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Herzlich Willkommen !!. Technology: Voicethread , Animoto , Xtranormal , movie maker, photostory , glogster , quia , stepintoGerman http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7886965/interview-with-palin http://animoto.com/play/C46BspbE0ovLWIW2wrEwdw. websites.
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Technology: Voicethread, Animoto, Xtranormal, movie maker, photostory, glogster, quia, stepintoGerman http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7886965/interview-with-palin http://animoto.com/play/C46BspbE0ovLWIW2wrEwdw
websites • http://www.ridgefield.org/subsite/rhs/teacher/65 • http://ckochefkogerman.wikispaces.com/ • www.schoology.com
The Ridgefield German Program has been a model program for the state of CT. It has the longest running exchange program and is a leader in National Exam results and post-graduate majors at the college level. Every year, the American Association of Teachers of German offers a national examination to high school students. 23-25,000 students take this exam nationally. Over the last 6 years (2008-2012) Ridgefield has had 100+student winners on this examination. Similarly, students have the chance to apply to win a four week, all expense paid trip to Germany hosted by the PAD if they score in the 90th percentile. Students must compete with all of New England for this coveted prize and although 25 scholarships are only given every year, Ridgefield has won the last 4consecutive years in a row (2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013).
German is undeniably a 21st Century Language… -“German is the language of science and the European, economic, financial, and political powerhouse with German companies providing 500,000 US jobs and $270 million in trade. German is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union and Germany’s export market is second in the world”
German is the most widely spoken language in Europe: not only the residents of Germany speak German. It is also the official language of Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein. It is also the native language of a significant portion of the population in northern Italy, eastern Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, eastern France, parts of Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Romania, as well as in other parts of Europe.
Knowing German creates business opportunities. Companies like BMW, Daimler, Siemens, Lufthansa, SAP, Bosch, Infineon, BASF, and many others need international partners. Even in the town of Ridgefield, BoehringerIngelheim Pharmaceuticals provides jobs to many people in the district and supports educational programs such as Ridgefield Now! We’re Talking.
Germans are innovators: from Gutenberg’s printing press to Hertz’s discovery of electromagnetic waves, from Ehrlich’s development of chemotherapy to Einstein’s theory of relativity, to Brandenburg’s creation of the MP3 digital music format, throughout history Germans have proven themselves time and again to be great innovators. That trend continues today. .4% of the world’s most innovative companies are in Germany and 12.7% of the world’s patent applications, the country ranks 3rd in the world. 200,000 German companies introduce new products on the market each year. As a nation committed to research and development, Germans are on the frontline of new technologies, including green technologies. Young architects and innovative builders in Germany are planning and implementing houses that produce energy instead of waste it. Environmental technology enterprises have a guaranteed future and engineers are desperately needed.
Education: Germans also have a rich cultural heritage. German contribution to the arts and human thought have been nothing short of profound. German is required or recommended by many undergraduate and graduate programs. It is valuable in chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, psychology, philosophy, theology, international law, and archeology. Germany is also the world’s largest contributor to research and development, outspending the USA nearly 10 times in agriculture, medical and health research, non-nuclear energy, the environment, information and communication technologies, telematics, and mineral processing. Germany financially sponsors over 60,000 international exchanges each year. These include over 100 Fulbright Scholarships.
“We now live in a global village with rapid change and constant contact with thousands of others. The more experiences we have, the more media we are exposed to, the more people we interact with, the greater the differences that are likely to emerge. Diversity is the order of the millenium” (Gardner, 1999, 219).