Czech This Out

28 May

We had our last retreat of the '06-'07 school year! It was nice...sort of. We went to Kutna Hora, a town about an hour east of Prague. It's famous for a church that is decorated with human bones. Eerie! The estimate is that about 40, 000 people's bones are used in that place - wow! I will try to get some pictures and post them too. It was an emotional weekend...sad to see some very good friends for the last time and to have to say goodbye to them, but some good things happened too!

We did a lot of walking and saw three churches, actually... One was made of concrete blocks and was very plain. It was not really open to see, but we peeked inside and saw what was either a skeleton or a mummy! You never know around here! The other church was beautiful on the outside - covered in what looked like gargoyles! Not just on the corners or in "normal" places, but little tiny gargoyles covering all of the peaks and flying buttresses...it was really cool! And, I believe - enough said about the bone church!
Today I had regular classes...when I say "classes," I mean "class." Since my seniors are gone, I really only have about half my regular classload! Today is usually my easiest day anyway, so...only one class for me! I taught grammar! Lovely, yeah? How and when to use articles...wow - can't tell you how exciting THAT is. As an American, given a combination of a public and private school education - I had no idea what the rules were for using articles. Can you explain when you would use the word "the" versus when you'd leave it out? Or when you'd use the article "a/an?" Why do we say The Great Salt Lake, but leave off the article in Lake Erie? Those are the wonderful questions my students ask me. This one went fairly well, mostly because I taught this lesson to 6 classes last year and 3 this year. Most of my grammar lessons are marked by at least one point in the class where I am asked a question, my eyes grow large, and I have to humbly say "...um, I'll have to ask Ms. Byrne and get back to you!"

posted by Kassidee Kennedy @ 2:39 PM