It finally happened.
We did our annual re-enactment-ish/dramatic re-interpretation of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. This took all day.
The final video will require some editing, but I will distribute this once it is finished and available. All in all I'd say it easily ranks in the top 3 of the 6 that we have done over the years.
Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Sunday, March 17, 2019
16. März '19 - Preparation for Teutoburg
Today was an interesting one that started with forgotten assignments and ended with mass mayhem.
So in other words, it was perfectly normal for our class.
Due to a lack of prepared homework, we simply started with Meine Woche and then did our listening and translation exercise, using "Lasst uns froh und munter sein." It turns out that everyone has been singing this song since kindergarten without having any idea what it actually meant.
We then reviewed the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, discussed all the main actors of the event and what needed to happen, and set about preparing the script.
Once the dialogue is completed, we will begin rehearsing and then it shall be filmed, to be shared with all of you as a completed epic.
Mit Vergnügen
So in other words, it was perfectly normal for our class.
Due to a lack of prepared homework, we simply started with Meine Woche and then did our listening and translation exercise, using "Lasst uns froh und munter sein." It turns out that everyone has been singing this song since kindergarten without having any idea what it actually meant.
We then reviewed the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, discussed all the main actors of the event and what needed to happen, and set about preparing the script.
Once the dialogue is completed, we will begin rehearsing and then it shall be filmed, to be shared with all of you as a completed epic.
Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, March 9, 2019
9. März '19 - Teutoburg Art
We started off our day doing both listening comprehension and translation of Rammstein's "Ohne Dich," which went decently well since it's a rather simple, rather slow song.
We had a few students present their "People of Teutoburg" presentations, and we will have three more go next week.
Then we spent the majority of our time making our own smaller-scale, individual posters of the Teutoburger Schlacht, and went around the school getting votes as to the best.
Next week we will do a bit more work on some Teutoburg projects as well.
Mit Vergnügen
We had a few students present their "People of Teutoburg" presentations, and we will have three more go next week.
Then we spent the majority of our time making our own smaller-scale, individual posters of the Teutoburger Schlacht, and went around the school getting votes as to the best.
Next week we will do a bit more work on some Teutoburg projects as well.
Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, March 2, 2019
2.März '19 - Krapfen und Kämpfen
Guten Tag!
Today we started out with Meine Woche as usual, and then we did a reading and translation exercise with each student being assigned their own pair of Züngenbrecher to work through.
For our lesson we reviewed the future tense, and then after each student produced a nice pile of times, places, and verbs, we did "prophetic mad libs," where each of us blindly reached into the piles of words to produce our "future."
Examples that stood out:
"Ich werde in 5 Minuten in Mexiko explodieren."
"Ich werde in 100,000 Jahre in Australien lesen."
After the break, we read through a historical article over the Battle of Teutoburg forest. Each student read through it and answered questions about it before we discussed it as a class.
The homework is to make a short presentation over a major historical figure from this event: Arminius, Governor Varus, Chieftain Segestes, Emperor Augustus.
Next week we will also make our Teutoburgerschlacht Poster.
Mit Vergnügen
Today we started out with Meine Woche as usual, and then we did a reading and translation exercise with each student being assigned their own pair of Züngenbrecher to work through.
For our lesson we reviewed the future tense, and then after each student produced a nice pile of times, places, and verbs, we did "prophetic mad libs," where each of us blindly reached into the piles of words to produce our "future."
Examples that stood out:
"Ich werde in 5 Minuten in Mexiko explodieren."
"Ich werde in 100,000 Jahre in Australien lesen."
After the break, we read through a historical article over the Battle of Teutoburg forest. Each student read through it and answered questions about it before we discussed it as a class.
The homework is to make a short presentation over a major historical figure from this event: Arminius, Governor Varus, Chieftain Segestes, Emperor Augustus.
Next week we will also make our Teutoburgerschlacht Poster.
Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, February 17, 2019
16. Feb '19 - Princess Combat
Guten Tag!
Our day began with what is our new normal, a mixture of listening comprehension and translation/reading skills. We listened to and then translated "Mein Herz Brennt" by Rammstein. This went decently well, and we managed to complete the entire thing in about 40 minutes.
We then had the last two "Meine Woche" presentations.
Our unit on the past tense is now done, and starting next week we will begin learning about the future tense.
After lunch, we played our "Eisenzeit Krieg" wargame, but this time we added a level of complexity. After a few rounds with romans and germans, we switched it up and played the Pony Princesses of Equestria against each other. This was a substantially more complex version of the game with more rules, and it seemed to be a smash hit.
Enjoy the long weekend!
Mit Vergnügen
Our day began with what is our new normal, a mixture of listening comprehension and translation/reading skills. We listened to and then translated "Mein Herz Brennt" by Rammstein. This went decently well, and we managed to complete the entire thing in about 40 minutes.
We then had the last two "Meine Woche" presentations.
Our unit on the past tense is now done, and starting next week we will begin learning about the future tense.
After lunch, we played our "Eisenzeit Krieg" wargame, but this time we added a level of complexity. After a few rounds with romans and germans, we switched it up and played the Pony Princesses of Equestria against each other. This was a substantially more complex version of the game with more rules, and it seemed to be a smash hit.
Enjoy the long weekend!
Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, February 10, 2019
9.Februar '19 - Familie bis ins Mark
Guten Tag!
Today we did something different. Firstly, we opened with a Meine Woche from a student, and we will do so for a few more students next week as well.
Then, since it seems we need some help with our reading comprehension, we did a challenge. Instead of simply listening to a song and seeing what we could glean from it, I gave them the lyrics beforehand in entirety, this being to the song "Familie Bis ins Mark" from the german dub of My Little Pony. Each student was assigned a stanza to translate.
First, I gave them some translation strategies, such as:
Today we did something different. Firstly, we opened with a Meine Woche from a student, and we will do so for a few more students next week as well.
Then, since it seems we need some help with our reading comprehension, we did a challenge. Instead of simply listening to a song and seeing what we could glean from it, I gave them the lyrics beforehand in entirety, this being to the song "Familie Bis ins Mark" from the german dub of My Little Pony. Each student was assigned a stanza to translate.
First, I gave them some translation strategies, such as:
- Underline and mark all the nouns (always capitalized) to look up more easily
- Locate all the verbs, figure out their infinitive, and look those up.
- Figure out the tense of the sentence to help with its meaning (is there a haben, sein, or werden in the front? etc).
This ending up taking quite a while and doubled as a lesson on how to use a dictionary, which apparently was a new skill to learn.
Afterward, we discussed our findings and listened to the actual song.
The rest of our time we ended our previous unit on the past tense, and our lesson on Iron Age warfare, writing essay/stories over the adventures of either an ancient germanic warrior or a roman legionnaire. Those who did not finish this must do so before next weekend.
Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, February 3, 2019
2.Februar '19 - Tests and Melting
Guten Tag!
Now that we have all finally thawed out, and the world is one big melting mushy mess, we managed to meet again for school without the danger of ice and freezing to death.
We spent some time with student-lead presentations of "Meine Woche" to begin with, which went rather well, better than in some years past. Then after the usual hilarity, we flew right into a practice test.
We spent most of the day doing the level 1 listening/viewing and reading practice exams from the AATG. This was simply a benchmark and to get everyone acquainted with what to expect. We will take the level 1 again "for real" in March.
Scores ranged from the 40's to 70% on listening/viewing, and 30's to 60% on reading. From what I've been told, as discouraging as that may sound, for 6th and 7th grade that is actually fairly average.
We will continue to work on these skills.
Mit Vergnügen.
Now that we have all finally thawed out, and the world is one big melting mushy mess, we managed to meet again for school without the danger of ice and freezing to death.
We spent some time with student-lead presentations of "Meine Woche" to begin with, which went rather well, better than in some years past. Then after the usual hilarity, we flew right into a practice test.
We spent most of the day doing the level 1 listening/viewing and reading practice exams from the AATG. This was simply a benchmark and to get everyone acquainted with what to expect. We will take the level 1 again "for real" in March.
Scores ranged from the 40's to 70% on listening/viewing, and 30's to 60% on reading. From what I've been told, as discouraging as that may sound, for 6th and 7th grade that is actually fairly average.
We will continue to work on these skills.
Mit Vergnügen.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
26. Januar '19 - Wir sind wieder da!
Guten Morgen!
Today we finally got back into the swing of things after last week's unfortunate snow-based cancellation.
Our focus returned to our historical unit over Iron Age Germania, this covering the topic of warfare. We discussed the Roman military, its formation and tactics, and how this compared to the Germanic tribes of the time.
In short:technology, strategy and organization versus "go over there and hit that guy really really hard."
We then made our own either legionnaires or germanic warriors, and held a war game. "Eisenzeit Krieg" is a turn-based, dice-driven combat system (like D&D Very Lite) that I invented a few years back, and it's always a crowd pleaser. We had some real nail-biter combat rounds, culminating in the entire class engaging in a battle royale with only one survivor at the end.
Since we've been covering the past tense (perfect) in class lately, next week we will also start working on an assignment, "Meine Woche." Just like I've been doing in class, so too shall the kids start making presentations about their own weeks and what they've been up to.
Mit Vergnügen
Today we finally got back into the swing of things after last week's unfortunate snow-based cancellation.
Our focus returned to our historical unit over Iron Age Germania, this covering the topic of warfare. We discussed the Roman military, its formation and tactics, and how this compared to the Germanic tribes of the time.
In short:technology, strategy and organization versus "go over there and hit that guy really really hard."
We then made our own either legionnaires or germanic warriors, and held a war game. "Eisenzeit Krieg" is a turn-based, dice-driven combat system (like D&D Very Lite) that I invented a few years back, and it's always a crowd pleaser. We had some real nail-biter combat rounds, culminating in the entire class engaging in a battle royale with only one survivor at the end.
Since we've been covering the past tense (perfect) in class lately, next week we will also start working on an assignment, "Meine Woche." Just like I've been doing in class, so too shall the kids start making presentations about their own weeks and what they've been up to.
Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, January 5, 2019
5. Januar '19 - Neujahr und Weitermachen
Guten Tag!
Today began like any other day before the usual descent into chaos.
We went over Meine Woche as "Meine Feiertage," and our listening comprehension was "Der Perfekte Hengst," (the perfect stallion) from My Little Pony.
Our lesson revolved around the perfect, otherwise known as the "spoken past." It's the past tense that uses helping verbs haben and sein, to differentiate it from the preterit or "written past."
The assignment was fairly simple: give me 10 sentences about what you did over the holidays. This took quite a while.
For the last 15 minutes of class, we went outside and enjoyed what will probably be some of the last warmth and sunshine we'll see for quite some time.
Mit Vergnügen
Today began like any other day before the usual descent into chaos.
We went over Meine Woche as "Meine Feiertage," and our listening comprehension was "Der Perfekte Hengst," (the perfect stallion) from My Little Pony.
Our lesson revolved around the perfect, otherwise known as the "spoken past." It's the past tense that uses helping verbs haben and sein, to differentiate it from the preterit or "written past."
The assignment was fairly simple: give me 10 sentences about what you did over the holidays. This took quite a while.
For the last 15 minutes of class, we went outside and enjoyed what will probably be some of the last warmth and sunshine we'll see for quite some time.
Mit Vergnügen
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