SHS German: Broadening student, classroom horizons over the ICN

When Spencer school board members slashed approximately $1.1 million from the 2008-09 school year budget, they introduced a new manner of instruction for Spencer students. The long-distance alternative has been received very well, in turn, by Spencer High School (SHS) students and staff alike.

The school district's German language program, which formerly began with an eighth-grade exploratory class and advanced through a student's senior year if they so elected, had been on the chopping block before. Instead of paying DiAnne Fikkert, the former German instructor, to teach half-time at the high-school level only, district officials opted to continue the program through an alternative source. Freshmen through seniors now learn German via the statewide fiber optics network, also known as the Iowa Communications Network (ICN).

"They (HLV Community School) charge us based upon the instructor's salary and how many kids she's serving," Spencer Superintendent Greg Ebeling explained. "...It looks like it's going to be about $14,000 to do it through the ICN this year. That's opposed to having a half-time instructor at about $34,000. So, obviously, it's a cost savings for the district overall."

"Lots of small high schools, a lot smaller than ours, use their ICN more extensively just because that's their best way to get classes -- especially for classes that they might not have a lot of kids enrolled in, but, yet, they still want to try to offer them to their students. So for us, that became a viable option because it (the ICN room at SHS) wasn't being used for anything else on a daily basis," Ebeling added.

"To this point, I'm happy with the way things are going," Principal Joe Mueting said of the German 1 through German 4 classes currently being taught at SHS. "...Our upper-level students have accelerated beyond where their counterparts are in the other schools, but that will balance out here shortly. We've only been in it for four weeks. We started late in the year, so things haven't truly ironed themselves out yet. But for the most part, the students I've talked to are very pleased with the way things are going. It's better than what they expected. ... We're not in it far enough to determine the complete successes of this program, but I've got confidence that it will run very well from here on out."

At the high school level last school year, eight students were enrolled in German 1. The German 2 class had nine pupils. German 3 had 12 students and German 4 had three SHS youth enrolled.

This year, 36 students are taking one of the four German classes offered via the ICN. In addition to the 24 in German 1, there are five students taking German 2, four in German 3, and three enrolled in German 4.

Joel Glover, Abby Bedore, Emily Woodrow and Lindsey Tomlinson are the four taking the German 3 class. Seated in the ICN classroom at SHS Thursday afternoon, all four ranked the new delivery system with two thumbs up or as being "really good."

While they admitted feeling nervous the first week in their new classroom setting, Glover competently assured, "We know what to expect now."

With microphones situated on tables in front of seated students, the high school's ICN room allows teenagers and Monica Johannsen, their classroom proctor, to not only communicate with teacher Kathy Fredericks, who is located in a Vinton ICN classroom, but to also interact with six student peers in Victor, Marshalltown and Marengo schools via a high-speed Internet connection and full-motion video. All four of the SHS German 3 students admit it took a while to get used to the microphones: While being able to watch the instructor or students in other ICN classrooms, a speaker will hear him- or herself with a two-second delay.

A few other issues have also been addressed in the Spencer ICN classroom. The room's fax machine and a television, for example, were repaired. Students and staff have also worked through scheduling issues.

"No two schools have identical schedules. So they may have to leave five minutes early or come five minutes late because of the class schedule that we have. But we've tried to arrange student schedules so that maybe a less-demanding class is prior to or just after," Mueting said.

Other than community inservices and a few Iowa Lakes Community College meetings, these German classes mark the first that SHS students have had in the ICN room. They occupy the room from 10 a.m. until 2:40 p.m.

They're also allowed to use the building's ICN classroom in the evenings if they need additional help, Johannsen said.

High school graduates entering college are required to have two years of a foreign language. For those planning to pursue such studies during their collegiate years, four years of a foreign language are recommended.

When asked to quantify the relevance of the German language being taught, Spencer's superintendent said, "Any language is beneficial to kids. As far as which one is being spoken the most in the United States, it's not German. While German was a big language when Germany was more of a world power, that's no longer the case. It's no longer the economic power it used to be. Therefore, there's not as much German being spoken."

"Obviously, the question mark of the future is: Who's going to become a world power and who are we going to have to communicate with more," Ebeling continued. "While it's probably China, that doesn't mean everybody should go out and start speaking Chinese. But at the same time, it's something I think we're going to be faced with and need to consider."

The four German 3 students at SHS, on the other hand, indicated they like having the option of taking a language other than Spanish.

"If I had a choice, I'd seriously take Russian, Italian and French with German," Glover said.

Bedore, who said she hasn't yet decided on a college major, indicated she does plan to study German in college.

"I think if you have any background in another language, it will be useful in whatever you do," she said.

"It expounds your English abilities also," added Glover to his German 3 peers' agreement.

The four SHS German students, meanwhile, have created their own family of sorts. As they laughed about inside jokes focused on misinterpretations and mispronunciations, Tomlinson acknowledged they know each other's weaknesses and strengths in learning.

"We learned that teamwork from having Mrs. Fikkert in the room. The foundation she gave us is allowing us to be able to succeed with the ICN, I think," Bedore said.

"The focus of this class is a little different than the one we had," she continued. "Mrs. Fikkert focused a lot more on the language, the grammar and the usage. Frau Fredericks likes to add in the geography, culture and people from German-speaking countries. Mrs. Fikkert did that too, but it's more in all parts with Frau Fredericks. I think that's why we're a lot further ahead in the language than the other schools. Where it's review for us right now, some of the other schools are just learning it. So, we'll just have to wait a little bit longer to learn more and expand what we already know."

Of their five classmates who opted to not continue their German-language studies and take German 3 this year, Glover reported one male "refused to take German over ICN because the ICN thing just didn't work out for him."

"I think it depends on your own individual learning style," Bedore said. "But, you also have to be open to the idea."

Of their former German instructor, Tomlinson added, "I would have wanted her to have been here another year. But, for this being Plan B, it has worked out excellent."

"It's working out really well," Woodrow said. "...If you are thinking about taking an ICN class -- whether it's German or whatever -- don't be frightened. It's a good way to learn. ... This might be what our schools could end up being. It's a good balance between having someone in the room and learning from someone else who's not with you. Because we learn from each other just as much. We like interacting with the other schools."

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From the classroom proctor's perspective

Serving as a proctor for German classes being taught in Spencer High School via the ICN has been an eye-opening experience for Monica Johannsen.

It's also added to her language repertoire.

In this role, the SHS teacher associate makes sure students have all the materials they need, which complement the new "Deutsch Aktuell" textbooks they have. Johannsen is also charged with making copies of workbook assignments and tests from a kit provided by the class instructor.

"I have to make sure that all the students are on task, paying attention and copying notes. If they seem to be struggling with her directions, (I'm responsible for) letting her know that," Johannsen said. "The older kids are real good with the microphones. Some of the German 1 kids have gotten much better, but they were a little hesitant to use those at first."

After collecting student assignments, Johannsen either faxes or mails them to Kathy Fredericks, who then grades them, in Vinton.

"I'm just glad that the kids were offered an alternative that they could continue learning their German. It has been wonderful to see, especially with the (German 3) group, the interaction between the schools," Johannsen said. "...It has been a very positive experience. The kids have really adjusted well going from a classroom teacher to the ICN. I'm hearing very positive comments from them. The German 4 students have been talking to Frau Fredericks about some of the things they've done and some of the things they thought they were going to be doing this year. She's implemented some of those things into her lessons."

Johannsen smiled as she then relayed, "I'm picking up a little German along the way, too. I'm learning to count beyond seven!"

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Spencer's German instructor based in a Vinton ICN room

Kathy Fredericks, the German teacher based in HLV High School in Victor, grew up on a farm between Victor and Belle Plaine. She describes herself as being "one of seven kids who never got out of Iowa until I was an exchange student. And, I had never been away from home longer than a weekend, to visit a sister in college, when I got on a plane and flew out to be an exchange student."

A student who'd studied Spanish in high school, Fredericks, then between her junior and senior years, found herself arriving in a small village in the province of Salzburg, Austria. The only German words she was equipped with were "gesundheit," "danke" and "ja."

"They placed me there because of the farming area. They milked cows, too. So me being from a dairy farm, they thought that would be a very good match," she recalled Thursday via an ICN monitor while seated in her central-southeast Iowa classroom. "They (the American Field Service) did do a good match. My Austrian family and I are still in contact. I take students and tour groups over every other year."

As a foreign exchange student, she remembers dreaming in German and not understanding her dreams.

"I was absorbing a lot, but still not understanding fully," she said.

Fredericks chose to take German classes while a student at Iowa State University. Her main goal was to be able to write to Austrian friends and members of her host family.

Fredericks spent another summer and Christmas in Austria during her collegiate years. She also student taught at the United Nations school in Geneva, Switzerland. After receiving a job offer with the AFS exchange program, as a counselor for American kids in Austria, Fredericks transitioned from Switzerland to Vienna. While serving the next year as a counselor, she also found herself assisting with the selection of Austrian teenagers wanting to travel as exchange students to the U.S.

The thought of becoming an Austrian citizen changed when Fredericks learned her mother was suffering from a medical condition, which was later identified as Alzheimer's disease. So, she returned and taught elementary math on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The students she came into contact with there enjoyed it when she'd recite numbers in German.

After graduating from ISU and marrying her husband, who now serves as a captain in the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, the newlyweds spent the next seven months traveling around Europe and giving presentations about the American Indian in Austrian schools.

After returning to Iowa, Fredericks chose to substitute teach while their two oldest of five children were small. She began teaching German classes in 1980, during the morning hours, at HLV. She attended classes at the University of Iowa in the afternoon, eventually graduating with a major in German and being certified a K-12 teacher.

"I started teaching on the ICN even before it was two-way video. It was more like giving a radio broadcast. That was in the 1990s," she reminisced. "...It's not the ideal way to teach, but for kids who are highly-motivated, it works. And, if you have a good monitor, like Frau Johannsen, it's great."

At times throughout the school day, Fredericks can teach students from five different school districts.

"I'm really impressed with the Spencer students," she said. "They've been fun and I'm hoping that they will be able to gain a lot. I'll give them as much as I can with the crazy schedule that we have."

In regard to the status of the German language currently being taught in U.S. schools, Fredericks added, "I worry that we keep narrowing (topics) in the United States. They say OK to Spanish -- and, yes, Spanish is good -- but the more languages, the better. But, we should be starting, really, in the elementary. We don't have it right yet in our country."