French 2 - L'Univers du fromage

On Saturday, December 1st the French 2 students in both sections were subject to a very special treat. Mr. Tom Barry, the father of one of my students provided us with a sampling of French cheeses.
This visit was not all about getting as much food as we wanted and eating it as fast as we could. We learned about how to experience cheese, how to smell, touch and taste this perishable and ever changing product. We learned about differences in "bouquet" (a fancy way of saying smell or scent), texture and flavor of cheeses, where in France they are produced and what the names mean. The students are working now in groups on providing information about the cheeses they liked (in French) and describing the flavor etc. The results are posted in our class wikis, which are collaboratively created webpages.
Mr. Barry's work requires him to negotiate frequently with French native speakers, and he was quick to point out that knowing the language and pronunciation is very beneficial in his line of work as it facilitates the negotiations and business contact.
At the end, Mr.Barry told the students how impressed he was with their eagerness to try new things and keep an open mind when the smell or texture of a cheese was at first not really to their liking. The pictures in the slide show capture some of this experience.
We appreciate it very much that Mr. Barry gave up a good portion of his Saturday morning to provide us with a delicious treat. We would like to thank him for his generosity and willingness to educate us.

Deutsch 3 - "Oktoberfest" in November

On November 9, we took advantage of the generous invitation to the Barsan family home to prepare a German class dinner together. We called it "Oktoberfest" although it was already November. The students participated in every aspect of the work and enjoyed working together in the kitchen. We made a potato salad (Kartoffelsalat) and grilled Bratwurst, we had a wonderful seasonal salad with greens, tangerines and roasted pumpkin seeds. Adam brought fresh "Laugenbrezel" from a local German bakery. As a side dish we served homemade apple sauce (Apfelmus) and for desert we had made an "Apfelstrudel" from scratch. We drank "Apfelsaftschorle", which is mixing apple juice and Seltzer water to create a carbonated apple drink. For dinner, we were joined by Dr. and Mrs. Barsan and my wife and children. Max was a very diligent helper in preparing the salad and setting the table. Dr. Barsan manned the grill and took care of the German background music. The evening was quite a success and I was impressed by the students' interest in cooking and their diligence and participation in every aspect of the preparation. We created a wonderful meal all 13 of us enjoyed the delicious food and good company. We can't thank the Barsans enough for providing us with this wonderful opportunity.

Studying Languages at WRA

Let me begin with a short statement about Foreign Language Instruction (FLI) at WRA:
We teach all four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. We use the target language as much as possible beginning in level 1. It is our goal to enrich the experience of every student by exposing them to the culture, history, geography and civilization of the countries whose language they are studying. We enhance our teaching through activities and technology and empower our students to share their learning with others.

In this blog you will find on the right a number of slide shows and links that pertain to various activities and in- and outside the classroom and some of our class wikis.

I hope that everyone who reads these pages will find them enjoyable and interesting enough to visit them more than once. I invite all readers to send me emails with questions, suggestions and comments.