I need to structure my classes so that my workload is one that balances instruction with feedback with German work that is more pleasurable to read. Students will each week on Monday, submit a typewritten theme, cohesively written, that incorporates the learned and tested ideas from the previous week. Students are required to maintain an electronic portfolio and constant refinement of their work, which is to be submkitted to me computer-printed, ultimately at 14 point font, double-spaced, with name and title and date. There needs to be a specfic format for these typewritten themes, and also an expectation of word count.
Options for these thematic projects that provide the constant stream of artifacts must be outlined, for variety:
short smartphone-inspired movies/slideshows
a simple written google-doc with a creative-piece of writing
audio recording/youtube-style
comic strip
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
GAPP Trip 2015
On June 12, 2015, Friday afternoon at Raleigh Durham International airport, we all met up and began our trip to Germany. Fifteen Enloe students, two most recently graduated, Dan and Josh, and one already in Europe on a family trip, Alex, a rising junior. He'll meet us in Germany.
The rest of us enjoy a couple of plane rides first to O'Hare in Chicago, on a little Airbus jobber, and then to Frankfurt am Main, Germany (Hesse), on a big ole Boeing 747 jetliner. Besides Dan, Josh, we also have on board rising seniors Zoe, Rose, Meghan, Quinton, Jill, Swetha, Eleanor, Holly, Sean, Dimitry and rising juniors, Helena, Nick and Audrey. And of course, accompanying us is Mrs. Kathy Jones, our intrepid chaperone.
Traveling through the airports with everyone was simple and easy. We stopped when necessary for bathroom breaks, assessed timetables without needing to rush, and got all of our luggage, passing through customs and passport checks without fuss. The next phase was a long-strided dash to where the trains left the airport. An ICE Train from Frankfurt's Airport train station to Mannheim, Germany would take us to our Schwetzingen destination. We snaked our way through the massive airport, up, down, over, and through terminals, between people, kiosks, electric people movers, using moving sidewalks when available, all of our luggage in hand. Nobody's suitcases fell apart during the dash. Once we arrived at the train station, I retrieved our pre-paid tickets from an Fahrschein-Automat. Herr Sperl sported me the confirmation numbers. Tickets were printed without fail, and we entered the station to find our correct track.
It was pretty exciting waiting on the platform, a typically European thing to do right off the bat. The train arrived and stopped for maybe three minutes. We lugged our bags onto it, making a right, then a left, into an emptier Waggon. Space was limited, but we managed to pile our suitcases wherever we can - on racks, above, between our legs, even in the aisle. The train trip lasted 45 minutes maximum. Waiting for us on the train track were our Hebel friends, with a banner that read, prophetically, "Gönn dir eins!" I doubt many of us saw the banner because it was displayed far from where we exited the train, ignored when the Germans walked rapidly to where we disembarked. The banner read in English, "Indulge in one!" It's a new phrase German teenagers seem to be using.
The welcome party on the train platform was all smiles and hugs, and before long everyone was whisked away to their host families by car. Mannheim is only 20 minutes or so away from Schwetzingen. Frau Bachmann was there with her beau, Dirk, and they met their new houseguest for two weeks, Mrs. Jones, quite graciously, and Herr Sperl, my host for the stay at Hebel, was equally excited. We all were, after a long journey, happy to see our friends again in Germany.
I stayed with Herr Sperl in a new aprtment complex just north of Heidelberg's Hauptbahnhof, a neighborhood called Bahnstadt. It was built with strict standards of energy sustainability, efficiency and ergonomics, and apparently urban planners from around the world visit it for ideas on creating new communities with energy consumption in mind. His place was a modern, brand-new, three stroy condominium with lovely outdoor terraces on each floor, an underground garage, a basement. A very nice place, with fairly easy access to the main train station, which I rarely used, and a bus stop with a direct connection to the Hebel Gymnasium. On the whole, I mostly rode in with Sperl to school everyday, and returned by car with him.
Mrs. Jones stayed with Kathrin in Edingen-Neckarhausen. It is a quaint little place around 8 km from Heidelberg. Down the street from her apartment was a regionally, if not nationally, known bakery, whose name escapes me. I had a sample of their bread; it must have been an off-day for them. The loaf was a specialty loaf, dark wheat with cherries or some other cranberry embedded in it. Not bad, but needed to be enjoyed instantly for best results, I guess.
Sperl and I and Kathrin and Kathy and Dirk all met in Ladenburg that evening, after freshening up, and unpacking a little bit. Ladenburg is on the other side of the Neckar River, opposite Edingen-Neckarhausen, and we met in the town square, found a restaurant and had our first supper in Germany, outdoors, on a beautiful, clear evening.
The next day, Sunday, was family time also, until the evening, when the welcome party was planned. I went for a nice bike ride into the old city of Heidelberg with Alex. We stopped, took pictures, had some ice cream. It was a sunny day, warm, and people were everywhere in the Altstadt.
The Sunday evening, June 14th, would be the first time I see the Enloe group since landing yesterday. A grillparty was what we had, on the grounds of Hebel Gymnasium. Everyone seemed happy and there was a ton of food for everyone - salads, grilled meats, veggie burgers and soft drinks and the ubiquitous Mineralwasser - Sprudel? Stilles? Mit Gas? Ohne Gas? Mit oder ohne Kohlensäure? The mineral water in Germany was well-loved by our group, and proved of course essential as temperatures rose.
But the weather was variable in Schwetzingen and Heidelberg that week and the second week. One Wednesday I woke up to rain, was able to sleep in, but found I had to trudge in cold rain to the bus stop, down the street from a Burger King on some street. No umbrella yet, but en route to Schwetzingen's train station, a dumped 7 Euros on a long umbrella, not a collapsible kind. It came in handy that day.
But I digress, the first Monday we were in Schwetzingen, there was no school because of Abitur oral examinations, so Herr Sperl scheduled our biennial Romantischer Rhein Ausflug. My fourth time on it and each time just as pleasant as the previous. Weather was nice for the bus ride to our first Burg Reichenstein, in Trechtingshausen.We toured the castle and fortress on a clear sunny day, then returned to the bus. We travelled then to Bacharach, Germany to wile away the time. A pleasant little town on the banks of the Rhine River, Bacharach allowed time to explore in small groups the streets and alleys on this quiet Monday late morning. After strolling, and spending a moment in an outdoor cafe, we all met up again at the pier to catch our Rhine River boat for a short trip to St. Goarshausen, past the landmark Lorelei outrcropping and past pretty little towns with massive steepled churches and edifices on
the hilltops overlooking the Rhine. We disembarked at St. Goarshausen
and caught our bus again for a ride up the way to the next destination, the Niederwalddenkmal, a massive monument commerating the end of the Franco-
Prussian war and the unification of Germany. We traveled up the mountain on our gargantuan bus, but as we disembarked, we first saw a new Grecian-inspired gazebo, and maybe students apparently thought that was the monument, which was not. Herr Sperl and I led most of the kids to the real attraction, but sadly several stayed behind out of laziness and/or disinterest. But in any case, the monument never fails to impress with its gaudiness and impressive size. And the vistas from the monument of the Rhine River below and the town of Rüdesheim, our
next destination, were incredible.
We stayed a short time admiring the monument and the views of the valley below, then we took a cable car ride down over the pretty vineyards to Rüdesheim, a quaint and touristy little town famous for its Asbach liqueur and Rüdesheimer coffee made with this famous liqueur. Sperl, Mrs. Jones and I led the students to the Drosselgasse, and we strolled down the narrow alleyway and found a little beer garden to relax in while the students ate ice cream and explored the town. We rode the bus back to Schwetzingen and arrived in the late afternoon.
On Tuesday, we had a our first day at Hebel, beginning with a tour of the school and then the students began visiting classes. We had our first homeroom session and afterwards Mrs. Jones and I traveled by streetcar and bus to Heidelberg and spent the day there taking in the city. We hiked up on this hot summer day to the Schloss Heidelberg. It was a nice day, and we found a little outdoor cafe on the
Hauptstrasse, a Löwenbräu restaurant and enjoyed some bratwurst and beverages.
Wednesday at Hebel was the annual Abisturm chaos, where the newly minted graduates of the gymnasium would spend the day tormenting underclassmen with supersoaker water pistols, referee whistles, paint, buckets of water, and other methods to obstruct the instructional day, all tolerated by the teachers and administration. Then classes were cancelled by a lighthearted announcement over
the PA speakers, ostensibly by a graduate, instructing everyone to appear in the atrium of the school, to witness some fun and games. Administrators, students and teachers took part in contests, whereby the losers were soaked in buckets of water while standing in kiddie pools. Huge banners were hung in the atrium, of which one was particularly offensive, at least by American standards dealing, with the sanctity of public space, but nobody seemed to mind the weird message on that particular banner. The whole event ended with the graduates, the Abiturienten, performing a choreographed flash-mob style dance in front of the entire school.
Wednesday evening was, I thought, very special. Sperl organized a jam session at Hebel's theater stage room. We had a drum kit, amps, mics, a keyboard, guitar and basses, and a slew of seasoned musicians, advanced learners, and beginners blowing saxophones, trombones and making a glorious
racket of sound. We played a couple of jazz standards, some blues-based jams, and a rousing version of the Bob Dylan classic, "All Along the Watchtower." I had a fine time playing my inimitable blues-jazz runs and keeping the rhythm solid with tasty chords and moving basslines. I even played the drums fairly convincingly on some ballad the young guitar slayers dreamed up. And to top it all off, one of our own, Jill, played a great saxophone on a borrowed instrument, having brought an assortment of reeds and mouthpieces from America. She stayed in a pretty musical household in Schwetzingen; her host-papa plays the saxophone really well and he was also at the Wednesday night jam session. Jill's host-sister, Chiara, also plays saxophone.
Thursday the weather starting getting dicey. I slept in and woke up to steady cool rain, gray skies. We had a picnic planned in the Schlossgarten in Schwetzingen; that was eventually cancelled. But our visit with the mayor of Schwetzingen, Herr Oberbürgermeister Dr. Rene Pöltl, was still on. We all met in front of the Hebel school and made our way through the rainy wet streets to Schlossplatz, where we all fanned out to grab some lunch and meet in front of the city hall for our traditional meeting with the mayor. He greeted me with a big hug, a sincere and moving gesture, and then we all
settled in the city council chambers and listened to a few topically interesting words from the Mayor. He mentioned the 9/11 attacks on America and the Patriot Act, the NSA spying scandal, which involved German government officials. Herr Dr. Pöltl expressed sympathy and understanding of the American viewpoint of increasing surveillance after the terrorist attacks. He also mentioned the mass killing at an African-American church in Charleston, SC, which occurred the day before. Many of our students had no idea of this incident. Herr Fisches, the Assistant Principal of Hebel, also managed a few choice words in English before the group, and I was asked to say a few things also, which I did, in German. Reporters from a couple of newspapers were there also, taking a pictures and asking me a few questions. It was an animated and bustling experience, and to top it all off, everyone received a canvas shoulder bag emblazoned with Schwetzingen's emblem of sorts, a bag that came in quite handy throughout the rest of the trip. A very practical gift from the Mayor it was, and we all left after 45 minutes or so.
That Thursday night we went to Kathrin's apartment in Edingen-Neckarhausen for dinner. Dirk prepared a vegetarian dish of some Thai-inspired curry and mock duck. A variety of beers, most locally produced, topped off a fine evening with Sperl and his wife, Christine, Kathrin and her beau Dirk, Kathy and myself.
Thursday and Friday at Hebel were also the days when the presentations got underway. The ones I saw were excellently produced and executed and the Hebel students, I thought, were mostly interested and intrigued by our students' presentational skills and the topics they reported on:
American school system, teenagers in America, Sports in America, Music in America and American Geography. Their multimedia presentations included song and dance, maps and comparisons, short
quizzes, discussion questions, sound and video clips and other vital
impressions of American life. They served the purpose of eliciting
conversations with the German peer groups, in English and German, on
both American and German cultures. I was very impressed with my
students' work, mostly done without my direct guidance; I just threw
them the topics and said go to it. And they performed fabulously. Good stuff.
Friday evening I enjoyed a film at Sperl's place. His television/video setup includes a bright projector mounted from the ceiling that projects the image on a massive screen that, with the flip of a switch, rolls down, covering the large picture-windowed doors leading to a balcony on the main floor of the apartment. Pretty impressive setup, but the movie we began watching, with the title of Fack ju Göhte, a rather cheesy, high-school comedic enterprise with profanity, obscenity, unbelievable plot twists, but decent enough acting, was uninspired. Needless to say, I couldn't finish it, because of my growing fatigue and because the film failed to arouse any sympathy from me.
Our first full weekend in Schwetzingen saw my students going on myriad excursions with their host families: Strassbourg, Bodensee, Europapark, Köln, among other places. Sperl and I traveled the short distance to Worms, a city I've wanted to see. It was a short but nice little outing. We saw several beautiful churches, a medieval and well-preserved Jewish cemetery, not to mention a stroll through
the erstwhile Jewish quarter of the city, replete with synagogue and ritual bathing area. There was a music festival happening in Worms that weekend and we managed to see some live music and eat ice cream embedded in the throngs of people. Upon looking onto the bandstage of one group doing a soundcheck, Alex noticed a fellow playing trumpet he said he might know, and sure enough, after zooming in on him with my camera, and with final confirmation through the handbill of the musical events for the day, he discovered that it was indeed a former classmate at the Musikalische Hochschule in Karlsruhe, where Alex went to school. He rushed to go backstage and attempt to greet the trumpeteer and left me standing under a large patio-sized umbrella
finishing my ice cream and enjoying the crowds of people. Even for events likes these, a huge diversity of people come to visit: farmers, intellectuals, students, young parents with their children, grandparents, teenagers. The street fairs in every city I visit in Germany impress me the most, with their color, and local, regional and international flair, all mixed together in one locus of entertainment.
Sunday was when we visited Karlsruhe. The place was decked out in an anniversary motif, celebrating 300 years of existence, young for a German city.The historic city center was embroiled in major construction, with subways being built, streetcar tracks being laid, and everywhere construction sites. That didn't stop people from being outdoors enjoying dining, visiting bakeries and churches and strolling in their impressive botanical gardens, which are adjacent to the German Ministry of Justice, which for some reason is based in Karlsruhe. I recall visiting Karslruhe on our GAPP 2009 trip, when my colleague Peter Fuchs took me to the Altstadtfest in the Durlach district of Karlsruhe, a rip-roaring street festival with rock bands playing everywhere, food and drink being served everywhere, throngs in the streets and on the meadows of Karlsruhe-Durlach. I enjoyed my visit to this city south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg.
The second week in Schwetzingen and Hebel was a whirlwind of activity. Our students were still giving presentations to throngs of German youth. On Tuesday, we took a field trip to the BASF Chemical Factory in Ludwigshafen, a sprawling complex of pipes, river docks, railways, tanks, steam vents. Pretty amazing. We first started in an interactive museum tour of what BASF does in the world, and we looked around and determined that 85% of our surroundings has something to do with BASF products. The we boarded a bus and toured around the complex with a tour guide who gave the presentation in English. The students at one point were ignoring the presentation and the tour guide responded accordingly with terse remarks on how to be polite. Well-deserved reprimand. The tour was long and sometimes tedious but altogether informative and impressive.
Wednesday was a regular school day, and Thursday we took our traditional trip to the Südstadtschule, an elementary school in Schwetzingen. As usal everyone had different experiences, al dependent on the teacher hosting our small group. I ended up with Swetha, Eleanor, Helena, Alexander, Meghan and Rose, I believe, with a gym teacher, who led us outdoors to the gymnasium building where she got the kids running, leaping, throwing, dodging, stretching. Some of us tried to take part also with the 4th graders, but we were too big. Afterwards, we had a little recess on the playground. I had coffee with Mrs. Jones with the teachers in the break room. And then the post-recess instruction began. Our group sand some songs in English, then in German, and we got into a big circle and invited one another to dance in the middle to some popular German radio song. Our teacher was very welcoming and we had great fun with them.
We also met with the principal of the school, Herr Ade, and bid us farewell with a gift of asparagus-shaped chocolates.
Thursday evening I visited Herr Fuchs with Alexander. Fuchs lives in Leimen and he also travelled to Enloe with a group, in 2009, my first time doing the exchange. We visit each time travel to Germany. We had dinner and drinks at the Brauhaus in Leimen, an excellent place with superb food and service.
Friday at Hebel, our last day, and the big thing today was the farewell picnic, We first rehearsed that afternoon for the Abiball performance. I was slated to play bass on a Duke Ellignton song, while the band a Bruno Marz song also. Then I learn that one our own, Audrey, had a mishap with her bicycle. She came to the farewell party, with bandages on three different places plus a possible chipped tooth. She slowly recovered from the accident and remained on the tour with us through the following week in Munich.
The farewell party took place on June 26th, Friday afternoon, at a delightful park near the far end of the Schlossgarten in Schwetzingen. We picnicked on the nicely manicured lawn, and played frisbee and ping-pong and had a nice time, dodging possible threatening rainclouds (it did rain later that evening). We had a terrific time at the farewell party. Audrey showed up with her host Leonie. She was wrapped in bandages and hobbled into our picnic in good spirits despite the bicycle accident. I was actually pretty amazed at her tenacity. She could have easily stayed away and rested to recuperate, but she proudly decided she needed to appear and have some fun with her classmates and German friends.
Friday night I invited my hosts in Heidelberg to dinner at Mandy's Diner, a 1950s-style American burger joint with fries, milkshakes, 1950s rockabilly and rhythm and blues music, and memorabilia from that era. The place used to cater to the many American soldiers stationed in the area for many years. To this day, one can still pay the bill in American currency.
The final Saturday in Heidelberg and Schwetzingen was a relaxing one at first. Alexander and I spent the midmorning and early afternoon at a monastery in Heidelberg, the Stift Neuburg and the Klosterhof, the charming inn on the premises of this Benedictine monastery. We saw a wedding at the beautiful chapel, with the bride and groom driving around the monastery in a three-wheeled mini-car. Apparently it's a tradition to take a ceremonial ride after the marriage vows in a classic vehicle. The food and brewery at Stift Neuburg was superb and the day was a gorgeous one. An almost perfect little outing.
Later in the day, we went to the Abiball, Hebel Gymnasium's version of an Enloe graduation, Senior Award's night, and senior prom, all rolled into one. We went early to set up for Alex's big band performance, in which I was to play bass guitar on one of the two numbers slated for his music program. I played on the Duke Ellington song, C-Blues Jam (we played it in B-flat). The entire atrium of the school was beautifully decorated, a stage was set up, long tables for the graduates and their guests also, and one classroom was outfitted to be a beverage distribution center, so to speak. Folks needed to buy tickets and use those tickets to purchase a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Our group had a reserved table setup on the second floor overlooking the atrium, and we all enjoyed a long but enjoyable evening together.
Our
The rest of us enjoy a couple of plane rides first to O'Hare in Chicago, on a little Airbus jobber, and then to Frankfurt am Main, Germany (Hesse), on a big ole Boeing 747 jetliner. Besides Dan, Josh, we also have on board rising seniors Zoe, Rose, Meghan, Quinton, Jill, Swetha, Eleanor, Holly, Sean, Dimitry and rising juniors, Helena, Nick and Audrey. And of course, accompanying us is Mrs. Kathy Jones, our intrepid chaperone.
Traveling through the airports with everyone was simple and easy. We stopped when necessary for bathroom breaks, assessed timetables without needing to rush, and got all of our luggage, passing through customs and passport checks without fuss. The next phase was a long-strided dash to where the trains left the airport. An ICE Train from Frankfurt's Airport train station to Mannheim, Germany would take us to our Schwetzingen destination. We snaked our way through the massive airport, up, down, over, and through terminals, between people, kiosks, electric people movers, using moving sidewalks when available, all of our luggage in hand. Nobody's suitcases fell apart during the dash. Once we arrived at the train station, I retrieved our pre-paid tickets from an Fahrschein-Automat. Herr Sperl sported me the confirmation numbers. Tickets were printed without fail, and we entered the station to find our correct track.
It was pretty exciting waiting on the platform, a typically European thing to do right off the bat. The train arrived and stopped for maybe three minutes. We lugged our bags onto it, making a right, then a left, into an emptier Waggon. Space was limited, but we managed to pile our suitcases wherever we can - on racks, above, between our legs, even in the aisle. The train trip lasted 45 minutes maximum. Waiting for us on the train track were our Hebel friends, with a banner that read, prophetically, "Gönn dir eins!" I doubt many of us saw the banner because it was displayed far from where we exited the train, ignored when the Germans walked rapidly to where we disembarked. The banner read in English, "Indulge in one!" It's a new phrase German teenagers seem to be using.
The welcome party on the train platform was all smiles and hugs, and before long everyone was whisked away to their host families by car. Mannheim is only 20 minutes or so away from Schwetzingen. Frau Bachmann was there with her beau, Dirk, and they met their new houseguest for two weeks, Mrs. Jones, quite graciously, and Herr Sperl, my host for the stay at Hebel, was equally excited. We all were, after a long journey, happy to see our friends again in Germany.
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| Bahnstadt von Sperls Dachterasse |
Mrs. Jones stayed with Kathrin in Edingen-Neckarhausen. It is a quaint little place around 8 km from Heidelberg. Down the street from her apartment was a regionally, if not nationally, known bakery, whose name escapes me. I had a sample of their bread; it must have been an off-day for them. The loaf was a specialty loaf, dark wheat with cherries or some other cranberry embedded in it. Not bad, but needed to be enjoyed instantly for best results, I guess.
Sperl and I and Kathrin and Kathy and Dirk all met in Ladenburg that evening, after freshening up, and unpacking a little bit. Ladenburg is on the other side of the Neckar River, opposite Edingen-Neckarhausen, and we met in the town square, found a restaurant and had our first supper in Germany, outdoors, on a beautiful, clear evening.
The next day, Sunday, was family time also, until the evening, when the welcome party was planned. I went for a nice bike ride into the old city of Heidelberg with Alex. We stopped, took pictures, had some ice cream. It was a sunny day, warm, and people were everywhere in the Altstadt.
But the weather was variable in Schwetzingen and Heidelberg that week and the second week. One Wednesday I woke up to rain, was able to sleep in, but found I had to trudge in cold rain to the bus stop, down the street from a Burger King on some street. No umbrella yet, but en route to Schwetzingen's train station, a dumped 7 Euros on a long umbrella, not a collapsible kind. It came in handy that day.
But I digress, the first Monday we were in Schwetzingen, there was no school because of Abitur oral examinations, so Herr Sperl scheduled our biennial Romantischer Rhein Ausflug. My fourth time on it and each time just as pleasant as the previous. Weather was nice for the bus ride to our first Burg Reichenstein, in Trechtingshausen.We toured the castle and fortress on a clear sunny day, then returned to the bus. We travelled then to Bacharach, Germany to wile away the time. A pleasant little town on the banks of the Rhine River, Bacharach allowed time to explore in small groups the streets and alleys on this quiet Monday late morning. After strolling, and spending a moment in an outdoor cafe, we all met up again at the pier to catch our Rhine River boat for a short trip to St. Goarshausen, past the landmark Lorelei outrcropping and past pretty little towns with massive steepled churches and edifices on
the hilltops overlooking the Rhine. We disembarked at St. Goarshausen
and caught our bus again for a ride up the way to the next destination, the Niederwalddenkmal, a massive monument commerating the end of the Franco-
Prussian war and the unification of Germany. We traveled up the mountain on our gargantuan bus, but as we disembarked, we first saw a new Grecian-inspired gazebo, and maybe students apparently thought that was the monument, which was not. Herr Sperl and I led most of the kids to the real attraction, but sadly several stayed behind out of laziness and/or disinterest. But in any case, the monument never fails to impress with its gaudiness and impressive size. And the vistas from the monument of the Rhine River below and the town of Rüdesheim, our next destination, were incredible.
We stayed a short time admiring the monument and the views of the valley below, then we took a cable car ride down over the pretty vineyards to Rüdesheim, a quaint and touristy little town famous for its Asbach liqueur and Rüdesheimer coffee made with this famous liqueur. Sperl, Mrs. Jones and I led the students to the Drosselgasse, and we strolled down the narrow alleyway and found a little beer garden to relax in while the students ate ice cream and explored the town. We rode the bus back to Schwetzingen and arrived in the late afternoon.
On Tuesday, we had a our first day at Hebel, beginning with a tour of the school and then the students began visiting classes. We had our first homeroom session and afterwards Mrs. Jones and I traveled by streetcar and bus to Heidelberg and spent the day there taking in the city. We hiked up on this hot summer day to the Schloss Heidelberg. It was a nice day, and we found a little outdoor cafe on the Hauptstrasse, a Löwenbräu restaurant and enjoyed some bratwurst and beverages.
Wednesday at Hebel was the annual Abisturm chaos, where the newly minted graduates of the gymnasium would spend the day tormenting underclassmen with supersoaker water pistols, referee whistles, paint, buckets of water, and other methods to obstruct the instructional day, all tolerated by the teachers and administration. Then classes were cancelled by a lighthearted announcement over 
the PA speakers, ostensibly by a graduate, instructing everyone to appear in the atrium of the school, to witness some fun and games. Administrators, students and teachers took part in contests, whereby the losers were soaked in buckets of water while standing in kiddie pools. Huge banners were hung in the atrium, of which one was particularly offensive, at least by American standards dealing, with the sanctity of public space, but nobody seemed to mind the weird message on that particular banner. The whole event ended with the graduates, the Abiturienten, performing a choreographed flash-mob style dance in front of the entire school.Wednesday evening was, I thought, very special. Sperl organized a jam session at Hebel's theater stage room. We had a drum kit, amps, mics, a keyboard, guitar and basses, and a slew of seasoned musicians, advanced learners, and beginners blowing saxophones, trombones and making a glorious
Thursday the weather starting getting dicey. I slept in and woke up to steady cool rain, gray skies. We had a picnic planned in the Schlossgarten in Schwetzingen; that was eventually cancelled. But our visit with the mayor of Schwetzingen, Herr Oberbürgermeister Dr. Rene Pöltl, was still on. We all met in front of the Hebel school and made our way through the rainy wet streets to Schlossplatz, where we all fanned out to grab some lunch and meet in front of the city hall for our traditional meeting with the mayor. He greeted me with a big hug, a sincere and moving gesture, and then we all
That Thursday night we went to Kathrin's apartment in Edingen-Neckarhausen for dinner. Dirk prepared a vegetarian dish of some Thai-inspired curry and mock duck. A variety of beers, most locally produced, topped off a fine evening with Sperl and his wife, Christine, Kathrin and her beau Dirk, Kathy and myself.
Thursday and Friday at Hebel were also the days when the presentations got underway. The ones I saw were excellently produced and executed and the Hebel students, I thought, were mostly interested and intrigued by our students' presentational skills and the topics they reported on:
Friday evening I enjoyed a film at Sperl's place. His television/video setup includes a bright projector mounted from the ceiling that projects the image on a massive screen that, with the flip of a switch, rolls down, covering the large picture-windowed doors leading to a balcony on the main floor of the apartment. Pretty impressive setup, but the movie we began watching, with the title of Fack ju Göhte, a rather cheesy, high-school comedic enterprise with profanity, obscenity, unbelievable plot twists, but decent enough acting, was uninspired. Needless to say, I couldn't finish it, because of my growing fatigue and because the film failed to arouse any sympathy from me.
Our first full weekend in Schwetzingen saw my students going on myriad excursions with their host families: Strassbourg, Bodensee, Europapark, Köln, among other places. Sperl and I traveled the short distance to Worms, a city I've wanted to see. It was a short but nice little outing. We saw several beautiful churches, a medieval and well-preserved Jewish cemetery, not to mention a stroll through
Sunday was when we visited Karlsruhe. The place was decked out in an anniversary motif, celebrating 300 years of existence, young for a German city.The historic city center was embroiled in major construction, with subways being built, streetcar tracks being laid, and everywhere construction sites. That didn't stop people from being outdoors enjoying dining, visiting bakeries and churches and strolling in their impressive botanical gardens, which are adjacent to the German Ministry of Justice, which for some reason is based in Karlsruhe. I recall visiting Karslruhe on our GAPP 2009 trip, when my colleague Peter Fuchs took me to the Altstadtfest in the Durlach district of Karlsruhe, a rip-roaring street festival with rock bands playing everywhere, food and drink being served everywhere, throngs in the streets and on the meadows of Karlsruhe-Durlach. I enjoyed my visit to this city south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg.
The second week in Schwetzingen and Hebel was a whirlwind of activity. Our students were still giving presentations to throngs of German youth. On Tuesday, we took a field trip to the BASF Chemical Factory in Ludwigshafen, a sprawling complex of pipes, river docks, railways, tanks, steam vents. Pretty amazing. We first started in an interactive museum tour of what BASF does in the world, and we looked around and determined that 85% of our surroundings has something to do with BASF products. The we boarded a bus and toured around the complex with a tour guide who gave the presentation in English. The students at one point were ignoring the presentation and the tour guide responded accordingly with terse remarks on how to be polite. Well-deserved reprimand. The tour was long and sometimes tedious but altogether informative and impressive.
Wednesday was a regular school day, and Thursday we took our traditional trip to the Südstadtschule, an elementary school in Schwetzingen. As usal everyone had different experiences, al dependent on the teacher hosting our small group. I ended up with Swetha, Eleanor, Helena, Alexander, Meghan and Rose, I believe, with a gym teacher, who led us outdoors to the gymnasium building where she got the kids running, leaping, throwing, dodging, stretching. Some of us tried to take part also with the 4th graders, but we were too big. Afterwards, we had a little recess on the playground. I had coffee with Mrs. Jones with the teachers in the break room. And then the post-recess instruction began. Our group sand some songs in English, then in German, and we got into a big circle and invited one another to dance in the middle to some popular German radio song. Our teacher was very welcoming and we had great fun with them.
We also met with the principal of the school, Herr Ade, and bid us farewell with a gift of asparagus-shaped chocolates.
Thursday evening I visited Herr Fuchs with Alexander. Fuchs lives in Leimen and he also travelled to Enloe with a group, in 2009, my first time doing the exchange. We visit each time travel to Germany. We had dinner and drinks at the Brauhaus in Leimen, an excellent place with superb food and service.
Friday at Hebel, our last day, and the big thing today was the farewell picnic, We first rehearsed that afternoon for the Abiball performance. I was slated to play bass on a Duke Ellignton song, while the band a Bruno Marz song also. Then I learn that one our own, Audrey, had a mishap with her bicycle. She came to the farewell party, with bandages on three different places plus a possible chipped tooth. She slowly recovered from the accident and remained on the tour with us through the following week in Munich.
Friday night I invited my hosts in Heidelberg to dinner at Mandy's Diner, a 1950s-style American burger joint with fries, milkshakes, 1950s rockabilly and rhythm and blues music, and memorabilia from that era. The place used to cater to the many American soldiers stationed in the area for many years. To this day, one can still pay the bill in American currency.
The final Saturday in Heidelberg and Schwetzingen was a relaxing one at first. Alexander and I spent the midmorning and early afternoon at a monastery in Heidelberg, the Stift Neuburg and the Klosterhof, the charming inn on the premises of this Benedictine monastery. We saw a wedding at the beautiful chapel, with the bride and groom driving around the monastery in a three-wheeled mini-car. Apparently it's a tradition to take a ceremonial ride after the marriage vows in a classic vehicle. The food and brewery at Stift Neuburg was superb and the day was a gorgeous one. An almost perfect little outing.Later in the day, we went to the Abiball, Hebel Gymnasium's version of an Enloe graduation, Senior Award's night, and senior prom, all rolled into one. We went early to set up for Alex's big band performance, in which I was to play bass guitar on one of the two numbers slated for his music program. I played on the Duke Ellington song, C-Blues Jam (we played it in B-flat). The entire atrium of the school was beautifully decorated, a stage was set up, long tables for the graduates and their guests also, and one classroom was outfitted to be a beverage distribution center, so to speak. Folks needed to buy tickets and use those tickets to purchase a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Our group had a reserved table setup on the second floor overlooking the atrium, and we all enjoyed a long but enjoyable evening together.
Our
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Grading Policy hullaballooooooo
There is an inexplicable push for standardized grading policies among teachers at various levels. PLTs are being asked to describe their collective vision of a coherent grading policy within their group. It's entirely possible that there is no collective vision or common threads in how grades noted for students. If so, then a more robust conversation about the right way and the wrong way to assign grades is needed. Beyond that, having common grading policies that everyone adheres to is unnecessary conformity that sullies what a public school should be: experimental and experiential.
It's a tedious discussion, though. I've been through it numerous times, and I still maintain my own system, and nobody's been aggrieved, which implies equity was proffered to all, and the end grades were earned based on a given standard, a Kandah-standard.
The overriding philosophy shouldn't be the grades, but should be the level and variety of tasks we ask our students to do. These tasks should appeal to multiple modalities, and represent the diversity present in a classroom. Such an atmosphere motivates students to submit better quality work.
There has been no mandate thus far from anyone in education outside of my pay grade to create and execute a common grading policy. Talk of it is rumour, and paltry rumour at that. Stressors about our policy being published at a district level, somewhere on the district website, are wholly unnecessary. At the beginning of each year we communicate with parents are grading policies, students are trained in its intricacies - among some teachers, byzantine intricacies, whose complexity staggers - and this level of communication should suffice. Consistency in applying the grades throughout the year, and contacting parents whose children are failing, and providing tutoring possibilities before school, after school and during the day, all these drives are part of an adequate grading policy. In other words, let's not spend so much professional time on the subject.
The problems arises also in how teachers return graded work. It's a truism that if a student submits work to you, they have a right to reclaim it. Grading work is one of the more tedious tasks of the modern teacher, but still the work should be critiqued and returned in a timely manner to the students. They need feedback regularly through a teacher's marks. Sure some work, quick formative assessments, for example, work that provides teachers with data to modify instruction, needn't always be returned, they can be tossed. But essays, papers, projects, tests and quizzes. We assign them teachers, the students make good on their end of the bargain and do the work, we then critique it, and return it. What's the student's role at this point? To examine all mistakes, learn from them, and file the assignment away for later review.
I'm rambling. Using this blog as a way to vent. And express my ideas on the current state of American public education.
Today was Graduation at Enloe High School, 8 AM, Raleigh Convention Center. A perfectly executed ceremony that took almost exactly one hour, as they said. I wish all the students the best in their future endeavors. I managed to see several of the seniors I taught this year, and I enjoyed chatting with them and their parents. I have great students at Enloe. Relationship building is such a vital role in human existence, and high-school should be the time to begin solidifying the ego and controlling more limbic behavioral responses to the inevitable conflict that arises among fellow humans. In any case, the ceremony and reception was enjoyable.
It's a tedious discussion, though. I've been through it numerous times, and I still maintain my own system, and nobody's been aggrieved, which implies equity was proffered to all, and the end grades were earned based on a given standard, a Kandah-standard.
The overriding philosophy shouldn't be the grades, but should be the level and variety of tasks we ask our students to do. These tasks should appeal to multiple modalities, and represent the diversity present in a classroom. Such an atmosphere motivates students to submit better quality work.
There has been no mandate thus far from anyone in education outside of my pay grade to create and execute a common grading policy. Talk of it is rumour, and paltry rumour at that. Stressors about our policy being published at a district level, somewhere on the district website, are wholly unnecessary. At the beginning of each year we communicate with parents are grading policies, students are trained in its intricacies - among some teachers, byzantine intricacies, whose complexity staggers - and this level of communication should suffice. Consistency in applying the grades throughout the year, and contacting parents whose children are failing, and providing tutoring possibilities before school, after school and during the day, all these drives are part of an adequate grading policy. In other words, let's not spend so much professional time on the subject.
The problems arises also in how teachers return graded work. It's a truism that if a student submits work to you, they have a right to reclaim it. Grading work is one of the more tedious tasks of the modern teacher, but still the work should be critiqued and returned in a timely manner to the students. They need feedback regularly through a teacher's marks. Sure some work, quick formative assessments, for example, work that provides teachers with data to modify instruction, needn't always be returned, they can be tossed. But essays, papers, projects, tests and quizzes. We assign them teachers, the students make good on their end of the bargain and do the work, we then critique it, and return it. What's the student's role at this point? To examine all mistakes, learn from them, and file the assignment away for later review.
I'm rambling. Using this blog as a way to vent. And express my ideas on the current state of American public education.
Today was Graduation at Enloe High School, 8 AM, Raleigh Convention Center. A perfectly executed ceremony that took almost exactly one hour, as they said. I wish all the students the best in their future endeavors. I managed to see several of the seniors I taught this year, and I enjoyed chatting with them and their parents. I have great students at Enloe. Relationship building is such a vital role in human existence, and high-school should be the time to begin solidifying the ego and controlling more limbic behavioral responses to the inevitable conflict that arises among fellow humans. In any case, the ceremony and reception was enjoyable.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Education and Law Project | NC Justice Center
Education and Law Project | NC Justice Center
I mentioned briefly a few posts ago that there were several hard-hitting, Republican-led approaches to public education in the works in our great state. The NC Justice Center monitors these policy approaches to ensure compliance with the common good. Yes, public education means inclusion of the entire populace. Republicans, too. Visit their website for some news on NC education policy.
I mentioned briefly a few posts ago that there were several hard-hitting, Republican-led approaches to public education in the works in our great state. The NC Justice Center monitors these policy approaches to ensure compliance with the common good. Yes, public education means inclusion of the entire populace. Republicans, too. Visit their website for some news on NC education policy.
Sailing towards the end of year 21 in a teaching career
My job as a high-school teacher remains a high-end, challenging and rewarding one. Despite the political turmoil that has surrounded North Carolina public education the past few years - school boards shenanigans, Obama-derangement syndrome, anti-government Republicans who want to take part in government - and getting electing because of aforementioned medical condition - all these things have made the typical NC teacher disgruntled, angry, demoralized and often searching for an alternative way of life.
My gig at my school is a primo one. My students are all respectful, with supportive families, and they all seem genuinely interested in taking German. When reflecting on my efficacy as a teacher I do tend to be hard on myself, but the fact that I still keep getting marvelous students streaming into my solo German program is testimony enough that I am doing something right. My colleague at the middle schools keep German alive with her zany middle school approach, highly effective, and I take her students on in a more intensive way, I believe, quicker with the material, higher expectations. Success at maintaining this level of rigor throughout a 180 day school year varies considerably, but that is the way life works, ebbs, and flows, and peaks and valleys. In the end, though, I always earn considerable satisfaction in knowing that I brought some great students to a high-level of discourse.
This year has been a great year: 2nd place overall at German Day, a student being awarded the Philip Watts Scholarship, another student being awarded a three-week sojourn in Germany because high National German Exam test scores. Six out of eigh AP German students will be taking the AP German Exam. German Club maintained consistent attendance, because of a collective effort to keep it that way; we have great officers and steady membership. Now the possibility of finally getting t-shirts for the club would do a lot to forwarding the Club mission at our school. An altogether good year.
Things missing: shall I revive the National German Honor Society for next year? That would be current German 3 and 4 students (non-seniors, of course). It's decided: I WILL. Their service hours would be tutoring struggling German students and maintaining my classroom, etc.
Speaking of my classroom, it appears that I will have a couch in my room on Monday. How that's going work is open to varied scenarios. Most good.
My gig at my school is a primo one. My students are all respectful, with supportive families, and they all seem genuinely interested in taking German. When reflecting on my efficacy as a teacher I do tend to be hard on myself, but the fact that I still keep getting marvelous students streaming into my solo German program is testimony enough that I am doing something right. My colleague at the middle schools keep German alive with her zany middle school approach, highly effective, and I take her students on in a more intensive way, I believe, quicker with the material, higher expectations. Success at maintaining this level of rigor throughout a 180 day school year varies considerably, but that is the way life works, ebbs, and flows, and peaks and valleys. In the end, though, I always earn considerable satisfaction in knowing that I brought some great students to a high-level of discourse.
This year has been a great year: 2nd place overall at German Day, a student being awarded the Philip Watts Scholarship, another student being awarded a three-week sojourn in Germany because high National German Exam test scores. Six out of eigh AP German students will be taking the AP German Exam. German Club maintained consistent attendance, because of a collective effort to keep it that way; we have great officers and steady membership. Now the possibility of finally getting t-shirts for the club would do a lot to forwarding the Club mission at our school. An altogether good year.
Things missing: shall I revive the National German Honor Society for next year? That would be current German 3 and 4 students (non-seniors, of course). It's decided: I WILL. Their service hours would be tutoring struggling German students and maintaining my classroom, etc.
Speaking of my classroom, it appears that I will have a couch in my room on Monday. How that's going work is open to varied scenarios. Most good.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
The big issues
The biggest issues at my current school involve our struggling students. There are many and they deserve our attention if we want our mission of public education to withstand scrutiny from an increasingly polarized political climate. This is a climate that views public education with mistrust, sometimes rabid, sometimes subtle. Public schools are inclusive symbols of American democracy; their success is paramount if America is to remain great. Now, my school has a marvelous faculty, and wide diversity of course offerings, accolades everywhere, but there remains a constituency flailing apart from the strengths of our curriculum.
We can easily identify the members of this group, and outline the prevailing attitudes that prevent these students from conforming to the written and unwritten rules of a school setting. Question is, how do we remedy it? How do we integrate more students into the academic club?
Education theorists have spoken repeatedly of the need to adapt our curriculum and instructional delivery to the caliber of the students. The rowdy, disinterested ones, the students manifesting the attitudes that make their success more difficult to attain, these kids demand a different approach. After years in the classroom I do believe in this dictate of American public education.
We can easily identify the members of this group, and outline the prevailing attitudes that prevent these students from conforming to the written and unwritten rules of a school setting. Question is, how do we remedy it? How do we integrate more students into the academic club?
Education theorists have spoken repeatedly of the need to adapt our curriculum and instructional delivery to the caliber of the students. The rowdy, disinterested ones, the students manifesting the attitudes that make their success more difficult to attain, these kids demand a different approach. After years in the classroom I do believe in this dictate of American public education.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Hallo, mein guter Freund! Lange nicht gesehen...
Amazing revisiting an old internet chestnut, created at a time of the blogging revolution, when everyone could become a noted scribe or a cybernaut's amanuensis on the INTERNET. I started this particular blog while a pedagogue at Southern Durham High School, back in the day, in the Wild Wild West of the Internet, before the marketeers took control.
Goal of this reencounter? A possible reimagining. So much has occurred since the last update, I would be completely remiss in ignoring a call for an update. All over the web, probably, are artifacts that put together a picture of where I've been since 2007 when I last checked in. But who can trust the internet these days? With this reignition, I can collect these artifacts and in a centralized location display them with the perspective of the protagonist, the man on the scene and in the action.
Seriously, though, the point of this blog is education and my role in it. I still teach German, full-time, have been since 2007 when I signed on at Enloe High School as a replacement for Frau Martin. An eye-awakening experience this gig became, because the vast majority of my students, no, virtually all of them, were interested and well-behaved young people who genuinely wanted to learn German. Breathtaking levels of enthusiasm awaited me each day - breathtaking? a little overzealous, aren't we? We're taking about teenagers, right? - Yes, teenagers, who took a shining to German and who generally trusted me in leading them to higher levels of discourse in the German language and culture.
Since then, I have done German Day each year at Enloe - 7 times, each time a great success. I have done three GAPP Exchanges - 2009, 2011 and 2013. All of these were highly memorable experiences and were executed without a single problem. National German Exam - a yearly tradition.
In a short breath, I am in my 21st year of education, all have been good years.
Links
An old autobiographical sketch, with links and assorted nuggets.
GAPP Exchange Blog - from last year - 2013
Goal of this reencounter? A possible reimagining. So much has occurred since the last update, I would be completely remiss in ignoring a call for an update. All over the web, probably, are artifacts that put together a picture of where I've been since 2007 when I last checked in. But who can trust the internet these days? With this reignition, I can collect these artifacts and in a centralized location display them with the perspective of the protagonist, the man on the scene and in the action.
Seriously, though, the point of this blog is education and my role in it. I still teach German, full-time, have been since 2007 when I signed on at Enloe High School as a replacement for Frau Martin. An eye-awakening experience this gig became, because the vast majority of my students, no, virtually all of them, were interested and well-behaved young people who genuinely wanted to learn German. Breathtaking levels of enthusiasm awaited me each day - breathtaking? a little overzealous, aren't we? We're taking about teenagers, right? - Yes, teenagers, who took a shining to German and who generally trusted me in leading them to higher levels of discourse in the German language and culture.
Since then, I have done German Day each year at Enloe - 7 times, each time a great success. I have done three GAPP Exchanges - 2009, 2011 and 2013. All of these were highly memorable experiences and were executed without a single problem. National German Exam - a yearly tradition.
In a short breath, I am in my 21st year of education, all have been good years.
Links
An old autobiographical sketch, with links and assorted nuggets.
GAPP Exchange Blog - from last year - 2013
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