Home > Fellowships & Grants : Akademie DeutschlandStudien
Akademie fuer DeutschlandStudien Wittenberg (formerly Sprachakademie Wittenberg)
Fellowship Program for K-12 German Teachers
June 14– July 6, 2009
Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany
Application deadline: January 20, 2009
- Overview
- Major Program Components
- Fellowship Information & Application
- Additional Information & Program Impact
- Classroom Materials for Teachers
- Travel fellowships to Germany for your Colleagues in Social Studies
Overview
Created in 2002, the Akademie fuer DeutschlandStudien Wittenberg is a unique professional development program for K-12 teachers of German in the continental United States. It is designed to provide teachers with an energizing, supportive, and challenging environment in which to work collaboratively to enhance their teaching. The program's focus is on current German culture and society. A high level of German language fluency is essential. This is not a language program.
In order to ensure broad access to the Program, all selected teachers will receive a generous fellowship of ca. $3,800 to cover most of the Program costs. Each year CGES awards fellowships to 10 American teachers. Akademie fuer DeutschlandStudien fellowships for summer 2009 are open to teachers from anywhere in the continental U.S. (Applicants who hold, or at one time held, German citizenship are not eligible)
Fellows will:
- Experience German life, language, and culture intensively over three weeks in an historic and vibrant city in the heart of Eastern Germany
- Visit schools in Eastern Germany and meet with local teachers and students
- Renew and expand their German language skills and explore new teaching methods with their colleagues
- Develop new teaching materials, rich in cultural content, for use in the classroom in the fall
- Participate in two workshops at the University of Minnesota on April 17-18, 2009 and September 25-26, 2009.
The Akademie DeutschlandStudien is organized by the Center for German & European Studies at the University of Minnesota in cooperation with the Institut für deutsche Sprache und Kultur an der Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg. CGES would like especially to thank the Max Kade Foundation (New York City), the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation (Berlin), and the German-American Heritage Foundation (St. Paul) for their generous support of this program.
Major Program Components
- Weekly Themes:
- Vor und nach der Wende
- Schule, Bildung, und Jugend
- Europa
- Special Topics Units:
- Aussprachetraining (Phonetik und Methodik)
- Neue deutsche Rechtschreibung
- DaF-Materialien aus dem Internet
- Roundtables with Local Experts
- Experience Teaching in a German School
- Historical Tours of Lutherstadt Wittenberg
- Special Overnight Excursions:
- Berlin
- Potsdam
- Leipzig
- Visits to Local Places of Interest:
- Haus der Geschichte
- Hundertwasserschule
- Halle
- Lodging with a German Family
- Breakfasts and Dinners with your German Family
Fellowship Information & Application
All participants will receive a generous fellowship of ca. $3,800 to cover most of the program costs (pending final budgetary approval). Each fellowship covers the costs for housing in Wittenberg, tuition at the Institute and at two workshops at the U of M in Minneapolis, overnight excursions to Berlin, Potsdam, and Leipzig, breakfasts and (cold) dinners at your host family, and a $1,000 travel subsidy for your roundtrip international airfare to Berlin. Participants will make their own transatlantic travel arrangements; flights will need to have been booked by 4/17/09, the date of the Orientation workshop. Reimbursements for transatlantic air travel costs up to the maximum subsidy amount will be processed by CGES upon submission of original receipts and a completed reimbursement form (deadline: May 1); reimbursement checks will be mailed out to fellows' home addresses on Sept. 28, 2009, immediately after the concluding workshop at the U of M. Fellows who do not complete all parts of the fellowship program will loose the transatlantic travel subsidy. Each fellowship also covers group bus transfer from Tegel Airport to your host family's residence in Wittenberg on 6/14/09. Teacher fellows from outside the Upper Midwest will also receive airfare subsidies of up to $200 to participate in each of the two workshops in Minneapolis. CGES will provide accommodation for non-local fellows for each workshop. Registration fee becomes due only after acceptance into the program. There is no application fee.
Participant Costs
| Registration Fee | $800 (non-refundable) |
| Lunches in Wittenberg | $300 (estimated) |
| Meals on Excursions | $190 (estimated) |
| Health Insurance | Variable (required) |
| Personal Expenses | Variable |
| Gift for Host Family | Variable (recommended) |
| Trip Insurance | Variable (recommended) |
| Transatlantic airfare share | Variable (costs above $1,000 subsidy) |
| Airfare to Minneapolis | Variable (costs above $200 subsidy per workshop) |
Application
To apply, please submit the Application Form, a professional resume, a cover letter that explains how this fellowship program fits with your professional goals (2 pages maximum, single-spaced), and a one-page statement in German that describes your teaching, school, and how the Akademie fuer DeutschlandStudien full immersion experience will benefit you and your students. Deadline for receipt of complete applications is Tuesday, January 20, 2009, at 4:30 PM. You may fax your completed application to 612-625-0528. Decisions on admission to the Program will be made by February 9.
Additional Akademie fuer DeutschlandStudien Information
Professional Credit
Fellows have the option to register for professional credit. Tuition is approximately $300/credit plus U of M registration fees. However, all fellows will receive CEUs.
Impact
Since the program's inception, seventy teachers of German from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas have participated in the Akademie. Every one of them has returned from Wittenberg feeling re-energized and equipped with new materials and renewed enthusiasm for teaching. Since on the average each teacher instructs 120 to 150 students a year, the fellowship program has helped improve the quality of German language instruction for more than 8,500 middle-school and high-school students. Read what some of the returning teachers say.
Akademie fuer DeutschlandStudien Projektarbeiten
During the three weeks in Wittenberg, each Fellow prepares a "Projektarbeit"—identifies a topic for a classroom unit, collects material and realia, and turns them into a finished product that may be used by other colleagues in their classrooms. CGES maintains a library of these projects.
Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP)
Do you have a social studies teacher colleague with whom you would like to develop some joint units on Germany? Think about making your German program grow beyond the foreign-language classroom! The Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Deutsche Bank, and the Goethe-Institut have created the Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP) to bring contemporary Germany into social studies classrooms. The TOP website offers instructional kits with up-to-date information. The program also offers fully funded, 2-week summer study/travel seminars to Germany. Application deadline for summer 2009 travel seminars is February 12, 2009.