At the end of June I was looking forward to another jam-packed and inspiring German teachers conference at the 2023 Deutschlehrer*innen Konferenz held at the Goethe-Institut New Zealand and yet again did not disappoint!
Those arriving the evening before gathered on the last evening of Term 2 at the Karaka café in Wellington for a hāngi dinner. We met new faces and caught up with not so new faces over a delicious meal hosted by the Goethe-Institut.
Samstag 1. Juli – To celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations between Aotearoa New Zealand and Germany, Language Assistants Christina Dünisch and Greta Lassen shared activities they have offered in the schools they have been supporting. We chatted in German while making, appropriately, friendship bands. “Was sind Ihre Lieblingswörter?”
‘Brückenbau zwischen Kultur und Klima’ led on nicely from the earlier ‘Beziehungen’ theme. From Judith Geare and the atmospheric scientist Dave Lowe we heard about Dave‘s work on studying climate change and contributing as a lead author of a 2007 Intergovernmental Panel report. This led to him being a joint recipient of a Nobel prize. His touching and personal story of challenging times as a youngster and dropping out of high school to then turning to science after falling in love with surfing, and learning German so he could continue his important research at a German university was awe-inspiring. Dave now shares his story with school students, for which he is receiving great feedback. I for one am interested in getting a hold of his book The Alarmist: Fifty Years Measuring Climate Change to hear more about the life of this remarkable New Zealander.
After wiping away welled-up tears with admiration and cheering for Dave Lowe, we turned to the popular Life Swap series, and were thrilled to meet the creators William Connor and Steffen Kreft again. William gave us a draft resource to be used in the classroom alongside Episode 2 - The Tea Towel Stinks. We gave our feedback and look forward to receiving more of these resources after the chance for our German teaching community to have collaborated further. Can it be that there are teachers out there who don’t yet know about Life Swap? If so, check out the videos here: https://www.goethe.de/ins/nz/en/kul/sup/lsw.html
Following a delicious lunch, also provided by the Goethe Institut, we returned to Goethe House to hear briefly from James Kaiser (NZQA) about writing, critiquing and marking NCEA external assessments.
The next full session was presented by Nicole Polke from Green Bay High School. Nicole shared the ‘Einbettung von Tikanga Maori Werten in den Deutschunterricht‘ at her school. As always, Nicole shared lots of ideas which we could implement. We had the opportunity to learn more about Māori tikanga and Māori Werte. Discussion time gave us a chance to compare these with German (and other) cultures. We also explored similarities between whakataukii and Sprichwörter.
Dancing and singing to ‘das Fliegerlied’ got us out of our seats before the next session by Antonie Alm on ChatGPT. As much as AI such as this can make some of us feel unsettled, Antonie gave us some interesting examples of how it can be a useful resource for a busy teacher. After listening to Antonie, I decided to be more open about the benefits of ChatGPT.
To finish off the first day of the conference, we were warmly received at the German Ambassador’s residence for dinner. It was special for the hard-working group of German teachers to be thanked by ambassador Nicole Menzenbach and her staff who hosted us for such a lovely occasion.
Sonntag 2 Juli – I loved hearing about Belinda Cooper’s recent experience in Freiburg as a recipient of a Goethe study scholarship. Belinda is a languages teacher at Sacred Heart Girls College, Hamilton, and I’m sure her students also enjoyed hearing about her experiences and viewing her photos with which they could discuss what was most noticeable to them. Belinda clearly got the most out of this awesome opportunity to experience the German culture and language and we congratulate her on passing the B2 level Deutsch Zertifikat at the end of her course!
From in person experiences to online ones. Diana Feick from the University of Auckland followed on with a workshop on virtual exchanges. I enjoyed discussing different types of virtual exchanges and how to best implement them. We also had some time to start designing an interactive virtual project for our individual teaching context. This presentation really inspired me to look out for more opportunities for my students to interact with other German speakers and learners digitally.
Alexandra Töniges (German National Language Advisor) presented with Frank Stoltenberg (Founder of Das Kiwi Handball Projekt) on the continuing Handball Projekt. This opened my eyes to just how successful and engaging this project has become around the country. Do consider going to the website https://www.kiwihandball.nz/ to view videos and resources and hear about how the Handball Facilitators could come to your school and get your students engaged with German and Handball!
Alexandra Töniges and Frank Stoltenberg from Das Kiwi Handball Projekt
Although we still had memories of the delicious food and drink from the previous night, we were once again invited to a special meal. This time we visited the Swiss Ambassador’s residence for lunch. Ambassador Viktor Vavricka and his household warmly shared Swiss food and drink with us to celebrate another diplomatic milestone. It is 60 years since a Swiss embassy was established in Aotearoa New Zealand!
At the conclusion of the conference, we had an update from the GANZ German Teachers Association before we said our farewells, until next time. On behalf of all the attendees, I’d like to thank the staff at the Goethe-Institut for all their hard work to arrange this very enjoyable and interesting conference and to all those who presented, for their willingness to share their expertise.
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Deutschlehrer*innen Konferenz by Goethe 2023
At the end of June I was looking forward to another jam-packed and inspiring German teachers conference at the 2023 Deutschlehrer*innen Konferenz held at the Goethe-Institut New Zealand and yet again did not disappoint!
Those arriving the evening before gathered on the last evening of Term 2 at the Karaka café in Wellington for a hāngi dinner. We met new faces and caught up with not so new faces over a delicious meal hosted by the Goethe-Institut.
Samstag 1. Juli – To celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations between Aotearoa New Zealand and Germany, Language Assistants Christina Dünisch and Greta Lassen shared activities they have offered in the schools they have been supporting. We chatted in German while making, appropriately, friendship bands. “Was sind Ihre Lieblingswörter?”
‘Brückenbau zwischen Kultur und Klima’ led on nicely from the earlier ‘Beziehungen’ theme. From Judith Geare and the atmospheric scientist Dave Lowe we heard about Dave‘s work on studying climate change and contributing as a lead author of a 2007 Intergovernmental Panel report. This led to him being a joint recipient of a Nobel prize. His touching and personal story of challenging times as a youngster and dropping out of high school to then turning to science after falling in love with surfing, and learning German so he could continue his important research at a German university was awe-inspiring. Dave now shares his story with school students, for which he is receiving great feedback. I for one am interested in getting a hold of his book The Alarmist: Fifty Years Measuring Climate Change to hear more about the life of this remarkable New Zealander.
After wiping away welled-up tears with admiration and cheering for Dave Lowe, we turned to the popular Life Swap series, and were thrilled to meet the creators William Connor and Steffen Kreft again. William gave us a draft resource to be used in the classroom alongside Episode 2 - The Tea Towel Stinks. We gave our feedback and look forward to receiving more of these resources after the chance for our German teaching community to have collaborated further. Can it be that there are teachers out there who don’t yet know about Life Swap? If so, check out the videos here: https://www.goethe.de/ins/nz/en/kul/sup/lsw.html
Following a delicious lunch, also provided by the Goethe Institut, we returned to Goethe House to hear briefly from James Kaiser (NZQA) about writing, critiquing and marking NCEA external assessments.
The next full session was presented by Nicole Polke from Green Bay High School. Nicole shared the ‘Einbettung von Tikanga Maori Werten in den Deutschunterricht‘ at her school. As always, Nicole shared lots of ideas which we could implement. We had the opportunity to learn more about Māori tikanga and Māori Werte. Discussion time gave us a chance to compare these with German (and other) cultures. We also explored similarities between whakataukii and Sprichwörter.
Dancing and singing to ‘das Fliegerlied’ got us out of our seats before the next session by Antonie Alm on ChatGPT. As much as AI such as this can make some of us feel unsettled, Antonie gave us some interesting examples of how it can be a useful resource for a busy teacher. After listening to Antonie, I decided to be more open about the benefits of ChatGPT.
To finish off the first day of the conference, we were warmly received at the German Ambassador’s residence for dinner. It was special for the hard-working group of German teachers to be thanked by ambassador Nicole Menzenbach and her staff who hosted us for such a lovely occasion.
Sonntag 2 Juli – I loved hearing about Belinda Cooper’s recent experience in Freiburg as a recipient of a Goethe study scholarship. Belinda is a languages teacher at Sacred Heart Girls College, Hamilton, and I’m sure her students also enjoyed hearing about her experiences and viewing her photos with which they could discuss what was most noticeable to them. Belinda clearly got the most out of this awesome opportunity to experience the German culture and language and we congratulate her on passing the B2 level Deutsch Zertifikat at the end of her course!
From in person experiences to online ones. Diana Feick from the University of Auckland followed on with a workshop on virtual exchanges. I enjoyed discussing different types of virtual exchanges and how to best implement them. We also had some time to start designing an interactive virtual project for our individual teaching context. This presentation really inspired me to look out for more opportunities for my students to interact with other German speakers and learners digitally.
Alexandra Töniges (German National Language Advisor) presented with Frank Stoltenberg (Founder of Das Kiwi Handball Projekt) on the continuing Handball Projekt. This opened my eyes to just how successful and engaging this project has become around the country. Do consider going to the website https://www.kiwihandball.nz/ to view videos and resources and hear about how the Handball Facilitators could come to your school and get your students engaged with German and Handball!
Alexandra Töniges and Frank Stoltenberg from Das Kiwi Handball Projekt
Although we still had memories of the delicious food and drink from the previous night, we were once again invited to a special meal. This time we visited the Swiss Ambassador’s residence for lunch. Ambassador Viktor Vavricka and his household warmly shared Swiss food and drink with us to celebrate another diplomatic milestone. It is 60 years since a Swiss embassy was established in Aotearoa New Zealand!
At the conclusion of the conference, we had an update from the GANZ German Teachers Association before we said our farewells, until next time. On behalf of all the attendees, I’d like to thank the staff at the Goethe-Institut for all their hard work to arrange this very enjoyable and interesting conference and to all those who presented, for their willingness to share their expertise.
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