Chapter
Newsletter
Winter 2014
Co-Editors: Cherie Baggs (cabaggs@aol.com) & Inge Buerger (ingebuerger@comcast.net)
A Message from our President:
Every time I catch colleagues grading between professional
development sessions at ACTFL, MaFLA, and the MLA, I am
reminded how dedicated we all are as school and college
teachers. And as a relative newcomer to Massachusetts (via two
other U.S. states), I am particularly struck by the immense energy
and proactive spirit that accompanies these long hours of
dedication. I am thrilled to have become involved with such a
dynamic, creative, and cohesive group of teaching professionals,
and my decision to become President reflects my level of concern
for the sustained momentum that the Massachusetts Chapter has
generated until now. While 2013 continued to present enormous
challenges to all German teaching professionals, with continued
cuts at the secondary and post-secondary levels of instruction both locally and nationwide, I take
great comfort in knowing that our colleagues continue energetically and relentlessly with their
efforts to keep German relevant, to inspire their students, and to engage them in the many
various activities in Massachusetts. These efforts gain tremendous support from the GoetheInstitut Boston, as well as the generous support from the German, Swiss, and Austrian
consulates.
In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, we were able to invite Natalie Eppelsheimer from
Middlebury College to lead our fourth Lehrkräfte-Tag on the topic of Greening German. A
popular and highly successful event, this workshop provided teachers with ideas to help promote
German as a cutting-edge leader in environmental conscience and technologies, and to attract
students who are more interested in mathematics, science and technology. Teachers took away
the tools and inspiration to teach German environmental culture and politics, which, in turn, has
helped prepare teachers for the up-coming German Immersion Day on the same topic. My thanks
go in particular to Britta Roper and all the teachers involved in organizing this year’s – our
fourth – German Immersion Day.
These initiatives, along with the tradition of Donna van Handle’s Deutsches Theaterfest held
annually at Mt. Holyoke College, bring together our strengths as German teaching professionals
at all levels in creative and meaningful ways. But I would like to encourage more colleges to
participate in the annual Theaterfest so that we strengthen the school and college connections
that we have in place. Over the past three years, my own German play productions at Harvard
have benefited from a healthy number of audience members from local high schools; last year’s
production of Borchert’s Draußen vor der Tür was especially well attended by high school and
college students. Whether you run a GAPP program, an exchange program, or a theater group, I
urge everyone to continue these individual efforts, which, in combination, do much to turn the
looming sense of crisis into opportunities for change and innovation. Further individual efforts
(in the form of letters, meetings, and petitions) to help preserve the future of German at local
high schools should not go unnoticed.
Positive signs of the talents and determination are surely reflected in the continued strength of
Massachusetts high school pupils’ results in the German National Exam, as well as the continued
strength in university enrollments in German language courses. Many of these students continue
German at university due to their excellent preparation in high school. While German may no
longer belong to the “strategic” or “critical” languages for U.S. security agendas and national
defense, German continues to be vital for students for many reasons. Very often, students do not
even realize how important German is for their careers until relatively late in their undergraduate
or even post-graduate studies. Whether students take German because they want to join cuttingedge research teams in a physics lab in Vienna or a neuroscience research team in Berlin’s
Charité hospital, to work as an intern at BMW in Munich, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna,
or an art museum in Berlin (to cite a few of my own recent examples), to continue their studies in
Germany because it offers an inexpensive education at a very high level, or simply to explore
their interest in German language and culture, we continue to be highly relevant in students’ lives
and careers. Informing our students early on of these essential benefits can help give them the
competitive edge they need today in our globalized economy, as well as the foundation of a more
enjoyable, richer life. And by continuing to find creative ways to connect students’ German
functional communication skills to the cultural, literary, musical, artistic, film, media, and
historical traditions, we continue to challenge and inspire.
On that note, I should add that Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum – the only museum in North
America dedicated to the art of the German-speaking countries in all media and all periods – is
set to reopen in the fall 2014, when the renovation and expansion project will be complete, and
educational outreach programs resume. The museum promises to offer more opportunities for K12 students and teachers. We also look forward to an evening of Kabarett at Harvard in late
April, as well as the concert by the Hamburg band Tonbandgerät on March 28, sponsored by the
Goethe-Institut.
Having begun my first year as President, I am particularly indebted to our now-former President
Doug Guy for his exceptionally proactive and vigorous leadership, as well as his invaluable
guidance this year; to my Vice President, Joan Campbell, for her support; to Cherie Baggs for
her hard work in coordinating AATG’s initiatives with those of MaFLA; to Peter Weise for
agreeing to continue as chapter testing chair this year; and to the Executive Board for all its work
to keep the chapter running. In addition, we are indebted to the strong leadership of Detlef
Gericke-Schönhagen, and the incredibly spirited dedication of their language program director,
Dine Möller-Sahling at the Goethe-Institut.
In order to continue the momentum, we need to grow our membership: I therefore urge all
instructors, and particularly those on the post-secondary level, to continue spreading the word
and encourage new faculty and graduate students to join AATG.
Here’s to a very healthy and successful 2014!
Herzliche Grüße,
Lisa Parkes, President, Massachusetts Chapter, AATG
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Inhaltsverzeichnis
Berichte
Seite
Message from the President
MaFLA 2013 Fall Conference
MaFLA Call for Proposals
MA German Educator of the Year Award and ISE Award
ISE Language Matters Award
2013 National AATG Testing Results
2013 AATG Student Awards
AATG/PAD Preisträger berichtet
Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship
Schulen berichten
German Immersion Day 2013 and 2014
Hochschulen berichten
7th Annual German Conference at Harvard
Engaging Heritage Learners, Yale
Deutsches Theaterfest
Deutsche Woche in Bar Harbor 2013
Deutsche Woche Bar Harbor 2014
AATG Chapter Grant for Deutsche Woche
NECTFL Conference in Boston
Save These Dates
Chapter News
Obituary: Jörg Frey
Tonbandgerät: Goethe Institut brings Indie Rock to MA
Chapter Officers and Executive Board
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MaFLA 2013 Fall Conference
German @ MaFLA 2013
Teachers of German attending this year’s MaFLA Conference were inspired by a fascinating and
informative series of sessions and a dynamic workshop.
Friday morning began with Detlef Gericke-Schönhagen’s compelling three-hour workshop:
Kurz und Gut Macht Schule II. Instructors were introduced to a series of award-winning short
films designed for the classroom. In cooperation with teachers of German at Goethe-Institutes in
San Francisco and Bangalore, India, the GI Boston developed teaching materials available online
to those using the films in class. A discussion led by Gericke-Schönhagen revealed that all
participants regularly use full-length films in class, but are hampered by time constraints in
expanding their usage. As demonstrated, short films of high quality are more easily incorporated
into instruction and offer a multitude of advantages. They are usually just 15 minutes in length,
very innovative, often animated, and are much less costly to produce than full-length films. By
definition, short films deal with one topic, often a serious one such as AIDS or land mines or
inter-personal issues such as the film Liebeskrank (Love Sick), an animated short which silently
and cleverly illustrates a variety of figures of speech relating to heart and head, i.e. mit dem Herz
in der Hand and Sie hat ihm den Kopf verdreht. Kurz und Gut Macht Schule II is available from
the Goethe-Institut Boston and instructional materials are free online.
Heidi Rex of the German Saturday School, Boston, gave a thoughtful and thought-provoking
presentation Creative Writing for Advanced Middle and High Schoolers. She encourages her
students to write by giving them 15 minutes to write freely without thinking about spelling,
punctuation, or grammar. They are required to be neither logical, nor to write about any specific
topic. Initial texts are not graded, but she encourages her students to give their work a form and
write correctly in order to communicate effectively what they have to say. Many students enjoy
expressing themselves by writing poetry, particularly when the words create a visual form, so
called konkrete Poesie. Some of her most ardent writers are “characters,” who initially balked at
their first assignments.
Picture This! Engaging Visual-Spatial Learners at All Proficiency Levels was a lively
presentation by Gisela Hoecherl-Alden of Boston University. With STEM subjects in the
forefront of education today, BU’s foreign language professors were bound to adapt their
language teaching techniques to the learning styles of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math
students. So how do engineers teach each other? By drawing or creating charts, by
demonstrating. Instead of the traditional linear style which language teachers have previously
used, the idea is to create a multisensory experience. Spatial categories are very important.
Students who are STEM learners often need a prep exercise to improve their language learning
capacity as they can be overwhelmed by auditory texts. Hoecherl-Alden suggested multiple
techniques for teaching STEM learners using pictures – each student creates as many questions
or lists as many words as possible about a picture. A student draws a picture based on another
student’s description of a picture. Another technique is to introduce visual items one by one and
have them manipulate them, i.e. put furniture into rooms in a house plan. The context is very
important; activities change depending upon where you are. Images aid in prompting speech, so
cartoons without texts are a very creative activity for STEM learners. Among the many sources
for materials mentioned was: www.makebelievecomix.com
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In Tailoring Culture and Society to Language Proficiency, Brigitte Buehler-Probst and Eva
Kopf-Rideout of the Goethe-Institut Boston gave an excellent explanation of the GER
(Gemeinsamer Europäischer Referenzrahmen – the Common European Frame of Reference) for
evaluating language competency, a rubric similar to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. Using
classroom games, they demonstrated how at a variety of competency levels, German traffic laws
regarding cars and bicycles could be taught. Participants were actively involved in the games
and had the opportunity to demonstrate how they would plan the lesson.
Maren Blanchard of the German Saturday School, Boston and Northeastern University offered a
new tool for getting students speaking in Introducing Prezi to Your Language Classroom.
While PowerPoint may or may not be “dead” – according to one of Maren’s students – Prezi is
definitely a new and exciting form of presentation for language learning. Unlike PowerPoint, it
is not just slides (linear), but a more dynamic form of presentation. (According to Donna van
Handle: “A New Age flow chart”) While her students may use PowerPoint if they wish, she
encourages them to use Prezi for their final semester presentation. Speaking is the number one
goal for this assignment. Using Prezi, her students must make a presentation about their
hometowns (or music or food). While they must speak in complete sentences and use compound
tenses, the Prezi images may only contain key phrases and single words. This requirement forces
the students to engage with their audience and speak while preventing them from reading directly
from the screen. Maren grades her students using the European Framework of Reference. She
also shared many valuable tips for enhancing students’ learning, particularly those who are in the
STEM fields.
In Sprachspiel: Language Play Through Drama, Lisa Parkes of Harvard University,
accompanied by graduate students, Arndt Luemers and Nicole Burgoyn, demonstrated - through
a series of games and dramatic activities - her mantra that “students should always be performing
in the classroom.” Attendees were actively involved in language games starting with groups of
four or five tossing imaginary beach balls to each other while calling out alliterative names to the
catcher of the ball, i.e. artige Arndt, clevere Carla, linkshändiger Lukas, etc. In her spring
semester course, Parkes uses creative and authentic interaction (Drama) leading to a product
(Theater), which her students present when they compete each spring in the annual Deutsches
Theaterfest at Mount Holyoke College. The creative language play connects to other disciplines,
links language learning to one’s identity, and involves positive risk-taking. By putting on a hat
or scarf or adopting a certain posture, language learners explore other identities and open other
possibilities for themselves. Participants had the opportunity to wear masks, which required
them to use their hands and bodies to communicate emotions, but also gave them Maskenfreiheit,
the freedom to be a different person while wearing a mask. Others were prompted to walk like a
duck or tipsy. In her theater course, Parkes also uses short film clips such as one scene of family
members riding in a train compartment. She initially shows the clip without sound and allows
groups of students to imagine a dialogue among the characters. This technique demonstrates
how body language and facial expressions convey meaning. In preparing her students to see the
film: Soul Kitchen by Fatih Akin, Parkes gives her students slips of paper with descriptions of
the characters and has them act out scenes from the film. While some students are presenting,
others are writing down a description of what is happening. This scaffolding activity aids the
students in understanding the film as they are already acquainted with the characters.
Ulrike Brisson of Worcester Polytechnic Institute presented a lively hands-on session entitled
Vocabulary Learning With Mind, Body, and Heart. An overflow crowd of participants sought
a solution to the eternal dilemma of language teachers: How do we help students learn
vocabulary in more creative ways? As a professor at an institution dedicated to STEM-based
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subjects, Brisson has grappled with this question and offered some interesting ideas. After a
brief discussion of ways in which the participants learned FL vocabulary during their own FL
learning process, Brisson quickly moved to demonstrating some creative techniques by teaching
the participants Dutch. Group 1 practiced pronouncing a series of phrases in Dutch with varying
emotions in front of a mirror. They then completed a “cloze” text, testing their ability to retain
knowledge of the phrases. Group 2 was required to create a drawing of a story/mind map of a
phrase in Dutch. Group 3 practiced repeatedly with flash cards and then, dropped them on the
floor when they were confident that they knew them. Group 4 created a “memory” game with
index cards to help them learn the words and tell a story. In summary, each group shared their
results and commented on the efficacy of their group’s method. In a final three-part activity,
each participant wrote on a slip of paper which activity he/she deemed most effective. This
paper was crumpled up and tossed into the middle and someone else’s comment was picked up,
commented on again, and tossed back into the middle. A third slip was picked up and positive
comments were shared with the group. Groups 1 and 4 garnered the most positive comments
and attendees left with some creative ideas for teaching vocabulary to active teens or STEMstudents.
As German language learners become increasingly tech-savvy at the secondary level and STEM
subjects become ever more important at the collegiate level, the ability to effectively teach techoriented and all students with active, engaged instruction is an imperative for German language
instructors.
German@MaFLA 2013 successfully met these needs.
-submitted by Kathleen Gallogly, Westfield MA
2014 MASSACHUSETTS CHAPTER DUES
Thanks for your 2013 Local Massachusetts Chapter Dues!
Consider making your chapter contributions now!
A voluntary $5.00 contribution to your local chapter helps fund seminars, programs and initiatives
vital to our profession. Please consider supporting our chapter. Remember that you must be a
current member of the AATG as well.
Please send a check in the amount of $5.00 payable to AATG – Massachusetts Chapter to:
Kristin Gillett, Treasurer, 477 Main Street, Groveland, MA 01834
Name____________________________________
E-mail________________________
School/College____________________________
Position ______________________
Address_________________________________
Phone________________________
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The proposal form for 75-minute sessions as well as for 3-, 4- and 6-hour workshops is online at
www.mafla.org. The deadline to submit proposals is April 15, 2014.
If you have any questions, please contact the Conference Chair Catherine Ritz at
conference@mafla.org
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WIR GRATULIEREN!
MA German Educator of the Year
Spencer Wolf
Barb Thees, ISE Program Coordinator, Spencer Wolf,
Cherie Baggs, 2013 MaFLA Conference Co-Chair
2013 Recipient of the Massachusetts German Educator of the Year Award
The 19th Annual Massachusetts German Educator of the Year is Spencer Wolf. Spencer was
chosen to receive this award in recognition of his ongoing work to promote German in
Massachusetts. Before coming to Newburyport High School to teach German, Spencer taught
German and social studies at Masuk High School in Monroe, CT. He has taken advantage of
countless offerings at the Goethe Institut including many evening events open to the public,
workshops specifically geared toward German teachers, GAPP seminars, and courses as well.
Last summer he completed his master’s degree in German at Middlebury College in VT. A
dedicated teacher, Spencer has taken his teaching career seriously and made it a priority to stay
up-to-date and involved in the German teaching arena.
and
2013 Recipient of the Intercultural Student Experiences (ISE) Language Matters Award
This Award has been given each year since 2005 to a MaFLA member. The award seeks to
recognize a teacher who has demonstrated enthusiasm and great skill in the art of getting
students to communicate in the target language and one who provides immersion experiences for
students. The 2013 recipient is Spencer Wolf, a German teacher at Newburyport High School in
Newburyport, MA.
In his application, Spencer Wolf wrote the following: Probably the most rewarding aspect of
teaching German at Newburyport High School is the GAPP exchange offered to German
students every other year with the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium, a secondary school located
in Waldkirch in the Black Forest. I was not responsible for establishing the exchange; but I am
dedicated to it and hope it continues for many years to come. It is difficult to convey the impact
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this exchange has had and continues to have on Newburyport High School students. They return
to Newburyport with a very different outlook than before the experience. Although there are
many noteworthy aspects to the exchange, one of the most significant is the language
component… the impact of the GAPP exchange is one that cannot be rivaled by any other
experience. Through travel to Germany, students have the opportunity to put their German
language skills into practice. There is probably nothing so rewarding for the students as when
they spend day one with their host families and put their German language into practice for the
first time. It is immaterial if their conjugations are perfect or if their adjective endings match the
gender of the nouns. On this German exchange program, students realize how much learning
another language matters. It opens up doors and gives them an insight into another culture that is
only possible by speaking the language of the host country.
Having just organized my fifth exchange to Waldkirch this summer, I am always amazed by the
effect the exchange has on some students. Most students come back after the summer exchange
and show a renewed interest and stronger desire to learn German, but the impact has gone
beyond the high school experience on many occasions as well. Students have gone on to
continue studying German in college, minoring or majoring in it, doing their junior year in
Germany or another German-speaking country, and some have even moved to Germany for work
after they graduate.
The three and a half week excursion every other year to this small town in Southern Germany
cannot garner all of the credit for helping shape students’ future plans, but I am confident it has
been the catalyst for planting the desire to explore learning German further for a countless
number. Knowing this is rewarding for sure, but the prospect of reaching even more students
every other year is what makes me want to continue.
Nominations Sought For
MaFLA / AATG 2014
Twentieth Annual Massachusetts
German Educator of the Year Award
MaFLA, in cooperation with the AATG Massachusetts Chapter, announces the twentieth
annual Massachusetts German Educator of the Year Award. If you are interested in
nominating someone for this award, please send a one-page resume and a cover letter
explaining why the person you are nominating should be considered for the
Massachusetts German Educator of the Year Award by May 1, 2014, to: Inge
Buerger, AATG MA Chapter Awards Chair, 5 Pinewood Lane, Groveland, MA 01834.
The Massachusetts Chapter of the AATG will determine the recipient. (S)he should be a
member of MaFLA and AATG. This year’s award will be presented on October 25,
2014, at the MaFLA Luncheon to be held during the Annual MaFLA Fall Conference in
Sturbridge, MA.
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ISE Language Matters Award
MaFLA is pleased to announce that Intercultural Student Experiences (ISE) will fund a
Language Matters Award of $250 for a high school world language teacher selected by
MaFLA. The ISE Award will be given to a high school teacher of a world language who has
achieved outstanding success in getting his / her students to speak the target language through
exemplary motivation and creative methods; in addition, the winner shall be a teacher who has
provided authentic immersion experiences outside the classroom for students to apply their
speaking skills. Any current MaFLA member may submit an application. The application
should consist of:

A statement on his/her philosophy on the importance of taking students to the target
country.

Evidence of previous student trips to target countries and examples of the pre-departure
programs to prepare students for the immersion experiences (i.e. trip itineraries and
sample of abridged units/lesson plans.)

A one-page “testimonial letter” from a (former) student addressing the teacher’s impact
in the classroom and the value of the immersion experience.

A one-page letter of recommendation from a colleague or supervisor that addresses the
teacher’s commitment to excellence in the classroom, immersion experiences, and to a
global education.
Complete applications will be received no later than May 30, 2014

The application materials should be mailed to: MaFLA Awards Committee, c/o Tiesa Graf,
500 River Road, South Hadley, MA 01075. Inquiries should be addressed to:
tiesagraf9@gmail.com. The award, which consists of a check for $250 and a framed
certificate, will be presented at the MaFLA Saturday Luncheon at the annual MaFLA
conference on Saturday, October 25, 2014. For further information on the ISE, consult their
web site at www.isemn.org
Nomination Deadline: May 30, 2014

TO BE AWARDED AT THE SATURDAY LUNCHEON, OCTOBER 25, 2014
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2013 National AATG Testing Results
Students of German in Massachusetts Do Well
One Student Selected for Study Trip
There were 790 students representing 18 schools who took the 2012 National AATG
Examination: 314 took Level II, 231 took Level III and 245 took Level IV. 65 were officially
marked as eligible to apply for the Summer Study Trip to Germany Award. However, some of
these students were actually not eligible to apply because they had either visited a German
speaking country for more than two consecutive weeks since the age of six or expected to do so
within the next twelve months, attended a school where the language of instruction is German,
lived in a household where the main language of conversation is German or would not reach the
age of 16 by December 31, 2013.
Five eligible students submitted applications and four interviews were held on March 9, 2013.
The Interview Committee consisted of Inge Buerger, Kathleen Gallogly and Peter Weise and the
interviews were held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Three of the students were applying for the Regular Study Trip. One application was received
for the Senior Trip Award. Both of these awards come with a 3-4 week all-expense paid trip to
Germany in the summer 2013. Because the Massachusetts AATG Chapter had such a large
number of students taking the examination this year, two candidates for the Regular Study
Trip could be nominated. After conducting the interviews, the committee nominated Alaina
Plueddemann, then a tenth grade student at Falmouth Academy in Falmouth, MA and Fortune
Jackson-Bartelmus, then an eleventh grade student at Concord Academy in Concord, MA for the
Regular Study Trip. Alaina scored 97% on the national examination, and Fortune 93%. Michael
Haidar, then a senior at Wellesley High School was nominated for the Study Trip for Graduating
Seniors. His score on the exam was 92%. The names of these three students were forwarded to
the national AATG office. Unfortunately, contrary to previous years, only Fortune JacksonBartelmus was selected as an award winner among the nominees from all state chapters. He was
one of 44 recipients nationwide of an AATG/PAD Study Trip Award from the 2013 National
German Exam.
Students who scored above the 90th percentile and their guests were invited to the Awards
Ceremony which was held on Tuesday, May 7, at the Boylston Schul-Verein in Walpole. Over
250 students and guests attended this great event, made possible in part by a financial
contribution from the Deutsche Sonnabendschule.
-submitted by AATG MA Chapter Testing Chair Peter Weise
Registration for 2014 Awards Ceremony
The 2014 Awards Ceremony has been scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, 2014, at the Boylston
Schul-Verein in Walpole. As always, high achieving students attend the event free of charge.
This year they may bring a maximum of two family members, and of course their teacher, all of
whom pay $10.00 for their dinner. German teachers are urgently requested to collect money for
family members and themselves and submit their registrations as soon as they have received
invitations. This event is strictly “first come, first served.” Once we have reached our capacity of
220, no further registrations can be accepted. Don’t be left out! Please send in your electronic
registrations immediately and follow up by mailing a single non-refundable check to MA-AATG
for all attendees to: Susan Adams, 81 Ministerial Drive, Concord, MA 01742.
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2013 AATG Student Awards
AATG/PAD Study Trip Award
Fortune Jackson-Bartelmus, Concord Academy
ASSOCIATED GERMAN SOCIETIES
OF NEW ENGLAND AWARD (AGSNE)
BOYLSTON SCHUL-VEREIN AWARDS
Alexandra Gorman
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Lena Kassa
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Jonathan Hori
Melrose High School
AUSTRO-AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
OF BOSTON AWARDS
DEUTSCHE SONNABENDSCHULE
AWARD
Natalie Howard
Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School
Lily Patterson
Falmouth Academy
Alexander Nehrbass
Lexington High School
GOETHE INSTITUTE AWARD
AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM AWARDS
Robert Arnold
Boston Latin School
Emily Barber
Walpole High School
Alexandra Bernhard
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Benjamin Goerlich
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Elisabeth Kotsalidis
Boston Latin School
Stefan Kussmaul
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Felice Liang
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
August Posch
Westford Academy
Larissa Sehringer
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Lorena Sistig
Lexington High School
GLOW NATIONAL GERMAN
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Max Lu
Concord Academy
GERMAN CONSULATE AWARD
Joshua Murphy
Phillips Academy Andover
GOETHE SOCIETY AWARD
Michaela Harrington
Boston Latin School
GERMAN LADIES AID SOCIETY OF
BOSTON AWARD
BOYLSTON SCHUL-VEREIN AWARDS
Stefania Battezzato
Westford Academy
Samuel Collier
Boston Latin School
Stephanie Blumenstock
Westford Academy
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HEINLE / CENGAGE AWARDS
LANGENSCHEIDT AWARD
Nathan Beningson
Westford Academy
Caterina Bonmassar
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Katherina Brown
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Marcus Boeck-Chenevier
International School of Boston
Eve Harris
Concord Academy
Jaroslav Hofierka
Falmouth Academy
Amaan Khimani
Westford Academy
Gabrielle Kussmaul
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Florence Liang
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Michelle Moesner
Lexington High School
Begina Molins
St. Mark’s School
Andrew Ressler
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Lily Rockefeller
Phillips Academy Andover
Luise Schmieta
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Caroline Schoeller
Concord Academy
Mahlet Shiferaw
Boston Latin School
Lorraine Esteva
International School of Boston
SÄNGERCHOR BOSTON AWARD
Christopher Finnegan Schick
St. Mark’s School
SWISSNEX BOSTON AWARDS
Kyle Batra
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Lina Dammann
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
GERMAN AID SOCIETY OF BOSTON
AWARD
Benjamin Gaynor
Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School
GERMAN-AMERICAN
LADIES SOCIETY AWARD
Ina Beinborn
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
GERMAN-AMERICAN
BUSINESS COUNCIL OF BOSTON
AWARDS
Katherine Lucas
Deutsche Sonnabendschule
Benjamin Woodward
Westford Academy
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AATG/PAD Preisträger
2013
Fortune Jackson-Bartelmus
Auf meiner Reise nach
Deutschland habe ich viele Dinge
gelernt. Ich habe die Kraft des
deutschen Engineering bemerkt.
Ich habe gelernt, bei einer
deutscher Familie zu wohnen.
Aber am wichtigsten habe ich
gelernt, mit Deutschen zu
kommunizieren.
Ich wohnte bei meinem
Gastbruder Pascal, seinem
Bruder Max, und seiner Mutter.
Sie behandelten mich noch besser
als meine eigene Familie. Sie
zeigten mir, wie man wie ein
Deutscher sich duscht; sehr kurz,
anders als ein Amerikaner. Sie zeigten mir, immer die Türen zu schließen. Sie zeigten auch mir,
mein Fenster zu schließen, so dass die verrückten deutschen Vögel nicht in das Haus fliegen
kann. Sie zeigten mir, wie man mit der Straßenbahn zur Schule und nach Hause fährt. Sie zeigten
mir, in Restaurants zu bestellen. Obwohl sie nicht so viel Geld hat, zu Hause hatte ich nie
Hunger. Ich habe so viel von ihnen gelernt, und dafür bin ich immer dankbar.
Ich ware in einem fremden Land zum ersten Mal, und ich wurde von den vielen Unterschieden
überrascht. Die Autos sind alle deutsch, die Polizei fährt immer BMW Autos, und die
Polizeisirenen unterscheiden sich noch von amerikanischen Polizeisirenen. Wenn man zum
Kaufhaus geht, muss man immer zuerst zum Verkäufer “hallo” sagen, im Gegensatz zu Amerika.
Wenn man in einem Restaurant Wasser bestellt, ist das Wasser nicht kostenlos; es ist eigentlich
etwas teuer. Auch wenn man Wasser bestellt, bekommt man nicht stilles Wasser; man bekommt
immer Wasser mit Gas. Zuerst machte es mich verrückt, aber dann wurde ich daran gewöhnt.
Auf jeden Fall machte die Reise mir viel Spaß.
Nach dem Unterricht auf Deutsch an dem Melanchthon Gymnasium, werde ich gern auf jeden
Fall entweder an einer deutschen Universität studieren, oder ich werde Deutsch an einem
amerikanischen College studieren; ich kann das euch versprechen. Bisher hat es mir so viel Spaß
gemacht, Deutsch zu lernen, und ich habe nicht vor, in absehbarer Zeit zu stoppen.
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Congress –Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship
Jesse Hileman
Pentucket Regional High School, West Newbury, MA
Last year, I was lucky enough to be awarded the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange
Scholarship to study in a German High School and live with a German host family for ten
months. The US Department of State awards this scholarship to 250 students from across the
country every year after completing an extensive written application, an in-person interview,
teacher recommendations, and a health check. I was incredibly nervous to go – not only would I
have to adapt to an entirely different culture and way of life, I barely knew the language.
I was placed on an island in the Baltic Sea, Rügen, in a small village with just five households
with two parents and a daughter my age. I attended a Gymnasium and took the same classes as
my ninth grade class – English, German, Algebra, German History, Computer Science,
Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, Government, Art, and others. I tried to do the same work as the
rest of my class, but that was not always possible. My class welcomed me and I found friends
among them as well as among my host sister’s friends. My host sister and I got along very well
and we grew to be just like brother and sister. It could get boring in such a small village, but I
kept myself busy. Some of the highlights of my year were visiting Berlin, Dresden, Sweden, and
the Canary Islands, completing a praktikum at a daycare, and going to camps with other CBYX
students throughout the year.
Studying German in a classroom and actually speaking the language 24/7 among native speakers
is hardly comparable, but I was well-prepared by my two years of studying German in school.
At the very least, I could greet people, apologize, and be polite. I am glad I experienced the
shock of finding out that I would have to memorize four cases and three genders before arriving
in the country, and I at least knew better than to call my teacher “du”. I was also prepared with a
decent knowledge of German history, and especially living in east Germany, this knowledge was
beneficial for many a dinner-table conversation.
My language skills are still not perfect. I may or may not be fluent, depending on your
definition. I have learned to embrace my feeble attempts of spitting out the German “r”, and I
have learned that when the weather is humid, I should probably just call it “hot”. Had the
dreaded conjunctive tense never been invented, I would be better at German. (That was an
attempt at irony that may or may not have worked.) Either way, I am proud of how far I came in
ten months and believe I never could have learned all that I did without having the first-hand
study-abroad experience.
My ten months on Rügen were easily the best ten months of my life. As cliché as it
sounds, I made lifelong friends, gained invaluable knowledge of the language and culture, and
created lasting memories. I experienced things I never thought I’d experience before, and I
opened my mind to new ideas. I would love to go back and visit my host family again someday,
but nothing will ever compare to my sophomore year as an exchange student.
15
Schulen berichten
Briscoe Middle School, Beverly
The German program at Briscoe Middle School remains strong with a total of five daily German
classes in grades six through eight. The advanced language program with students beginning in
sixth grade continues to draw in students and encourages them to continue in high school,
entering German 3 as freshman! All students enjoy using the department's laptop cart,
participating in classroom activities and making skits with Frau Rickerl's silly masks.
In December 2013 German students once again declared "war" on the French-language students
in the annual Joyeux Noel collaborative unit. Each year the unit fills with more and more
activities and fun!
-submitted by Holly Rickerl
Concord Academy
It has been an exciting year for the German program at Concord Academy. A motivated group
of first year students has been mastering every grammatical challenge that has come its way,
from personal pronouns to the accusative case to modal verbs. German 2 students are currently
running career counseling sessions and conducting mock interviews as they investigate the world
of Berufe and Arbeit. German 3 students have watched the film Das Versprechen on the Berlin
Wall, conducted research projects on Berlin, and are now planning a year abroad in a German
city of their choice. They have just conducted a WG-search on a German website devoted to
apartment seekers and are writing letters of interest, with interviews to follow soon. In German 4,
students are currently tackling Theodor Storm’s novella Immensee, with Gerhart Hauptmann’s
Bahnwärter Thiel soon to follow. These talented level four students will also have the
opportunity to read some of Heine’s poetry this semester, and CA’s music teacher will visit the
class to lecture on Schumann’s Dichterliebe, the idea of Lieder as an art form, and how
Schumann’s musical setting responds to Heine’s poetry.
In other news, the CA German program has teamed up with a class of English learners at
Gymnasium Harksheide in Hamburg. A former CA German student is working at the school on
an English Teaching Assistant Fulbright. CA students have been paired up with their German
counterparts, and they are writing back and forth, switching from German to English every other
week, on a variety of topics including patriotism in Germany versus America, youth language
and slang in both languages, and comparisons of American and German school systems.
German Club continues to be active. Students sold gummy bears and Advent Calendars in the
fall semester to raise money for next year’s trip to Germany. German Club teamed up with
French Club in December to throw a holiday party complete with Stollen, bouche de noel, and
holiday songs in both languages. This semester, we plan to host a Wurst-tasting, screen episodes
from the TV show Türkisch für Anfänger, and organize the annual button-making workshop.
-submitted by Annie Falk
16
Lexington High School
Lexington High School participated in the rather more difficult National Exam this week. The
Deutsche Welle cultural videos and audio segments helped a lot in the preparation for this exam.
The material on Deutsche Welle comes with vocabulary help and multiple choice exercises. The
German 3 and German 4 class is using audioboo on a regular basis to practice their listening and
speaking abilities. This is generally helpful for them but also helpful in preparation for this exam.
We are going to begin preparations for our German Fest after February break. This is an evening
(3/27/2014) of skits written and designed by the students beforehand and also includes a potluck
dinner. I am most excited about the plan to begin an Exchange with the help of GAPP. This
year’s freshmen will be the first to participate. Twenty-five students signed up for this year's
German 1 class and I am hoping to interest even more students with the prospect of this biannual
exchange with a school in Erding/Bayern.
-submitted by Heidemarie Floerke
Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School
The past year was a very full and productive one for the German program at Lincoln Sudbury
Regional High School. Teachers Joan Campbell and Michele Lepietre saw enrollments rise in
all of their classes. We continue to pursue projects which foster collaboration across levels of
instruction, with advanced students organizing special celebrations for beginning students on
occasions such as Silvester and Fasching, and intermediate students assisting beginning students
with their conversational skills.
This fall, we were THRILLED to add Sarah Fetterhoff to our German team at Lincoln Sudbury.
We are very lucky to have such a gifted teacher on our staff. Sarah has already made significant
contributions to the German program at LS and will also participate in our GAPP exchange this
summer.
In March, the Lincoln Sudbury Language Department once again hosted the World Language
Declamation Contest. We were pleased to have former LS German teacher Karin Flynn from the
German Consular Office and Detlef Gericke-Schönhagen, Director of the Goethe-Institut Boston,
among the judges for our competition. German participants recited pieces by Goethe, Schiller
and Rilke. We crowned a German winner at Level 2, Justin Lui giving a hilarious rendition of
Loriot’s Jodelschule.
In March, Lincoln Sudbury again hosted the Metro-West German Immersion Day. We
welcomed approximately 60 students from 8 schools. Teachers organized workshops on topics
such as graffiti, rap, cooking, Handball, soccer, fairy tales and dancing. Participants enjoyed
meeting other German learners and trying out new skills in the target language. We again look
forward to participating in the 2014 Immersion Day to be held this year at Billerica Memorial
High School.
German does not go on summer vacation at LS! Immediately following final exams, Joan
Campbell and GAPP co-chaperone Alexandra Plotkin took a group of 20 LS student to Vilshofen
for their Gegenbesuch. We enjoyed three wonderful weeks with our host families and at the
Gymnasium Vilshofen. At school, we organized a 4th of July celebration and a soccer
Freundschaftsspiel with our partners. We took excursions to Passau, Regensburg (including a
tour of the Uni and a boat trip down the Danube), Landshut and the BMW-Factory in Dingolfing.
We also spent three exciting days in Berlin, taking in such sites as the Brandenburg Gate, the
Bundestag and the East Side Gallery.
17
Two additional students of German from LS participated in a Goethe-Institut summer course in
Duderstadt. This was sponsored entirely by the PASCH Program in which LS has participated
since 2009. We are just one of nine PASCH schools in the US, partnering with the Auswärtiges
Amt to promote German language and culture.
In October, we again welcomed a group of 20 students from our partner school, the Gymnasium
Vilshofen. On this exchange, our Bavarians learned much about good old-fashioned American
board and card games! With the power restored, we enjoyed excursions to Boston and
Cambridge. This year, our partners taught LS students the art of Volkstanz. We look forward to
our Gegenbesuch in June 2014.
In November, 32 LS German students, accompanied by teachers Joan Campbell and Sarah
Fetterhoff, attended the annual German Day at Brown University, organized by Professor Jane
Sokolosky. We participated in an exciting scavenger hunt and visited with a former LS student,
now in the German program at Brown. The program culminated in a talent show in which LS
students sang, told jokes, facilitated a game of trivial pursuit and taught the group how to play
the Bavarian card game Schafkopf.
We look forward to another full year at LS!
-submitted by Joan Campbell
Nashoba Regional High School
German at Nashoba Regional High School (NRHS) is alive and well. With over 100 students,
we have one of the highest enrollments Nashoba has had in the past 6 years (50 students in
German 1!). Highlights this academic year include our biannual exchange with our partner
school in Weilheim, Germany, being filmed by a crew from the Goethe Institut (GI), and
preparations for our reciprocal visit to Weilheim in 2014. Almost all of our students participated
in this year's GI: Award of Excellence and we had two students submit applications to the
Deutsche Olympiade. For our graduating seniors, we had representatives from the University of
Rhode Island come and discuss their German programs, and a number of them submitted
applications. Over 10 seniors are preparing to take the 2014 AP test, and we have tentative plans
to visit the BAUHAUS museum with students from the art department in a cross-curricular field
trip this spring.
-submitted by Nathan Prichard
Newburyport High School
This year has been a busy one for German at Newburyport High School. For three weeks in late
October we conducted the first round of our GAPP exchange with 20 students and 2 teachers
from the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium in Waldkirch, Baden-Württemberg. Our guests stayed
for about two weeks and our students are counting down the days until we arrive in Germany this
summer with nervous excitement. The fall exchange went very well. Highlights from the group’s
visit to the Port City included a visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a day spent at the
Goethe Institut with an interactive activity for students, a tour of Salem, MA, pumpkin carving,
and laser tag. Students are already getting very excited to travel to the Black Forest to visit their
exchange partners after school gets out in June. The GAPP exchange remains strong here at the
high school and helps get the word out in the school and the community that German is a fun and
exciting subject to choose. Any and all “plugs” for the German program at the high school are
always welcome!
18
We will be very busy doing some recruiting for our German program in the middle school in
February/March as well. Last year our efforts paid off. After a successful program to get 8th
graders interested in German, we added nearly 60 freshmen German language-learners to our
program! We’re very excited about this large number and hope to keep the momentum going as
we begin scheduling for the 2014-15 school year.
With spring around the corner (immer positiv denken!) comes the annual Deutsches Theaterfest
at Mount Holyoke College. Students in German 4 will soon gear up to begin work on producing
a piece to be presented on April 17, 2014. We are also planning a trip to the Café at Karl’s
Sausage Kitchen, having a ‘cultural food day’, and preparing for our trip to Germany in
June. And learning German, of course…
Newburyport was proud to honor colleague, Spencer Wolf, who received two awards at the
MaFLA awards luncheon held during the annual state foreign language conference in October
2013. He received the Massachusetts German Educator of the Year Award from MaFLA and the
AATG-MA and also received the ISE (Intercultural Student Experience) Award for the excellent
GAPP immersion experience he provides his students. Gratuliere dir, Spencer!
Colleague Jared Maul enrolled in a German master’s program at Middlebury College. He
already has the first summer under his belt and has reported that he really enjoyed the
challenging work load and is looking forward to returning again this summer.
-submitted by Spencer H. Wolf and Jared Maul
Pentucket Regional School District, West Newbury
Since French cycled out of existence in spring 2013, German, Latin and Spanish remain the three
offerings of the Foreign Language Department in the Pentucket Regional School District.
Middle school students typically get exposure to all three in an exploratory course in seventh
grade, then opt for one of the three languages for daily instruction in eighth grade. German
remains a hugely popular option for middle school students who are taught by new teacher Jason
Whittier. Mr. Whittier designs his own curriculum for German, going without a textbook in
favor of setting up useful communication activities and uses of technology.
At the high school, incoming ninth graders usually cycle into a second year German class.
Although newbies can usually sign up for a German 1 class, this option wasn’t offered this year.
Instead, this year there are two sections of Honors German 2 and one of CP German 2 for
freshmen and two well-subscribed sections of Honors German 3 and one of CP German 3 for
sophomores. While enrollment usually drops off after third year, Pentucket has retained enough
students to run two sections of Honors German 4 and one of Honors German 5.
Irina Kozel O’Brien decided to stay home with her toddler for an additional year and Karen
Careri was brought in to fill in for the year, also acting as the interim department chair. Karen is
a familiar face on the North Shore and has taught German and Spanish on short term basis in
different schools while raising her children. Karen jumped right in and taught upper level
German course while Irina’s colleague Stephen Petersen focused on the first and second year
sections. At midyear Stephen elected to take paternity leave to stay home with his newborn
daughter. At this point, Doug Guy was asked to finish the year for Stephen, taking on one
section of CP German 1, one section of CP German 2 and three sections of Honors German 3.
Both Vertretungslehrer expected the gig to end in June 2013 but ended up being asked back for
2013-14. Irina O’Brien returned half-time, job sharing with Doug Guy. Stephan Petersen
19
decided to extend his paternity leave for another full year, making it possible for Karen Careri to
stay on as well as German teacher and department chair.
Pentucket will run its hugely popular GAPP program in June and July 2014, taking 23 third and
fourth year students on a month-long sojourn to Germany and Austria, chaperoned by teachers
Karen Careri, Doug Guy and Jason Whittier. After spending four days in Berlin, exploring the
capital and its inexhaustible offerings of culture and history, the group will travel to Leverkusen
for the first half of its exchange with Landrat-Lucas-Gymnasium. From there the group continues
to Graz with stops in München and Salzburg for a one week student exchange with Sacré Coeur
Gymnasium. After the conclusion of the home stay and school visit in Graz, the group travels to
Vienna, spending several days soaking up Viennese culture, cuisine, music and history before
flying home to Boston. GAPP students intend to fundraise for group expenses with a sale of
Lindt chocolate bars and a German dinner over the winter.
Leverkusen students visited Pentucket in October 2013, living with the families of their
Pentucket partner students, attending classes at the high
school, and taking field trips to tour the State House and
Athenaeum in Boston, visit Plimouth Plantation and even
manage a 48 hour flash tour of New York City. Together
LLG and Pentucket students visited Cambridge for a
campus tour of Harvard auf Deutsch, then dashed to the
Museum of Fine Arts for a tour of the highlights of the
American Collection. Football games and a pot luck
dinner gave all the host families opportunities to mix and
share experiences.
-submitted by Doug Guy
Landrat-Lucas-Gymnaisum chaperones Brigitta Form (far left) and
Vera Windhuis (far right) chat at the GAPP potluck dinner with
Pentucket teachers Stephen Petersen and Karen Careri.
Students from Pentucket RHS and Landrat-Lucas-Gymnasium
Leverkusen return from a campus tour of Harvard, given auf
Deutsch by Harvard students of German.
German and American kids from Pentucket communities mix
with GAPP host family members at a Sunday potluck dinner.
Leverkusen students proudly model their brand new Pentucket
sweatshirts, souvenirs of their two weeks in West Newbury.
20
St. John’s Prep
At St. John’s Prep, German continues to be strong and roll on. We currently have six sections,
One 5/5, and one 1/5, with a total of about 120 students. Over the past year we've been very
active and have made a conscious effort to be a "visible presence" in many aspects of school life.
Our Deutsch Klub has participated in a number of activities with other language clubs and
interest organizations on campus. For example, we hosted the World Language Soccer
Tournament, where each language fielded a team, and played a round-robin tournament. A
barbecue of brats and Black Forest cake was celebrated at the end. We also connected with our
school's Jewish Student Union for a viewing and discussion of Schindler's List. Currently we're
looking forward to our biennial tour of Bavaria, Switzerland and Austria in June; 25 students
have registered.
-submitted by Chris Lynch
Sacred Heart High School, Kingston
There seem to be quite a few international students enrolling in our schools. These past two years
Korean, Chinese, Italian nationals have joined my German classes, in addition to our
Americans. They express wishes to study international business in the finance areas. They realize
the strength of the German economy as do their parents and hope that after university study they
may enter the international world of business.
So our classes have taken a different approach than the usual way English speaking students
learn. There is much emphasis on pronunciation skills and phonics, learning the alphabet.
Vocabulary lessons always compare the words in each of the mother tongues. Cultural
differences are explored. Often surprises in meanings as we compare words and ideas make the
learning fun and enjoyable. This year there are students at SHS from Ireland, Korea, China,
Vietnam, Finland, Italy and Switzerland. They have not been required to take a third
language since learning English is a major objective for them. Some however have enrolled in
French and Spanish and Latin as well. This interaction of cultures has inspired a new club "We
are the World." which meets regularly. Everyone is invited to attend.
-submitted by Emma Jean Middendorf, cdp
Walpole High School
The Walpole German program is rather small, with only about 60 students. Every two years we
participate with the Sebastian-Muenster Gymnasium in a school exchange. We offer German 1
through 4 (a course intended to help students prepare for the German Advanced Placement
exam). I am in my 14th year at WHS, but have been teaching German for only 13 years. I also
teach upper level French here. My German students have participated every year since the
inception of the German program in the German National Exam. Every year approximately 8095% of all German students take the exam. The high point of the year for our students is our
annual German Night. At this celebration, students present their favorite classroom activity from
the year. It is an evening of impressing parents, siblings, grandparents and the community since
the students conduct the entire evening in German (we supply interpreters for the Germanchallenged folks in the audience). German Night is traditionally held in late April or early
May. It is considered one of the best nights of the year by my students.
The following appeared in the Walpole Times:
21
On May 7, 2013 Emily Barber, a junior at Walpole High School, was honored by the American
Association of Teachers of German for her outstanding performance on the National German
Exam for second year German students. She scored in the 90th percentile on the exam. At the
same awards ceremony, Elizabeth Pierce was honored with the Duden Award. This award,
which was established in 1990, is given annually at the AATG Awards Ceremony in May to
recognize outstanding contributions to the teaching of German on the K-12 level in
Massachusetts. All current teachers of German in Massachusetts whose students participate in
the AATG National Testing Program are considered for the honor. Frau Pierce, as she is known
by all at Walpole High School, was chosen because of her advocacy and promotion of German
study through participation in the AATG National Testing Program and other activities such as
the exchange with Sebastian-Münster Gymnasium in Ingelheim, Germany and the annual
German Night. For her efforts, Frau Pierce was given the Duden Certificate and gift from the
AATG and the Goethe Institut -Boston. Currently, Frau Pierce teaches all levels of German at
Walpole High School.
-submitted by Elizabeth Pierce
Wellesley High School
The German program is moving along as normal. Twentyeight students will travel to Wellesley’s partner school in
Radolfzell, Germany in February for a 3-week German
exchange. Germany colleague, Aurelie Kamdem, runs the
German Club at WHS, and it has been moving along
smoothly. We were invited to the German Day at Brown
University this year and we were able to travel with all
juniors and seniors to Providence for that day. We do not
seem to have increased numbers as one always hopes (and
as the trend was a few years ago at WHS), but we are still
solid and steady as a program. We have full support of our
department head and I think the administration, so that is
very good indeed.
-submitted by Devon Ellis
Westfield High School
German continues to thrive at Westfield High School! The GAPP exchange shines as the
centerpiece of the program. On September 19, 15 students arrived from our partner school,
Europa Gymnasium, Wörth am Rhein for the 16th Exchange since 1982. As in years past,
German students entertained their hosts at a German Evening - Potluck Supper. German
teachers Martina Hauser and Helena Alves and Latin teacher Sarah Buckley organized and
chaperoned a weekend trip to Burlington, VT and a day trip to New Haven, Ct, where exchange
participants toured the Yale campus, visited the Peabody Museum, and dipped their toes in the
ocean at the Connecticut shore. Afternoon trips took the group to Yankee Candle and the
Butterfly Conservatory in Deerfield. The German students and chaperones were the guests of
Westfield State University, enjoying an extensive tour of the campus and lunch with faculty
22
members. On a daily basis, the German students were fully integrated into daily life at the high
school. Starting before their arrival, pictures of all exchange participants and information about
the exchange were on display in the central foyer. Welcome signs in German dotted the halls. All
GAPP students had personal schedules ensuring that virtually every student at WHS had the
chance to get to know them. In groups of two or three, the exchange students gave presentations
about Germany in classes at the High School and Middle School. The Student Council and
Culinary Arts students hosted a breakfast for the visitors and clubs and sports groups invited
them to participate. Home Football games were a big hit with some of the exchange students
even working at the snack bar during the games. A three day trip to New York City chaperoned
by EGW GAPP teachers Christine Gerbetz and Daniela Becker was the final event of the
exchange visit. Their GAPP partners are anxiously awaiting their return visit to Wörth in July to
be capped off with a trip to Berlin.
Under the tutelage of Frau Hauser, students in advanced German classes at WHS posted
commendable scores on the 2013 AATG National Test of German and the AP German exam.
Presentation was an important part of all lessons. Students in German 3 studied the
Bundesländer and then, created their own coats of arms which they in turn presented to the class.
German 4 students immersed themselves in German music and all classes participated in
creative Holiday competitions: Ostereierbäume in the Spring – faculty members were invited to
vote on which class had the best tree – and holiday ornaments in December. Each class had its
own Adventskalender. Frau Alves’ German 1 students enjoy watching and discussing
Deutsche Welle Video des Tages and writing in their Tagebücher. They are currently listening to
the story Tor Ohne Grenzen. Once a month, they celebrate Frühstück-Freitags ( breakfast +
cultural presentations by students). Recent projects for presentation included floor plans of their
rooms and their family Stammbäume.
There’s always something happening in German at WHS.
-submitted by Kathleen Gallogly
Westford Academy
Westford Academy's German program continues to thrive. Our middle school programs at the
Blanchard and Stony Brook middle schools continue to grow, with increasing enrollments every
year! As for our extra-curriculars, we started off the year with a group of 20 students attending
the Herbert Grönemeyer concert in Boston. This October, we hosted 19 students and 2 teachers
from our partner school, Gymnasium Corvinianum in Northeim for three fantastic
weeks. Canoeing on the Concord River, a trip to the theater, walking the Freedom Trail, a day in
New York City and, of course, the WA tradition of a Spirit Rally and football game were some
of the highlights. Our group is already looking forward to our visit in June! For the annual
Holiday Bazaar held at Westford Academy, the German Club provided lots of delicious baked
goods, and a lunch of Bratwurst and Kartoffelsalat was available for purchase. Most recently,
125 students took part in the revised National German Exam. Although they found it
challenging, most students really liked the authenticity and the online format of the exam. Our
next project this spring will be participation in the German Immersion Day to be held at Billerica
High School.
-submitted by Kristin Gillett
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German Immersion Day 2013
One of two big immersion events sponsored by the Massachusetts chapter of AATG, the North
of Boston German Immersion Day took place at Phillips Exeter Academy on Saturday, April 6,
2013. Host for the event was Richard Schieber, chair of foreign languages and German and
French teacher at the academy. Students from all over northern Massachusetts and southern
New Hampshire, including Beverly H.S., Briscoe Middle School, Conval Regional H.S.,
Gloucester H.S., Newburyport H.S., Pentucket Regional H.S., Phillips Exeter Academy and
Pinkerton Academy, arrived by 9:30, met other students and workshop presenters and then went
to their two hour workshop. Students could sign up for the workshop of their choice, and the
topics included Kochen, i-Pad Comics, Brettspiele, Rappen, Journalismus,
Theaterimprovissation, Märchen, Schnitzeljagd and Achterbahn.
After a lunch break in the Exeter student cafeteria where students
sat with teachers and presenters
and conversed in German,
everyone headed for the gym,
learning how to play Handball in
German. After getting huge
servings of Spaghetti-Eis back in
the cafeteria, students returned to
the classroom building for a
farewell show of student
Spencer Wolf and Cindi Hodgdon
productions and received a
serve Spaghetti Eis
souvenir t-shirt and other souvenir
Students in cooking class
materials provided by the German Consulate and Goethe-Institut
Boston. The second such event, Metro West German
Immersion Day, was held at Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School, hosted by Joan Campbell
and Michele Lepietre for students from Billerica H.S., Blanchard Middle School, Concord
Academy, Nashoba Regional H.S., Wachusett Regional H.S., and Westford Academy.
German Immersion Day 2014
German Immersion Day 2014 at Billerica High School will be sponsored by Britta Roper on
Saturday, March 8, 2014. This year's overall topic is Umwelt, demonstrating ways to bring
ecology and grünes Denken into the German curriculum. All attending middle and high school
teachers organize a workshop on a topic of personal interest and choice, and then bring a group
of their students for a full day of immersion, speaking German with other students, teachers and
native speakers from across the region. Some of the workshop topics for this year include
Werken mit Recylingmaterialien, Theaterimprovisation, Kochen, Backen, Rappen and a
workshop with a German engineer. Each student gets lunch, a souvenir T-shirt and promotional
gadgets for German, courtesy of AATG, Goethe-Institut Boston and Generalkonsulat
Deutschland, for the price of admission. Registration is online between February 1 and February
14.
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Hochschulen berichten
College of the Holy Cross
Last fall, the German Klub at the College of the Holy Cross visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner
Museum in Boston. My new colleague, Jacob Haubenreich, and our new Foreign Language
Assistant, Hannah Brodel, from the Otto-Friedrich Universität in Bamberg, our Study Aboard
partner, our students and I greatly enjoyed the tour of the museum and its many artifacts from
German speaking countries.
This spring, Kristof Magnusson will give a lecture at the College of the Holy Cross on a Friday
afternoon (details will follow), co-sponsored by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
-submitted by Sylvia M. Schmitz-Burgard
Associate Professor of German
Chair, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Mount Holyoke College
Following the footsteps of successful alumnae, MHC German Studies students received
prestigious fellowships and stipends to continue with their studies and research in Germany in
the year 2014. Recipients included Rachel Schmidt ’13 (one-year Fulbright Fellowship), and
Gege Wang ’13 (one-year DAAD research stipend). At the MHC German Studies annual
Internship, Fellowship, and Study-Abroad symposium, Margaret Stevens (’14) and Si Qi (Cindy)
Yao (’15) enthusiastically described their summer internship experiences at the Leibnitz-Institut
in Berlin and the University of Leipzig supported by a DAAD-RISE stipend promoting research
in the Sciences and Engineering. The increasing number of outside fellowship and awards for
MHC students also reflects the success of the Curriculum to Career Initiatives as part of
students’ liberal arts education at MHC. In addition, German Studies students received several
departmental awards specifically designed for students of German to financially support study
abroad endeavors for a semester or year at one of the many German universities MHC partners
through MHC exchange programs or Five-Colleges cooperation.
With the generous support of the Consulate General of the FRG, the Goethe Institut, Boston, and
Mount Holyoke College, the German Studies Department hosted the 36th annual Theaterfest and
Competition in April 2013. The event brought together more than two hundred participants and
visitors from ten different institutions (primary and secondary education) celebrating
accomplishments and extraordinary theater performances in German. A continuing success
story, MHC will host the 2014 Theaterfest on April 17, 2014. Applications should be directed to
Prof. Anca Holden at aholden@mtholyoke.edu.
Small and large initiatives and events about German(y) as well as research presentations by
MHC German Studies faculty members at major conferences in the U.S. and abroad created
many stimulating and meaningful discussions inside and outside the classroom. In the spring,
MHC was pleased to welcome Consul Rolf E. Schütte for a guest lecture on Germany’s role
within Europe. Class visits and discussions with Consul Schütte were a rewarding enterprise for
all parties involved. The German Studies Department also hosted an exhibition on the Weisse
25
Rose resistance group sponsored by the White Rose Foundation. MHC faculty Mark Lauer
organized the exhibition as part of a first-year seminar on Nazi Germany bringing together MHC
students and many outside visitors interested in the topic.
-submitted by Mark Lauer
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
The biggest news for this year is that our program has streamlined our PhD requirements,
making it easier for students entering with a BA to plan all the way through the dissertation -with consistent funding support. Revisions in curriculum and a simpler exam structure build on
our interdisciplinary approach, Five College base, and flexibility in designing individual grad
programs of study.
Please consult our website or Facebook page for details on the program as well as spring 2014
events. These will include a March 3 symposium on transnationalism organized by Ela Gezen
and Jonathan Skolnik. We're also maintaining our focus on Afro-German studies, in
collaboration with the new UMass certificate program in African diaspora studies, and in this
context are planning to host a Five College visit by author and filmmaker Branwen Okpako in
early April. Later in April we plan to invite Yuliya Komska, a Dartmouth colleague specializing
on Cold War culture, for a talk as well. Our Scandinavianist Sherrill Harbison is co-chair of the
joint Baltic/Scandinavian Studies conference coming up at Yale in March
(http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/balticstudies/ybss/index.html).
We have recently had quite a number of personnel transitions, with the retirement of Professors
Sara Lennox and Susan Cocalis and graduate program secretary Roseann Smith. In addition to
Ela Gezen, Kerstin Mueller Dembling has joined our faculty and Professor Frank Hugus has
returned to teaching after some ten years of service as Vice Provost for International Programs.
Dolkar Gyaltsen is now office manager for GSS.
As language
coordinator, Kerstin
Mueller Dembling has
redesigned our
elementary and
intermediate German
sequence, with new
materials that use a
multi-media approach,
including films and an
interactive website. Over her first three semesters at UMass, Ela Gezen has designed a set of
new courses on minority culture in Germany. Finally, we were thrilled that with Stanford
University Press. Jonathan Skolnik was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor. His book,
Jewish Pasts, German Fictions: History, Memory and Minority Culture,
will appear in February in Stanford University Press.
In other news, UMass was a co-sponsor of the biennial conference of the Black German Heritage
and Research Association, held in August 2013 at Amherst College. 2013-14 marks the DEFA
Film Library's 20th anniversary. Films have been presented across the US in a program called
"20@20," there were a host of panels on GDR film at the German Studies Association
conference in Denver, and a celebration was held at UMass in November. The lecture series
“Scandinavian Impulses” organized by Sherrill Harbison continued to be a hit in the fall; among
26
the very well-attended presentations was a program on “Viking Fighting Moves from the Saga of
Icelanders," which included a demonstration fight that electrified the audience.
-submitted by Barton Byg
Salem State University
Salem State University reintroduced German to its World Languages department in 2012,
offering GER 101, Introduction to German, for the first time in years. Spencer Wolf was invited
to teach the course as part of the university’s afternoon/evening program. The interest was
strong enough for the university to offer two sections of GER 101 in the fall of 2013, one section
taught by Spencer Wolf and the other by native Italian instructor Amanda Minervini, who also
organized a German Club and an evening film series. Dr. Minervini has been hugely
instrumental in helping the university organize a summer program in Berlin for 2014 which will
allow students to do course work at Humboldt-Universität while enjoying home stay experiences
with native Berliners.
To satisfy the interest of students wanting to continue German beyond the elementary level,
Salem State has added an Intermediate German 201 and 202 sequence to its afternoon program,
taught by J. Douglas Guy. The intermediate classes meet only once a week for 2.4 hours, but the
students are very enthusiastic and eager to improve their German, many of them having had no
opportunity to study German since leaving high school. For the first time there are also high
school students in the class taking advantage of the dual enrollment option to receive free tuition
at Salem State while earning credit toward high school graduation as well as college credit.
-submitted by Doug Guy
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Good news first: Our German program is still strong with two beginner courses of thirty students
each in August 2013, and a total of about 94 students. Our program has received continued
support from the department, the dean, and the office of Interdisciplinary and Global Studies.
Seven WPI students spent a semester at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft, Technik und Gestaltung
(HTWG) in Konstanz in the spring, and twelve students from the HTWG enrolled in graduate
and undergraduate courses at WPI during the fall semester.
Ulrike Brisson received a WPI grant for innovative teaching to test the use of clickers in the
German classroom, presented papers at various conferences, published two articles, and has
recently become a member of the AATG Nominating Committee.
Not so good news: For personal reasons our new tenure-track colleague John Urang moved back
to Portland, Oregon, after one year at WPI. We are fortunate to have Elisabeth Solbakken, who
has been teaching at Holy Cross and Assumption for many years with great success, to help us
out until John Urang can be replaced by a new hire in a post-doc position.
From January to March, David Dollenmayer teaches his last course at WPI Starke Frauen in vier
deutschen Dramen. Students and faculty alike will be sad to see him go, but he looks forward to
being a full-time literary translator as his next career.
His translation of Rolf Bauerdick's The Madonna on the Moon (Wie die Madonna auf den Mond
kam) was published by Knopf in 2013 and he has an NEH fellowship for 2014 to complete a
translation of Michael Kleeberg's Ein Garten im Norden.
-submitted by Ulrike Brisson
27
7th Annual German Conference to be held at Harvard
The seventh German Conference at Harvard takes place this year on Feb. 14 – 15,
2014. Topic: The US and Germany: Drifting Apart? Perceptions of Security across the
Atlantic. Featured speakers include: Norbert Lammert, President of the German
Bundestag; Yves Leterme, Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD, former Prime Minister of
Belgium; Simone Peter, Chairwoman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen; Wolfgang
Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference; Christoph M. Schmidt, President of the
German Council of Economic Experts (Rat der Wirtschaftsweisen); Phil Murphy, Former U.S.
Ambassador to Germany; Frank Mastiaux, CEO, EnBW (Energie Baden-Württemberg
AG); Peter Ammon, German Ambassador to the United States, Federal Foreign Service
Germany; and a huge roster of panelists, specialists and journalists.
Engaging Heritage Learners
Meeting the Challenges
Saturday, March 29th, 2014 9:00 – 4:00
YALE UNIVERSITY, TEAL Classroom, 101
17 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven
8:00–9:00
9:00–9:30
9:30–10:00
10:00–11:00
11:00–12:00
12:00 –1:00
1:00 – 2:30
2:30–4:00
Breakfast and Registration
Welcome and Introductions
Mixed Language Groups Discussions
Definition of Heritage Learning
Challenges in the Classroom
Addressing these Challenges
Keynote Address by Professor Maria Carreira
Hands-On Session on Differentiated Learning
Lunch, including
Student Panel on Heritage Learner Perspectives
Using Technology to Create Tasks for the Heritage Classroom
(language-specific groups)
Plenary Discussion
Registration is $20. For more information contact:
Margaret Marcotte
(203)432-3412
PIERyale.edu
28
THEATERFEST 2013
Middle School Division
First Place: Wellesley Middle School, Wellesley, MA (Unterbrochene Märchen)
Second Place: German International School, Boston, MA (Ein Sommernachtstraum)
Third Place: Meadowbrook Waldorf School, West Kingston, RI (Prinzessin Perle)
Secondary School Division
First Place: The Waldorf School of Garden City (Rumpelstilzchen)
Second Place: Falmouth Academy, Falmouth, MA (Harry Potter Reducto)
Third Place: Governor's Academy, Byfield, MA (Piraten der Karibik)
College Division
First Place: Harvard University, Cambridge MA (Draussen vor der Tür)
THEATERFEST 2014
We cordially invite you and your students to participate in the 37th Annual German Theatre
Festival and Competition which will take place on Thursday, April 17, 2014. The Theaterfest is
held in Chapin Auditorium on the campus of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley,
Massachusetts. Dramatic presentations in German of no more than 15 minutes in length will be
judged by a jury of secondary school German teachers, members of Mount Holyoke's German
studies and theatre arts faculty as well as representatives of the German Consulate and the
Goethe Institute in Boston. Prizes will be awarded on the elementary, secondary and
college/university levels. Entry forms for 2014 Deutsches Theaterfest are due on Friday, March
21, 2014
29
Deutsche Woche 2013: Switzerland meets Bar Harbor
Grüezi, Bonjour,
Buongiorno, Allegra!
On the beautiful campus of
the College of the Atlantic,
Deutsche Woche participants
gathered for a week-long
seminar to get a taste of
Switzerland. University of
Utah professor and Swiss
native, Karin Baumgartner,
led daily workshops on
culture, history & politics,
literature, language, music
and film to offer participants
an understanding of the
multilingual nation well
known for its banking, Alps and luxurious watches. A highlight of the course, Teaching
Switzerland in the German Classroom, was preparing authentic cuisine native to Helvetia.
However, it wasn’t all about chocolate and cheese. During the week, participants discussed
various ways of integrating Swiss customs and culture into their German curricula, presented
helpful resources and exchanged best practices as well .At the end of the week, participants
enjoyed a lobster dinner and great conversation together with Consul General, Rolf Schütte.
Many thanks to the German Consulate General, Boston, for sponsoring the dinner.
-submitted by Kendra Glettig
DEUTSCHE WOCHE 2014
Dates: August 3-9, 2014
Topic: Aktuell und Authentisch im Deutschunterricht
Instructor: TBA
Cost: $700 (for double occupancy - $100 additional for single, limited availability)
$275 additional fee for graduate credits
Register by May 1 and receive a free Deutsche Woche T-shirt.
After May 1st, please include an additional $15 if you would like to purchase a t-shirt.
Please submit your registration with a non-refundable $100 deposit no later than June 1, 2014 to:
Sue Joy, 154 North Dixmont Road, Troy, ME 04987-3036
Be sure to register early, as space is limited to 25 participants!
Previous topics:
2013 - Die Schweiz im Unterricht (Instructor: Karin Baumgartner, University of Utah)
2012 - Film und Fernsehen im Deutschunterricht (Instructor: Gisela Hoecherl-Alden, Boston
University)
30
AATG Chapter Grant for Bar Harbor 2014
The Maine Chapter of AATG will once again be hosting its annual Deutsche Woche in
Bar Harbor, a summer immersion program for German teachers at all levels of
instruction. This 29th summer program will be held the week of August 3-9, 2014, with
the theme Aktuell und Authentisch im Deutschunterricht with workshops and
discussions.
Check the AATG website for links to AATG Maine Chapter for information and
registration forms. The Massachusetts Chapter will once again fund a grant to defray the
cost of attending Deutsche Woche at Bar Harbor for one Massachusetts teacher. You
must be a member of the AATG to be eligible. This is an excellent program offering
valuable teaching resources, networking opportunities and an immersion atmosphere in a
truly beautiful setting, just a few hours’ drive away. It is casual, fun, relaxing and reenergizing – everything you would want a summer learning opportunity to be!
If you would like to apply for a grant of $300, please submit a letter of interest to Kristin
Gillett, AATG-MA Chapter Treasurer, stating interest, your current teaching level and
location, and whether you have participated at Deutsche Woche in the past (please
include the years). Letters can be sent via email to kgillett@westfordk12.us or via regular
mail to: Kristin Gillett, 477 Main St., Groveland, MA 01834.
The deadline for applications is May 1, 2014.
Announcing this year’s NECTFL Conference in Boston…
Sustaining Communities through World Languages
The 61st Annual Northeast Conference
March 27-30, 2014 at the Marriott Copley Place Hotel in Boston MA
Janel Lafond-Paquin, Rogers High School, Newport RI, Chair
ONLINE PREREGISTRATION (www.nectfl.org)
DEADLINE MARCH 5, 2014
-Of Special Interest to our German ColleaguesBest of NH: Bewegtes Lernen mit Musik! (Active Learning with Music)
Friday (March 28) at 9:15-10:15
Presenter: Alison Pantesco, Keene (NH) State College
Language: German
Using the LinguaFolio Can-Do Statements in a Standards-Based Classroom
Friday (March 28) at 9:15-10:15
Presenter: Deborah Orth, Cony High School, Augusta ME
Language: German
31
The 5 Cs in Action: Collaborative Final Projects
Friday (March 28) at 10:30-11:30
Presenter: Jutta Schmiers-Heller, Columbia University
Language: German
Sustaining Languages in STEM-focused Schools by Creating Inclusive Language
Classrooms
Friday (March 28) at 1:00-2:00
Presenters: Susan Griffin, Boston University; Gisela Hoecherl-Alden, Boston University
Language: German / Spanish
ES: Wayside Publishing: Neue Blickwinkel: A Thematic Approach to Teaching AP Themes
Friday (March 28) at 1:00-2:00
Presenters: Cynthia Chalupa, West Virginia University; Heiko ter Haseborg, West Virginia
University
Language: German
Kiezdeutsch: A New Ethnolect
Friday (March 28) at 2:45-3:45
Presenter: Colette van Kerckvoorde, Bard College at Simon's Rock
Language: German
Wise Guys im DaF-Unterricht: Materialien für den Unterricht
Friday (March 28) at 4:00-5:00
Presenter: Mohamed Esa, McDaniel College
Language: German
AATG Session: Supporting the Teaching and Learning of German
Saturday (March 29) at 8:45-9:45
Presenter: Keith Cothrun, American Association of Teachers of German
Language: German
Language Acquisition Strategies for Middle Schoolers
Saturday (March 29) at 11:15-12:15
Presenters: Laura Ernst, Rundlett Middle School (Concord NH)
Alex Bennett, Wellesley (MA) Middle School
Language: German
Creating Culturally Rich Materials Using the QR Code
Saturday (March 29) at 3:30-4:30
Presenter: Mohamed Esa, McDaniel College
Language: Arabic / German
32
SAVE THESE DATES
German Immersion Day – Billerica High School – March 8, 2014
(Registration online February 1-14, 2014)
Rock Concert by the band Tonbandgerät from Hamburg
Friday, March 28, 2014 - Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School
(Registration via Goethe-Institut Boston)
Northeast Conference – Boston – March 27-29, 2014
37th Annual Theaterfest – Mount Holyoke College – April 17, 2014
(Entry forms for 2014 are due on March 21, 2014)
Awards Ceremony – Boylston Schul-Verein – May 6, 2014
Deutsche Woche in Bar Harbor – Bar Harbor, Maine – August 3 - 9, 2014
Theme: Aktuell und Authentisch im Deutschunterricht
47th Annual MaFLA Fall Conference – Sturbridge – October 23-25, 2014
(Deadline for submission of proposals: April 15, 2014)
Theme: MULTILINGUALISM the foundation of global leadership
33
AATG MA Chapter News 2013
The Massachusetts chapter of AATG held two Executive Board meetings in 2013 in addition to
one general meeting held at the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association (MaFLA)
Conference in the fall. It sponsored three major events for the year: a German Immersion Day,
the AATG Awards Ceremony for high school students in the spring, and the DeutschlehrkräfteTag professional development workshop in the fall.
At the Executive Board meeting on January 12, 2013 at Billerica High School, board members
discussed ways to increase membership, German Immersion Day, as well as ideas for the fourth
Deutschlehrkräfte-Tag, co-sponsored with the Boston Goethe-Institut, as well as the financial
considerations for the annual AATG High School Awards Ceremony. It was decided that parents
would contribute $10 per person to help defray the cost of the Awards Ceremony and that only
two guests would be allowed to accompany each student awardee.
At the second executive board meeting on May 4, 2013 at Concord Academy, the board met to
settle the accounts, and to confirm the nominations for the elections of new officers of President
and Vice-President. Both Lisa Parkes (Harvard) and Joan Campbell (Lincoln Sudbury High
School) were subsequently elected by online ballot as President and Vice-President respectively;
Susan Adams continues as secretary, as does Kristin Gillett as treasurer and Peter Weise at MIT
agreed to continue as testing chair for the National German Exam.
The annual Massachusetts AATG Awards Ceremony was held Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at the
Boylston Schul-Verein in Walpole, MA. Honored guests included Rolf Schütte, the German
Consul General, Dr. Felix Moesner of Swissnex Boston, Dr. Folke-Christine Möller-Sahling,
Language Program Director and Deputy Director of Goethe-Institut Boston, and the president of
the Boylston Schul-Verein, Karl Nestelberger. Approximately 100 students from schools across
Massachusetts attended the event with family members and their teachers. Speakers were the two
travel award winners of 2012, Michaela Harrington from Boston Latin School and Natalie
Howard from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. Fortune Jackson-Bartelmus from Concord
Academy was announced as the 2013 AATG Student/PAD Travel Award winner. Teacher
Elizabeth Pierce from Walpole High School was recognized with the 2013 Duden Award for
outstanding contributions to the study and advocacy of German in her school, community and
region.
For the second time two separate German Immersion Days took place, one for Metro West
schools at Lincoln Sudbury Regional H.S. hosted by Joan Campbell and Michele Lepietre, and
the other for North of Boston schools at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., hosted by
department chair Richard Schieber. German teachers from schools across the state and New
Hampshire met several times over the fall and winter to plan workshops, sporting events, food
and prizes for the event, open to middle and high school students of German accompanied by a
presenting teacher. All students were enrolled in workshops of their choice, received a souvenir
T-shirt and other German prizes provided by the German Consulate General and the GoetheInstitut Boston. During the hour-long lunch students sat at immersion-only tables in the school
cafeteria. After Spaghetti-Eis and other snacks students gathered for a live show of German
rappers and theater improvisation.
The general chapter executive board meeting was held at the MaFLA conference in Sturbridge,
MA on October 18, 2013. New president Lisa Parkes introduced herself and the new initiatives
of AATG, invited new attendees to join AATG, and opened up a discussion about tackling
concerns about the state of German in Massachusetts middle- and high schools.
34
German was well represented at MaFLA by our colleagues: among the seven German sessions
were a 3-hour workshop presented by Goethe-Institut Director Detlef Gericke-Schönhagen on
his didacticized series of short films, Kurz und Gut macht Schule II; a presentation by Gisela
Hoecherl-Alden from Boston University on engaging visual-spatial learners; by Ulrike Brisson
from Worcester Polytechnic on vocabulary learning; and by Lisa Parkes from Harvard, together
with two graduate students, on language play through drama in the foreign-language classroom.
The latter two presentations drew a good number of audience members from other languages
beyond German.
The 2013 IES Language Matters Award and the Massachusetts German Educator of the Year
award both went to Spencer Wolf from Newburyport High School. Many congratulations,
Spencer!
The fourth Deutschlehrkräfte-Tag, “Greening German,” was organized in collaboration with the
Goethe-Insitut Boston and held at the Goethe-Institut on Beacon Street in Boston on September
28, 2013. With the support of the Goethe-Institut Boston, we were able to invite Dr. Natalie
Eppelsheimer from Middlebury College to present a workshop on environmental literacy at all
levels of the curriculum. Attendance was very healthy (about 50), including a good number of
faculty from middle schools, high schools, colleges, universities and the Goethe-Institut itself.
-submitted by Lisa Parkes, President, Massachusetts Chapter, AATG
Obituary: Language Program Director Jörg Frey
Jörg Frey
August 8, 1942 – March 7, 2013
We are remembering Jörg Frey, our dear colleague and former director of
the Language Program in Boston and New England. He passed away on
March 7 in Scituate, surrounded by his family.
Jörg Frey served the Goethe-Institut for over 30 years, in the beginning as
German language teacher, later as the Director of the Language Program. He
was instrumental in building the GAPP student exchange program and was
known for his great interest in his students and strong commitment to the
teachers of the region.
Jörg was a kind, humble, warm and highly respected colleague and close friend to many.
Without him, we wouldn’t be where we are today. The Goethe-Institut staff and community will
honor Jörg Frey’s lasting memory.
The memorial service was held on Sunday, March 24, 2013
at The First Parish Unitarian Church in Scituate
35
Goethe brings Indie Rock to Massachusetts again!
The spring 2014 Highlight of the Goethe–Institut Boston’s Language Department will be a
concert by the indie pop band Tonbandgerät on March 28 at 10am at Melrose Veterans
Memorial Middle School. Tonbandgerät, a young band from Hamburg, is one of Germany’s
most exciting up-and-coming acts – the opening act of many Madsen concerts! In March 2014
they will embark on an 11-concert tour that will take them from Seattle to Boston, so mark your
calendars for this special event!
For more information go to: http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/prj/sig/mus/ggu/enindex.htm
Information on how to register your school group will be announced on our Goethe-Institut
homepage shortly!
36
Chapter Officers and Executive Board
President
Lisa Parkes
Harvard University
lparkes@fas.harvard.edu
Vice President
Joan Campbell
Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School
joan_campbell@lsrhs.net
Secretary
Susan Adams
Concord Academy
Sadams48@gmail.com
Treasurer
Kristin Gillett
Westford Academy
kgillett@westfordk12.us
Immediate Past President
J. Douglas Guy
Goethe Institut Boston
Salem State University
Pentucket Regional High School
JDouglsGuy@aol.com
Executive Board
Newsletter Editor
Cherie Baggs
MaFLA Board of Directors
cabaggs@aol.com
Newsletter Editor
Inge Buerger
IngeBuerger@comcast.net
Testing Chair
Peter Weise
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
weisep@mit.edu
Liaison to High Schools
Alese Ruggaber
Natick High School
aruggaber@comcast.net
Elementary & Middle School
Liaison
Sean Miner
Melrose Veterans Memorial
Middle School
spminer@comcast.net
College Liaison
Ellen Crocker
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
ecrocker@mit.edu
Christine Möller-Sahling
Goethe Institut Boston
langdir@boston.goethe.org
William O'Brien, Esq.
Former President, Associated
German Societies of New England
william@masstechlawyer.com
Monika Whipple
mwhipple@groton.org
Webmaster
Colin Ashby
Stony Brook Middle School
cashby@westfordk12.us
Ulrike Brisson
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
ubrisson@wpi.edu
37