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SPRING MEETING AND WORKSHOP

APRIL 8, 2006

QUAKER VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL

The Western PA. Chapter of the AATG held its Spring Meeting and workshop at Quaker Valley High School on April 8^th, 2006 from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Our professional development workshop, “GDR Literature and Cross-Cultural Awareness”, was presented by Dr. Karina von Tippelskirch, head of the Language Program at the Deutsches Haus at New York University.  The workshop explored the literature of the former GDR as a means to learn about the history of the two German states as well as about cultural differences in general. 

Participants received hand-outs of the poems and a prose text which were discussed in the workshop. They were also given a certificate stating that 3.5 hours of professional development work was completed. 

From 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM, the secretary/treasurer Christina Hartmann held the registration and coffee and other refreshments were provided.  Immediately after, Dr. Christian Hallstein held the business meeting. 

 The agenda of the business meeting follows:

I.                    Belated but heartfelt congratulations to member Zsuzsa Horvath on winning a graduate student teaching award for 2005 from the University of Pittsburgh.

II.                 Our StADaF grant for 2007 was funded for $425 of the $500 which we requested.  The chapter will be able to cover the remaining $75. 

III.               Member Peg Grasso reported that there will be an Allegheny County In-Service Day for all teachers in the county on October 9^th, 2006.  She has submitted a proposal for a workshop entitled:  “Aligning the WPA-AATG German Competition to Curriculum and Standards”.  Peg sent out an email on our mailing list about the workshop.  She would like to invite everyone who attends German Day to collaborate with her on this workshop.  It would be a great forum for discussing strategies for the competition and ways to improve how we run the competition.  Those interested in attending may email Peg Grasso at Pgrasso@mtlsd.net or can call her at 412-344-2000.  The location of the workshop will be announced at a later date.  If you do not teach in Allegheny County, but would like to attend, contact your school’s administrator to see if this is possible. 

IV.              Dr. Anne Green showed us a copy of the new “Counselor’s Guide to German” pamphlet, which is published by the AATG and the Goethe Institut.  She also brought some for us to take.  If you would like more, ask Anne to send you some for your school.  They can also be ordered from the Goethe Institut website. 

V.                 Anne, who is our new National President, also announced that the national AATG website is being overhauled.  It should be done by the fall.  It will be easier to navigate, much like the ACTFL website. 

VI.              Dr. Chris Hallstein announced that the AATG Study Trip Awards have been cut back by half.  We had another winner from our chapter this year.  The winning student is Taylor Lescallette of Burgettstown High School, whose teacher is Mary Barliakos.  Congratulations go out to both of them.  This is the second year in a row in which one of Mary’s students has won.  We are doing well with getting winners from our chapter.  But national AATG wants us to look into funding the award ourselves, in order to guarantee that we get an award every year.  The applicant must be 16 before they go on the trip.  At least $2700 is needed to fund 1 student.  Chris asked if we should ask for donations.  He suggested that we pursue it if we already have connections to some local German companies.  Dr. Mike Shaughnessy reported that we have on our website a list of 70 German companies in the Pittsburgh area.  Member Colleen Richards knows people at Siemens, where she used to work.  Although they already have a science and math scholarship, she will ask her old boss about the possibility of supporting a German scholarship.  Zsuzsa Horvath has a student who works at Boss and another at Bayer.  It was noted that Bayer has so many in-house programs already.  If we could get 5 firms to donate $500 each, that would cover most of what we need.  We could cover the remainder.  Anne said that we would not have to do this every year.  She suggested mentioning to the companies the whole amount we need, which may lead to them donating more than $500 a piece.  We can offer to name the scholarship award after the company, so that they can have some PR for it.  Mike Shaughnessy offered to draw up a budget.  Anne suggested we have $3000 as our goal, which will allow the student a little spending money.  Mike suggested having the whole proposal done before approaching the companies.  He said he could make up a draft or work with someone else on it.  Colleen Richards, Zsuzsa Horvath and Mary Beth Zollars volunteered to help him.  He will pass on the draft to them and they can take it from there.  Colleen also suggested having our school’s German Clubs do fundraisers and give the proceeds for the scholarship.  Anne also mentioned that companies could sign up to give a donation for one year or more if they want.  We should keep it open-ended.  We will publicize it on our website.  (Companies will want to know how they can gain publicity for their donation.) 

VII.            Chris Hallstein, our chapter’s testing coordinator for the National AATG German Test, reported that we usually have a steady 14 schools in our area participating in the test.  He hopes that this will continue.  He will be sending out the awards/prizes to the high scoring students within 7-10 days.  He hopes that this will be before schools start having their awards ceremonies. 

VIII.         As this is the final meeting in Secretary/Treasurer Christina Hartmann’s term of office, President Chris Hallstein and Vice-President Amy Karst thanked Christina for her 4 years of service to the chapter and presented her with a gift from the officers and members.  The steering committee had previously nominated Cathy Altmeyer for the office of Secretary/Treasurer.  Chris asked if there were any other people who would like to be nominated for the position.  No one volunteered, so he asked for a vote to elect Cathy as our new Secretary/Treasurer.  The motion was seconded and the ensuing vote was unanimous.  Cathy Altmeyer will be our new Secretary/Treasurer, starting officially when the bank account is transferred into her name. 

IX.              The chapter’s Financial Report was presented by outgoing Treasurer Christina Hartmann.  Our starting balance (from the date of our last business meeting) was $2760.92 and our ending balance as of April 8^th, 2006 was $2321.12.  Athough we received a chapter project grant for $500 from national AATG and a donation from Bayer for $500 for German Day 2006, we had a problem with the student lunch tickets.   School districts ordered too many tickets and then did not pay for all of them, due to the fact that there are always some kids who end up not attending that day.  One school district ordered around 30 tickets, but when they signed in at the competition told us that they had packed their lunches instead.  The chapter took a loss of $558 for all of these tickets.  Mike Shaughnessy of Washington and Jefferson College, which hosted the competition, suggested selling souvenir t-shirts to students to help defray some of these costs.  We discussed possible designs for the t-shirts and that pre-selling them for $10 a piece would be enough to make some profit from them.  We would pre-sell the t-shirts by including an order form in the registration form for the competition.  The lunch tickets will now also be pre-paid at the time of registration.  This is the only way to ensure we do not take a loss again.  

X.                 Meeting adjourned and the workshop began. 

 Respectfully submitted by:

Christina Hartmann

Secretary/ Treasurer

Minutes for the WPA-AATG Fall Meeting
October 8th, 2005
Carnegie-Mellon University
Submitted by: Christina Hartmann, Secretary/Treasurer

A. Encouraging former members to rejoin
1. President Christian Hallstein reported that National Executive Director Helene Zimmer-Loew asked all chapters to help stop the attrition of members. According to the statistics for 2005, we lost 150 members since last year, a trend that has continued for the past 10 years.
2. Chris will send a mass-mail to everyone in membership categories (L) and (F) to ask them to rejoin. He will stress that they can receive Act 48 continuing education credits for attending our workshops.
3. Discussion on making personal phone calls to former members. It was suggested that we do it in layers; first, send letters, then call with an invitation to a get-together (social hour) . Chris will divide up the list of people so that we can all help with the calling.
4. Anne Green suggested that we make the second half of our Spring Meeting a “social mixer”. Discussion took place on having a separate event and if people would have the time to come to it. David Lane suggested the “MeetUp.com” German discussion group. Amy Karst suggested going to a wine and cheese jazz music event at Atria’s, which is the last Wednesday of every month. She can email us reminders and reserve a table for us.
5. Anne Green said that if people tell you during the phone call that they don’t want to join again, we should ask them why. It would be good for us to know.
6. Discussion on updating our email lists, so that we can best avoid spam and unwanted ads. Mike Shaughnessy from Washington and Jefferson College volunteered to help us with this.
7. Chris suggested that if any member knows of people who are not yet members, that we send him their email addresses and send them a letter. We can also remind them that membership dues are tax-deductible and that some school districts will even pay them for you.

B. ACTFL “Year of Languages” Projects in our chapter
1. Chris wanted to know if anyone has done any projects for it. Amy Karst’s students did a showcase for Open House. Mike Shaughnessy is having Jochen Richter come to W&J on Tuesday, Oct. 11th at 5:00 PM. Dr. Harris-Schenz of the University of Pittsburgh had a panel discussion about how professional people in the community use foreign languages in their careers.
2. Chris Hallstein asked members to email him with your YOL ideas and he will send it on to national as a group response for our chapter.
3. Anne Green asked for help in judging the posters for the YOL poster contest. She will send out prizes locally. Anne will judge the grand prize, which will hopefully be a free language course at the Goethe Institut for the winning student.

C. Chapter Presidents Meeting in Baltimore
1. Chris wanted to know if we have any concerns so that he can pass it on and have it put on the agenda for discussion.
2. The elimination of German programs in our area was mentioned as a concern.
3. It was noted that when German teachers retire, schools often shut down the program entirely, rather than hire a new teacher. Or they hire teachers straight out of college and ignore the older candidates.
4. It was asked if Pennsylvania should have a two-year foreign language requirement for graduation. Some noted that colleges have stopped checking for two years of language study and students seem to get into college without it quite easily.
5. It was noted that if your subject is not important to the PSSA test, the state and school districts don’t care.
6. Discussion on passing the state standards for foreign languages in PA. We are probably 1 among 3 states which do not have state standards passed for foreign languages. The state seems unwilling to change the situation.
7. Discussion on what makes German less important than other languages. Is it because of politics and the Germans’ stance on the Iraq War?
8. Discussion on how school districts find ways of getting around the state mandate that they must offer at least 2 foreign languages.
9. It was suggested that members buy/download the “Pro Deutsch” materials from AATG/Goethe Institut to help give them ideas on how to retain German programs.
10. Anne reminded everyone that Bob Chaney is receiving the Certificate of Merit at the ACTFL conference this year in Baltimore and asked for members to go and support him. Carpooling can be arranged.

D. Chapter Projects
1. We are turning in a project for German Day again. Peg Grasso volunteered again to do the paperwork. Anne Green, who will be the new National President next year, will be deciding on the proposals.
2. We can submit up to 3 proposals. A “Wald-Wochenende” for teachers was suggested, but Anne said the AATG would favor ideas which involve students, not just teachers.

E. German Diplomat Hans Arnold speech
1. Chris Hallstein announced the upcoming speech to be held at CMU on October 17th, 2005.
2. The speech is titled: “Europe and the U.S.: Where Do We Go From Here?”.

F. Encouraging participation in the National German Test.
1. Chris would like to see more schools participate. We will include an additional letter in the mass mailing on the German Test.
2. Chris mentioned that we are no longer guaranteed to have a winner from our chapter.
3. Christina Hartmann asked Mary Barliakos, whose student won the study trip last year, to tell us about his experience. Mary said that her student had the experience of a lifetime and is much more confident now.

G. Hurricane Katrina relief assistance
1. Executive Director Helene Zimmer-Loew sent a letter to the chapter presidents asking if local chapters could pledge money to support fellow AATG members affected by the hurricane. This would include providing books and materials for these teachers.
2. Anne Green suggested we match the Alaska chapter and sponsor at least 2 people. Motion passed to sponsor 3 colleagues. Treasurer Christina Hartmann will send the check for $150 to national.

H. Endowed Scholarship Fund for High School Students
1. Interested students can apply online at aatg.org.
2. Chris included copies of student participants’ letters about their experiences during their stay in Germany.
3. Members are encouraged to make donations every year to the Endowed Scholarship Fund.

I. Steering Committee Meeting
1. The next steering committee meeting will take place on January 7th, 2006 at CMU.
2. It is open for all members who want to come. Contact Chris Hallstein at hallstein@cmu.edu if you want to get on the email list for steering committee meeting reminders. Just show up and enjoy the food and refreshments!

I. Announcements
1. German Day 2006 will take place on Thursday, March 9th, 2006 at Washington and Jefferson College. Mark your calendars! Look for the poems and writing topics on the chapter website very soon. Anne Green is also making changes to the Culture Bowl competition, which will be listed on the website.
2. The WPA-AATG Spring Meeting and Workshop will take place on Saturday, April 8th, 2006. Author Katrina von Tippelskirch will speak about DDR-Literatur. The location will be announced.

Liebe KollegInnen!

We hope that you all have had a restful summer vacation and feel energized to start the school year. This is the perfect time for all of us to breathe some new life into our teaching methods and German programs. For this reason, the Western Pa. AATG has planned a very special workshop for our Fall Meeting.

The focus of the workshop is grammar! In particular, how to make the teaching of grammar more effective, less painful and more fun for both us and our students. The meeting will take place on October 8th, 2005 at Carnegie-Mellon University. Chapter President Professor Christian Hallstein will host the event.

In our Grammar Forum, we will offer all participants a chance to share a unique grammar idea or fun technique with their colleagues. All of the ideas presented will be photocopied and organized in a neat binder for you to take home and use in your own classroom. If you feel like you never get the chance to meet with your fellow German teachers to share your ideas and concerns, this is the workshop you absolutely must attend! By sharing our ideas and teaching methods, we hope that all of our German programs will become stronger. The more creative our teaching becomes, the more students we will attract to taking German. For those students we already have, we realize that German grammar can be quite daunting. If we can make it easier for them to learn, they will want to continue their study of German into the upper levels. In addition, by teaching grammar in a more exciting way, we as teachers will also find it less tedious and more gratifying. We assure you that no matter what level German you teach, you will definitely learn something useful and practical at this workshop. You can also fulfill 5 hours of Act 48 continuing education credits required of all public school teachers. The PSMLA has generously agreed to make us a “subcontractor” and thus certify our meetings for Act 48 credits.

If you would like to present an idea or technique in the Grammar Forum, we offer you the added incentive of a reduced workshop fee ($15.00 instead of $20.00 for AATG members, $35.00 instead of $40.00 for non-members, which also includes a one year membership in AATG). We simply ask that you submit your idea to Christina Hartmann, Secretary/Treasurer of the chapter, in advance, so that she may compile all of the materials into binders for each participant. You may send a hard copy by mail to the address provided in this letter or if you prefer, an e-mail (with a Word attachment, if necessary). The presentations will be given in English, with examples given in German. Presentations need only be about 5 minutes long (or less). The more ideas we can share, the better! Some ideas we would like to include are: teaching grammar through songs, rhymes, games, stories, poems, etc.

The schedule for the day is as follows:

9:00 – 9:30 Registration, coffee and donuts

9:30 – 10:00 Business Meeting

10:00 – 12:00 Grammar Forum Workshop

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch—provided by the chapter (vegetarian items available)

1:00 – 3:00 Continuation of Grammar Forum

To register for the workshop, please send your name and address with your payment to Christina Hartmann at the address provided. Or, if you prefer, you may register by e-mail at: chrissy_hartmann@yahoo.com and make your payment at the workshop. The deadline for registration and submission of ideas for a presentation is September 30th, 2005.

Sincerely yours,

Christina Hartmann
1220 Royal Dr. Apt. 267
South Park PA 15129

Western PA AATG Spring Meeting 2005 Minutes
April 9, 2005
Canon-McMillan High School

Written by: Christina Hartmann and Ingeborg O’Mahony

Business Meeting:

1. Testing Report: Our testing coordinator Christian Hallstein reported that this year there were roughly the same amount of test-takers in our chapter as last year, however, there was a sharp drop in the number of students applying for the study trip. Other members commented that it seems like students have so many things they do in the summer that they have difficulty finding the time to take the study trip.
2. German Day Summary: Peg Grasso, our organizer of the event, said that it was a great competition this year. Since there was one complaint about the enforcing of the rules for the music category, it was agreed that next year the judges would strictly enforce all rules. In addition, the officers will continue to refine some of the details of the various competitions, in particular, the Culture Bowl. Anne Green, who is the judge of this event, has some ideas about how to change it so that students will have to know much more than what is printed on the question list. No changes have been finalized at this point.
3. Year of Languages Poster Contest: Ingeborg O’Mahony distributed the information on the contest to all participants. We would like to encourage teachers to get their students involved. Posters are to be submitted by June 30th, 2005 to Anne Green. There are three levels for the theme: elementary, middle/junior high and high school. The AATG would eventually like to use the winning designs for publicity on t-shirts, bags, etc. Anne Green said that she hopes we will be able to offer a number of different prizes, possibly including a grand prize of a summer camp scholarship at Concordia Language Villages.
4. ACTFL 2005 Convention in Baltimore: we hope that many of our chapter members will atttend, considering that the distance to travel is not so great. Members were reminded to book their hotels early if they are going to go.
5. Treasurer’s Report: Christina Hartmann reported that our current balance is $2625.99 and that we are in good financial standing. The treasurer’s report was submitted to new President Christian Hallstein. It was suggested that in the future, the chapter will help offset the cost of membership in AATG to new members, by paying for most of the fee for them. We hope that this will help us gain more new members.
6. Fall Meeting 2005: The Steering Committee decided that the topic of our next workshop will be a grammar forum, where participants will bring their ideas about how to make the teaching of grammar less painful and more fun for students. We will give teachers who submit their ideas the incentive of paying only $15 instead of the usual $20 for the workshop fee. For non-members, the fee would be reduced to $35 from $40. Teachers who present at the workshop must bring 25 copies of their idea and we will provide folders for the participants to store them in. On the invitation letter, we will stress that the workshop will be held in English and that there will also be a door prize. We would also like to include a mission statement about our chapter and organization. The Fall Meeting and Workshop will be held on October 8th, 2005 at Carnegie Mellon University, with President Chris Hallstein hosting.
7. Announcement from Chris Hallstein: about a performance called “Cut Faust!” being held at CMU from April 19th –21st , 2005. For more information, email Chris. It was also announced by Chris that Dr. Anne Green has received the Elliot Dunlap Smith Award for teaching excellence at CMU, which is a great honor for her. Our congratulations to her!
8. Announcement from Peg Grasso: about the Goethe Institut’s National Award of Excellence, which is a contest schools can win for publicizing the benefits of learning German. Your school receives a short video to show students, then, after viewing, the students take a short quiz. The more entries a school has, the better its chances of winning a study trip to Germany for one of their students. Contact Uwe Rau at the Goethe Institut in New York to get on the mailing list and for more information.
9. Election of WPA AATG Vice-President: Amy Karst expressed interest in running and won a unanimous vote to become our new vice-president.
10. Final Announcements from outgoing President Ingeborg O’Mahony: She expressed her thanks and gratitude to her fellow officers for their help and support during her presidency. Thanks also went out to: Jo Sanders for the outstanding presentation she gave, Christina Hartmann for hosting the meeting, Michael Shaughnessy for his unwavering support and hosting German Day 2004 and 2005 at Washington and Jefferson College, Peg Grasso for organizing German Day every year, Chris Hallstein for his support with meetings and for the chapter in general and to Anne Green, for her neverending support and advocacy for our chapter both behind the scenes locally and on the national level.
11. Changing of the Guard: Chris Hallstein began his term as President of the chapter.
 

A special thanks from Ingeborg O'Mahony.

Dear Colleagues,

For those of you who were unable to attend the presenation by Jo Sanders this past Saturday, we had a great session with her, and all of us came away with so much in the way of spirit and information. During our Business Meeting, Amy Karst, from Quaker Valley High School, was elected our new chapter Vice President, and Christian Hallstein of CMU became our Chapter President, and I know he will do a great job. Christina Hartmann remains in our service for another year as our fearless Secretary/Treasurer.

We spoke about German Day and its success, and we are continuing to refine some of the details of the various competitions. We also would like to remind all that ACTFL 2005 is in Baltimore, so we hope that as many people as possible can attend the convention. We also spoke about the Goethe National Award of Excellence, which is a very "winnable" award for all of us. If you want more information, contact Uwe Rau at the Goethe Institut in New York.

We would also like to congratulate Anne Green for having won the Elliot Dunlap Smith Award for teaching excellence at CMU, which is a great honor for her.

We also want to remind everyone that we still have the Year of Languages Poster Contest. Posters are to be submitted by June 30, 2005 to Anne Green. The various levels for the Theme: Why Learn German? are Elementary (K - 5 or 6), Middle School/Jr. High (6 or 7 - 9 or 9), and High School (9 or 10 - 12).

Our Fall Meeting is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 8, 2005. If this date doesn't work or there is a major conflict, let me or Christian Hallstein know.

Finally, I would like to extend my e-thanks to the following people:

1. To Jo Sanders for an outstanding, entertaining, and informative session. We loved having you here, and you are welcome any time.

2. To Christina Hartmann for being a great Secretary/Treasurer and for offering her school as a hosting site for the Spring Meeting.

3. To Michael Shaughnessy for his unwavering support and hosting of German Days 2004 and 2005. We truly appreciate his help.

4. To Peg Grasso for unending energy and efforts in organizing German Day every single year. What a great job!

5. To Christian Hallstein for his sustained support with meetings and the chapter in general. We also loved your Kuchen - Thank You!!!

6. Finally, my utmost thanks to Anne Green for her neverending support behind the scenes. She has done so many things, they are too numerous to mention in this email. Her strength and support of this chapter and of all of us (now nationwide) are unmeasurable.

The topic of our Fall Meeting will be grammar, and we will all be bringing ideas to the meeting, as to how to make the teaching of grammar less painful and much more fun. Furthermore, our presentations will be in English. We hope to see all of there in October.

Again, my deepest thanks,

Ingeborg

Ingeborg A. O'Mahony
Senior School German Teacher
Sewickley Academy
315 Academy Avenue
Sewickley, PA 15154
412-741-2230