I moved to Germany as an au pair 18 years ago and fell in love with the people, culture, and the language. I am still in close contact with my au pair family. They attended my wedding in England a few years ago and two of the friends I made in Germany at that time were my bridesmaids. After coming back to America, I wanted to find ways to keep Germany close and began learning the language more in depth through youtube videos. I learned that there was a German Immersion Program in our area as my daughter was approaching school age and decided that I needed to get her a place at the school at all costs. She is now in 8th grade and loves the language and is planning to attend university in Germany. I volunteered at West as much as I could when she was in first grade so that I could be around the language. The next school year, I was asked to volunteer in the fourth grade German class as the teacher’s visa had been delayed. After two weeks, I decided I wanted to retrain to be a teacher. I spent that year as a substitute teacher and picked up every German-speaking job available. I was then offered a full-time position as an English teacher in a traditional classroom at West and was able to help my traditional students integrate more into the cultural activities and several of my students decided to join the German program the next year. At that time, traditional classes were moved out of the school building and the first grade German teacher moved back to Germany. The principal asked me to take the German OPI so that I could be the new German 1st grade teacher. I am now in my 5th year as the first grade German teacher and have been the German Co-lead and then Lead teacher for three years. I love the DLI program and the opportunities that it provides for our students and I feel so blessed to be able to earn a living by speaking my favorite language everyday and sharing it with others.

Cornelsen Unterrichtsmaterialien zum Tag der Deutschen Einheit

Bei Esther und Socke geht es stets turbulent zu. Das hat einen Grund: Socke ist frech, rot und sehr dickköpfig. Und – wie der Name schon sagt – eine Socke.

Gemeinsam mit Esther lernt die Handpuppe Socke nicht nur die Welt kennen, sondern auch die deutsche Sprache. Weil Socke ganz gerne mal Quatsch macht, muss Esther dem roten Wesen alles ganz genau erklären. Und zwar in aller Ruhe und mit viel Geduld. Die Clipreihe “Deutsch mit Socke“ ermöglicht Kindern im Grundschulalter mit wenig oder keinen Deutsch-Kenntnissen einen spielerischen Zugang zur deutschen Sprache. Zahlreiche Situationen schaffen vielfältige Redeanlässe: So geht es zum Beispiel ums Briefeschreiben und Einkaufen, aber auch um Themen wie die eigene Herkunft und den Gemütszustand. Dank Socke haben die jungen Zuschauer dabei viel zu lachen. Gleichzeitig lernen sie, dass es verschiedene Wege gibt, um sich verständlich zu machen.

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