A.
Bismarck Public Schools German Club students were out in the community
working with senior citizens in Bismarck, helping make theirs a happier
Valentine´s
Day!
(Click on above link for video)
Mary Ann Crow, BPS German Club Advisor
Former student
Brendan returned from an overseas tour in Iraq to join us!
Brendan visits
about his exploits in Iraq with a fellow veteran.
German Club
Members Chandler and Seth (standing on the left), serve rootbeer floats to the
senior citizens at their table.
B. German I students were tasked with writing a
weather report to present to their classmates using vocabulary learned for our
Weather Unit. LHS students Owen and Keaton utilized weVideo to create a
great presentation for their class. Maybe they'll be future
newscasters?
Wetter Report
C. Facebook
German
Consulate General of Chicago to feature Bismarck High School German Club Facebook page and Bismarck Public Schools German
classes!
In our district, the focus is on Project-Based Learning – we use
the vocabulary that we are learning for a topic, students write their own skits
with assistance from teacher when they need it, they work in pairs or small
groups.
Nurse Bri (left) checks
vitals on Patient Bre.
Health Unit Doctor/Patient Skit
Here are two German II students at work using the vocabulary
for their Health Unit. They write their own skit using their own ideas, but
rather than translate, they write exclusively in German. The vocabulary is brought to
them through video story and through Quizlet.com. We play games with the
words, view and hear flashcards and then brainstorm ideas. Any words not on our 100 word
list were found on www.leo.org to supplement. Simple sentence
writing is encouraged and knowledge of the vocabulary is expected because the
goal is to be able to speak and be understood by classmates. Grammar is
discussed while writing occurs. Students use the teacher for guidance
only. Students enjoy being allowed to be creative and
therefore choose to do great work. Students listening to the skit remain
actively involved because they are listening for comprehension and are allowed
to make notes while listening so they can answer questions raised after the
skit is performed. Google Translator is a non-issue because only if students
comprehend the skit (with studied vocabulary) do the performers receive a
passing grade. Discussion ensues in German as much as possible. Students
are allowed to speak with grammatical errors in their speech, which improves
over time. There is a ‘no fear of mistakes’ policy. The language
comes alive in the classroom in this way. It is learning by doing,
just as they learned English as small children.
Twenty-four German Club students from across the district held an
Oktoberfest at Marillac Manor in Bismarck, North Dakota in October 2016.
The people in our area settled here from Germany and many are “Germans from
Russia”. A large percentage of senior citizens in our area grew up
speaking only German at home and absolutely love to speak German with today’s
German Club
Art Director Kevin dances with a senior citizen at Marillac Manor.
young people. The dialect is different, but many of my
students were raised hearing their parents and grandparents speak it, so there
is a real community of German speakers with shared culture in our locale.
Some senior citizens forget their English and one of my students, who studied
four years of high school German at Bismarck High School, now works as a
certified nursing assistant in a nursing home in Bismarck, is sometimes called
in to help soothe dementia patients with stories, songs and jokes in their
language.
Activites
Director Kelly (center, in pink top) invites Dakota (to her right) to get cookies and
decorating supplies for the senior citizens sitting at his table.
Our German Club returned Sunday, Feb. 9th to Marillac Manor to spend more time
with senior citizens; decorating Valentine’s Day cookies with German sayings
like “Ich liebe dich” and the like, creating Valentine’s Day cards with sayings
such as “Du bist der Zucker in meinem Kaffee” (You are the sugar in my
coffee), etc. and playing trivia with them. It was a fun-filled afternoon
for all of us.
German Students from Bismarck Public
Schools at the "Waldsee"
Several times in the past, German Club has attended Concordia
Language Villages near Bemidji, MN. An entire weekend is spent entirely
surrounded by the German language, culture, food, activities, music, movies,
etc. The camp counselors are German-speaking students who attend
Concordia College. Summer courses are available for high school credit. Concordia Language Villages
Germany, June
2015
Outside of school during the summer, overseas travel can make the
world a learning environment. Here is a picture I snapped near the Rhine
River in June 2015.
Our next tour takes place June 7-20, 2017!
Mary Ann Crow, BPS German Club Advisor and
BHS/LHS German Teacher
Claudia Schoellkopf, CHS/WMS German
Teacher
Pamela Froelich, HMS Intro to German
Teacher
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