German
Section 6
Professional
Development and Support (post graduation)
During the past three years, one of our German faculty at Eastern Michigan University, Klaus Tappe, was first vice-president
and the president of the Michigan chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German (until January 1, 2002).
In that capacity, Klaus Tappe had (and still has) very close contact with Michigan's K-12 German Teachers due to the
many preparation workshops (training the trainers - where German teachers are trained to train fellow teachers).
He also organized a workshop/discussion/plant tour at the new Daimler-Chrysler engine plant in Detroit which was
attended by many HS German teachers. Klaus Tappe is relentlessly working to bring people from German American
companies and Michigan German teachers from High Schools and colleges together to explore internship opportunities
for our students, company visits, and other forms of corporation. Carla Damiano, Margrit Zinggeler, and Klaus Tappe
have participated in the spring workshops of the MI-AATG which always bring together college instructors with HS
German teachers. For documentation of Klaus Tappe, please see the website:http://www.goethe.de/uk/chi/netz10/netz1058.htm
John
Hubbard and Margrit Zinggeler are very active visiting German classes
in area High Schools. They are either invited for special events, like career
days or world language information events or they actively seek the opportunity
through contacts with German teachers. We have thereby developed many informal
ways of keeping in touch with former students who are now high school teachers
for recruiting new students for our programs.
All
four German instructors at Eastern Michigan University participate
every year at the Michigan Foreign Language Teacher Association Convention,
where they have established personal relationships with HS teachers.
At
this time, we do not have a well-defined professional development program with
our former German students who have become German teachers.
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