Be a part of Der Spottvogel 2.0

Do you have a great tip you'd like to share with other German teachers? Or some good news about your program? Maybe you've found helpful new materials or apps? These are the sort of things we'd like to feature here on Der Spottvogel 2.0! Just send your info to Jana Engle (jengle@k12k.com) or any AATG officer and we'll upload it here. All officers are able to post to this blog and anyone is able to comment on anything posted. We want to hear from Tennessee's German teachers!!

Notes from our business meeting at TFLTA

We opened the meeting with a report on William Durden, the student we sent to Germany as winner of the TN National German exam. William wrote us a note of thanks and many agreed that this was a worthwhile use of our funds.

A motion was made to designate $500 to subsidize our chapter president attending ACTFL . The motion was approved.

Members present discussed ways to recruit new members, get more attendees at the conference and more attendees to the business meeting.

Plans for Frühlingsfest were discussed. Jana Engle and Richard Apgar agreed to serve as the Frühlingsfest planning committee, which will be responsible for preparing and running the events. Regine Schwarzmeier volunteered Belmont University to serve as our venue. Regina will be responsible for booking the spaces and the Frühlingsfest committee will be responsible for planning and running the events. Date is to be determined.

It was noted that we have no chapter website. The decision was made to send our link on the national website to our blog (newsletter).

Richard Apgar spoke about the Sewanee immersion  program. The program has lost Goethe Institut funding and Richard suggested AATG-TN might subsidize a teacher's tuition in the amount of $900 for the two week program. The officers will discuss this.

Opportunities from the Goethe Insitut

The Goethe-Institut USA would like to invite you to a professional development seminar that is specifically designed for members of the profession with less than 4 years of teaching experience at an elementary, middle or high school level, as well as for Graduate Teaching Assistants. Conducted by experienced members of the Goethe-Institut Trainer Networks, the seminar will focus on various aspects of lesson planning and language instruction in schools. It will be conducted in German.

We currently offer three seminars:

December 13-15, 2013, at the Goethe-Institut San Francisco

Topic: Preparation for the AP German Language & Culture Exam and Beyond

January 17-19, 2014, at the Goethe-Institut New York

Topic: Hallo Deutschland! Anklicken, Uploaden, Anwenden? A collaborative workshop on the meaningful integration of authentic online materials and (new) media in the standards-based classroom

January 24-26, 2014, at the Goethe-Institut Chicago

Topic: Getting students to talk in the foreign language: Fostering communication in the German classroom

All seminars will start at 5 p.m. on Friday evening and conclude at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The Goethe-Institut will provide participants with hotel accommodations for 2 nights in double rooms and reimburse them for travel expenses up to $500.00. The number of participants in each seminar is capped at 20.

Participation requirements:

- You are a school teacher of German with less than 4 years of teaching experience or a Graduate Teaching Assistant preparing to enter German teaching profession

- You are a member of AATG (if you are not, please join the AATG before applying: http://www.aatg.org/membership)

Registration deadline is Sunday, November 17, 2013. We will inform you of our decision before November 21, 2013.

Please e-mail your completed registration form (see below; please paste into Word, fill out and send as attachment) to Olga Liamkina, Goethe-Institut New York: olga.liamkina@newyork.goethe.org. You can also download the form here: http://www.aatg.org/content/professional-development-seminar-new-teachers. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Liamkina via e-mail or phone: 856-795-5553.