Today was my first full day of lessons at the high school in Amstetten (pictured above). It was quite an experience working with students of varying levels and ages, as well as with those that like to talk and with those that are mute. For never having taught a class before, I'd say the day went pretty well. I taught lessons to five different classes and covered topics of US media, our political system/President Obama, current fashion trends among teenagers, and the US school system. Because the Austrian school system is quite different than ours, it's interesting to compare and contrast the two. To be honest, I still don't completely understand the Austrian system, but I'm learning. To put it simply, they have more specialized, technical training in some high schools compared to the more general courses everyone takes in the US. They also have multiple high school tracks that students can take which complicates matters even more.
In general the students were inquisitive and, after some prodding, willingly participated. It's weird, but the younger students tended to participate more than the older students, who should feel more comfortable speaking English since they've been taking classes longer. The most commonly asked question they had for me: Do students in the US wear uniforms? I didn't think it was that common, but apparently it is in the movies because that's where they gain a lot of their insight about the US.
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