Blog 5 - Potentially the last blog

Well, this is my last required blog. I originally said I would discuss my presentation in this last blog so I will.

First I'd like to say that everyone did really well in the presentations/portfolios. I was really impressed with them all and I found them really interesting and I liked a lot of the annotative activities.

Right now I am working on my grant proposal and evaluation. I am really stressed out, to say the least - I don't know if I'm doing anything right, but I am trying my best.

Part of what is required of me in my proposal is to write a two-page CV. I heard this was a type of resume but I still dont' really understand, does anyone have an example of one, or know where I could look at an example of one? Also by two pages does that usually mean double spaced? I don't know who really reads this but if anyone happens to see this and know the answers to these questions that'd be great, because right now I am just making educated guesses.

I've been particularly stressed out because as Senta said my project was really end of semester heavy so I'm afraid my quality is suffering in order to finish the quantity.

However, I am pleased with my presentation. I was a little nervous and I think I was talking fast, but I was overall happy with it. I wish I had had more pictures and stuff, but there wasn't really anything I could have shown that wouldn't have taken up extra time that I wanted to dedicate to the presentation. I think I answered the questions well, and all in all I was pleased with how it turned out. 

When I am completely done with and have turned in everything for this class I will be extremely relieved. It was a real challenge for me, so when I have finished I am going to feel like I've accomplished something. Already I feel like I have done something important with my time by being a part of this project with Angelika. I hope I can do more with the program next year.

Though I am extremely stressed out right now, I think the class was good for me - I feel like it has prepared me for what is to come once I graduate and start my student teaching, so I am glad for this experience.

I'd like to especially thank Senta for excepting me into her class and for helping me through it and I'd like to thank the class as well for excepting me into what I saw as an already formed community, as you all knew each other as fellow TAs. So thanks for putting up with me this semester and I wish you all the best of luck in the rest of your future studies!

Es war total schoen, vielen Dank!

Teachers are gone, evaluation ensues.

The end of the teacher exchange program has come - the teachers flew back to Tueringen on Sunday, the 19th. 

To address Senta's last comment on my last blog, no I didn't get the chance to actually observe them. We did most of our communicating informally by email. I decided against observing them, mainly to avoid stepping on their toes. I was confirmed of this especially during Senta's class when she told the story in class "apparently Germans are adults." I felt my presence in a classroom might be resented and misinterpreted, so instead I opted to email them and asking them if they had any questions or experiences they'd like to share. 

I also spent time with two of them at World Languages Day. I basically just caught up with them, and asked them how their time had been and if they were enjoying WLD. They were given an evaluation form to fill out but I have not yet received them, however, I am interested to read them, because when I mentioned the evaluation form they seemed...eager to voice their opinions, as if they felt the program had obvious faults. So we will see. I am hoping I receive this information soon enough to include it in my presentation on Monday. I am also considering asking Angelika if she feels the families that hosted the teachers would be interested in evaluating their part in the program. Does anyone else see this as potentially useful information? 

That's my update, hopefully the next one is describing the success of my presentation on Monday.

-Jaymee

Newness

I haven't blogged in a while. Basically, it's because I completely abandoned my German for Kids proposal and have been straightening out my new one. 

Now I am working with the visiting teachers from Tueringen (spelling?), Germany. They are here observing in elementary schools (Red Cedar, Marble, and Montessori Children's House of Lansing), and I have proposed the need for a cultural interpreter - that is, to answer any questions they might have about cultural miscommunications or even to anticipate cultural miscommunications. This is to enhance their experience and to make sure they get the most of it. 

They arrived on the 27th of March and on the 29th Angelika set up a brunch to welcome them where their host families joined. I gave them an introduction to the U.S. education system. Beforehand we did an activity where the native Germans wrote down on index cards facts they knew or thought they knew about U.S. education or the U.S. in general and the Americans did the same thing for the Germans. I shared some of those idea before the presentation, which was both fun and enlightening. 

I don't want to give away too much, as I am to be presenting a lot of this info in class. So far it is going well. I have even emailed to check up on them and they seem to be enjoying themselves. One mentioned she'd like to work in an intercity school, but Angelika (my community partner) and I decided that it was too late to make this happen, so I am going to consider that in my evaluation as maybe something to add for next year if MSU does the exchange again.

That's all for now!

-Jaymee

Culture - Not Just What You Find Growing In A Petri Dish

Culture is such a multi-faceted subject - I can't even begin to fathom the best way of teaching it. But why not try? Like the survey we discussed in class touched upon, learning a certain language is definitely affected by the culture associated with that language, and I am strongly of the opinion that learning about that culture is a vital factor in becoming truly fluent and in acquiring a solid understanding of the language.

Because of my interest in discovering "the best way" to teach German culture (and not necessarily the best, but perhaps the most successful) I have resolved to do 'Plan S', that is working in the "community" to teach German culture. I am hoping to do this in tandum with "German For Kids", but I guess that is tentative. I really enjoy that age group, and I feel that teaching them German culture would really add to their experience in learning the language. It would also be fun, because Gina is the instructor and a native German, who could give first-hand input to German culture. 

So far I have the idea that I could implement a cultural activity (whether it be verbal, aural, oral, or visual) maybe each week or every other week depending on how ambitious I am, and then note which kinds of activities work best in that age group (which is 6-9 years old, I think.) 

Senta mentioned bringing sports into the activities, which I thought was a cool idea, and could potentially be interactive both mentally and physically. However, I would like to use this project as a sort of trial - to test different types of activities with all different types of approaches (as many and as varying as possible) so that I can note which sorts of activities work best with them, in terms of keeping their attention, as well as how successfully the cultural topic is absorbed by them. So if anyone has any sorts of activities they'd like to throw out there or any topics they think would be fun or interesting or successful then please feel free to express your opinion to me! Or if you think this is a horrible idea, that would be good to know too. 

I would also like to use this blog to keep track of each "German For Kids" class, just so I have some record of what happened that day that I can go back to, in hopes that it could stimulate some sort of genius revelation on my part or on the part of one of my classmates. Mind you, I haven't actually implemented any sort of cultural context with these kids as of now. 

"German For Kids" is every Wednesday, and it started last Wednesday (the 14th). The first lesson went...well how you'd expect 6-9 year olds to act when coming back from a long break from school related activities. They were restless to say the least and I think the "all Deutsch all the time" tactic frusturated their recooperating brains - not to say that I don't find the tactic a good one. 

They are truly a strange group of children - they all for the most part come from the East Lansing area, yet no two kids in the class are the same. Some of them are even related, but still they are all very different and cope differently with the stress of learning a foreign language. I guess I should mention that I worked with most of these same kids all last semester, so my observations are not stemming from two sessions alone. My point here, is that their varying coping techniques and their different reactions to learning are going to be important for me to remember when forming my activities. I predict it will be extremely difficult to hold the attention of all of them with the same activity, and that there will be a wide range of reactions to the activities that are to be implemented. 

To put this into context, there is, for example, one child who cries at the slightest hint of frustration and lack of understanding. There is another who I like to define as "fickle" in that this child will at one moment be very involved and at the next will refuse to take part in any activity. The child's involvement seems to me to be completely arbitrary, and as of now I sense no pattern in this child's interest (or lack there of) in certain activities. 

The second week of "German For Kids" was a little more successful in my opinion. The kids were more attentive than the week before, but they seemed less interested, and somewhat bored. But like I said, it was more successful - when we reviewed from the last class, most of the children were on task and able to at least attempt to answer the questions. The class as a whole was also much less chaotic than when they came in the first week - in other words they have recooperated from the winter break for the most part, it appears. 

For now, that is all. I will probably update this at least once a week with what happened at "German For Kids", if not for the interest of my classmates and my professor, then for my own benefit, though it is only required for me to blog 5 times during the course of the semester. Again, comments, suggestions, brilliant ideas, etc. are all warmly welcome!

I am looking forward to the panel discussion on Monday - it has been a long break from the class, and it is weird to think we have only meant once since the beginning of the semester!

So..

Bis dann!

First And Foremost.

Hallo, wie geht's? 

That's a rhetorical question.

I'm Jaymee, I'm an English and German double major going into Secondary Education at Michigan State University.

So there is already a little description on your left-hand side, as to what this blog is for. And I'm assuming that the only people who are going to be reading it already know what it is for anyway. However, I will briefly describe it's purposes, incase you accidently stumbled along this blog thinking I might be cool and that you would actually want to follow this blog. In that case, you'll probably change your mind, unless you are extremely interested in the teaching of German culture.

I'm not really sure what else to write here. I mean my life is pretty normal and unexciting. I guess I could expand on some aspects of my life that would affect the writing of this blog. 

So as I said, I have to blog about my project for my German 815 course, which I don't really know what it's going to be about except that it has to do with teaching German culture, and that it will (hopefully) be centered around German For Kids, a program at MSU that I volunteer for, where we teach local kids basic German language and culture. 

I'm in the secondary Ed program, but I really like working with younger kids. I have lots of experience there. I have a little brother, Noah, who is 7 now and who has taught me a lot in regards to how the brains of little children work. I have a sister Erynn, who is 14 and who has taught me that maybe I regret my decision to go into Secondary Education...but I can hope that not all high schoolers are as...difficult as her. I have a very little sister, Kaylee, who is 6 months old, and I'm sure there is much to learn from the experiences that are to come from that.

             

^ My Family - Noah, Erynn, Kaylee

I have also roller skated my whole life, since I was about 2 and I have volunteered to help and teach the beginner classes at the roller rink I skate at since I was about 12. I think my desire to teach kind of spurred from this part of my life, because I have wanted to be a skating coach for as long as I can remember. Coaching sort of transfered to teaching, as I got really into reading and writing in high school and decided to be an English major. 

^ Me, rollerskating

As for German, I was required to take 2 years proficiency of a foreign language as part of my English major. I chose German because I am a quarter German and the memory of my great-grandmother scolding me in German as a child sticks out very vividly in my mind. And so I have always wanted to learn German - that part of my family's history (though not far behind us) has been a bit forgotten and lost in the generations of Americanization that have come from living in the U.S., but whenever I offer some sort of knowledge of German culture and language, my family is usually very interested and they want to know more. 

Yes my last name (Mason) is very English, and I carry that from my dad's side. But my mom is a Buchmann through and through and so I guess my choice of majors, in that way, are very appropriate - English and German. I think this whole German culture project will then be beneficial on many levels as I will be teaching others, and probably learning things about myself at the sametime. Whatever happens, it will be maintained here, for all to see I guess, or more so for Senta (my professor) to see, since I'm sure she is the one who will be reading it most often. I think that's all for now.

Bis spaeter.