Well, my program is over now! The first day seemed so long, but then the time went by pretty quickly. I didn't get to write during the program like I wanted to because we were so busy with meetings, visits, and sightseeing. But I will definitely add posts with pictures for all the things we did when I am able to. I hope you've at least had a chance to check out my posts to Twitter! Freddy Falcon has enjoyed the trip too! https://twitter.com/MsWesner
Right now I'm still in Germany to travel some more. This morning I said goodbye to the other teachers at the Munich airport. I was sad to see them go. We've learned a lot and had some great experiences together. I hope to keep in touch with them back in North Carolina. After saying goodbye, I rented a car to begin my travels south of Munich. I stopped by two beautiful lakes- Lake Starnberg and Walchensee. There were several places to swim at Lake Starnberg which looked like a very nice getaway from the heat we've had here, but I just waded up to my knees. At Walchensee there weren't people swimming where I was, but the lake was a beautiful greenish-bluish color. After that I headed toward Mittenwald which is a small town near the southern border of Germany and near the Alps. I wanted to go there to see the beautiful (and very old!) paintings on the sides of the buildings. About thirty minutes before I arrived, I drove through another very small town which also had these paintings on the buildings. They were amazing! They also had flower boxes with beautiful flowers in the windows. I felt like I was at Busch Gardens or something, but this was the real thing!! Once I got Mittenwald I walked around to explore the town. It is also known for its violin museum where there are 200 locally crafted violins. I didn't get to go in the museum because it was closed today, but I loved walking around the town seeing the beautiful buildings with the mountains in the background. Even though I was on my own there today, I was able to FaceTime with my mom, my sister, and my friend! Technology is amazing! Last time I was overseas a couple years ago, I didn't have a data plan for my phone, so this was really neat to be able to connect with them today. Tomorrow I'm heading North of here to visit Wildflecken which is a place where my dad's family lived in a displaced persons camp after World War II because they were unable to go back to their home in Poland. This will be a special visit for me! Thanks for the comments! And thanks for your patience with waiting for more posts and pictures. If you've made two comments, email me your address if I don't already have it from class so I can send you a postcard (if you'd like)! Danke!
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I haven't had a lot of extra time to post, but check out my Twitter page for some tweets! I've also retweeted a bunch of my colleagues' tweets. https://twitter.com/MsWesner
Hooray!! I made it to Germany. I was suuuper tired yesterday and we didn't end up having wifi, so I'm just trying to write this now while at dinner my second day here. I got to RDU early Friday morning and guess who I saw... Ms. Carrelha! She was on her way to South Africa with another program. Here we are with Flat Freddy and Freddy Junior :). We first flew to New Jersey and had a long layover before heading to Germany. It's always hard for me to sleep on a plane. I think Freddy slept a little better than I did :). I was fortunate to have a man who works at the American Embassy in Berlin sitting by next to me on the plane. He gave me some suggestions of places to see on my free day when we arrived. As as soon as we arrived at the Berlin airport we got on our bus and took a tour of some important places in Berlin. I was really happy about this because we went by several of the places the man had recommended and it was much easier than trying to navigate around the city on the U-Bahn. We went by Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Memorial, saw remnants of the Berlin Wall, and the East Side Gallery. After that we arrived at our hotel. I was ready to sleep, but just got a 20 minute nap before heading out for lunch. I ordered a salad with shrimp and steak, but the man told me they were out of the grilled vegetables for the salad. I tried to tell him that that was okay and I'd have it anyway, but he conferred with another chef and ended up frying some cucumbers for my salad along with the other vegetables! I've never had fried cucumbers! If I knew how to speak German, I would've been able to tell him that I'd eat them raw. Actually, speaking of languages, there is a lot of English here. He probably would've even understood me if I spoke English because most people here do, but I was still hesitant to do that since I just arrived and wasn't sure if he would think I was rude. I don't feel like I'm in a foreign country as much as I have some other places. I think it is also due to the fact that a lot of buildings are newer since many were destroyed in World War II. After lunch we strolled through a little bit of town and ended up going on a boat tour of the river that goes through Berlin. It was beautiful weather and a nice ride, especially since I could sit back and rest! I took a very brief rest after that at the hotel and later we had a traditional German dinner. Finally I was able to get some sleep after that! Here are some pictures. More to come! Use the sentence stem suggestions to make comments below! Danke! While talking to my class about German culture, it occurred to me that my students had many things they could share with us about different cultures. I invited the parents in to share about any other place they have lived. We were fortunate to have a couple of parents come in on short notice and share about Korea and India. This was so much fun! Korea- We learned how to use chopsticks and even got to practice with fruit chews! We saw traditional Korean dress and learned how to say a few words in Korean. India- We learned that there are 29 states in India and each has its own language! We got to see some money from India as well as other parts of the world. We also learned that there are different foods in the different parts of India based on the land. I'm sure there are many other interesting things we could learn about the cultures in our class, whether it's another country, or even another region of the US or North Carolina. I look forward to doing this again next year.
What is something unique about another place you or your parents have lived? My class went on a "field trip" to Germany today. They completed a scavenger hunt by searching around the room and in an information booklet for facts about language, food, famous people, places, automobiles, and other information. I'm sure I'll have many more artifacts to share next year! The timing was also just right for one of my students to share her research presentation because she chose Germany as her topic!
If you are in my class, what was your favorite part of your "trip" to Germany? The theme of renewable energy makes me think of my dear friend Andrea Peet whom I've been friends with since we were in preschool together! Andrea has a Masters in city planning and used to work for STAR Communities (Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities). A few years ago, she was diagnosed with ALS. Before her diagnosis, she competed in triathlons and even completed a half Ironman. Andrea is a special person and has not let ALS stop her. She has continued racing on her recumbent trike and has inspired people to complete their own races and raise money for ALS research through her non-profit, the Team Drea Foundation. When I found out that I received the Go Global NC educator scholarship to Germany, and also I hadn't come up with a race for this year yet, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to find a race... in Germany! I will be racing in the Frauenlauf Mannheim on Friday, June 30 to honor this special woman in my life! Translation: Frauen (Women) + lauf (run)= Women's run! I am curious how it will compare to races I have completed in the US. Already, there are a couple differences I have noticed. 1- It is a 6k rather than our typical 5k distance. 2- Almost all of the races I came across while trying to choose one started in the evening rather than the morning. I like this! Check out my fundraising page here: https://give.classy.org/julieingermany Who is someone you admire? We got a draft of our itinerary for the trip!
Itinerary: Saturday 6/17- Arrive in Berlin Sunday 6/18- Berlin Monday 6/19- Berlin Tuesday 6/20- Stuttgart Wednesday 6/21- Stuttgart/Freiburg Thursday 6/22- Freiburg Friday 6/23- Freiburg/St. Peter Saturday 6/24- Munich Sunday 6/25- Munich Can you find these places on Google maps? (You might need to click on the Google icon to open it in another page.) What do you notice about these places? What are the landforms in the different areas? We had a day and a half orientation for the program. It was exciting to meet the other teachers who will be on the trip! There are a total of 28 teachers from across North Carolina in the program. At orientation we had several different speakers that presented information about different topics including German history, German schools, German language, cultural competence, and German culture. After orientation on Friday evening, we ate at The German Grille in Cary! I had the Rahm Schnitzel. Yum! I've never been a huge fan of German food, but it's growing on me already. When I got my receipt, I noticed some German words at the bottom of it. "Ohf-vhy-der-seh-hen..." I said as I attempted to pronounce the German words. "Julie!" my friend Danielle said quickly. "You know that word! You know, like in the song from The Sound of Music- "So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye." "Oh!!" I said. "Yes, I do know that word! Owf-vee-der-zayn!" I laughed as I realized I needed to work on my German phonics. It's funny how the same letters can make different sounds in different languages. I was trying my best to break the long word down into syllables, but it turned out the letters "slid" together much more than I had realized. Also, the "w" makes a "v" sound! Check out The German Grille's menu here. What would you order if you ate at The German Grille? What questions do you have about the schools in Germany? What do you think would be important to know how to say in German if you were traveling to Germany? I am super excited and honored to have found out that I am a recipient of Go Global NC's Global Teachers program. Each year they travel to a different country and this year they are going to Germany. Learn more about Go Global NC and the different ways they bring a global perspective to NC here: goglobalnc.org/. Global Teachers to Germany is designed for North Carolina K-12 teachers from all grade levels and subject areas. Ten recipients have been selected from Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Chatham, Durham, Orange and Wake County school systems. There will be a total of 28 teachers from across North Carolina.
The goals of this program are: • To gain insight into Germany’s history, culture and education system • To learn more about technological innovation, particularly in renewable energy and sustainable development practices in Germany • To use technology to collaborate with other program participants on ways to implement global perspectives and technology into the classroom I'm excited to learn about these things and bring this experience back to my classroom! |
Students! Look here!As you read my blog, look for questions in purple to respond to! I'd love to hear your ideas!
Click under the post where it says the number of comments in order to make a comment. You can just fill in your first name and comment and leave the other boxes empty. As you read or look at pictures, think about how things in Germany compare to where you live. Feel free to make a comment using one of the following suggestions or by using your own idea. AuthorHi! I'm Ms. Wesner. I am honored and excited to be a recipient of Go Global NC's Educators to Germany scholarship program. Freddy Falcon is my co-author and he doesn't mind being flattened for a little while since he gets to join me. Archives
June 2017
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