Around the World in 8 Days - Germany (6/19/19)

Around the World in 8 Days - Germany (6/19/19)

Today we traveled to Germany! The students were very excited to try out the German language. We talked about formal and informal language with basic German greetings and then took turns practicing our basic phrases. The students said that when they think about Germany, the feel that a lot of historical events that they recognize and remember, involved Germany and they were interested in learning more!

After practicing basic greetings in German, we started our art project for Germany! We learned all about kindercones. Students explored the history and purpose of kindercones and then took part of a community service project to spread the cultural love! Kindercones are cones filled with goodies that are given to children in Germany on their very first day of their education (kindergarten/first grade)! These kindercones are typically filled with a note, school supplies, trinkets, sweets and more. These gifts might be compared to an Easter basket or a May Day gift. 

Over the past several summers, my school district has really made a valiant effort to provide opportunities to extend education throughout the summer. I am happy to say that the kindercones that our students made today will be given to over 70 little ones that are attending our summer KinderPrep program! This is a program that helps students prepare to start kindergarten in August! The program will prepare them and our kindercones will help excite them and make them feel welcomed into the district. The students included the following in their kindercones: mini-erasers, around the world pencils, a note from my students, a country bookmark, stickers, a bracelet made of fruit loops, and more! Many students wrote about their experiences in this camp, what they love about school, great memories that they have had, and their favorite subjects. This was a great way for my students to share what they have been learning, and pass on a love and excitement for cultural education to our younger, future students!

Making our kindercones really helped us build up an appetite to try German foods! Students explored three traditional foods from Germany: German chocolate cake, sauerkraut, and kielbasa sausage! They were overwhelmingly in love with the sausage, many enjoyed the chocolate cake and the sauerkraut came in last place, with a few students asking for seconds. 

After filling our tummies, it was time to put our language skills to the test and move! Students learned the words eins, zwei, and drei in German. These are the German words for one, two, and three. These words were then used to play our game for the day! To play the game, all students lined up facing a teacher whose back was to them. Students then run toward the teacher as she counts to three in German. When the teacher states drei, she then turns around and students must stop where they are. If students slip or keep running, they must go back to the start. The goal of the game is to be the first student to reach the teacher. After playing the game several times with me as the leader, a student volunteered to lead the game, and I had the opportunity to compete! When all games had finished, the students compared the game to Red Light Green Light in English and said that it was a lot of fun! What a great way to end the day and run off some of our chocolate cake!

 

I love that Savanna wore a shirt that her father bought her in Germany for our trip to Germany today!

See you tomorrow in Italy! Auf Wiedersehen! 

NY Leadership Conference - Day 6

   Everyone was up early for our last day in NY. The kids had to be "plane packed" and ready to roll, early. On our way to the Summit campus, we were able to see quite a bit of pretty scenery. We also enjoyed a few inside jokes! The students on our bus were definitely becoming friends. The students headed off to their innovation teams to continue work on their prototypes and teachers took a class on how TED ED can be utilized  in the classroom. Bus 1 teachers, took the time to address a cause close to our hearts, chanting on the bus! :). Then, we were finally able to see the kids again. Teachers were then asked to provide feedback to students in specific rooms on their projects. I was assigned to the light blue group (where we had 3 students working) just got lucky I guess! The student groups would provide a pre-practiced pitch for one minute. Our responsibilities were to provide 3 bits of information: I like that, I wish that, what if you? We watched all four groups in the light blue room primarily. Then we watched after they made changes based on our feedback. Some groups were better at making changes, than others. Students and group leaders then watched final pitches and completed a rubric. The team I had intended to get my vote, didnt score highest on the rubric! I'm not even sure how that happened. All groups were scored on: innovation, effectiveness, presentation of pitch, and did the product address communication. We all broke for lunch, and no one was told who were the room winners!! The suspense was hard for all of us. I was listening in to some conversations at lunch, and the kids were even reflecting on pitches, things like, "man we didnt really talk long enough." I was able to use this time to also count and see how many of the NY 9 followed directions and were wearing their orange travel shirts!
  Following lunch, we reconvened as a large summit group and learned of the 4 finalist groups! Team 2 from navy group with a product called, Procrasti-Go. (with our Leah) Team 7 from the pink group, with product, Spot (with our Nate). Blue rooms winner, team 12 with product, Personal Trainer Assistant. (with our Claire). Team purple with team 15, product Anxiety VR. (lead by our Caleb) We heard final pitches from all groups on the big stage. Our students were amazing during presentations! We then took time to hear our keynote speaker of the day, Soledad O' Brien. Soledad spoke of how she used communication to propel herself forward in a male dominated field. She was inspirational and passionate. She was also, to be one of the finalist judges for the projects! Following her speech, we had a mini dance party while the judges deliberated. We waited for the winner to be announced! Team 12 with Personal Trainer Assistant won!! This team had our very own Claire!! They were given medals by Soledad! The EFexplore america page has a video of the winning pitch.
    From the Summit, we went directly to the airport. We took alot of time to say goodbye to our new Texas and Arkansas friends. I heard alot of, "I'm going to miss you so much"'s.  We flew out of NY this time, vs. NJ last time, so navigating the construction at Laguardia was more difficult than we had imagined. I was thankful we had extra time. We rode various airport shuttles to finally make it to our gate. We had a rough run in with TSA at security. A couple of the boys had purchased souvenirs that werent allowed to be carried on. One student and I stayed behind to figure this all out. Though the worker sure had some things to say about my kids. :l We were able to check a bag with all the 'not allowed' items and luckily made it through to the rest of our group. By this time, they were starting to show signs of major tiredness, giggles, constant laughing, etc. We played some games in the airport while we waited. Then finally headed to St. Louis. St. Louis handed us a 2 hour lay over and a 1 hour delay due to weather and baggage issues but we made it through. We often boarded the plane later in the boarding process, so the kids were always picking which middle seat seemed like the best fit for them, myself included. Some of their 'middle seat' stories are pretty hilarious! We made it home an hour late and very sleepy, but we sure made memories!

Theres Alex's house -way out in the pond!