15. Dezember - Krampus kommt

Guten Abend!

This weekend we celebrated the Reason for the Season, der Krampus.

We began the day with a perennial classic, much to my elation and the boys' chagrin, "Lass jetzt Los" (Let it Go, from Frozen) and a summary of my week.

We then spent the majority of our time up until we had to participate somewhat in the preparations for the Weihnachtsprogramm learning about Krampus.

I managed to find a video explaining the highlights of the legend:

• Accompanies Saint Nikolaus on Nikolaustag
• Nikolaus gives gifts to good children, Krampus takes away bad children and eats them
• Appearance like a satyr or neo-medieval demon

Because I'm a fan of history and anthropology, I explained why it is that legends like this come to pass, about how in previous centuries adherence to social norms and obedience to one's parents meant not just good social standing in a community, but potentially even life or death (e.g. "don't wander in the woods at night!" because hey there are wolves out there). Hence why we have cautionary tales and exaggerated legends to try and enforce good behavior. 

We then had the choice: either write a letter to St. Nick telling him how good we've been and what we want for Christmas, or to Krampus saying how actually pretty good we've been and hey don't eat us. Most chose the latter. 

We will meet again in the new year -- December 22nd and 29th are not school days.

Mit Vergnügen~

8. Dezember '18 - Getting Modal

Guten Tag!

We began the day with Meine Woche as always, then did our listening comprehension with a classic, "Ich Will" by Rammstein.

This provided us a lovely segue into our review and continuation of the topic of modal verbs. We went over the pairings of Wollen and Möchten as well as Können and Dürfen.

We had some friendly competition with a Kahoot followed by team board races as well.

We ended the day with still more competition, playing soccer for the last 20 minutes until I was too exhausted to keep up with the kids any further.

Mit Vergnügen

10.Nov '18 - Eisenzeit beginnt

Guten Tag,

We began Saturday more or less with Meine Woche, then followed that up by going through a list of Züngenbrecher, what we'd call in English tongue twisters.

Our focus for the day was beginning our social-historical unit over Iron Age Germany. We do so through the lens of the Roman Empire, which is the only real source of historical data (aside from artifacts) that we have about Germany during this time period.
As there is no such thing as a fully unbiased or objective source, we include a study of Rome itself in this unit to help us better understand both the perspective of those who did the recording of ancient Germany's history, and to clarify the controversies and complexities of Rome and Germany's interactions.
It is one thing to say, for instance, that Rome was a hostile invader (from Germany's perspective) or that the Germanic tribes were "barbarians" (from Rome's perspective); it's quite another to understand why they thought that way, and what the variances of opinion were in both groups.

This unit will continue on and off throughout the year, culminating with our annual reenactment of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

3. November '18 - Noch was neues

Guten Tag!

We had another new addition to our class today. Finally! We are no longer just a rowdy gaggle of boys!

We began with Meine Woche as always, and our listening comprehension was "Millionär" by Die Prinzen.

Our lesson was an introduction to modal verbs, beginning with Wollen and Möchten. We discussed their exact meaning (want, would like) and how idiomatically they express varying degrees of politeness when used to make requests. "Would like" is considered proper whereas just blurting out that one "wants" something is considered childish and even rude.

Accompanying this we had an overall lesson over German syntax, using an acronym I came up with called "SHI/P" (Subject, Helper, Infinitive/Participle).

Our main activity was producing our own little dialogues in pairs; one student in each pair was a bratty child, the other the parent trying to instill some manners and decorum into the kid.

The comparative/superlative quizzes were also handed back.

Mit Vergnügen~

27. Oktober '18 - Etwas Neues

Guten Tag!

This Saturday was interesting. We had a new student come into the class today, and I hear tell that we will have another one coming.

We began the day with Meine Woche as usual, and went into one of my favorite songs, "Ich habe 'nen Traum" (I've Got a Dream, from Tangled).

After this, we had the Halloween Umzug which was, as usual, adorable.

The majority of our day was spent finishing out das Prinzessin Spiel. In pairs and one solo act, we made posters and campaign speeches, then went from class to class trying to win votes for who is the best pony princess of Equestria.

Surprisingly, greatly surprisingly, the winner was Princess of the Sun, Celestia. She never wins. It seems those boys were the most persuasive in their speeches.

Next week shall see a new grammar unit as well as the beginning of our historical-cultural studies.

Mit Vergnügen~

20.Oktober ' 18 - Prinzessinnen und Fußball

Guten Tag!

Today began like any other day, at approximately 10:30.

We opened with Meine Woche, the highlights of this past week, and then we listened to a perennial classic, "Schnappi das kleine Krokodil." I'm proud to say we sang along, or rather, screamed along with the chorus. I'm fairly certain we were heard as far away as O'Hare.

Then came the surprise! A pop quiz over comparative adjectives. This was open-notes because I cannot emphasize enough the importance of not only taking notes, but taking good ones. This skill transfers throughout academia and, frankly, even into the business world. I will always reward good note taking.

This went fairly well. The errors were fairly minor, and had more to do with the overall grasp of syntax than with what we were actually testing over. Interestingly, forgetting to put a verb (any verb) into a sentence is a common one.

After the break, we went into a presentation that will tie into an activity next week, "Das Prinzessinspiel." Basically we learned all about the four Alicorn Princesses of Equestria (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) and their glorious magical powers. Next week we will hold a campaign and election to decide on who is the best princess of them all. This will end our unit on superlatives.

We ended the class with a game of soccer outside, where I learned that 10 minutes playing against a bunch of 11 and 12 year old boys is exhausting.

Mit Vergnügen

13. Okt '18 - Raum und Zeit

Guten Tag!

Today we started off late as most students didn't arrive until nearly 10:30. Then we went into "Meine Woche," as always and did our song of the day "Der Käse Song" by Michael Buchinger, an Austrian youtuber.

We quickly reviewed how to form superlative adjectives, did a Kahoot competition over this for possession of the various fun objects I have around the room (swords, helmets, etc) and then went into our project. This was "Deutsches Sprachraum 2," wherein they researched such questions as which German speaking country is the largest, most populated, richest, etc to practice formulating sentences with superlative statements.

Then we had a fire drill.

We had one more competition to see who would have possession of their choice of objects next class as well.

Mit Vergnügen

6.Oktober '18 - Kein Vampir

Guten Tag!

Today we began with Meine Woche, whereupon I regaled the class with such lovely details as "I decorated my house for Halloween" and we went off on tangents only mildly related to the topic at hand.

Our listening for the day was "Kein Vampir bleibt mehr hier" from My Little Pony, the German version of the famous "Stop the Bats" song.

We reviewed comparative adjectives, and added superlative adjectives to the mix as well. We played two different Kahoots over this, and then completed with an exercise I call "Deutsches Sprachraum," wherein using their devices to do research, the children compared two different German-speaking countries of their choice with a preset group of questions.

Those who did not finish have to complete this for homework--it's very simple research.

Mit Vergnügen

29. September '18 - Of Presidents and Poodles

Guten Tag alle!

Our class began with the smell of roasting pig wafting all throughout the school, and it was amazing. That aside, we started with "Dinge die Junge an Mädchen lieben," an "advice" video from Mirellativegal and Michael Buchinger. The conclusion: be cheese. Always be cheese.
Then we ran through Meine Woche.

We reviewed the preferences and favorites that we did in previous weeks with a short activity, wherein each student described themselves by their likes and dislikes, and the others had to guess who it was referring to afterward. That went by very quickly. Surprisingly quickly. Apparently "I like baseball" is particularly distinctive and unique of an aspect?

What we learned today was comparative adjectives, how to turn an adjective into "more" or "less" of something (e.g. big to bigger, small to smaller).

We compared ourselves to one another and to various celebrities as an exercise in this.

To wrap up the day, since there was apparently an abundance of both sleep deprivation and hyper wiggle-waggle energy in the class, we went outside and played frisbee for a good 15 minutes. This is where we learned another important lesson: we are all absolutely terrible at frisbee.

Mit Vergnügen

22. September '18 - Hast du ihn gern?

Guten Abend!

This past Saturday was an interesting one.

We began as per usual, with an introduction into my week, "Meine Woche," with its accompanying question and answer session, followed by our listening comprehension exercise. This week it was "Das Letzte Streichholtz" by "Oomph!", a different take on the story of Cinderella.

We reviewed what we had learned last week about how to express preferences with haben and gern, lieber or am liebsten, and added the verbs "lieben" and "hassen" for their own slightly different, idiomatic meanings.

After practicing with this for a while, and after the break, we attempted an old classic game that I used to use with the lower grades, "Hast du mich gern?" The objective of which is to make your neighbor laugh by stating "Ich habe dich gern! Hast du mich gern?" and awaiting their answer. Non answers, failure to say "Nein," or laughing meant the askee lost, and the asker proceeded onward through the circle until someone managed to answer correctly without laughing.
It was chaotic. And fun.

We ended class with each student describing, in their own words and own unprompted opinions, what they thought Steve (the class pony) liked and disliked.

Mit Vergnügen~

15. September '18 - Erster Schultag

Guten Abend!

The school year has begun. Please view this space weekly for updates on what we have gone over, as well as assignments, homework, and of course jokes about ponies.

The day opened with what is traditionally for the school year our first listening comprehension exercise, "Kochen Mit Kimberly," from my favorite German podcaster, Mirellativegal. We then went into a quick presentation whereupon I introduced myself to the class.

We then went over class expectations, the run of the room, and then started learning.
Our topic for the day was preferences. We talked about gern, lieber, and am liebsten, and how they are used (paired with "haben") to express like, preference, and favorite. This was then compared to "Lieblings" which can be affixed to a noun to make a favorite as well.
"Ich habe Snickers am liebsten" and "Snickers ist mein Lieblingscandy" being functionally the same, though the second one is category-specific.

We went around and did questionnaires with one another, asking about preferences and favorites, as practice.

After the break, we played kahoot over this topic, and also did some probing exercises to give me a better feel for the class' proficiency levels.

I don't assign homework if it can be avoided. Today was no exception.

That was our first week.

Mit Vergnügen! 

12. Mai '18 - DODGE

Today was fascinating!

We began the day with Meine Woche, though this time it was "Mein Sommer," a quick run down of all the things I intend to do over the summer now that my Saturdays are free again for a while.

Then we transitioned into a comprehensive test. I put up questions touching on every single point we learned over the course of the year, allowing them to use any notes or handouts they had kept. Those who still had their notes did rather well. Those who didn't come to class with anything at all did, well, not so well.
This is why we take notes and why we keep ourselves organized.

After all that fun and excitement, we had some actual fun and excitement by playing dodgeball against the 8th graders. The most amazing moment was when it was down to 1 8th grader versus 4 7th graders, and due to their being only one target on the field, it dragged on and on and on and on. Said 8th grader managed to get 2 of the remaining 7th graders out before finally being hit herself.

Then we presented our Poetry projects from last week.

Next week is graduation.

Mit Vergnügen.

5.Mai '18 - Gips

Guten Tag!

Here is what went down at German School this Saturday.

We opened with Meine Woche as usual, and for our listening comprehension used "Dinge die man mit einem Gips tun und nicht tunn kann" by Mirellativegal.

The majority of our time was spent on a much-needed review lesson over regular verb conjugation, as it seems this knowledge has slipped through the cracks over the years. We did a racing game that reviewed this as well as some of the various tenses and modal verbs we learned this year, and played a long game of Bingo with regular verb endings.

The independent task we spent our second half of the day on was finding our own songs or poems (in German) and answering the following questions about them:

• The general meaning of the poem 
• Your interpretation of its intention -- why did the author write it or what was he trying to communicate?

They are, next class period, to be read aloud. Those present were also supposed to write comprehension questions to ask the rest of the class upon presenting the poems. 

Mit Vergnügen

14. April '18 - AATG Day

Grüße!

Saturday was all manner of fun, as it was the 7th grade's day for taking the AATG exam. The primary purpose of this was to serve as a benchmark as well as to set the students' expectations for what they'll be seeing in 8th grade, that being when the exam will "count" for something.

Seemingly it went rather well.

Afterward, as a very welcome break, we had a historical talk with Frau Wiegert, who lead us through the Museum onsite and talked about all the various artifacts present and how they tied into the German lifestyle of years long-since past.
For further history, we also finished our Battle of Teutoburg Forest mural.

Next week I will not be present, but there will be an activity of great interest for the class to complete.

Mit Vergnügen

7.April '18 - Essay and a Test

Guten Tag,

Today was a bit different than planned. It turned out that only a couple of students did the presentation assignment over the various historical figures attached to the Battle of Teutoburg, so given the importance of this information, we took class time to make up for it. They were given a 1-page essay to complete over their assigned person.

This took a bit of time.

Afterward, we began our annual Teutoburgerschlacht mural, which we shall complete next week.

Next class, we have will be taking the Level 1 AATG Exam as a benchmark for next year. I recommend taking a practice test between now and then.

Mit Vergnügen~

17. März '18 - Schlacht beginnt

Today began like any other day. We had German school until school was over.

After doing Meine Woche, we went over a song from the German dub of My Little Pony, "der Perfekte Hengst" (the perfect stallion).

Our lesson today revolved around the Battle of Teutoburg forest. We read popcorn-style as a class through a packet I put together, discussing the background, events, and historical consequences of this key event in German history. This tied together our previous lessons on the comparative military tactics, beliefs, and lifestyles of the Germanic tribes and of the Roman Empire.

This segued into our project, due next class period April 7th. Each student is assigned a historical figure, pivotal in the events at Teutoburg, to make a slide presentation over. This must be complete and ready to show next class.

Mit Vergnügen~

11. März '18 - Krieg schon ausgebrochen

Today we felt the ravages of war.

We began with a song, "Amerika" by Rammstein, which lead to a discussion about cultural diffusion, the perfect segue back into our unit on Imperial Rome and Ancient Germania.

We continued with a look at ancient warfare. We covered comparative battle strategies, equipment, and fighting styles. I'll admit, this is my favorite thing to talk about.

Afterward, we played a game of my own invention, "Eisenzeit Krieg: ein GUTES SPIEL!" Kids always get really into this one, so it was a good time. In short, with a series of dice rolls determining hit/miss, and pre-determined stats per unit, Germanic warriors and legionnaires face off in a battle royale. In the end, there were 2 Germanic victories to 3 Roman. To put that in perspective, the 1st century AD record was 24 Roman to 4 Germanic, so this was actually not too terribly far from the reality of things (total of 87 recorded battles from 1st century AD to 6th century).
The battle game also reinforces use of direct/indirect objects, as well as modal verbs and the future tense ((I left the construction of the battle statements ("Ich werde ihn mit dem Schild schlagen," "ich will den Speer an ihn werfen," etc.) up to the combatants)).

This unit will culminate with our study on the Battle of Teutoburgerwald, as well as the Fall of Rome, and if we have time, a play.

Mit Vergnügen~

3.März '18 - Krieg bricht bald aus

Guten Tag!

Today we began with a video, "Dinge, die Jungs an Mädchen lieben" a work of satire by Mirellativegal and Michael Büchinger (the answer was: 'be cheese').

We went from there into a vocabulary lesson over weaponry, armor, and basic anatomy. We used this newfound knowledge to make our own either legionnaires or germanic warriors, whose appearance we then described using dative prepositions (e.g. "Er hat die Rüstung auf der Brust und den Helm auf dem Kopf").

We then did a deeper dive into the dative case and talked about both direct and indirect objects (the former using accusative, latter using dative) and how these fit into different roles in a sentence.

Class ended with us playing our boardgames from the last week, the finished fruits of our labor.

Next week we will begin talking about the comparative military strategies of Iron Age Rome and the ancient Teutonic tribes... on the road to Teutoburg.

Mit Vergnügen~

24.Februar - Board Games to Oblivion

There are some times when the imagination of a child is a wondrous thing. There are other times when it is perplexing and even startling. Today was one such time, as we spent the class period inventing our own board games.

These games ran the gamut from playing with numbers, to gathering money, to avoiding elaborate death traps and a grisly demise. They were truly noteworthy, and honestly in some cases, if they were to hit the market, I'd buy a copy.

The games were written entirely in German (naturally), using recently-acquired grammatical skills. The class paired with the 8th graders to complete this project, working in trios to completion.

Later on, we shall play the finished products.

Mit Vergnügen.

17. Februar '18 - Einhörnerjagd

Today we hunted unicorns.

It started off like any other day: we listened to a bunch of hilarious riddles and did our best to solve them, and then did several student "Meine Nächste Woche" presentations.

As a review of the dative case (when used in prepositional phrases), we had a scavenger hunt; specifically, the class had to track down 10 little plastic unicorns that I had hidden throughout the school, using only the riddles I gave them as their guides. Once found, they confirmed the location with me, wrote down their finishing time, and had to write out exactly where they were (e.g. "Das Einhorn war in dem Kühlschrank.").

Afterward, we had a quiz over the dative case.

Next week we will do a combined activity with the 8th grade class.

MitVergnügen~

10. Februar '18 - TMPO was his Name-O

Despite the snow and silliness of the midwest in the wintertime, we managed to have school and a fully attended class, much to my surprise and elation.

We had a student "Meine Nächste Woche" presentation, and did "Mein Fahrrad" by Die Prinzen for our listening comprehension. We also had an open-notes pop quiz over modal verbs to finish out that unit. I made it open-notes to encourage good note taking, which I consider far more important of a skill and a habit than simply memorizing things.

Our lesson was over prepositional phrases. We introduced another acronym, "TMPO" (time, manner, place, object) to cover proper word order in prepositional phrases, introduced the common/two-way prepositions (an, auf, hinter, vor, neben, über, unter, zwischen) and did the obligatory dance to go with them. This segued into covering what direct and indirect objects are, and how they use the accusative and dative cases respectively.

We will continue to deep dive into this grammar unit over the next few weeks.

Thank you all for coming today!

Mit Vergnügen

3.Februar '17 - Gebote

Guten Tag!

Today we began with a student presentation of "Meine Nächste Woche" and continued with a classic song, "Millionär" from Die Prinzen.

Our lesson and main activity was around the modal verbs again. We reviewed the pairings from the previous week, those being Können and Dürfen, Möchten and Wollen, and then plunged into new territory with Sollen and Müssen.

As an activity, we did some examples wherein the kids decided whether Sollen or Müssen was the more appropriate choice, and then as we have done every year, we made our own "10 Gebote" for the classroom. Each student made 10 gebote of their own, picked their top 4, and then we voted on a total of 10 for the classroom. These are now our official 'class commandments.'
I think my favorite was, "Du sollst nicht das Universum explodieren." That is definitely good advice.

We played a kahoot reviewing the modal verbs bisher, and then called it a day.

Student presentations of "Meine Nächste Woche" shall continue for the next three weeks. Each student knows precisely when they are expected to present.

Mit Vergnügen~

27. Januar '18 - Being Polite

Guten Tag everyone!

This Saturday we began by finishing out the student-lead "Meine Woche" presentations and preparing to begin next week with the latest installment, finishing out our unit on the future tense: "Meine Nächste Woche."

Our song for the day was "Prokrastination" by Mirellativegal, which was hilarious and well-received.

We began our unit on modal verbs, starting with "Wollen" and "Möchten" in the context of how to politely and idiomatically correctly make requests. This lead to much hilarity when the students were tasked with roleplaying out the rules they learned, demonstrating politeness and prolific rudeness as they saw fit.
Generally speaking, when used to make a request, "Wollen" (want) is considered impolite. When simply expressing desire, such as "oooh I want that," it's fine, but barking "I WANT!" is childish, whereas a polite and cultured individual makes requests with "Möchten" (would like).

This went far quicker than I'd imagined it would, so we were able to move onto the second set of modal verbs, "Können" (can) and "Dürfen" (may). The rules of usage for these are quite similar to English: use "may" when asking for permission, since "can" is stating that one is indeed physically capable of doing something.

And that was the day!

Mit Vergnügen.

20. Januar '18 - Karneval

Howdy howdy howdy,

Our Saturday was an interesting one, as always. We began our day with a pair of students doing "Meine Woche," and as always their PowerPoint skills put mine to shame because life is just unfair like that.

We went through our listening comprehension exercise, this week being "der Pony Pokey" from the German dubbed season 1 of My Little Pony.

The bulk of our time we spent doing a still deeper dive into the Future tense, its mechanics, meaning, and usage. As an exercise, we did what I call "The Hat of Prophecy," which is where we each wrote down several potential actions (e.g. "Pasta essen" or "König sein") on little bits of paper, drew out several, and had to match them with time statements, such as "in 100 Jahre..."
This ended up with such predictions for our individual futures as, "Ich werde in 20 Jahre ein Haus essen."

After lunch, we spent a good bit of time listening to our guest speakers, the Prinz and Prinzessin from the Rheinischer Verein, teaching the school all about Fasching.

Report cards were also handed out today, to the joy of everyone.

Mit Vergnügen.

13.Jan '18 - Opfergaben

Guten Abend,

Today began slowly. For the first half hour it seemed we would only have 2 students in attendance, which made me sad. Then suddenly the class doubled in size, and all was well.

We had two "Meine Woche" presentations, and had "Ich hab 'nen Traum" ('I've Got a Dream' from 'Tangled') as our listening comprehension exercise.

Once we were settled in, as refresher as well as a necessary exercise, we went through some of the fundamentals of pronunciation, focusing on common errors I've been noticing during presentations. To do so, we went through the perennial classic... Züngenbrecher. We upped the ante a bit and added projectiles to it, because of course we did.

We finished out the lesson over comparative iron age religion, this time covering the Germanic end of things, including how we still see remnants of these myths even to this day, e.g. in the days of the week (Thor's Day Thursday, Odin's Day Wednesday, Tyr's Day Tuesday, Frigg's Day Friday), pop culture (the Marvel movies, for instance) and our own modern day myths (Santa is Odin).

We then began our lesson on the future tense, diving into its usage, the verb Werden, and how the lessons we learned with the past tense (e.g. word order/syntax) still apply here with this tense as well.

Next week onward, we will continue to have "Meine Woche" presentations from the students, so those who were informed that they are coming next will need to be prepared.

Mit Vergnügen.

6. Januar '18 - Wir sind wieder da!

And the new year begins, fresh with absolutely frigid temperatures and bitter, biting winds! 

Despite the unpleasantness of the winter, we had a lovely class as normal, although attendance was rather sparse (4 students). 

We went over Meine Feiertage, an extended version of Meine Woche that spanned the events of the holidays, watched a lovely video from Mirrellativegal known as "How to mildly annoy your cats," and continued our look of the comparative cultures of Imperial Rome and Iron Age Germania. 

This time, we covered the religion and customs of Rome, to be continued with those of Germania next class period. This is also the lesson when we get rather academic at times, bringing us into such topics as syncretism and linguistic drift.

After a brief post-holiday refresher on the Perfect ("spoken past") tense, I presented their new assignment: Deine Woche. For the next few weeks, students will be presenting their weeks as opposed to simply listening to mine. Those present today have been given their assignment dates, and the rest I shall assign when next they are present in class. 

Earlier I produced a handout over the Perfect that has been given to all who were present over the last month. If this has been lost or misplaced, I will be happy to supply another one.

Here is how Deine Woche works: 

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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Mit Vergnügen.