Backe, backe Kuchen

I love baking, and I've blogged about baking with my students.

Last fall, I decided I was ready for a new adventure and started working as a pastry chef for a local Bloomington coffee shop.

Other than getting up early in the morning, it's completely different from teaching.  

I usually work with one other baker, and we prep doughs and bake from 6:30 AM - 2:00 PM.  My current favorite things to bake are brownies (the frosting is fantastic!), gingersnaps, and sugar cookies, but we also make scones, muffins, rice crispy bars, quick breads, and mini quiche.  It's a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, and so far I really enjoy it!

People have asked me if I miss teaching, and I do miss the teaching part.  But I no longer spend my days trying to keep teenagers off TikTok, and I can go to the bathroom whenever I need to.  Overall, it's just much less stressful.  

People also ask if I'll go back to teaching.  Maybe.  I've written that I believe public schools are a mirror: they reflect the state of our communities back to us.  Our country right now has a lot of division and anger.  That's how it feels in schools, too.  So, for the moment, I'll keep baking.  

 

Kuchen Rezept

I love to bake!  When we're in school, I really enjoy baking with my students.  

This spring one of my German 2 classes opted to bake Pfannkuchen (thin German pancakes, much like crepes) for Faschingsdienstag (Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday).  We watched this great video from Easy German and then gave it a try.  The results were delicious! 

 

 (Here's a newer video in Super Easy German.)

We made Lebkuchenhersen this fall for Oktoberfest.

And last year we baked Apfelkuchen.

Andrea Thionville, who makes great beginning German videos, has a Kuchenrezept video.

I've converted the recipe to U.S. units, and it's my hope to try out this cake sometime next school year with my German 1 students.

Oktoberfest 2019

After last year's exhausting Oktoberfest, I wasn't sure I'd want to attempt another one, but with my new half-time schedule and wisdom gained from last year's failures, I thought I might just give it one more try.

This year, my colleague and I were able to schedule things so that we could both be at the Oktoberfest, and two teachers are definitely better than one!

We started planning earlier and more students volunteered to bring in food.  My colleague also emphasized to the students that they should only take a small serving until everyone had been served, and there was enough for everyone.

This year I pre-made dough for Lebkuchenherzen, which we rolled, cut out, and baked during the Fest.  

Our Success period (intervention/enrichment time) is only 40 minutes long, so not all of the students' cookies were baked and cooled by the end of the period, but I was able to stay and finish up and students picked up their cookies later on the way to lunch.  They were delicious!

Most students had time to do their own dishes, though there was still quite a lot of cleanup to do afterwards.  My colleague had a class right afterwards, but I was done for the day and could enjoy some peace and quiet and dish washing.

Overall, it was a big improvement over last year and a good experience for students.  It's still super tiring for teachers, and the 40 minute Success period really isn't long enough for what we wanted to do.  Maybe we'll need to scale it back for next year and/or use some class time for part of it, but I'm glad we tried again.

Oktoberfest 2018 - A Mixed Review

My German 2 classes have been studying Oktoberfest the past few weeks.  It fits in wonderfully with our first two units about Feste and Kleidung and out first Landeskunde region of Bayern.

So, after the success of our Apfelstreuselkuchen baking, I decided to schedule a tutorial to celebrate Oktoberfest on October 5.  

My review of how it went is certainly influenced by the fact that it was the Friday before our 4 day October break, and everyone (including me) was tired and ready for a break.  

Added to that, our building was short 9 subs, so I was called in at the last minute to sub during my prep period.  For an introvert like me who desperately needs to sit alone in a quiet room and not talk to anyone for a while after celebrating Oktoberfest with 41 students, this was rough.  

It seems unfair that when we're short on subs the day before a vacation, the teachers who are in the building trying to do some teaching with wound-up students are required to do even more than normal.  This doesn't happen in other schools in my district, so in my opinion, this is a leadership/administrative issue, and I'll leave it at that.

So, keeping in mind the circumstances, here's the review.

The good:

• 41 students signed up for the tutorial.  I got to meet some of the German students who are in my colleague's classes.

• 3 of my students who are in band came up with the idea all on their own to play for our Fest, got permission to take their instruments out of the band room, and played for their appreciative peers.

• I brought in frozen pretzels that needed to be baked in the oven for about 10 minutes, and 3 hard-working students took over that job and completed it like pros.

The bad:

• Of the 41 students who came, only 1 (who was also in the band) brought food in addition to me.  I am really big on doing things with my students, not for them, and this felt like I was doing most of the work.

• Students weren't especially good about making sure everyone got served before going back for seconds.  They acted more like hangry teenagers and less like the thoughful young people I know they are capable of being.

• We were rushed for time, so I wasn't able to have students wash their own dishes.  That meant most of the cleanup was left to me, but I had to cover another class.  I did eventually get to it and actually enjoyed being alone with the dishes (an introvert's oasis!), but this is again not really ideal for helping to develop thoughtful, appreciative young adults.

The future:  

I'm not sure about doing something like this again.  Parts were fun and students enjoyed it, but it was too tiring for me on a very tiring day.  Maybe we'll do it during class time so that I have more control about who is there and there is a limit on numbers.  We'll see.  Right now I need a long weekend with my family, crochet, Call the Midwife, and rest.

Backe, backe Kuchen

I love to bake!  And I really enjoy doing it with my students when we have the chance.

This year one of my sections of German 2 is Block 3 with C lunch, which means that class is from 11:35 - 12:55 with lunch at 12:55.  Which means that we are all hungry during class.  Which means that we talk about food a lot!

I promised this class that sometime soon I would schedule a baking tutorial so that we could bake in tutorial and eat in class. (Tutorial is our intervention/enrichment period, which meets right before Block 3 for 40 minutes.)  Naturally, they were all in.  

Of course we had to sing "Backe, back Kuchen" for the students who hadn't learned it last year.

Most of the students who participated were from the section of German 2 which meets right after tutorial and before lunch, but it was open to everyone, and some German 1 students and students from other sections attended.  

Since the cake wouldn't be done until after tutorial, I promised students who weren't in my Block 3 class that we would save them a piece of Kuchen that they could pick up before Block 4.

We used a very simple recipe for Apple Streusel Cake, which I found online: https://platedcravings.com/wprm_print/4265 

I divided the students into three groups: one for the dough (it was Throwback Thursday for Homecoming week)

one for the apple filling

and one for the crumble topping. 

And they really took it from there - I didn't have to do much more!  

I even had two very enthusiastic dish washers!  

The cake was done baking during Block 3 and cool enough to eat by the end of class.  Delicious!

It was a definite success, and not especially stressful or tiring for me - also a plus.  

Students asked to do this every week.  I don't think I'll be able to pull that off, but we definitely will do it again!

12 Typical German Dishes

Whew, once you get out of the routine on regular blogging, it's hard to get back in!  My first year teaching full time had me wiped out in March and April, but now with just 11 days of school left, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and have regained some energy.

Easy German recently posted this video of 12 Typical German Dishes, which I really like for our German 1 food unit.  

I've created an assignment on Canvas from the video where students label picture of the dishes after watching the video:

Then, they sort them by category:

This could either be an assignment for the whole class or possibly an enrichment activity for students who have mastered a topic to work on while their peers complete additional practice.

I'll be teaching 3 sections of German 1 and 3 sections of German 2 next year, which is the same as this year, so I'm hoping to add in some things like enrichment and remediation differentiation.  

Pitch-in German Breakfast

Our current unit in German 1 is all about food.  Everyone likes talking about food, and of course high school students like to eat food even more!

My students had been asking to have German food in class, and I decided the two days before spring break would be a good time to do it.  

I'm pretty big on having activities like this be things that students plan and contribute to rather than something that I do for them.  So, about a week and a half before spring break, we watched this video for inspiration:

Then, I asked students

It gave us a chance to practice both "möchten" (would like), which we had just learned, and food vocabulary.  

We came up with this list in my M3 class

I explained to students that I would provide Brötchen and Nutella and they could sign up for things they wanted to bring.  Students who didn't want to/couldn't bring anything would be able to help out by washing some of the dishes afterwards.

I gave the M4 class, which meets after lunch, the option of having Kaffee and Kuchen instead of breakfast, but they opted for breakfast too.

All three classes ended up having a good variety of foods, and almost everyone remembered to bring things in on the day.  We ate and watched part of the Sound of Music, since we're talking about Austria right now.  

When students had finished eating, I asked one student from each table group of four who had not brought anything in to clear the dishes and trash from his or her table and follow me to the world languages office, where we have a sink for washing dishes.  I showed them the supplies and let them do the washing.  No one had to do very much, and everything was cleaned up by the end of class.  And I wasn't exhausted by the end of the day - I'd call that a win!

Wir mögen Deutsch!

We're on to a new unit in German 1 - food!  It's a good unit for this time in the year when everyone's energy level is low.  We all like to talk about food.

Students learned five modal (helping) verbs - sollen, dürfen, können, wollen, and müssen - last unit.  Our new textbook teaches mögen (to like) and möchten (would like to = subjunctive form of mögen) separately in this unit, which I really like.  

Mögen is an unusual modal verb because it is usually used without a main verb to say that you like something, whereas gern (gladly) is more frequently used to say that you like doing something.  We've been using gern for a while now and have that pretty well established in students' vocabulary so I think it is a good time to introduce mögen to talk about foods we like and dislike.

Our guided notes for mögen and looked like this:

I really emphasized the difference between gern and mögen, and we also had a chance to review the ways in which modal verbs are irregular.  

Then, we wrote about foods we liked and disliked before moving on to möchten.

Finally, it was time for Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street.  I love Sesame Street, both in English and German, and try to incorporate clips from it into class whenever I can.  (The 3/4 students seem to enjoy it a lot, too.  The first year students aren't quite sure yet.)  I happened upon the German version of "I love trash," which uses mögen: "Ich mag Müll."  Perfect!

Here are the files: Mögen guided notes, Mögen worksheet

Bratwurst and Sauerkraut Sushi

Yum!  Yesterday some of the students in Japanese were making creative sushi.  One of them made Bratwurst and Sauerkraut sushi and brought it by my room for the German teacher to try.  The funny thing is that I don't really like sauerkraut.  But the vinegar flavor of the rice and the nori masked much of the sauerkraut flavor, and it was really quite good!

Vanille Kipferl

The last weeks of school before Winter Break were really, really busy.  Most of my time was filled with helping students get ready for finals and get caught up after being absent and giving quiz and test make-ups and retakes, but I was able to set aside a tutorial period right after St. Nicholas' Day for cookie baking.

I decided we'd make Vanile Kipferl (almond crescents), which are a popular Christmas cookie in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.  We used this recipe, although thankfully I read the comments and saw that you need 14 tablespoons of butter, not the 7 listed in the recipe.  

Our tutorial periods are only 40 minutes long, so I mixed up the dough ahead of time at home. (And tested it on Nicholas and Andrew.  Nicholas liked them; Andrew thought they were too plain.)  Students shaped their own cookies, placed them on the cookie sheets, and wrote their name next to it on the parchment paper if they were especially attached to their cookie.  We baked them in the World Languages office oven.

Then, we dusted them with powdered sugar, and they were ready to eat, with just a few minutes to spare.  The unanimous verdict was that they were delicious.  The cookie baking as a whole went smoothly and wasn't too hectic for me - definitely something I will repeat in future years.