Enjoy the Break... and "Deine Woche"

Guten Tag,

This upcoming weekend is our break for Thanksgiving. There will be no class on November 26th. If you show up to school, you will be alone and rather bored.

On Saturday we assigned the "Meine Woche" presentations for the remaining weeks of the school year. In short, instead of me presenting my own week's experiences, it is now the students doing so.

The assignments are as follows: Updated on 11/29

December 3rd: Andrew, Sarah, Emily, 
December 10th: Samantha, Ethan, Will, Anna U, Abby
December 17th: Peter, Paige, Grace, Anna L


If you/your child will not be present on your/their assigned weekend, let me know so I can re-assign dates. Showing up unprepared or simply not giving the presentation is not an option. This is 50% of the averaged "Sprechen" and "Fleiss" grades for this semester.

In short, using the past tense, give me at least 5 slides covering your experiences over the week. These may be things you did, things you saw, or things you otherwise experienced. These should be real and not just fantastical fabrications. Saying nonsense in German is easy; speaking about real life is the real challenge. The slides must also include pictures.

A presentation should last at least 5 minutes. Saying a single sentence and then moving on to the next slide is not enough, nor is simply reading the title aloud and moving on. Each slide should be a short story on its own, in other words. Much like I do mine.

Example: A slide that says "Ich habe Pizza gekocht." Should not just be a picture of pizza, you pointing to the title, and then moving on. It should be more like, "Am Freitag habe ich pizza gekocht. Es war sehr lecker! Ich habe Kochen lieber als Bestellen denn Restaurant Pizza ist zu fettig. Mein Pizza hat Pepperoni und viel viel viel Käse. Mutters Pizza hat Zwiebel. Ich hasse Zwiebel..."

Note cards may be used during the presentation if it helps.

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Over the last 2 class periods, we have gone over the Perfect (also known as "spoken past" or "present perfect") tense and are ready to begin using it in assignments such as the above-listed and onward. I produced a handout that has been given to all who were present one of the last 2 weeks. Anyone who was absent may request a copy, and I will be happy to distribute.

12.Nov - Stammen

Guten Tag,


Our day began as it normally does, with a musical interlude, this time courtesy of Schnappi das kleine Krokodil.

Once we went over Meine Woche, we took a little bit of time to polish up and finish up the tribal presentations. Then, we went forth, for victory! They went rather well, especially considering it involved coordination between students outside of school hours.

Our main lesson for the day was a brief introduction over the perfect (past tense), which we will be again covering in detail in weeks to come.

I have a handout over the perfect that I will be distributing with this week's email to help those who were absent.

Mit Vergnügen~

5.November - Stammen

Guten Tag!

Today was began our history unit. The students spent the majority of class in groups researching their assigned Iron Age germanic tribe.
The groups we covered were the following from the first century AD, their records having been created by Roman historians Pliny (elder) and Tacitus:

• Vandals
• Irminones
• Ingaevones
• Istvaeones

Next week, the groups from today will present to the class about their tribe of choice. 

Those not present today should, as solo work, cover the remaining tribe we didn't use, the Bastarnae. 

Questions to answer include (auf Deutsch): 

• Where does the name of the tribe come from and who wrote their history?
• What (modern day) countries did they live in during the first century AD? Where did they expand to afterward?
• What modern languages (if any) come from this group?
• Did they have any sub tribes? What are they called?
• What is one thing you find interesting about them? 

We also did one of my favorite songs, selected by a student: "Ich habe 'nen Traum" from Tangled, and went over Meine Woche. 

Mit Vergnügen