Halftime: A visit to the beautiful Èze

Since our trainer is teaching at a regular high school as well, we only had a quiz to complete and otherwise a day off. The weather was fantastic so my friend and I decided to go to the village of Èze. It's a medieval village roughly 400 meters above sea level. You go by bus from Nice and it brings you to the top from where you walk only a little bit more to reach the old town. Alternatively you can take the train, arrive near the beach and take the Nietzsche Path. It got its name because the German philosopher spent time in the south of France and used to walk this path to think and get inspired for his writing. 

It's a pretty rough path to walk so good hiking shoes are recommended. Also you should bring water or something else to drink. When it's warm and sunny, it can get exhausting. 

When you reach the top, it's totally worth the struggle. The village is charming with its narrow pathways and alleys, the breathtaking views and a fascinating exotic garden. You pay 8 euros entrance fee and can enjoy a stunning scenery and a variety of cacti and succulent plants. There are also many artsy statues, which make an unusual picture together with the plants. There are cafés, shops, restaurants, sweets manufactures, art galleries and much more. 

If the challenging walk doesn't scare you, it's definitely an experience to make, too.     

And what about school? ... weeeeell. It would be wrong to say that there's been nothing new at all. We talked about lots of different websites, apps and digital tools, most of which I already know and use. There were some new ones, that I will definitely try. But their number was really small. What I furthermore didn't like very much was that we TALKED about the tools. We didn't really use them much. There was an hour of playing around in there. However, when you are familiar with most things, it doesn't make a lot of sense to randomly play around. I think, it would've been better to name the tool and have a hands-on exercise immediately after to show how it can be used. With specific instructions. A concise topic. A limited time window. 

After lunch we went to a zoological garden. Our trainer likes to take his classes on outdoor learning experiences. I love the idea. However, here again: we are teachers and trainers. I think we all would have appreciated some instructions and examples how you can structure such a lesson outside. What we did instead was go there, get a quiz which we can but don't have to do and walk around the garden individually. I understand that our trainer didn't want to treat us like kids. But to make such a visit an educational one, you have to give some instructions. For example we talked about a plant recognizing app - instead of saying 'try it out', we might have got the task to build an activity around using the app. See if there are problems or kinks we would need to be aware of. Something like that. 

Another thing - I know I'm complaining a lot, but I can't not: For the last day we have to come up with a lesson plan where we put what we've learnt to use. You need time for that. Ok, it's supposed to be a partner activity. Still, you need to sit together, talk about what you want to do, what apps and websites make sense and then actually create it. We're given only a short time for all of this and are supposed to present it right after. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist but that whole assignment puts a lot of pressure on me. I want to do a good job, practice what I've learnt and create a good presentation. All these things will not be realistic to achieve in such short time. I guess it's a valuable lesson for me as a trainer: it makes me think about the practicability of my tasks. The worst thing you can do is overwhelm the students. It kills their motivation and prevents them from having a positive learning experience. But maybe I'm too harsh and critical.  

Maybe some of you have an opinion on that. If so, please leave a comment. I'd very much appreciate it.

To end on a positive note: here's a picture of a sunset here in Nice.