit (Präteritum) ist die Erzählzeit.
Wörtliche Rede, Fragesätze und Ausrufe treten häufig auf.

Schluss

hmm don't see why "wörtliche Rede" has to occur a lot in imaginative writing. I could write something very imaginative without using it once.

Apart from that, it sounds like he should be writing a rough draft without worrying too much about all these things, just getting his thoughts down on paper and then going through it checking all these points before writing a good copy. Is there time for that?

I wouldn't get him to rewrite it personally

No I didn't bother tonight. He wanted to practise trumpet as they are giving their first Bläserklasse concert in 2 weeks. There isn't enough time to get him to do more than he is really, makes me mad because at his age I didn't have homework and I only had an hour maximum when I was 12 or 13.

He's 11 then? Is he in this "Probehalbjahr" or do they not have that there?

No, he's 10 and in year 5 Gymnasium. As far as I know they can change up or down from Realschule (so probably also down from Gymnasium) after the first half year and at the end of year 6. Going by what ds told me half the class must be on it's way down to Realschule. Are they trying to scare them into working harder or just getting them used to the stres sthat is to come. It's wrong, wrong..

oh boy. All so stressful isn't it compared to our own schooldays in the distant past? Wouldn't fancy being a dc these days.

I am having real problems with my stupid mailtool at the moment by the way. I can see you have sent me a mail but can't open it

It's annoying isn't it - why do computers and websites do that?! My computer keeps crashing or getting stuck and I have to re-boot it. It's on it's last legs.

Iknow the stress here is awful for a dc his age. I've seen my niece aged 12 and she's top of the class in the UK well on her way to getting good GCSE results if she keeps it up - no stress, hardly any homework. I hate it here.

Morning! Ths is so peinlich but I need to ask if any of you get what this means:

Guten Morgen!
Das Verbot für Lehrer, Unterschriften der Eltern unter Zensuren
einzufordern, war in der gestrigen Grund zu allgemeiner Verwunderung.
Eine Möglichkeit, zuverlässig über anstehende und zurückgegebene
Arbeiten und Tests informiert zu werden, ist unsere
eMail-Verteilergruppe: Wer immer davon erfährt, schreibt eine eMail an
[email protected]. Dann wissen alle Bescheid.
Einen schönen Tag wünscht...

I don't know why but I don't get what they want. It's the Gymnasium parents group (I managed to join online so that's OK) but I don't get what they want to do. Shouldn't the teachers be in charge of this sort of thing ?

Not embarrassing, doesn't make much sense. Are there bits missing?

That the teachers aren't allowed to demand that parents sign the Noten?
What's that got to do with getting info re upcoming and marked tests?

Phew, that's Ok then so it's not just me! Well, I'm stillplanning my meeting on Friday with the Klassenlehrer so I can add this to the list of questions. How many questions do you think I should go for in a 10 minute slot?

Blimey, 10 mins? I've never been out in less than 45 mins, they usually allocate a whole period, only once had less cos she had 2 parents to see.
I'm off to see d's teacher at 12. D is so happy at school & is thriving, has come on a lot in herself, iykwim. Such a change going in with no problems to discuss.

What are your main concerns about your s? I always find emphasising the "How can we help at home to improve x,y,z?" goes down well as many teachers complain the parents think it's all the teacher's job.

Yep, 10 minutes - that's all I ever had at the primary school in south Germany too. I did get 20 minutes with dd's teacher once in Berlin. The meetings are from 16 to 19:00 and teher are 33 families shared between 2 Klassenlehrer as each class has 2.

I'll definately be asking for the email/contact number of the German teacher and all the Sprechstunde times (hope they evenhave that). Helped out at dd's school yesterday as they are doing cookery lessons. They are all nice dc and the school is lovely compared to Berlin. I'm going again next week to help.

It's an odd mail to my mind. They missed out the word meeting so the beginning makes no sense. At the last meeting everybody expressed that they were unsatisfied with this new arrangement that teachers are no longer allowed to request that parents sign under the dc's grade to show they have seen it. This means they no longer really know what grades their kids are getting for tests and homework.

Then it should be a new paragraph sayign they are trying to get round this and keep on the ball by having this mail service to alert you to the fact that essays or tests have been corrected so you can confront the dc yourself and find out their grade.

Think the parents just want to know how the dc are doing and monitor it and now they are no longer sending the results home for the parents to sign underneath, people are worried they won't know when the grades are slipping.

Good luck with the meeting.

How did the meeting go finknottle?

Thanks ZZZen, I'll ask about it at the meeting on Friday too. I'm first to go in so the teacher should be nice to me and take enough time to answer my questions. I'd say the last half of the meetings will be rushed if they get a talkative parent or two going into overtime.

I write a lot of garbled emails myself

ZZZen, what happened with your d? Spill all by email or else... I shall I do something... dunno what, but annoying.

my stupid mailtool is down finks, it's maddening. I cannot get into the thing at all. Might have to create some new mailtool

Send me a quick mail too if you get a new email account ZZZen. Or have you lost all your email addresses too?

Right, today is last chance for getting my questions sorted out for the meeting tomorrow. On the subject of ds's quietness do you think I should tell the teacher that he was in a class of 15 dc throughout his primary and he's having trouble settling or rather finding the chance to speak in his new class? Also would it sound too much if I ask out right if his 3's, 4's and 5's will mean Versetzung? I really need to know how he can improve but maybe in Gymnasium a 3 is Ok? I think a 1 is nearly impossible to get now.

He isn't even going to get a great grade in Englsih, silly mistakes like spelling brown as braun or hobby as hobie. 7 mistake s of this sort in last test.

Def mention he's had difficulty settling in. You don't want to sound like you're only making excuses so mention silly mistakes he keeps making and ask teacher what he/she advises, that always goes down well!
Wouldn't mention Versetzung, it's only November.