Sight Seeing during my last week

This past weekend I spent time at my mentor teacher, Christine Schneider Heinz's house in Eggenburg, about an hour outside of Vienna. The country side is beautiful, but not that much different looking than the country side in Maryland. What is different is the castles and monasteries that Eggenburg has. The buildings are so much older than anything we can find in the United States. They really look like they've come out of a fairy tale!

Yesterday I went to the Spanish Riding School and Belvedere. Seeing the horses up close during the tour was really nice and the ticket was only (I just sat here for about 5 minutes trying to figure out how to type the euro sign, its on my keyboard, i just don't know how to get to it.) Anyway, my ticket was only 15 euro and I got to see the morning exercise from 10-12:30 and had a tour of the house and stables. Afterward I went to see the Belvedere, which is a house that was owned by a prince who fought to keep the Turks out in the 16th(?) century. I can't remember exactly. The inside is now a museum and I decided not to go inside. You can walk around outside through the gardens for free, so that sounded like a better idea :)

Today I went into the school to teach a few lessons and say goodbye to all the students. I will really miss them and my mentor teacher! Everyone in Vienna was wonderful.

Overall I have to say my time in Europe was very educational and exciting! I am so glad I came :) and thanks to everyone who supported me throughout my trip here!

Almost finished

I have only one day left in the schools while I am here in Vienna and I was thinking that I have hardly written anything at all while I was here....
I have seen many different styles of teaching and classroom environments, but I am sure most of my readers would much prefer to hear about all the exciting places I have visited while in Vienna :)
So here is my list:
St Stephan's Cathedral
Hapsburg Winter Palace
Hapsburg Summer Palace
Many different Christmas Markets
Shopping street on MariahilferStrass
Mozart's apartment
Musikverein (where they have the new years eve concert every year)
The Imperial Tombs
A coffee house with Sister Sharon
and maybe some other places that I am forgetting... This is why I should blog every day, then I wouldn't forget ;)

I have plans to go to:
Belvedere
The Spanish Riding school
Ice skating
and out to the country to visit my mentor teachers house

Last night I went to the Musikverein and heard music by Fabio Luisi, Strauss, Liszt and Brahm. I feel very cultured after having gone there :) The place was beautiful! Our seats were right over the violin players and it was so exciting to watch the passion on their faces as they were playing. You could tell which part of the music was their favorite by watching their facial expressions. You could also tell when the performance was getting ready to end as each person gave what seemed like a "this is it!" smile to the person next to them.

Next week I will have a few days to do some touring of Vienna, so if there are any places I have not seem yet, that are a must see before I leave, please let me know!! 

Past Two Weeks in Vienna

The past two weeks in Vienna have been very crazy, I feel like I started moving when I got here and I haven't stopped yet, there is just so much to do, in the schools and the city. Here is what my schedule looks like during the day:

Yes I know my day is over at 2pm but nothing is routine here so I think that's what makes my schedule the most difficult.
I began my first week working mainly with Christine Schneider-Heinz, a high school English teacher. I observed her in many of her classes. The students were very interested to know why I was here and what I would be doing in Vienna so I was able to tell them a little about myself. As it turns out some of the students will be coming to Baltimore in March, so I created a presentation on Baltimore to give them a little information before coming. Since giving my first presentation I have probably given it ten additional times. The other English teachers and their students are anxious to get to know me. With a school of about 700 middle and high school students, I have probably meet close to half of them.
Mu experience in Vienna is different than Mako in that I don't really have one mentor teacher, although I have spent the majority of my time with Mrs. Schneider-Heinz. Each of the teachers want me to come to their class so their students have the opportunity to hear a native speaker. Maybe if there were two of me I could divide and conquer, but as it is I feel as if I am being pulled in all different directions.
Each day I spend time in the elementary, middle and high school. I am teaching each class in the elementary school for 30 minutes a day, and I see either 2 or 3 classes a day. My first class in the elementary school was on Thursday Dec 1st. I thought I was there to observe but the teacher had a different idea. She handed the class over to me so I had to do some quick thinking on my feet. They were first grade students so we went over names, introducing ourselves, colors, numbers and asking how someone is. It went well, the students were excited to use the English they knew to communicate with me.
Although I started observing in the schools on the Monday the 28th, Thursday was the first day I had a set schedule created by the principals. Unfortunately, Friday I arrived an hour late for my elementary school lessons because I got my times mixed up. The elementary school leaves an hour before the middle and high school so they were packing up for the day when I arrived. I made a note to pay better attention to my schedule and I haven't missed a lesson since.
Starting on Monday the 5th I began teaching lessons I prepared in the elementary school classes. I was teaching from 1st to 4th grade so I had a variety of activities to do with the students based on their knowledge of English. The majority of my lessons focused on teaching colors and animals by reading the students the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

The school system here is very different than the United States and the teachers have expressed an interest in me giving a presentation on the American School System which I am currently working on. One day I may feel ambitious enough to explain it on my blog. But that's all for today :)

I know I am a bad blogger.....

So I have not written a blog in a very long time. I am not very good at keeping up with this when the schedule gets very busy. I arrived in Vienna on Saturday November 26th around Noon and Sister Karin was there to pick me up.
After getting settled in, Sister Karin and I went to the 1st District in Vienna. The 1st District would be like Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Its where the most important things are located. We went to St. Stephan's Cathedral and walked down the shopping street to the Hapsburg Palace. We saw the Vienna Library and we went to a Christmas Market which was wonderful! I am sure I will never understand why we don't have Christmas markets in the United States. If I could take one back with me I would. Sister Karin was very helpful in showing me how to get around Vienna
On Sunday I was able to find an English speaking church, Grace Church Vienna. It had been three weeks since I'd been to a church service in English, so I was very excited to go. The people were very warm and welcoming.
I will continue to update you on the events of this past week in school and my activities during the weekend.