Hello, everyone!

As the school year nears the end, we’d like to share with you some of the activities and achievements of our members. We hope you’ve all had a good year. We look forward to seeing our Calgary group for one more Stammtisch (June 20) and we’ll hopefully see and hear from the rest of you in the coming year, after a restful summer!

- from your executive: Heide Doppmeier (President), Sandra Hoenle (Vice-President), Thomas Elbel (Secretary) and Tracey Holstein (Treasurer)

Stammtische

The Calgary Stammtisch group plans on getting its members involved in various PD activities next year. Hopes are that we will be able to meet in schools in order to share resources, ideas, and visions for the future of the AATG. We also hope to be able to teleconference with others in out-lying districts so they too can share in these events.

Communications

The AATG is now also listed on the International Directory of Professional Associations and is working on a new bulletin board system in order to improve communication between our members and to let other organizations know who we are and what kind of work we are doing.

Continuing to Grow

The AATG has a new representative member in Norman Sieweke, who will be helping represent the Bilingual Schools. We welcome his involvement and value his input.

German Language Education Consortium

The Consortium held its last meeting on April 20, 2007. Here are some highlights:

1. German Language promotion

There are ongoing efforts to promote awareness of German programs (FL and Biling) and the importance of language learning – most of these are occurring in the Edmonton area.

2. A Memorandum of Understanding has been drafted and circulated among members to be signed by their respective institutional leaders. Members include Alberta Education, U of Alberta, U of Calgary, a number of school boards from across the province, and a number of parent and business groups. The purpose of the Consortium is to support one another in our efforts promote and maintain German language learning in the province.

3. Alberta Education will not be implementing the grades 4-9 second language requirement, but will continue to support second language programs. They have developed these resources:

·  A guide for school administrators for implementing language programming. Brochures available from Alberta Education. http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/languages/schadm_rev07.pdf

·  A document of support and resources for German programs http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/languages/schadm_rev07.pdf

·  A “Lean German” promotional brochure http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/languages/brochure/gerbro.pdf

·  “Tips for Parents” outlining how parents can support children learning a language (grades 4-12)

·  A package for high school counselors about why they should tell students to learn languages

Fachberater

Edmund Borschel, der Fachberater für Deutsch im Westen Kanadas, verlässt uns am Ende des Schuljahres. Wir bedanken uns herzlich, Edmund, für Deine Unterstützung und Hilfe. Wir werden Deine Energie und Dein Engagement für Sachen DaF sehr vermissen. Wir wünschen Dir alles Gute!

Edmunds Nachfolger, Wieland Petermann, wird Anfang September die Stelle als Fachberater antreten. Mehr über ihn im nächsten Rundschreiben.

Proficiency Exams

A record 122 students from Western Canada took the Deutsches Sprachdiplom (DSD) I proficiency exam and 56 took the DSD II. DSD II allows students entry into a German university. These exams will be changing in the future to align them with the proficiency levels in Europe. The new tests will be piloted next year. Language testing in generally is moving toward internationally recognized rather than provincial exams and Alberta Education working to assess which proficiency level in the European framework matches which grade level within the Alberta Curriculum framework.

New Resource

Exploring German-Speaking Culture through Video

Check this out if you haven’t seen it, yet! This set of short online videos showing German speakers in a variety of different every day situations comes with a Teacher’s Guide containing ideas about how to use the clips in class. http://www.ucalgary.ca/lrc/GermanTools/

Biographical Dictionary of Members of Alberta’s German-Speaking Communities

Dr. Manfred Prokop is continuing to work on his project on the History of German Speaking Communities in Alberta from the 1880’s to the present and has sent out a questionnaire to persons of German origin/descent in order to create what has the potential of being an extremely valuable asset to German educators province-wide.

He is interested in adding to his profiles of German-speaking immigrants to Alberta. To read more about the project and learn about how you can contribute, please go to: http://www.ualberta.ca/~german/Profiles/

Deadline for contributions: May 31, 2007.

German Day at the University of Calgary

Beaverbrook

Churchill

On May 10, 2007, close to 100 students from Calgary participated in the First Annual German Day at the University of Calgary. Students from John G. Diefenbaker, Sir Winston Churchill and Lord Beaverbrook High Schools made use of their German skills as they participated in spelling, poetry, video, poster and skit competitions. Students were joined for the day by Jacobus Bouwman and Andreas Bayer, the honorary consuls from Germany and Switzerland, Janice Aubry from Alberta Education, Edmund Borschel, the German Language Consultant, and Jacques Ferguson and Elaine Schmidt from the Calgary Board of Education. University of Calgary students served as judges for the day. The event was sponsored by the University International Grants Committee and the Department of Germanic, Slavic and East Asian Studies. We look forward to next year's German Day!

Diefenbaker

CATG (Canadian Association of Teachers of German) Annual Conference Feb, 2007

The theme was maintaining and promoting German language education. The keynote speaker, Christopher Gwin, was from the AATG (American). He was a very dynamic and inspiring speaker, who provided many practical tips on how to promote your language program on a personal, school, and community level.

The conference presentations provided many with practical applications that the conference attendees could take home and use – always helpful. Contact Sandra if you’d like more information:

We were a bit disappointed to learn that the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) is trying to boost enrolment and increase internationalisation of German universities by offering more and more courses in English at universities throughout Germany to attract North American students.

The next CATG conference will be held in Calgary in February 2008.

The Intercultural and Second Languages Council Annual Conference

Languages and Culture: Taking the Lead

October 26-27, 2007 in Calgary

Do you have a project or teaching idea you’d like to share? Send in a proposal.

Let's have a strong German contingent to share ideas and information with!

For more information and speaker’s proposal forms contact Farida Garrett:

Deadline for submissions: June 29

Congratulations

to this year’s recipient of the AATG Bursary, Tabitha Hofer, who teaches in the German Bilingual Program in Edmonton.

Remember: we can only report what we know about. Please let us know about your activities and achievements so we can share them with the rest of our members.

Send your news to Sandra Hoenle: