Pres. Nelson's Atonement quotation

[rongo]

16 hours ago, Calm said:

Rongo, you teach German right?  Students who are learning another language at that age and doing it by choice as would be for German students would tend to have greater comprehension and likely enjoy looking at things less superficially.  It must be fun to work with them.

It's an absolute blast! It isn't fair, really, because I benefit from massive self-selection advantages. The kids who choose German are high-functioning, motivated, nice kids. I still have to cover for other teachers on my prep hour, sometimes, and I'm glad I don't have their kids . . .  

I've paid my dues. I've taught English (grades 7-12), high school biology, and middle school science for 14 years. Every time I'm encouraged to get my masters degree and go into administration, I say, "No way!" I'm riding this wave into retirement. I told my wife the other day that I'm going to be sad when summer comes. I really look forward to teaching my classes every day.

This is the first year the high school has offered it (I certified in German last year to move over to the high school, by invitation), so we're building the program. Next year, I'll have both German 1 and German 2, with no prep hour (and an extra $6000 per year stipend).  

Here's a picture of our trip to the ASU foreign language competition, which was a lot of fun: 

I'm in the white shirt, and my son is to my left in the red shirt (Austrian FIFA shirt, from our friend from Vienna). He took first place at the competition for 1st year German students. 

[Garden Girl]

On 4/4/2017 at 8:43 AM, rongo said:

It's an absolute blast! It isn't fair, really, because I benefit from massive self-selection advantages. The kids who choose German are high-functioning, motivated, nice kids. I still have to cover for other teachers on my prep hour, sometimes, and I'm glad I don't have their kids . . .  

I've paid my dues. I've taught English (grades 7-12), high school biology, and middle school science for 14 years. Every time I'm encouraged to get my masters degree and go into administration, I say, "No way!" I'm riding this wave into retirement. I told my wife the other day that I'm going to be sad when summer comes. I really look forward to teaching my classes every day.

This is the first year the high school has offered it (I certified in German last year to move over to the high school, by invitation), so we're building the program. Next year, I'll have both German 1 and German 2, with no prep hour (and an extra $6000 per year stipend).  

Here's a picture of our trip to the ASU foreign language competition, which was a lot of fun: 

I'm in the white shirt, and my son is to my left in the red shirt (Austrian FIFA shirt, from our friend from Vienna). He took first place at the competition for 1st year German students. 

rongo... I absolutely love being able to put a face with your name... 

GG

[Okrahomer]

On 4/4/2017 at 9:43 AM, rongo said:

It's an absolute blast! It isn't fair, really, because I benefit from massive self-selection advantages. The kids who choose German are high-functioning, motivated, nice kids. I still have to cover for other teachers on my prep hour, sometimes, and I'm glad I don't have their kids . . .  

I've paid my dues. I've taught English (grades 7-12), high school biology, and middle school science for 14 years. Every time I'm encouraged to get my masters degree and go into administration, I say, "No way!" I'm riding this wave into retirement. I told my wife the other day that I'm going to be sad when summer comes. I really look forward to teaching my classes every day.

This is the first year the high school has offered it (I certified in German last year to move over to the high school, by invitation), so we're building the program. Next year, I'll have both German 1 and German 2, with no prep hour (and an extra $6000 per year stipend).  

Here's a picture of our trip to the ASU foreign language competition, which was a lot of fun: 

I'm in the white shirt, and my son is to my left in the red shirt (Austrian FIFA shirt, from our friend from Vienna). He took first place at the competition for 1st year German students. 

Did you serve in Ostfriesland by chance?  I just noticed:  moin, moin!  

Edited April 6, 2017 by Okrahomer

[rongo]

11 hours ago, Okrahomer said:

Did you serve in Ostfriesland by chance?  I just noticed:  moin, moin!  

No, but I've been to Emden and Leer (they were both in my mission and I was over that Zone when I was in Oldenburg.

Next year, German 2 will look at texts and audio/visual of dialects: Platt, Bavarian, Austrian, Swiss, Saxon, etc. It's crazy how widely the German dialects vary, compared to English. 

Have you heard of Otto, the ostfriesischer comedian? He's famous in Germany. 

My first area was in Schleswig-Holstein, which was the only "moin, moin!" area I was in. 

[HappyJackWagon]

15 hours ago, Garden Girl said:

rongo... I absolutely love being able to put a face with your name... 

GG

One of the fun traditions on the old NOM Board was that on Halloween posters would change their profile picture to show who they really were. It was always fun to put names and faces together. Of course many didn't feel comfortable doing that out of fear someone would recognize them and turn them into leaders or something, but it's nice to realize that posters are real people.

[Okrahomer]

On 4/6/2017 at 8:00 AM, rongo said:

No, but I've been to Emden and Leer (they were both in my mission and I was over that Zone when I was in Oldenburg.

Next year, German 2 will look at texts and audio/visual of dialects: Platt, Bavarian, Austrian, Swiss, Saxon, etc. It's crazy how widely the German dialects vary, compared to English. 

Have you heard of Otto, the ostfriesischer comedian? He's famous in Germany. 

My first area was in Schleswig-Holstein, which was the only "moin, moin!" area I was in. 

I was in Lubeck for 8 months and in Kiel for 6--so, Schleswig-Holstein for "most" of my mission.  I was in Leer/Emden for 4 months.  

My Mission President actually pulled an Otto der Ostfirieser Witz on me during a meeting once:  I was dubbed "Ostfrieser of the year!" 

My wife and I have very good friends who live in Bremen.  They both grew up near Oldenburg.  She is a physician, and he is (or was) a university professor at the University of Hamburg.  They were planning to come to see the eclipse this summer, but that was before I was diagnosed with cancer.  The plan now is to meet them in Hawaii to celebrate my recovery.

i do love Germany and its people.  I wish more of them were more spiritual and less materialistic.  But I wish that for a lot of folks now days.