Works...

Nancy Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society

The German Comenius group has chosen Nancy Kleinbaum’s novel Dead Poets Society .

“Reading and Literary Promotion Through ICT” is the aim of our Comenius project. In Dead Poets Society students come back to Welton Academy, a private school for rich, ambitious students in New England, USA in 1959.A group of students  meets their new English teacher, Mr Keating, an alumnus of Welton Academy himself. He impresses them with unorthodox, creative teaching methods and arouses their interest in literature. The students revive a reading club. They meet to present and discuss literature in a small group of enthusiastic boys.

As our project is  concerned with getting students interested in reading and writing, this book gets them together not only with other Comenius students but also with a group of students of old times who shared this interest, too. The reading blog gives the students the possibility to publish entries for discussion and mutual sharing.  

First school days

…at Welton Academy

Welton Academy is a very strict and traditional school, so students who come there for the first school day may be astonished when they take part in the big and magnificent ceremonies welcoming new and old students back. The new students get the ‘light of knowledge’ from the headmaster and there are some musicians with bagpipes. There are three important principles at this school which are tradition, honour, discipline and excellence and every principle is explained by an alumnus of the school. So the first impression of new students is that this is a very serious school and maybe they are awestruck. New students might even become scared and want to go home but if they really want that, they won’t be given a choice anyway. They will  have to stay anyway. The headmaster talks to the most important and excellent students which surely is a to them. So the first school day can be both: a day of great honour or a horror day.

By Marsel Hart

… at Herzog-Johann-Gymnasium

One day before the first day at secondary school the pupils who have attended their primary school for four years are really excited. They don’t really know what will happen on this day at school but they know that they will meet many new people.

The next morning all new pupils and their parents meet in the assembly hall where a church service is planned for them. The choir class sings some songs at the beginning and end of the service. Furthermore there is a speech of the headmaster to welcome the new pupils. Some more people talk. After this the pupils are introduced to their new tutor and their classmates. Then they walk to their classroom and have to manage to find a seat for themselves. After that the teacher gives them their timetable and explains the important rules in our school. Then the children play some games to get to know the names of their classmates.  The students get more confident and start to communicate with pupils they don’t know.  Then the tutor shows them the school so that they will find their classroom the next day or know where the toilet is. Their parents meet them after an exciting first school day at 11:00.

By Eva Wickert

Two boys at Welton Academy called Todd and Neil write diary entries at the end of their first school day. Todd is new at the school whereas Neil has come back to school after the holidays. They are roommates.

Diary entry by Todd Anderson

Dear Diary,

I’m happy that I have survived my first school day! Now I have got an impression of this school: strict, hard and BORING. I realize that I have to be very disciplined to survive here. Maybe the nice guys I have met can help me… Knox, Charlie, Meeks, Pitts and Neil are ok. I am a little surprised because I would have never thought that the school is attended by normal students. To me they seemed like aliens with strange talents and abilities. But they are a bit like me and all have their own problems, especially Neil who had a discussion with his dad about his school activities. I told him indirectly about my bad relationship to my father, but maybe he didn’t understand me. I think it is better to have a father who cares for you and tells you what to do than to have a father who does not pay attention to you and only shows you that you are less valuable than your brother who is a wonderful example of a perfect son. I hope the teachers won’t compare me to my brother. I hate that. But the teachers I got to know today didn’t comment when they read out the list of students in class. Teachers are awfully boring here: Mr Hager and Mr McAllister. The only interesting lesson was the English lesson. The new teacher Mr Keating is a bit strange. He has an extraordinary way of teaching, like jumping on the desk or hearing the whistling of alumni in old school photos…

By Eva Wickert

Diary entry by Neil Perry  

Dear Diary,

Today was the first day at Welton Academy and it was a really bad day. After the celebration of the 100th year of existence of Welton Academy, I went to my room with my new roommate Todd Anderson. He is a really quiet and shy guy but I like him and I think he needs me to introduce him. So I will be nice to him and I think we will become friends. When I was together with my friends Knox, Charlie, Steven and Todd, my father came to my room. This bastard told me that he talked to Dean Nolan and that they both agreed that I should drop the annual. He doesn’t respect me with my personal ideas of life but puts me under big pressure – just because he wants me to go to medical school and to be successful. I don’t know what to do. The annual meant so much to me and made school more bearable for me.

Furthermore I am not only angry at him, I am also angry at me because I can’t tell him my own opinion and I never contradict him.

Nevertheless I am going to work hard – I don’t want to undergo all this suffering without being successful at the end.

By Ann-Sophie Piroth     

How school works in Germany

The Rhineland-Patinate School System

The RLP- school system is not very complicated but there are a lot of rules you have to observe.
From the age of 3 to 6 children attend nursery school and from 6 to 10 they go to a primary school.
In the nursery school pupil learn to live with other children of the same age. With games and little tasks they get prepared for primary school. After four years of primary school, pupil can choose which school they want to attend.
There are three possibilities:

Gymnasium - Grammar school

Realschule+

IGS - Comprehensive school

The school is chosen according to the abilities of students. People who are good at school usually go to grammar school and pupils who are not so good at learning usually go to the Realschule+. Attending a gammar school means leaving school after year 13 with A-levels. It is the best school leaving certificate you can get. After year 10 pupils have to choose 3 advanced courses they are good at. At the end of year 13 there are written and oral exams which are very important for your final result.
The difference between grammar school and Realschule+ is that students leave Realschule+ after year 10. After that they can attend another school to reach their A-levels or they can start to work.
The comprehensive school is a mixture of both school systems. You can leave school after year 10 or go on until year 13 if you are good enough.
At every school there are rules you have to observe. If students try to cheat during a class test, teachers will take their test and mark the paper with a 6 ( it is the worst mark you can get) without correcting any mistakes.
Sometimes people copy someone else's homework ,too and if the teacher gets to know this, students are sometimes kept in for one afternoon but this is not a very effective way to punish people because most students go to school by bus and if they are kept in their parents have to come and collect them.
Most of the time there are some people who bully teachers and other students and sometimes they skip school, too.
If they do not want to improve their behaviour, the head teacher can suspend the students pr in the worst case the students can be expelled from school.
If you care about these rules you won't have any problems  with the school system in Rhineland-Patinate.


By Svenja Schiefer

The German school system

In Germany we have three types of school: “Realschule plus”, grammar school and comprehensive school. After primary school ( 4 years) parents have to decide which school is the right one for their child / children. It is often a very difficult decision.

Grammar school:

You go nine years to school and at the end you can take A-levels. The sixth form begins in year 11 (when we are about 15/16)  and ends with an exam at the end of school year 13. After grammar school you can go to every university. There you are able to study whatever you want. Every mother and father wants to send their child to grammar school but not everyone has the qualification to cope with this ambitious “challenge”.

Comprehensive school:

At comprehensive schools you can achieve all forms of school leaving certificates. When parents are not sure what the better way for their child is they send him or her to a comprehensive school. There they are able to have a closer look at their child over the years. The grades decide which way is the better one.

“Realschule plus” :

This school is for less intelligent or lazy pupils. But it also offers good possibilities for the future of the children.  There are many different forms of this school. But generally after the tenth class you leave this school with secondary level.  Pupils are two years together. In the seventh class they will be sent to different classes with different qualifications (“ Hauptschule” or “Realschule” ). There are also schools where pupils stay together till their school leaving exams. Only in several subjects are they differentiated according to abilities  into “A” and “B” courses. After the tenth class if the grades are acceptable the pupils are able to achieve a vocational diploma.

By Katharina Kurz

Poem about German Identity

In German there is

-apart from vine-

Mineral water, beer

and also the Rhine

In addition to that

you meet interesting creatures,

serious and disciplined,

with special features:

they are as humorous as fish

but have varieties of foreign dish.

Further they are great holiday makers

who like to travel far,

a daily duty of every German

is having a clean car.

Simultaneously they are proud of

‘’Made in Germany’’,

high quality standard

is their property.

Now you will ask yourself

‘’How can it be

that Germans love

solar and wind energy?’’

The answer is obvious

and easy to find,

also Germans can be kind!

Finally you have to say:

They are no monsters

but live in a friendly way

by Anna-Teresa