“Miss, are they real?” Asked one of the kids last Friday. The little boy meant the (yes, real!) snakes two students were holding, in the secondary school we were visiting. After a thrilling Thursday in Frankfurt, I had looked forward to a nice school trip with the kids, to this other school.
By coincidence, this other school – the CITAVERDE College – is right next to the school I work in as a teacher at the moment. And it’s also the school I went to when I was in my teens. I realise our system is different from England and America for instance, so in short: you leave this type of school with your first diploma, when you’re about sixteen years old. When I was twelve I chose this school because their practical subjects – working with animals and plants – were my kind of thing. (Luckily, my mum figured it would be best to let me do what I’d like and the rest is history).
Anyway, since they have a mini farm, it would be a good idea to pay a visit with ‘our’ young kids and one of my colleagues planned to do that. I was asked to come along and it was a great afternoon! In some of our classes you can see the goats through the window (which is sometimes more appealing than what’s happening inside the classroom), but this time we could see our playground from the other side. And there was much more to see. I took a lot of pictures, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to publish the ones with the kids on them. Which is too bad, as you can’t really describe the amazing looks on their little faces when they were holding the animals.
And actually, the excitement started when we met up in the schoolyard, where a few other students were as well. “Look, I’m sitting next to the big kids”, was what one of our girls proudly shouted. Later, in the stalls, she was jumping around as a rabbit herself. It was so nice to see them experiencing many new things and having so much fun. We had a great tour from Fons Wilders, once one of my teachers. And even though the building had changed a lot, I could still find my way around.
“Can we come back when the mummy mouse has her babies, Miss?” Maybe we’ll do that indeed. To say thanks again and exchange pictures as well… But first, after school, I had to pack and leave for an exciting weekend in Amsterdam, of which I’ll tell more soon.
Here you can see one of the reasons the kids really enjoyed it. (Picture: Hanny van Arkel.)
One of the girls making sure the pigs went back to their beds. (Picture: Hanny van Arkel.)
The animals posing (well, all but one). (Picture: Hanny van Arkel.)
3 Comments
what a nice story Hanny, I can almost see it happening before my eyes!
A great story of a great day, Hanny (miss). I, too, have fond memories of staring out of the window at school, although I had nothing as interesting as goats to look at. lol.
Keep up the good work with all that you do
Thank you guys!
xx