31.Jan'15 - 10 Denarii für den Esel aber keine einzige Münze mehr!

The alternate title for today was going to be "Wirtschaftwunder" but that wasn't near as funny.

Today we focused on economics! No, I didn't spend 3 hours playing Monopoly with them (no one could pay me enough to play Monopoly), I promise.

We began with the song "Millionär" by Die Prinzen, not only going through the lyrics for listening comprehension, but also dividing up in pairs and highlighting all the adjectives in the song, and then putting them into their comparitive forms as a class, e.g. "groß" to "größer" and "reich" to "reicher" etc.

As planned, we then did a comparison on the board between the Imperial Roman Empire and Iron Age Germania, with each student coming up, selecting an adjective from the board and putting it (in comparitive form) in the column they thought appropriate, for Rome or for Germany. We then put these all into sentences on a handout that was labelled, "Wir denken" and "Wir wissen." Their opinions expressed on the board were all recorded under "Wir denken."
We then discussed briefly how reality may differ or be similar to the opinions they wrote on the board, and these went under "Wir wissen" on the handout. Mostly, the kids were spot on! "Rome war größer/bevölkerter/reicher/stärker als alter Deutschland" is indeed right; there was some discussion on the points regarding "religiöser" and "erfolgreicher" (what does it mean to be successful? We managed to avoid getting into 'trans-national synchretism versus tribal polytheism' thankfully!)

After the break, we went through and filled out/discussed a handout over how economics worked in Imperial Rome and in Eisenzeit Deutschland/Magna Germania.

When the day was done, we cleaned up, and spent the final 10 minutes playing basketball, which is becoming a thing on days when the weather is nice.

And now the Hausaufgabe:

Create an advertisement!

• You are a Roman city-dwelling citizen back in the 1st century, looking to sell something of yours
• It must be something they would've actually had, e.g. clothes, jewelry, animals, weaponry/armor, carts, chariots, slaves, land, property, etc. 
• In a half-page (at least) describe the item you wish to sell, why it is an appealing item (e.g. "Dieser Esel frisst nicht viel und arbeitet gut den ganzen Tag!") 
• List acceptable forms of payment, which we went over in class (either a specific price in Roman coins, or what items you will accept in barter)
• Give contact info of some kind, e.g. your name and where you live (NO PHONE NUMBERS OR EMAIL ADDRESSES! This is 2000 years ago!) 
• Make it pretty

Mit Vergnügen

24.Januar '15 - Du tanzt den Pony Pokey!

Der linke Huf muss rein, der linke Huf muss raus. Der linke Huf muss rein, und dann schüttelst du ihn auf. Du tanzt den Pony Poky und schaust nach den anderen aus! Ja darauf läuft es hinaus! 

This class period opened with a more challenging exercise than usual; instead of simply listening to a song, filling in the blanks in the lyrics and trying to interpret an overall idea of what it was about, we had a full transcript of a song and were translating and interpreting it in groups. At the end, I showed the video the song came from (My Little Pony) and we compared the interpretations to the source material.

The reason I think this was a nice exercise, and why we'll do it again in the future, is because it stresses the importance of context and idiom. There was a word, for example, "neigen" whose first dictionary entry was "to tend toward" with other following definitions being "to nod," "to bow," to incline." The challenge set before the kids was then to look at the whole line, "Du neigst den Kopf," and figure out which was the most likely meaning instead of blindly copying in a word.
We also had idiomatic phrases, such as "Darauf läuft es hinaus!" which instead of translating each word directly (good luck with that), became apparent as to their intention when they were presented in context; when sung, it's immediately obvious that phrase is basically "That's what it's all about!"
This song was a variation on the Hokey Pokey, by the way.

I am also very much hoping that such exercises as these will break dependence on (and confidence in!) Google translate, because attempts at using that with this were a dismal failure.

We also went over the Simple Past in some more detail, playing a story-creation game based on it, and began a lesson on Comparitives, and afterwards we discovered that I am terrible at basketball.

As last week's homework lead to some confusion, I shall re-issue it.

Hausaufgabe:

• Choose an online news article (it may be sports, world events, science, entertainment, religion, etc. but something from a journalistic source)
• Summarize it in about 10 sentences (not translate: summarize, as in your own words) using the simple past (not the present tense). 
• Cite the source

Mit Vergnügen

11. Jan '14 - The Past is Never Simple

The title is a joke on the simple past, because that's what we learned about. It's also deeply philosophical and shows my wisdom.

The Züngenbrecher returned for another round, this time with a more or less full class to very satisfying results, and there were also sugary treats and sparkling projectiles involved, both of which tend to add to the fun of an activity.

The primary lesson of the day, once we finished going over specific phonemes and how to pronounce them, was the preterit, also known as the simple past. We talked about its common usage and went over specific examples, e.g. "war" (was) and "hatte" (had).

In short:

• Some extremely common, everyday verbs are used in spoken German in their preterit form and are easily understood, e.g. "ich schwamm" or "es war....", "ich hatte..." 
• Aside from those exceptions, the preterit is used primarily in written communication, e.g. books, articles, magazines

So when speaking, someone will say, "Ich habe Wurst gegessen" whereas in a letter they may write, "Ich aß Wurst." Or, "Obama ist nach Deutschland geflogen" out loud but "Obama flog nach Deutschland" in a news article. 

Which brings us to this week's homework:

• Pick a news article from online and summarize it in at least 10 sentences. 
• This should not be a translation. I simply want a summary of it in the simple past. 
• This can be local, national, international, or even entertainment news, so long as you cite the article on the assignment so I can check for accuracy of the summary. 

Mit Vergnügen

10.Jan '14 - Gebrochene Zünge

For the first class of the new year, we had surprisingly (but understandably) sparse attendance. It was just the girls and I, so we made the most of it and spent the day working on something that required honing but would not cause the rest of the class to fall behind: pronunciation.

We went through a list of tongue twisters or Züngenbrecher that I have on hand, and went over the individual phonemes of German that make them as difficult as they are.
These are the usual problem sounds for growing speakers, such as ü, ö, ei and ie, z, ß and ä.

We also threw shiny objects at each other and played "popcorn" before making and reciting our own Züngenbrecher and making one as a class.

And that's a wrap! Fun and speaking were had by all.

Mit Vergnügen~

20.Dez '14 - Heut' wird's gebacken

We made cookies. Oh, the cookies we made! Probably at least 3 dozen.

It was to my surprise and elation that all the 7th graders in attendance were able to bake, do dishes, and clean up the kitchen with minimal help, creating nigh-perfect cookies and leaving no mess behind.

The day began with a note written on the classroom board, "Laßt eure Sachen hier und wir treffen uns in der Küche." What waited in the kitchen area was a table with a heavy-duty mixer, cookie sheets, my wife's mobile baking kit (spatulas, scales, cups, measuring spoons...) and a bunch of ingredients.
The kids divided up their labor: some read the recipe steps, some stirred dry ingredients or manned the mixer, divvied out the different chips into bowls, watched the oven and set timers, did dishes, swept the floors...
I'd brought a few different kinds of chips so they could choose what they wanted. We ended up having cookies with caramel-filled chocolate chips.

By the time it was done, we'd been eating fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies for over an hour and so felt generous (and full) enough to start giving them away to parent volunteers, teachers, and some fellow students who helped us clean.

We then had the play rehearsal and singing practice. I'm in the play as the Wirt (Innkeeper) if you're coming tomorrow, so be sure to cheer extremely loudly when I take the stage for all of 40 seconds.

Frohe Weihnachten, and see you in a few weeks.

Mit Vergnügen

13.Dez '14 - Jeopardy

Saturday, we had our lovely little vocabulary quiz, for which plenty of advanced warning was given, and then we played Jeopardy to review everything we have covered this semester. That took pretty much all day.

We had teams Olga versus Bärbel; Bärbel won by a relatively slim margin of some 3000 points.

After lunch, we ended the day on a jovial note by playing basketball as a class.

Next week, we will have an hour of singing practice and practice for the Christmas play, so those who are participating in the play (including me! I'm the Innkeeper, believe it or not) will need to take part in this.

Mit Vergnügen

6.Dez. '14 - Krieg

Today, we went to war.

It all started out so calmly with the song "Mein Fahrrad" by Die Prinzen.
We then took inventory or our handouts to make sure that everyone had everything needed for end-of-semester quizzes in the next few weeks.

Then out came "Krieg im Altentum: ein gutes Spiel," the strategy fighting game I made myself because it's fun. In short, using the legionnaires and teutonic warriors we'd made and decorated in past weeks, along with a point system of defense and offense, hit points and saves, the class divided into two groups to pit the Teutons against the Romans. It's a lot like a mix of Pokemon and DnD, as regards mechanics, and was a fun use of the vocabulary we'll have a quiz over next week as well as regular verb and dative case usage.

By 1 point, the Teutons ended up winning after a very long, drawn-out battle with many upsets and sudden reversals.

The vocabulary quiz next week will be over these words (and they're also on the handouts "Eisenzeit Kleider" and "Waffen.")

1. Sword - der Schwert
2. Spear - der Speer
3. Shield - der Schild (note that Das Schild is a sign, and Der Schild is the defensive device) 
4. Dagger - der Dolch (makes me giggle every time I order Dulce de Leche)
5. Helmet - der Helm
6. Body Armor - die Körperpanzerung 
7. Pants - die Hose
8. Cloak/coat - der Mantel
9. Sandals - die Sandalen
10. Boots - die Stiefel
11. Catapult - die Schleuder
12. Skirt - der Rock

And they will be asked to identify what the following are on a diagram of a Roman: toga, tunic, sash, laurels.

Viel Glück!