Zayd, one of our Arabic teachers, enjoys his time at Skogfjorden.
Today the participants of the Teacher Seminars course were able to spend a few hours amongst the staff and Villagers of several of the Language Villages: French, Spanish, German, Norwegian, and Russian. The teachers were able to witness, for themselves, many of the the goals and guiding principles of the Language Villages, and were also charged with the task of trying to identify how the Language Villages were able to incorporate the “5 C’s” National Standards: Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities, into their daily life. Through our debriefing exercises, a multitude of examples were shared amongst the group. Furthermore, the teachers captured many specific examples in their journals later that night. The Language Villages, we agreed, are a perfect venue for teaching and learning the language and culture, while incorporating all of the National Standards in a variety of meaningful ways. Having seen how this works in the Villages, teachers are now tasked with “thinking outside of the box” and come up with similar ways to naturally incorporate the “5 C’s” into their daily teaching in their classrooms or teaching environments.
Our day ended with a special visit with Christine Schulze, CEO of Concordia Language Villages, and Vice President for International Development of Concordia College. Christine shared with the group a historical overview of the Language Villages as well as future plans for growth and expansion. The teachers enjoyed this opportunity to speak with Christine and found the question and answer portion of the visit very worthwhile.
“Today was such a wonderful experience. I still feel energized by all the counselors I met at Waldsee this morning. I was able to get some great clips of two counselors teaching songs and a fairy tale to a multi-aged group of children. Their high level of energy, enthusiasm, and creativity amazed me and my German colleagues. This is how every teacher should conduct his/her class.” - Dawn, high school German teacher from Virginia
