My affair with a Passat

You could hardly blame her for reacting in such a violent and remarkable way to a long period of neglect! She even brought me here on July 31, my conveyance to Münster. We parked her behind the apartment building on a spot set aside just for her. It had a little flaw however. It was on a slopey slant and we soon learned that slopey slants are not good for the brakes. We also learned that hand brakes don't like to be tense for so long and therefore prefer a position of rest. So she found her way out onto the street called Piusallee and there she waited until the day the city began tearing up the street and sidewalk. On that day I had exactly 10 minutes to race up the flights, fetch the key to her heart, drive her around the not-so-square block and find a new spot for her. The street worker admonished me that she would soon have been towed. Not too long later she went out on the town and got herself ticketed for parking illegally. With great relief I realized that this occurred while she was in someone else's hands and therefore someone else had to pay. Passat is actually on a very meager diet and hasn't consumed much this year at all. Just once, after she had been in the hands of agreed-to others, she got her fill for the very memorable price of $90. Since then she has had very few outings, just out to the airport at Greven a couple of times and such. That last trip out to the airport however was under very severe conditions. Vision was very poor almost o%. The poor girl was almost fully encased in bird droppings. Those lovely tall trees on Piusallee afford much shade but also are home to more than a few feathered friends. Getting the windshield clear took some doing. The windshield wipers and the cleaning fluid helped a bit. Then I descended upon the old girl with paper towels and more window cleaning fluid in hand. A sticky substance, perhaps also from the trees had fully sealed the car as well as the droppings. With much effort and more scraping, the old girl began to shine. By then it was time to visit the motor car inspection station just up the road. They were kind and efficient enough to inform me that the old girl needed work before she could go on stage again. Her performance would have to wait. At the Pit Stop they wanted my money and Passat was invited to spend the weekend while replacements for her private parts were procured. The really fun part was opening her trunk and slipping the bicycle in so that once there I could have conveyance on to school. Lifting and tugging and shoving we got the bike in, but I was trapped within the handle bars and only with great contortion was I able to free myself from the situation. Bungee cords held the trunk cover in place and we were set to roll. Fortunately the mechanic takes VISA and he even managed to tack on the fee for the final inspection so a further visit to the TÜV people would be unnecessary. As I picked the old girl up I found myself putting the bicycle into the trunk once again. There were two men, one on each side of me, and just for a brief moment I imagined one of them offering to help me juggle the bike into place, but no, no one said a word and well, I guess gentlemanly graciousness is dead. So sad. In any case, we got home and now we avoid that nasty Piusallee parking spot. We are on the side road, with the two left wheels up on the curb. Here that is perfectly legal, at least it appears to be since so many cars spend their nights that way. As a matter of fact you can be facing any which way on that side of the street as long as two of your wheels are up on the curb. Well, we know that we have at least one more outing ahead of us and that will be the full service car wash but we are waiting for a warm dry July day for that special spa visit. There is a lesson to be learned in all of this. Had the Passat been taken out more frequently and regularly she might not have had rusty brakes and then she might have passed inspection without a trip to the mechanic. One would have to have calculated carefully knowing the price of gas per liter is €1,48 to know how much driving would have kept the brakes oiled and happy and not to have spent more than the €558 which the brake job cost. In any case there is no way I would have given up my bicycle year in Münster.

Shaky knees in front of grade 8

It seems that everyone was nervous except the authorities. There I was standing on the stage, high above 94 assembled grade 8 pupils reading the test-taking instructions to the state-mandated "Lernstandserhebung" in German. The title of the test is untranslatable and therefore even German educators living in other states have no idea what it means. Once you leave Nordrhein Westfalen, it becomes an unknown. Basically it is a proficiency assessment which changes forms like a chameleon each year. So why were my knees shaking? It felt like a Saturday but it wasn't. It was a school holiday, where only the grade 13, graduating pupils were there for their orals. By chance the grade 8 test had been scheduled on this date state-wide and therefore all of the grade 8 pupils had to appear in the auditorium at 9am that day as well. Since most teachers had significant duties associated with the grade 13 orals and I teach two out of the three grade 8 English classes, the untranslatable test fell to my shoulders. We had been told it was a good idea to prepare the children so I went out of my way to order a preparation booklet, including a CD (out of my own pocket naturally). Here in Germany the teachers all provide their own teacher materials. There are no personal teacher editions of books provided for example. A couple of months ago I plunged into the preparations head-on with carefully orchestrated listening comprehension exercises, etc. only to discover from my colleague that this year the test would only consist of two written essays, nothing else. The topics would be everyday routines and an additional issue for which they would need to argue pro and con and take a stand. So, when I was scheduled to be out of town for a few lessons, they were assigned to write essays about the typical stuff folks like to argue about: "Life would be better without TV", "Computer games cause violence in real life", "School uniforms should be required". They did good work and I had the time to correct their written work and have them learn from their mistakes. So when the big day came I wasn't worried for them. I was more worried for me. Would I follow the procedures properly, etc.? We had had to write their names and their assigned code-numbers on each test booklet in advance in pencil. (Why in pencil? No one knew the answer to that one.) Several factors led to my stress as I prepared the room for the testing. How do grade 8 pupils behave in such a setting? Grade 9 pupils are the youngest available to me on a regular basis at Patrick Henry High School, therefore grade 8 children are still somewhat of a mystery to me. In particular, I was worried about the one-third of the group which belonged to another teacher. It turned out they did have a few smart-ass comments to make(probably just letting off their own nerves). As I read aloud to them the first page of the test booklet, I felt my German pronunciation slipping away. With each long complicated bit of testing jargon, I anticipated a chuckle or a jeer. None came. It seems they were focused on their task at hand. Although I had written an admonishment to stick to the requested number of words for each essay and told them repeatedly, most of them far overshot the 100 or 120 word goal. It seems stating what needs to be stated in a minimal manner is harder than it looks. Even when writing in a foreign language, English in this case, kids would rather keep writing than put a lid on it. Normally I don't speak German with my English classes, therefore having to do it doesn't feel quite right. Having to read aloud some particularly challenging paragraphs is especially stressful. My self-confidence was at an all time low. Fortunately that lasted about 30 seconds after I quit reading and then the horses were off and running. I have since corrected all 60 of my pupils' tests and am trying to figure out how to enter the website where I must input 32 pieces of response data for each of those pupils. Certainly there could be an easier way to assess these pupils and collect the data. Ultimately it reflects back on the school, more than it does on the individual pupils, somewhat like standardized testing does in the State of California, where schools are rated based on test scores.