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sends a note from Washington D.C. about the challenges and rewards of his work with Teach For America: … The last few months have been pretty unbelievable for me. I work for an organization called Teach For America, which places recent college graduates in inner-city urban and rural locations to teach for two years. I spent the summer training in Philadelphia, before receiving my placement at Clark Elementary School, teaching all subjects to a group of fourth graders. I think it would be fair to say that life is a little crazy now, but I absolutely love it. I've been extremely fortunate with this transition, working for an incredibly supportive school administration, and teaching a group of excited and motivated students. It's a little exhausting, and can be frustrating sometimes, but the kids make it worth my while. Working to make up for the disservices my kids have been shown over the last years is truly challenging, but I do believe that they are capable of performing at the same level as their suburban counterparts. Furthermore, they are coming to believe in themselves, which is exciting in itself. Unfortunately, I don't use my German all that much anymore. Every once in a while I stumble across a pair of lost German tourists, whom I can usually direct towards their destination. But otherwise, there aren't a whole lot of opportunities to use the language. In any case, it seems like a foreign language is a little like riding a bike – and if the opportunity to use it again presents itself, I will probably jump on it. I do miss conversing "auf Deutsch" considerably. … I will be traveling back to Colby … and will try to swing by the Department and catch up with some Professors… (Spring 2008)
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gives us a glimpse of her work in the publishing world and the subsidiary rights department at Hyperion: … Things are going fairly well for me, though it still feels like just another year abroad and that maybe I'll be back in Waterville come September. I'm working at Hyperion, a small publishing company associated with ABC/Disney, where I work in the subsidiary rights department, licensing books for translation or magazine excerpts or bookclub usage. It's a pleasure working here; I get to use both of my majors, and especially enjoy helping coordinate travel plans for my bosses to go to the annual book fair in Frankfurt. We do license quite a few books to German publishers, and it's fun to be able to communicate with them in German, too (although mostly, to be honest, we all speak in English, since things move so quickly and it's the easiest way to avoid miscommunication...). Hope all is well up north! I'm glad to hear the German dept. is doing so well …(Spring 2008)
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reports about his teacher certification and the receipt of a Fulbright Teaching Award to Austria: …Since leaving Colby, I was working in the fall as a student teacher to complete my secondary school teacher certification in Maine (which I began at Colby). [Back in January,] I was interviewing for a long-term substitute position to fill in for someone on maternity leave, which I have now accepted and have been working at since the beginning of February. I teach U.S. and European history to 10th and 11th graders. The more exciting news, however, is that I have been accepted for the Fulbright Teaching Assistantship Program in Austria for next year. So, I will be following in Suzi's footsteps, though not to the same place in Austria - I will be in Salzburg. I am very excited to return to Europe and get back to work on perfecting my German.
... I hope all is well at Colby in the German department - I certainly miss my evenings on the fourth floor of Lovejoy in class and studying on my own... (April 2008)
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sends an update from his ESL-teaching adventure in South Korea:
…I’ve
been teaching English in South Korea for the last eight months, which has been a
great experience. My contract ends in Febraury and I’ve been thinking about what
I’d like to do next; the idea I keep coming back to is teaching in
Germany... I will have had a full year teaching
ESL, including roughly seven months of teaching the IBT TOEFL test. I’ve taught
elementary kids, but mostly middle schoolers and high schoolers. So far my German hasn’t deteriorated
too much, but I’m eager to go back to improve it and continue teaching... I hope things are going well in the German Department. (Fall 2009)
Mit
freundlichen Grüssen,
Clayton Marshall BACK TO TOP
sends greetings from the other side of the North American continent in Vancouver, Canada. His studies toward a Ph.D. in psychology should come in handy with his German housemates: … My post-German Colby life has been treating me very well! After graduating Colby, I went to Ludwigshafen am Rhein for a year as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant, teaching English at an Integrierte Gesamtschule [integrated comprehensive school], which was quite the learning experience all in itself! Since then, I've been pursuing my MA in social psychology at UBC, up in Vancouver. I have the good fortune to have a few German housemates, with whom I keep my German fresh, although I still talk with my friends back in Germany very often, so there's no danger of my language skills getting rusty. I've another 4 years after this one to obtain my PhD, and hope to go back to Germany for cultural research at some point, once I've finished my current wave of projects and have the resources to dedicate to new lines of inquiry... (Spring 2008)
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shares some insights about the transition from living in Austria to teaching German in Memphis, TN: … I am happy to report that since leaving Colby I have been using my German constantly. This past June I moved back to the states after two years in Linz Austria working as an English Language assistant, like Suzi. Those two years offered me innumerable, valuable experiences that I will cherish forever. If I could have I would have stayed in Austria longer, but as it is I am quite happy where I am. Currently I am teaching high school German and English in a private catholic school in Memphis TN. My job is part of a two year graduate/ licensure program called LANCE that is through Christian Brothers University. The LANCE program is similar to Teach for America in that participants teacher for two years in underprivileged schools (granted I must admit the school where I teach does not fit this mold at all). Additionally, while we teach we are also taking grad school courses towards a masters in teaching and in preparation for licensure. I enjoy both aspects of the program, and am especially happy to have found a use for German. While I only teach 32 German students, they are broken into three different levels and I am pleased to see how much they enjoy the language. I have recently started a German club and my students will soon be participating in a Foreign Language fair at a local university. While I miss my life in Austria, and my daily conversations in German with friends, I am glad to be able to share my love of the language and culture with my students...Little did I know as a freshman the impact German would have on my life... (Spring 2008)
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sends greetings from Austria and an update about her Fulbright teaching experience in Steyr. Here are some excerpts from her letter: …I'm having a wonderful year in Austria. With the exception of Christmas break, I've been here since September teaching in two schools, a Bundeshandelsakademie (HAK) and Bundesbildungsanstalt für Kindergartenpädagogik (BAKIP) in Steyr. I alternate every other week at the schools, and work approximately 12 classroom hours a week, which usually includes conversation lessons, helping the teachers with lessons they've planned, and providing feedback on how students are doing (but I don't do any grading). But most of the time I teach all or part of the lesson myself, and the teacher usually hangs out in the back of the room. I got really lucky with my schools and teachers, because they give me a lot of freedom as far as teaching material goes … As far as the program itself goes, I've found the Austrian Fulbright Commission to be fantastic as far as helping us get set up here and providing support. We had a one-week orientation seminar in September in the village of Hinterglemm, which was for English Language Assistants in Oberösterreich, Salzburg, Kärnten, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg. We also had a gathering in Vienna at the beginning of December for all assistants and Fulbright grantees… … I've learned a lot not only about Austria but also about the USA from this program... I've had some time now to get used to the Austrian dialect, which was tricky at first; I wish I'd known what it sounded like before I left! Between learning Hochdeutsch at Colby, spending time learning Schwäbisch in Tübingen, and now living in Austria, my German accent probably sounds a bit weird now! (I've had people tell me I sound Scandinavian.) … Because I'm in a smaller city, I bump into my students around town pretty often, and end up speaking German with them, too. I'd be happy to give any information to students thinking about the Austria program … All in all I'd recommend the Austria program to anyone who's looking to spend some more time in Europe, have a not-so-conventional job after graduation, and/or is possibly thinking about teaching. …(Spring 2008)
Grüße aus Österreich Suzi BACK TO TOP |
