Living in Germany and working in a school was something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, so after getting my degree in Education at Montana State University, I applied for the Language Assistant program through Fulbright and the Pädagogische Austauschdienst. I heard in June 2009 that I would be in Freiberg, Sachsen and my first thought was typical of someone who’s never been to Freiberg: “Freiburg! But that’s in Baden-Wurttemberg!” I had to look it up on a map to know where I was going.  

Freiberg and Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium are two places that I will never forget now! Spending two years here was an absolutely amazing experience. I really enjoyed working with all of the students and had a ton of fun with the classes that I saw regularly. I hope that the students that I met and worked with had just as much fun! I mainly worked with the upper classes, but had fun visiting lessons for the lower classes as well. I am super impressed by the amount of effort and work that the students at the school here but into their studies and what they have to do to graduate: In the US, taking 15 classes in a semester is unthinkable during High School… our brains begin to melt at 8 lessons!

But the students here do it every week, and they are still friendly and great to be around. In the lessons, we talked about a lot of different things, some examples: the 8th graders and I learned about the American High School and earthquake drills, the 10th graders and I worked on Business English and the 12th graders and I practiced, practiced, practiced for their oral end-of-year exams. In the afternoons, the kids in the Cambridge classes and I really hit it off – Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, we practiced grammar, studied vocabulary and laughed our way through the Cambridge books.  

I want to thank all of the teachers and students that I worked with while here at Scholl Gymnasium and my mentor/advisor, Mrs Monika Walther. It has been an amazing experience and I hope that I can have this much fun and learn this much with the students at my next school!   As I learned to say/sing here in Freiberg: “Glück auf! Glück auf!”   And as I would say at home: “Later, ‘gator! Thanks for having me!”

Living in Germany and working in a school was something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, so after getting my degree in Education at Montana State University, I applied for the Language Assistant program through Fulbright and the Pädagogische Austauschdienst. I heard in June 2009 that I would be in Freiberg, Sachsen and my first thought was typical of someone who’s never been to Freiberg: “Freiburg! But that’s in Baden-Wurttemberg!” I had to look it up on a map to know where I was going.   Freiberg and Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium are two places that I will never forget now! Spending two years here was an absolutely amazing experience. I really enjoyed working with all of the students and had a ton of fun with the classes that I saw regularly. I hope that the students that I met and worked with had just as much fun!

I mainly worked with the upper classes, but had fun visiting lessons for the lower classes as well. I am super impressed by the amount of effort and work that the students at the school here but into their studies and what they have to do to graduate: In the US, taking 15 classes in a semester is unthinkable during High School… our brains begin to melt at 8 lessons! But the students here do it every week, and they are still friendly and great to be around. In the lessons, we talked about a lot of different things, some examples: the 8th graders and I learned about the American High School and earthquake drills, the 10th graders and I worked on Business English and the 12th graders and I practiced, practiced, practiced for their oral end-of-year exams. In the afternoons, the kids in the Cambridge classes and I really hit it off – Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, we practiced grammar, studied vocabulary and laughed our way through the Cambridge books.  

I want to thank all of the teachers and students that I worked with while here at Scholl Gymnasium and my mentor/advisor, Mrs Monika Walther. It has been an amazing experience and I hope that I can have this much fun and learn this much with the students at my next school!   As I learned to say/sing here in Freiberg: “Glück auf! Glück auf!”   And as I would say at home: “Later, ‘gator! Thanks for having me!”