Mr. Kandah - Kandah.org

GAPP Reise - Juni-Juli 2011

2011-06-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time, I know. Much has happened, indeed: Enloe Graduation, for example. And now, starting tomorrow, our three-week sojourn in Germany commences. Fifteen Enloe students, three of whom being newly minted graduates, travel to the land of Goethe, Kafka, Einstein, and Morgenstern to enjoy the company of friends at the Hebel Gymnasium and then a week of Berlin's sights and sounds. Wish us well! And everyone have an excellent summer!

den 16. Mai 2011

2011-05-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

German 1
Dative Case conversation
Dative case review
Dative case Explanation - kandah.org

German 3
Final Exam Notes
Medieval German Literature - Overview
Middle High German - Pronunciation Tips
Middle High German Pronunciation Tips, Part 2 - scroll down for the German section

German 4
Kapitel 7 Powerpoint

den 2. Mai 2011

2011-05-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
für - Gespräch
ohne - Gespräch

Read pages 249-250, then exercise 21 - completely write out!
Begin Chapter 9, pages 257ff. Exercises 1 and 2, in writing!
Read pages 262-263, exercise 5

Imperative Conversation Exercise

Deutsch 2
conversation using etwas / nichts / viel and adjective
Wo? - Wechselpräpositionen
Wohin? - Wechselpräpositionen
Powerpoint Review

Deutsch 3
Stepstone.de - Jobs und Stellenangebote
Modalverben - Imperfekt
das Klassentreffen - Fragen
wann / ob - notes and exercise
wann / ob exercise, part 2

Deutsch 4

Page 333, Exercise F
Page 334, Exercise G
Page 337, Exercise I
Page 338, Exercises J and K

AP German
Sound Files for AP Exam

neue Woche - den 4. April 2011

2011-04-04T05:50:00.000-07:00

New Website I discovered:

the sounds of German - highly recommended!

Deutsch 1
Wann hast du Geburtstag? - Handout

Neue Woche - den 21. März 2011

2011-03-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
wissen - conversation
wissen versus kennen - conversation

Deutsch 2
Fotowettbewerb 2011 - Die Fotos!

Deutsch 3
Wanderungenerzählungen fällig am Montag!
Mittwoch - Prüfung - Kapitel 5

Deutsch 4
Prüfung, Thema 6/Kapitel 6
Powerpoint Review - Kapitel 6

Donnerstag, den 10. März 2011

2011-03-10T05:33:00.000-08:00

German Day was yesterday at Guilford College, and we represented nicely several categories: 2nd Place in Kultur-Pokal Level 1, 2nd Place in the Song Competition, and 2nd Place in the Spelling Bee! Gut gemacht, meine Schüler! Ich bin stolz auf euch!

Extemporaneous Speaking Topics

Deutsch 2
Fotowettbewerb
Adjective Endings - Conversation
Adjective Endings - Conversation 2
Kapitel 7A - Bingospiel!
Fotografieren - Vokabeln!
Fotowettbewerb - vorletztes Jahr
Fotowettbewerb 2010

Deutsch 3
Konjunktiv II - Vergangenheit - review
Wanderung!! Eine Erzählung
Schreibtipps
German composition tips
Grammar usage and advice for writers of German
Essay Writing Strategies
Essay Writing Checklist
Frequently used German words
Writing in German without thinking in English
Konjunktiv II - Conversation
Adjektivendungen, noch einmal!

Deutsch 4
Carolin - Rollenspiel

Montag, den 28. Februar 2011

2011-02-27T15:11:00.001-08:00

Deutsch 1
Klamotten besprechen - Notes
Board Notes - Klamotten
Slide Show on Clothes (Kleidungsstücke / Klamotten)
Facehunter

Deutsch 3
Zeitleiste Projekt - rühmlicher Österreicher
Adjectives - Summary

Deutsch 4
„Carolin" - und Vermischtes - Thema 6
Bruttoinlandsprodukte - Angaben
Bruttoinlandsprodukte - Angaben
Exportnationen der Welt - Angaben
Carolin - Fragen zum Text

Dienstag, den 22. Februar 2011

2011-02-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Prüfung - Kapitel 6

Deutsch 2
Quiz - Obst, Gemüse, Geschäfte, Demonstrativpronomen

Deutsch 3
Adjektivendungen - Gespräch and powerpoint Version
Short Exercise - review
Notable Austrians - Wikipedia List
Wien? Prag? Budapest?
Du bist ein grosser Angeber! - Gespräch
Komparativ - im Gespräch
Schreibübung - mit Komparativ- Superlativformen

Deutsch 4
Wo? - Conversation
Wohin? - conversation
Powerpoint - two-way preps
Fragen zum Text - „up up and away nach London"

den 14. Februar 2011

2011-02-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Review Lektion 6A - note sheet
beim Cafe Julia! - Conversation!
Eis! Essen wir Eis!!! Notesheet
Negation - conversation, part 1
Negation - conversation part 2

Deutsch 3
Kapitel 5A - Vokabeln
du? Sie? ihr? dir? euch? Ihnen?
Kapitel 5A - Fragen

Deutsch 4
Da - and Wo- Komposita - conversation
die Wechselpräpositionen - kleines Projekt

AP Deutsch
Eine Deutsche Einbürgerungsprüfung
Deutsch Interaktiv

Montag, der 7. Februar 2011

2011-02-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 2
Kapitel 6A - Obst und Gemüse
Game - identify the fruits and vegetables
Demonstrative Pronouns - conversation exercise, 1
Demonstrative Pronouns - conversation exercise, 2

Montag, den 31. Januar 2011

2011-01-30T17:31:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 3
Das Mittelalter! - Zeichnungen für eure Schaubilder
Requirements for Schaubild
Kapitel 4 Powerpoint, 1
Kapitel 4, Powerpoint 2

Deutsch 4
Prüfung - Kapitel / Thema 5 - am Mittwoch!
Adjektive mit dem Dativ - Wiederholung
Der Erlkönig - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Der Erlkönig - videos

Neue Woche, neues Semester! den 24. Januar 2011

2011-01-24T17:51:00.000-08:00

German Day! - March 9, 2011 - see the link to the right for updates. Click here for information on costs, etc. If you want to drive yourself, I need parental permission. Click here for a form and requirements. If you want to be a passenger in a student automobile, click here to find the correct form. Personally, I prefer if you ride the bus!

The videos for the karaoke can be found at the German Day Website to the right. Some of the lyric texts for these karaoke can be found here for your convenience.

German 1
Beim Eiscafe - Kapitel 6 neue Vokabeln
Wie schmeckt's? Powerpoint-Presentation
Conversation with mögen - Was für Musik magst du denn?
Conversation with möchten
Conversation with müssen
Conversation with wollen

German 3
Beim Autofahren - Vokabeln, usw.
Fahren Vokabeln - Wiederholen
Verben mit Präpositionen - Übung

Deutsch 4
Fragen zu Vokabeln, Dativ, usw....
Song Texts for Karaoke/A Capella Project
Videos for these songs

Neue Woche - mit Schnee und Eis! - den 10. Januar 2011

2011-01-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 2
ein Menüprojekt - Was gibt's zu essen und trinken?

Deutsch 3

Schultze gets the Blues - Fotos!
Schultze gets the Blues - Sammelalbumprojekt
Project Rubrik - Schultze gets the Blues

neues Jahr, neue Woche - der 3. Januar 2011

2011-01-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

Prosit, Neujahr!!!

German 1
Was spricht man in diesen Ländern?
Quiz on Chapter 5A Wednesday
Read and Study pages 138-145, write exercises #13, 15, 18

German 2
Genitiv - Gespräch 1
Genitiv - Gespräch 2
Kapitel 5 - Powerpoint

German 3
Kapitel 4 Anmerkungen - student note sheet
Kapitel 4 Anmerkungen - overhead notes
Imperativ! - Arbeitsblatt

German 4
Kapitel 5, Seiten 299-302, Übungen A, B, C, völlig aufschreiben
Thema 5 - MUSIK! - Lesen, Seiten 107-110 - Anmerkungsblatt und Hausaufgabe
Hausaufgabe für das Wochenende

Letzte Woche vor den Winterferien - den 20. Dezember 2010

2010-12-20T02:26:00.000-08:00

Weihnachten Powerpoint - Christmas in Germany
Weihnachten Materials - songs, handouts, etc.

National German Exam files

eine neue Woche! - den 12. Dezember 2010

2010-12-12T17:56:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 3
Polite Requests - review!
Relative pronouns - conversation exercise
Test on Kapitel 3 - Wednesday - Test Review Sheet

Deutsch 4
Test on Kapitel 4 - Wednesday - powerpoint review of main points on test

neue Woche - Montag, den 5. Dezember 2010

2010-12-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
German Essentials Review - Chapters 1 - 4
German Grammar Review - Chapters 1 - 4
Review Questions - due Wednesday - typewritten, printed.

Deutsch 3
Jura - ein Kanton in der Schweiz - elektronische Presentation
Kritik - Schweizer Kantone
Relative Pronouns - conversation, Part 1
Relative Pronouns - conversation, Part 2

Deutsch 4
Writing in German without thinking in English
Essay Writing Checklist
Grammar and Usage Advice
Ein Märchen! - Schreiben

Neue Woche - Montag, den 29. November 2010

2010-11-29T02:29:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 2
Tiere der Welt Projekt

Deutsch 3
Swiss Cantons - Wikipedia Entry
Rubrik - Der Schweizer Kanton Projekt

AP German
Der Rosenstock - Kapitel 3

Thanksgiving - Woche - den 22. November 2010

2010-11-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 3
Fragen - Wie kommst du mit deinen Verwandten, Klassenkameraden und Nachbarn aus?

Deutsch 4
Thema / Kapitel 4 - Übungen

neue Woche - beginnt am Montag, dem 15. November 2010

2010-11-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
School Essay Assignment

Deutsch 3
Kapitel 3 - Familie und Nachbarn - Vokabeln
Vocab review - die Kreuzung
Fahren in der Stadt herum - ein kurzes Video. Kannst du das auf deutsch beschreiben?
Exam Essays - Kapitel 2
Listening Test Sound Files - Kapitel 2

Deutsch 4
Thema 4 - Einstieg in das Thema - Familie
Hausaufgabe - Donnerstagabend - auf ein zweites Blatt Papier beantworte ordentlich mit ganzen Sätzen und Diskussion die Fragen vom Anmerkungsblatt, das du heute bekamst. Lesen genau die Interviews, Seite 87, mit Vokabeln und Reaktionen - Übung A, Seite 88.

Neue Woche - den 8. November 2010

2010-11-08T02:47:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Was hast du da in der Tüte? - conversation exercise
School Vocabulary
Accusative Case Exercise

Deutsch 2
Märchen aus aller Welt! - Deutsche Welle Sammlung

Deutsch 3
Massive list of German adjectives
Du bist ein grosser Wikinger! - Kleines Projekt

Deutsch 4
Powerpoint review - Kapitel 3
Thema 3 - Speaking Test
Rubrik for Speaking test, Thema 3

Neue Woche, neuer Monat! der 1. November 2010

2010-10-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 3
Stadtmitte Projekt - Rubrik, Forderungen, Tips, usw.
List of strong verbs in German - principal parts, etc.
pdf file of strong verbs for you to print, download, examine, memorize

Deutsch 4
Chart - die Wessis und die Ossis
Thema 3 - Fragen, Reaktionen, Grammatik auch - alles zusammen
Thema 3 Vocab Quiz
Infinitive Constructions
More with infinitive constructions

den 25. Oktober 2010 - Neue Woche, neue Träume

2010-10-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
Preliminary Checklist for Collage Project - due Wednesday!!
Online Quiz for telling time - try it out!!!
Try out this little quiz on German cities I created!
Yet another quiz, experimenting on a Saturday morn!
Kapitel 3A Study Guide
Was gibt's im Fernsehen? Conversation
ARD German Television Station
ZDF German Television
Fernsehskit - Parameters with a tv guide from ZDF
Homework - Read and Study pages 72-83; write out exercises #13, 14, 20

Deutsch 2
Wohin seid ihr in den Ferien gefahren?

AP Deutsch
Nosferatu - pics

neue Woche - am Montag, den 18. Oktober 2010

2010-10-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Please turn pay this week for the National German Exam - $5
Check out the Enloe Deutschverein Website for information on the T-Shirt design. Dues are due also!

Deutsch 1
Collage project - Kapitel 3 - Rubrik
More fun with the present tense!
haben conjugation - study sheet
German Word Order - Syntax, Part 1
German Word Order - Syntax, Part 2
Was machen sie in der Freizeit? Powerpoint presentation
Conversation, ihr and wir forms!
Conversation, 3rd person singular forms
Group Skit - Kapitel 3 - Wer ist das? Ist er neu hier?

Deutsch 2
Test on Wednesday - Kapitel 2

Deutsch 3
Test Review Sheet - Kapitel 1 Test on Wednesday of this Week!!!

Deutsch 4
Test on Wednesday - Kapitel 2 / Thema 2
Powerpoint on Kapitel 2

AP Deutsch
Einsammeln Projekt - Rubrik
Debatte - Schülerausweis, dafür oder dagegen? oder kannst du beide Seiten begreifen?

Neue Woche - den 11. Oktober 2010

2010-10-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

Students - to the right is a link to a study log sheet which you can use to garner extra points. Read it, adhere to it. These are always due on the after the final day is completed
Tutoring Notice - distributed this week

Deutsch 1
Present Tense of German verbs - Kapitel 3
Writing Exercise - Present tense / sentence elements/complements

Deutsch 3
Conversation exercise with time expressions
Der Zug - Vokabeln - Übung
Deutsche Bundesbahn Website
Zugfahrt - Aufsatz!!
Karl der Große - Wikipedia Eintrag
Life of Charlemagne - by Einhard

am 4. Oktober 2010 - eine neue Woche

2010-10-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

A Study log sheet for you! you may use it and get it completely filled out for extra credit bonus points.

Deutsch 1
Test on Wednesday - Chapter 2
Beginnen wir Kapitel 3 - Was machst du?
Was machst du in der Freizeit? - Vocabulary
Conversation Exercise - Was machst du in der Freizeit?
Was macht er? Was macht sie? - conversation
Was macht ihr? 2nd person plural - conversation
Schreibübung - was machen sie?
Present tense in German - short study - notes
Using gern to indicate a liking for an activity
Monikas Woche - Schreibübung
Present Tense Verb Conjugation

Deutsch 2
Reflexive Verbs - review #1
Reflexive Verbs Review #2
Reflexive Verbs Review #3
Review Jugendherberge Vocabulary
Wednesday - completing our Jugendherberge Posters
Homework (Tuesday Evening) - Übungen vom text - #15, 16, 17 - Kapitel 2 - word order of personal pronouns and dative and accusative case objects
Camping! - conversation exercise with word order issues.
Camping, yet again! - Conversation Exercise

Deutsch 3
Prien und Chiemsee - Google Map
Review Sheet Kapitel 1 - der Chiemsee in Bayern
Hausaufgabe (Montagabend - review Kapitel 1A Closely, read and study pages 14-22
Your Maps - due Wednesday
European Railway Server - Tolle Bilder von europäischen Zügen
Train Videos

Deutsch 4
Thema 2 Project ideas
Thema 2 Vocab Quiz
Hausaufgabe - Übung H, Seite 51 - völlig aufschreiben - getippt!
Seiten 265-267, L, M - auch getippt!!

AP Deutsch
Meinung ausdrücken - Anmerkungsblatt

neue Woche - den 27. September 2010

2010-09-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
City Brochure Project - rubric
die Familie! - review sheet
Familie - Fragen! - conversation exercise
Time Adverbs in German
Telling Time in German - powerpoint
Wohin gehst du denn? - vocabulary
Wohin geht's denn? Conversation exercise
am Telefon - Conversation
Wann reist du denn?? - Conversation Exercise
zum Kaufhaus! - Conversation exercise
bei der Party! - Wer ist das da drüben?
Wann kommen sie rüber?

Deutsch 2
am Flugsteig - Hauptfragen
Test on Wednesday - Kapitel 1 - zum Flughafen!
Begin Kapitel 2 - im Sommer!!
Reflexive Verbs
Reflexive Verbs - review
Jugendherberge projekt - rubrik

Deutsch 3
Fragen über Länder und Kontinente
Vocabulary - Lektion 1A - im Herzen Europas
Drei Leute in Europa - Übungen/Fragen
Länder zum Untersuchen
Länder Projekt - Wir arbeiten am Donnerstag daran. Kommt zum Unterricht vorbereitet!
Übungen #6, 7 - völlig aufschreiben
Lesen Seitren 10-16 gut, völlig aufschreiben Übungen #10, 11; Google Map - Chiemsee

Deutsch 4
Kapitel 2 - review notes
SMS Abkürzungen - eine grosse Sammlung
a short collection of SMS abbreviations
Thema 2 Project ideas
Pages 253-267, exercises, G,I,J, völlig aufschreiben

AP Deutsch
Aufsätze bearbeiten - fällig Mittwoch
Seiten 34-42 im Handbuch lernen - schreiben Übungen A,B,D (Seiten 36-37)
Listening Exercises for your weekend enjoyment

neue Woche - Montag, den 13. September 2010

2010-09-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 3
Siegfried, der Drachentöter

Deutsch 4
Review Powerpoint Kapitel 1
Baseball - Kapitel 1 / Thema 1

AP Deutsch
Krieg um Gudrun - Vokabeln und Aufgabe

Woche 2 - den 7. September 2010

2010-09-07T06:24:00.001-07:00

Deutsch 1
Wie alt bist du?
Die Zahlen - 1 - 20
Wo wohnst du? - conversation/vocabulary
#11, #12 in Kapitel 1
read pages 15-25 closely, then exercises #13 and #16.
Steckbrief - Wo liegt dein Wohnort?

Deutsch 3
conversation with weil
ob und dass - conversations
conjunctions - partnerwork

Deutsch 4
Thema 1 Speaking Test Topics
Review Questions for Conversations

AP Deutsch
Ein Tag im Leben - fantasiert! - zwei Seiten, getippt, mit doppeltem Zeilenabstand, von einem außerordentlichen Tag in in deinem Leben. Verwende die neuen Vokabeln, Wörter, Ausdrücke von der Gudrun-Erzählung, und auch von den letzten zwei Hörübungen. Sei kreativ, phantasievoll, und schreib alles im Präsens, als ob du einen Traum leuchtend und aktuell erzählt. erster Entwurf fällig am Montag, getippt!

Woche 1 - Montag, den 30. August 2010

2010-08-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
Guidelines for the Course
Chapter 1 - notes - greetings, introductions
Review Greetings, etc. with Conversation
Talking about other people
Partnerwork - Wie heißt er? Und wie heißt sie?
Popular German First Names
Review Sheet - Greetings, Introductions
German Names - choose a German surname (family name)
Notes - alternative way of asking who someone is: Wer ist das?

Deutsch 2 - in review mode.
Guidelines for the Course
German 1 Essentials - Review Sheet!
Review Present perfect tense - conversation
Sein - in the present perfect tense
Was gibt's heute im Fernsehen? - conversation
Dative Conversations

Deutsch 3
Chapter 9 Notes and stuff
WO???? - conversation
Wohin???? - conversation with either/or prepositions

Deutsch 4
Kapitel 1 - Gespräche

Sommerferien!

2010-06-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Another year gone by at Enloe High School. It was an excellent year, I do declare. Enloe is a great place to be, and despite the rumblings at the school board meetings and the uncertainty of the new school board's policies, I have hope that the future bodes well for our fine school community that is Enloe.

I few highlights of the 2009-2010 year include the following:

First let's honor our seniors this year, graduating from Enloe and from our German program:
Amaanti S. (Elon University), Kurt S.H. (NC State), Nathaniel v.S. (Western Carolina), Ryan Baldridge (Eastern Carolina), Hannah E. (NC State), Justin D. (Appalachian State), Zack L. (NC State), Kurt P. (Wake Tech), Eric K. (UNC-Greensboro), David B. (UNC-Greensboro), Christina J. (Wake Tech), Eddie Z. (Wake Tech). Gratulation!

In January 2010, our German students took the National German Exam, and a good number of them scored in in the 80th percentile and above! There were several students who scored above the 90th percentile - Alexandra F., Brendan M., Mary Grayson B., Lily H. - and they were eligible to apply for a Summer Study Trip to Germany this summer. Alexandra and Brendan applied and made it to a final round. They didn't get the award, but their efforts in German language have been exemplary!! I was really proud of them!

In March 2010, we traveled to Winston-Salem for the annual German Day festivities, and we scored 2nd overall among the schools who attended! We had lots of winners: in the Kultur-Pokal - Mary Grayson B. Brenna Y. and Megan S., whose winning answer of Walther von der Vogelweide secured their first place win. We earned a third place commendation in the Songs competition with Kelly T., Chloe O., Lucas K. and Matt A. singing a rousing rendition of Moskau. Ann C. scored a first place in the Spelling Bee, which was awesome, and Joel G. scored a third place in the same competition. It was without a doubt a successful, fun day at Wake Forest University with our awesome students.

Because of these successes, the NC Chapter of the AATG decided to award me their annual Duden Award. I was really honored to receive this award, given the high number of excellent colleagues across the state teaching German. Because of our Enloe german students I got this award, so hats off to you all!

I am starting to plan for the GAPP exahcnge....it's that time again! I posted a preliminary document about the trip for 2011 - dates, costs and what not - that you can peruse. This week I'll send CETA Tours, who took care of our Munich arrangements in the summer of 2009, info about our week in Berlin. If you're interested in going on the GAPP trip send me an email at nkandah@wcpss.net and I'll put you on a mailing list. I set up a website for our previous GAPP trip, http://enloe-gapp.blogspot.com/, and you can check it for some highlights of our trip in 2009. It was incredible, and I hope to replicate the experience in 2011!

We inducted new members of our Chapter of the German National Honor Society, Delta Epsilon Phi. They are Gabriela P., Nicole M., Christine M., Jasmine V., Brendan M. Good job, people!!

That's all for now! Have a great summer.

Montag, der 3. Mai 2010 und jenseits

2010-05-02T18:55:00.001-07:00

GAPP 2011
Initial Information Sheet - tentative dates, etc....

Deutsch 1
Dative - Review Sheet
Dative case Conversations
Our Quiz - print it, complete it, turn it to me.
das Perfekt - Notes
das Perfekt - partner conversation - weak verbs
Giving street directions in German

Deutsch 2
Erlebnisparks / Vergnügungsparks - eine grosse Liste
Rubric - Amusement Park Poster
conversation with etwas / viel
Review Sheet for the final exam

Deutsch 3
Das Mädchen ohne Hände - Vocab
Eine Reise edurch Deutschland - Retrospektiv
Eine Reise durch Deutschland - Rubrik
Final Exam Project Rubrik
Quiz on Lektion 7A - passive voice, wo and da compounds
Infinitive Phrases - writing exercise

Deutsch 4
Final Exam format

Neue Woche - Montag, der 25. April 2010

2010-04-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

German 1
Make Beliefs Comix
Strip generator
Comic Creator
Marvel Comic Generator
Comic Strip Generator
Heromachine Generator!
Was kaufst du deiner Familie und Freunden?

German 2
List of adjectives for describing people
More German Adjectives - plus explanation
Adjectives describing appearance
Collection of Grammar charts for German Language
Massive collection of German adjectives
Worksheet - practice with adjective endings after ein words.

German 3
Probleme zwischen Generationen - Aufsatz!
das Mädchen ohne Hände, Teil 1
das Mädchen ohne Hände, Teil 2

Deutsch 4 / AP
Pukka German - deutsche Umgangssprache - Podcasts

Montag, der 18. April 2010 - der Plan

2010-04-18T16:05:00.001-07:00

Deutsch 1
Dative Review exercise
Nouns in the Dative Case - Cybergerman explication
Was willst du deiner Familie zu Weihnachten schenken? - Conversation exercise with the dative case.
Wem kaufst du das Geschenk? - Conversation exercise with the dative and accusative case.
Mit wem gehst du denn einkaufen? Dative with certain prepositions - mit, in this case
Von wem ist das Geschenk? - conversation exercise with the dative case preposition von

Deutsch 3
Kapitel 6 - review powerpoint
Der Erlkönig - videos
Download VLC Media Player

Deutsch 4
Review of Kapitel 8 - powerpoint

AP Deutsch
Goethes Faust - a translation

neue Woche - Montag, der 12. April 2010

2010-04-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

Welches Wort gefällt dir am besten?
Vote for your favorite expression for "super" or "toll"

Jugendliche in Deutschland!
Check out this website and learn some new things that German teenagers do and say.

Deutsch 2
Read the entire text before clicking to see your images!!
Your Fotos! Click to see them and get some information on them - when you find your picture, click the tiny little link underneath the photo called Image Information. Some of your images didn't have this info available. You'll have to guess or make up the technical information on these pictures.

Deutsch 3
Lebensläufe - Beispiele - Nummer 1 Nummer 2 Nummer 3
Kapitel 6B - review sheet - modals in the simple past
Conversation - Modals in the Past Tense
wann/ob usage and practice - conversation exercise/notes.
How to talk like a German Pirate
Der berühmteste deutsche Pirat, Klaus Störtebeker
Klaus Störtebeker - Wikipedia Page

Neue Woche - beginnt am 6. April 2010 - Dienstag

2010-04-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 2
Fotografie - ein tolles Hobby!
Adjektivendungen - Übung!
Adketivendungen - Gespräch!
das Rockmobil

Deutsch 3
Beginnen wir Kapitel 6B - auch weiter mit dem Film.

Deutsch 4
Konjunktiv II - Wikipedia Eintrag

AP Deutsch
Vielfalt
Carlotti - kurze Geschichte von Daniel Zahno

neue Woche - beginnt am 22. März 2010

2010-03-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 2
Hobbys und Interessen - Gespräch!
Hobbys und Interessen! Aufsatz!
Fotografieren!

Deutsch 3
Städtebund - die Hanse - a modern manifestation of the Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League - Primary Sources - in English
List of Hanseatic Cities - with links to basic info.

neue Woche - der 15. März 2010

2010-03-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
Beginnen wir Kapitel 9 - Vergnügen und Arbeit!
Freizeit / Aktivitäten - review
Was machst du in der Freizeit?
Freizeit - Powerpoint Presentation
Was gibt's heute im Fernsehen? - Conversation exercise
Was läuft heute im Kino? - Conversation Exercise

Deutsch 2
Beginnen wir Kapitel 7 - Hobbys und Interessen!
Interessierst du dich dafür? - Conversation exercise
Vokabelliste - Ich fotografiere gern!

Deutsch 3
Die Hansestädte Hamburg und Bremen - Fragen zum Text, Seiten 191 ff.
Scribble Maps - create a custom google map . . . .
wordle.net - creating a word cloud
Kapitel 6A - vocab quiz

Neue Woche - der 8. März 2010

2010-03-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 3
das Klassentreffen - Kapitel 6A
Fragen - Partnerarbeit - Klassenkameraden

Deutsch 4
Rubrik - Thema 7 / Kapitel 7 Projekte
Migranten in Magdeburg

Neue Wochen, anfangs Montag, der 22. Februar 2010

2010-02-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Accusative Case prepositions - notes and exercises
Conversation exercise with für
Conversation exercise with ohne
Conversation Exercise with ohne, part 2

Deutsch 2
Notes on demonstrative pronouns
Conversation with demonstrative pronouns, part 1
Conversation with demonstrative pronouns, part 2

Deutsch 3
Rhyming German Dictionary
Review Past Subjunctive II in German - Projection Version
Adjective Endings - Review
Wandern wir! - kleines Projekt - Auswahlmöglichkeiten! Fällig - Dienstag nächster Woche.
Wien - Budapest - Prag
Konjunktiv II in der Vergangenheit - Partnerarbeit

Mittelalterliche Deutsche Literatur - ein Überblick

Die Woche, anfangs Montag, der 15. Februar 2010

2010-02-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Skits - perform them today in Class!
Chapter 7 Test on Tuesday
Ordinalzahlen - Wann hast du Geburtstag?
Geschenke! Was für Geschenke möchtest du?

Deutsch 2
Chapter 5 Test on Tuesday
Review of the Case system in German Nouns

Deutsch 3
Word Clouds - http://www.wordle.net/ - create a word cloud from two lengthy sentences found in our readings on Wien, Prag and Budapest. Print them and bring them to class tomorrow.

Die Woche, anfangs Montag, der 8. Februar 2010

2010-02-07T08:00:00.001-08:00

Application for the Summer Study Abroad to Germany Scholarship - for students scoring at the 90th or above percentile on the National German Exam this year. - Chapter 41

Germany Day 2010 Information

Deutsch 1
Stem Vowel Changing Verbs - retake quiz - points added to prior quiz grade - 7 max

Deutsch 2
Quiz Monday - Genitive Case, Food Vocabulary
das Menü Projekt

Deutsch 3
Review of Comparative and Superlative forms of adjectives
Comparative/Superlative forms as attributive adjectives - questions
Conversation exercises with comparative/superlative forms

Die Woche, anfangs Montag, der 8. Februar 2010

2010-02-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 2
Quiz Monday - Genitive Case, Food Vocabulary
das Menü Projekt

Kurze Woche, anfangs 4. Februar 2010

2010-02-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Notes from Kapitel 7 - summary of talking about clothes
Teacher's version of these notes.
Exercise on genders of clothing words and stem-vowel changing verbs
Exercise on stem-vowel changing verbs

Woche 19 - anfangs 26. Januar 2010 - Dienstag

2010-01-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Kleidung besprechen - *pdf presentation
Kleidung besprechen - powerpoint presentation
gefallen - its uses, mechanics, etc.
gefallen conversation exercise exercise

Deutsch 2
Genitiv - conversation exercise
Genitiv - conversation exercise, part 2
Was gibt's zu essen? Powerpoint presentation
Sprechen wir über Frühstück!
Wessen Salat ist das? - conversation with genitive case

Deutsch 3
if/then clauses, present tense - powerpoint presentation
notesheet on if/then clauses
Kapitel 4 Powerpoint review, part 1
Kapitel 4 Powerpoint Review Part II

Week of January 19, 2010

2010-01-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Cafe Phrases to use on Friday

Deutsch 3
Menschen und Mächte - Friedrich Barbarossa - Seiten 129ff - Vokabelliste (20) und #15
Lesen genau 131-134 - Wenn-Sätze mit Konjunktiv II

Deutsch 4
Klassenarbeit - S. 321ff, D,E,F
Biografie, Seiten 136-143, Schreiben D,E; Lesen/Lernen genau 324-327 - der Genitiv
Carolin - Fragen zum Text
Schule und Beruf, Seite 140 - welchen Schulabschluss braucht man für die folgenden Berufe?

Week of Monday, January 11, 2010

2010-01-10T15:26:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Review for Quiz tomorrow: food vocabulary/modal verbs

Week of Monday, January 4, 2010

2010-01-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

This week the National German Exam will be administered. On these days, the exam will take place during 1st and 2nd period in room 0618. Mrs. Tolomeo will administer the exam. Bring several number 2 pencils. Here is the schedule:

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 - German 2 students taking the exam report to room 0618
Thursday, January 7, 2010 - German 3 students taking the exam report to room 0618
Friday, January 8, 2010 - German 4 students taking the exam report to room 0618

Here is a list of participants and a summary of the testing information.
Sound Files for Download

German 2,3,4 - Class Survey - In den Winterferien.........
German 1 - Begin Kapitel 6 - Essen und Trinken.......
Notes on Kapitel 6
Was magst du lieber?
mögen
müssen - conversation exercise
wollen - conversation exercise

AP German
DeutschKurs bei Deutscher Welle
langsam gesprochene Nachrichten - Diesntag der 5. Januar 2010

Woche 17 - die letzte vor den Winterferien!

2009-12-15T06:26:00.000-08:00

National German Exam sample audio files for download.

Sankt Nikolaus powerpoint presentations

Weihnachten Materialien

Woche 16 - Montag, der 7. Dezember

2009-12-06T14:07:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Blog Entry from last year on nationalities, languages, weather, etc.

Deutsch 3
Powerpoint on Switzerland and progress reports
Bitten und Wünsche - mit Konjunktiv II

Woche 14 und 15 - Thanksgiving Woche!

2009-11-22T16:41:00.000-08:00

German company sets up operations in Wake Forest - Carl Zeiss Optronics
Minaret Ban approved by Swiss Voters - Al Jazeera English article

Deutsch 1
Wie ist das Wetter? - Worksheet!
http://www.wetter.de/
Indefinite Articles - Nominative and Accusative case
Sprachen!
Plural Forms - conversation

Deutsch 2
das Imperfekt - Short writing assignment
das Imperfekt - eine kleine Liste von schwachen Verben
Another essay assignment in the simple past tense.
Notes on the imperfect tense
Kapitel 2 Test - Retake!!!! - Ignore the field that says ID
das Imperfekt exercise

Deutsch 3
Erntedankfest - Vocabulary for the Thanksgiving holiday
Thanksgiving besprechen - overhead copy
die Schweiz und Zürich
Schreibtipps - a few things to remember when you write German.
new verbs to use for your family essay
Relative Clauses - Powerpoint
Relative Pronouns - Boardwork
Relative Clauses - Notesheet
Relative Clauses - website from Dartmount University
Relative Pronouns Conversation Exercise

Woche 13 - anfangs Montag, der 16. November 2009

2009-11-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1
Wie ist das Wetter?? - Vokabel

Deutsch 2
Wohin sollen wir in den Ferien fahren?
Fotos - in die Ferien fahren wir!
Vokabel - Ferien

Deutsch 3
What is your Dark Ages Character? - create your own Character from the dark ages of Europe. Read rubric of this Dark Ages Assignment and Check out my Dark Ages profile!

Verb tense Review
Stammbaum von der Simpsonfamilie
Die Simpsons - Fragen!
Der Stammbaum - ein Spiel!
Kapitel 3A Fragen
Familie!
Die Oma kommt!!
Familie / Nachbarn / wenn/als/wann

Deutsch 4
Musikterminologie - kurze Liste
Musik besprechen
Hausaufgabe - Lesen 108 - 112; Übung A - Seite 111 / Seiten 304 - 307; Übungen A, B, Seiten 306-307

Woche 12 - Montag, der 9. November 2009

2009-11-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 3
Quiz we took on Friday - Vocab and simple past tense forms

Week 11 - beginning Monday November 2, 2009

2009-11-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

Deutsch 1

Deutsch 2

Deutsch 3

Woche 10 - anfangs Montag der 26. Oktober 2009

2009-10-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

I'll be out on Monday and Tuesday, but you can read the plans I have given our substitute.

Deutsch 3
Quiz answer key
Schlussübung - Kapitel 1 -Anmerkungsblatt
Erich Kästner
Emil und die Detektive - Übung
Hausaufgabe - Beginnt Kapitel 2 - Gestern und Heute, pages 32-40, exercises 1,2,3,4 - total schreiben!!

AP Deutsch
Indirekte Rede - Projekt

Woche 9 - der 19. Oktober

2009-10-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
Was möchtest du am Wochenende machen?
Was gibt's heute im Fernsehen?

Deutsch 3
Kapitel 1 Quiz - Wortschatz

AP Deutsch
Übungen G,H,I, Seiten 388-389
Lesen genau, Seiten 390-398

Week 8 - der 12. Oktober 2009 Deutsch bei Enloe High School

2009-10-10T12:41:00.001-07:00

Deutsch 1
Review some present tense forms - worksheet!
More Fun with present tense - worksheet!
haben - to have - conjugation
Online Quiz - Present Tense forms of verbs

Deutsch 2
Komparativ und Superlativformen - Übung
vergleichen wir!! - Let's Compare!
National German Exam - info page

Deutsch 3
Wer sind die Personen? Mehr Fragen zu den Texten.
Gespräch beenden - conjunctions: usage!
National German Exam - Info Page
Homework: lesen Seiten 7-9 ganz genau, dann lesen Seiten 15 - 21. Schreiben #16
European Railway Server
Train Videos
Wikipedia Entry - TGV Train

Deutsch 4
"Bei den Wessis ist jeder für sich" - Text analysieren, organisieren - Seiten 58ff.
Wikipedia-Eintrag - die Europäische Union
National German Exam - info page

Week 7 - Deutsch bei Enloe High School

2009-10-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
Kommst du rüber? - conversation
Wohin gehst du? - conversation
Review homework together
Grammatical gender among German nouns - discussion
German word order in sentences
German Word order - Part 2
Nouns in german - the nominative case
Present tense of German Verbs
conjugation of sein - to be
Conjugation of haben - to have
Was machst du in der Freizeit?
Present tense Assignment
New infinitives in German!
Present tense conjugations - 1st and 2nd person (informal), singular
Present tense conjugations - 3rd person, singular
Present tense conjugations - 1st and 2nd person (informal), plural
Was machen sie in der Freizeit???
Was machst du gern in der Freizeit?

Deutsch 3
Lesen genau Seiten 2 - 7 - Die Welt - Vokabeln, usw
eine Liste von Gebieten der Welt
Landkarte Projekt
Übungen - mit Vokabeln glossiert
Wikipedia.de - resource for German language studies
Fragen zur Geografie

Week 6 - den 28.September 2009

2009-09-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
Conversation from Friday - am Telefon.
Sound file, in mp3, of this conversation.
Telling Time in German
Wie spät ist es? - Powerpoint, or directory of images.
Wohin gehst du denn? - vocabulary
List of cities which you will randomly pick
City Brochure Project

Deutsch 2
If your essay has the word rewrite on it, you must rewrite your essay, incorporating all of my comments on it. Turn in your old essay and your rewritten one together: due Friday.
Eine Reise durch Deutschland - Projekt Rubrik

Deutsch 3
Was passt was an? - die Bundesländer - due tomrrow along with your vocabulary list and notes!
using ob and dass in conversation
using weil in conversation
nachdem and bevor and the past perfect tense - notes
nachdem and bevor - exercise - answer key
Da ist viel Verkehr!! - Skits - to be performed on Friday!
Group Log / Critique of group members

Deutsch 4
Rewrite your essay on technology.

Week 5 - den 21. September

2009-09-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

Progress reports go out this week. Along with the progress report I am sending a letter describing remediation/tutoring/academic intervention opportunities available to all of my students. If your child is currently failing, then I require that they attend Monday after school tutoring sessions. For other folks, it optional. Please read the letter carefully and email me at nkandah@wcpss.net if you have any questions.

Deutsch 1
Monday after school is an opportunity to get a higher grade on that test I gave you all last week. Just pop in if you're unhappy, and we'll go from there. If you would like to enlist some peer tutoring from members of the German National Honor Society, send me an email at nkandah@wcpss.net and then I'll forward your email to a member of the honor society, then you and the member can set up a time at your convenience.
Meine Familie - talking about your family!
Familientreffen - family reunion - conversation
This Thursday your Familienfotoalbums are due!
Tomorrow your 3 math problems are due, using numbers from 21-infinity! Write your numbers fully!
Telling Time in German

Deutsch 2
Wie komme ich am besten dahin? - Verkehrsmittel!
Was hast du gestern gemacht? - Conversation!
Verbs to Know - a modest list
das Perfekt - Essay assignment
Giving Street Directions in German

Deutsch 3
Verben mit Präpositionen - Schreibübung.
Weißt du, ob....? - Conversation Exercise
Conjunctions exercise

Week 4 - Deutsch bei Enloe

2009-09-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1

We'll review a bit for our Test on Unit, which is Tuesday of this week.
Topics include: Greetings, Introductions, numbers 0-20, talking about ages, origins, other people.
Die Familie!! - key words
Conversation about your family
Projekt - ein Familienfotoalbum! Rubrik hier!
City Projekt - Brochure of your City. Requirements here.
numbers in German (and other languages!)

Deutsch 2

Test this Tuesday on the Dative case, chapter 10. Monday we review for it.
Bundesliga!! Spielbericht - der 5. Spieltag - go to the Bundesliga website and get info on your team. - due Wednesday!

Deutsch 3
Monday we review a bit for our Test on Tuesday - Test is on chapter 10 - past perfect, professions, visiting the doctor, da/dahin difference.
Powerpoint - Deutschland ein neuer Anfang
On your vocabulary list you made, answer the questions in complete sentences (German, of course!) and write 5 questions of your own, plus answers.

Deutsch 4
Prepare for our test on Tuesday concerning Kapitel 1 - verbs in the present.

AP Deutsch
Short stories are due today, along with vocabulary list.
Review briefly for exam on Tuesday - subjunctive II

Week 3 - Deutsch bei Enloe High School

2009-09-05T13:28:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
On Friday, we created a name plate for our desks with some large index cards and coloring pencils, etc. We decoratively wrote our German first and last names on these cards to put on our desks each day. We also colored our maps of Germany, the various states, etc. And we chose a German city to be from. Here is a link to the Wikipedia Entry of Germany and her 16 states (Bundesländer)
Woher kommst du? Asking where someone is from.
Unit 1 Online Quiz - IGNORE THE FIELD THAT SAYS ID. When you are done click Grade and Submit- Have fun!
Die Zahlen auf Deutsch - 1 - 20
Wie alt bist du? - asking how old someone is
Deutschland - die Bundesländer - Wikipedia Entry
Wo wohnst du? Asking where someone lives

Deutsch 2
Deutscher Fussball! - die Bundesliga - Offizielle Website
Wikipedia Entry on the German soccer leagues - Deutsche Bundesligen

Deutsch 3
Expressing aches and pains in German - Notesheet
Vocab exercise - Pain and Suffering in German
Rate Mal! -Guess what your neighbor has
beim Arzt - conversational exercise
Therapiepläne
Medical vocabulary - from about.com
Germany's Health care System - one perspective
NPR story about the German Health Care system

Deutsch 4
Syllabus for German 4 Class.

Week 2 - Deutschunterricht bei Enloe School

2009-08-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

Guten Tag! Hier gibt es einige wichtige Links für die zweite Woche des Semesters.

Deutsch 1
Review Greetings, etc. with Conversation
Talking about other people
Partnerwork - Wie heißt er? Und wie heißt sie?
Review Sheet - Greetings, Introductions
German Names - choose a German surname (family name)
Notes - alternative way of asking who someone is: Wer ist das?

Deutsch 2
Review body parts with partnerwork - Was machen sie mit dem Körperteil?
Notes: Case in German, Dative case in particular
Verbs in German that always have dative case objects
Dative Case endings - Assignment
Wem kaufst du das? - Conversation 1

Deutsch 3
pdf File of list of irregular verbs in German - for Deutsch 2, 3, 4 und auch APGerman!
Berufe! - ein kleines Mini-Projekt
Ayse geht zum Zahnarzt! - Fragen zum Verständnis
the past perfect - das Plusquamperfekt

Lessons for Week 1

2009-08-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

Deutsch 1
Click this link to view some essential weblinks for your first lessons in German!
Guten Tag and Auf Wiedersehen - Handout/Notesheet for you!
Wie geht es dir? Wie geht es Ihnen? - Asking how are you??

Deutsch 2
Body Parts in German - Quizlet!
German Medical Vocabulary
Der Körper - Image!

Deutsch 3
Berufe! Was willst du mal in der Zukunft werden?
Massive List of oldtime German professions
More professions in German
Hausaufgabe - lesen Seiten 305-307, mit Anmerkungsblatt

Deutsch 4
Beginnen wir Thema 1 - Freizeit - mit Partner/Klassendiskussion über unsre Lieblingsfreizeitbeschäftigungen
Besprechen wir die Graphik - Freizeitstudie - Seite 6 - Gedanken und Meinungen zum Inhalt.
Hausaufaufgabe - Projekt - Meine Woche - Gruppenarbeit #1, Seite 8 - Sieh Rubrik davon!
Lesen Seiten 9 - 11 - 50 000 Skater voll auf der Rolle!
Kapitel 1 - Seiten 242-247 - Schreiben A, B und C

AP German

Auf ein Blatt Papier stellt eine grosse Liste von neuen Vokabeln, Ausdrücken, usw von der Erzählung Frau Hitt. benutzt die Website, http://dict.leo.org/ als Hilfsmittel. Mindestens 2o Einträge auf der Liste.

Hausaufgabe: Übung D, Seite 352. Im Konjunktiv II, natürlich!!

Pacing Guides and Guidelines Information

2009-08-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

Guten Abend. Today was a fast-moving day at Enloe. We mostly went over guidelines and expectations of our respective German courses. We'll finish and continue reviewing these tomorrow in class. It is very important you all understand that learning a modern foreign language requires that teenagers speak and interact efficiently and effectively. But to do this requires both a higher level of self-control and also social risk-taking, which sometimes contradict each other in group settings. I could teach in a traditional manner, with loads of notes, lectures, etc. but it wouldn't be authentic second language learning. Review the guidelines closely.

Here are copies various pacing guides that I will use to guide instruction this year.

German 1 Pacing Guide
German 2 Pacing Guide
German 3 Pacing Guide

Enloe High School Rules will be strictly enforced, especially the tardy policy. If you are not in your seat when the tardy bell rings, you'll be assigned detention on the next possible ASD (after-school detention) day, which will be announced/written on the side announcement board in our classroom. Here is a copy of tardy slips I'll use to assign these dreaded detentions:

Tardy Slips for Excessive/Unproductive talking and tardiness

Course Guidelines and Expectations

2009-08-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of the course guidelines, which applies equally to each of my German classes at Enloe High School. Actual topics covered in each level of our German class will be distributed later in the week or posted at this website. I'll include a copy of last year's syllabus for German 4; the topics will be the same this year.

Course Guidelines and Expectations for German at Enloe - 2009-2010
Course Guidelines for German Level 4, 2008-2009

Ich heiße Euch . . . . Willkommen!

2009-08-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Another year at Enloe, and I hope you all had a terrific summer. Ours was good, the highlight being the German GAPP Exchange trip from June 18th to July 12th. That was awesome. Fourteen Enloe High students accompanied me and a parent-chaperone to Schwetzingen, Germany and Munich for a three-week sojourn. In two years we'll do it again, so you freshmen and sophomores with me this year (and also graduating seniors, if you're so inclined!) start saving some money and thinking about the GAPP exchange in 2011.

Last year I had 5 different websites for my German classes, this year I am going to use a single weblog (blog) to communicate with students and parents. So keep checking in to see what's new at Enloe's German program. I look forward to working with all of you this year!

Auf Wiedersehen! -- Herr Kandah

Frank Zappa Appreciation Week

2009-04-10T18:00:00.001-07:00

Thoughts on the Israel/Palestine Conflict

2009-02-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

Normally when I read rabidly pro-Israel letters to the editor in local newspapers, I ascribe them to a large and vocal group of misguided people overdosing on mainstream media a la Fox News and/or rigid religious sentiment. These people are earnest, and in my view somewhat harmless and predictable. In our great country, the right to spout off without encouraging violence and besmirching someone's character is absolute, but the latest spate of one-sided apologistic letters coincident with Israel's latest firebombing of Gaza, part and parcel of the low level of discourse on the Israel/Palestine conflict in America, contained some of the most overly simplistic, trite, offensive and rightfully dishonest statements that I have ever seen in support of Israeli aggression. It was as if the Israeli Government Press Office wrote the letters. I honestly couldn't believe the editor would allow the use of the word “barbarians” in reference to Hamas and the Islamic world on the editorial page. Since when do we as a society use the term barbarians to describe people fighting for their political rights in their own lands? Are we still living in Roman times, when anyone not like you are considered barbaric and undeserving of humane treatment? In any case, it was quite a low blow. Would you allow a comparison of Israel's treatment of Gaza to the Nazi treatment of the Warsaw Jewish ghettos, where resistance to racist oppression was met with cruelty and death. People of far great intellectual strength have made the comparison, but I am sure the Keystone Cops of Middle East Diplomacy seen on these pages would have cried foul and probably call me an anti-Semitic misanthrope or some such nonsense.

I would like to now attempt to blow holes in the common arguments many Israel supporters made during the last Israeli onslaught. First off, I'll say I count myself among supporters of Israel – I have travelled there numerous times, in both Palestine and Israel, and I find the peoples there welcoming and gracious, despite the tense and violent political climate under which they're forced to live. The first argument: What if Mexico or Manitoba, Canada or some such adjacent province, launched missiles at American towns? Shouldn't we respond too like the Israelis? The argument is based on the faulty assumption that the peoples of Manitoba or Mexico are living under the same set of circumstances as Gazans. Why would Canadians or Mexicans attack us? America hasn't kept them under siege for 5 years. We haven't killed their elected leaders with bombs that result too often in civilian death and massive property damage. America hasn't gone around the world pressuring leaders to boycott the elected municipal leaders of Manitoba or Mexico, and we haven't played patty-cake with vital fuel, food and medicines that need to flow into the area for the needs of the people. My point is, if we had treated our neighbors like this for a long time, and these neighbors got fed up and fight back, we have mostly ourselves to blame for Mexican or Canadian missiles. And Israeli harassment of the Palestinians during its brutal multigenerational occupation breeds nothing but contempt and animus.

It wouldn't mean we shouldn't or couldn't respond to Canadian and Mexican attack. The right to self-defense among nations is generally accepted but is no way absolute, especially if another way to a ceasefire is present. And in the case of Israel/Palestine, there are numerous UN Security Council Resolutions in play, frameworks of agreement left over from the waning days of the Clinton Adminstration, the Oslo Accords, the Geneva Memorandum written by leading Israeli and Palestinian academics and diplomats, and the 2002 Saudi Peace Plan, endorsed by the Arab League, that crystalized the essence of the Arab view of Israel: they are ready for normalized relations with the Jewish State, across the Arab world, in exchange for just peace made with the Palestinians involving a two-state solution roughly along the 1967 Green Line borders. All these frameworks and understandings could coalesce into a durable peace. The Arab World including the Palestinians are ready to recognize Israel culturally and economically, but not while Israel keeps terrorizing Palestinians in their own homes and villages. Seems reasonable enough.

This conflict between Israel and the Palestinians cannot be solved by military means. If military might could solve it, then the Israelis would have won a long time ago, decisively. The IDF is a killer machine, albeit sometimes undisciplined, that can “fold, spindle and mutilate / those unbelievers from a neighboring state” with the best of them. It's a political conflict that needs to be solved by political agreements mediated by devoted, competent peacemakers who understand both sides equally and sympathetically. Wildly waving the flag of one side in a conflict that honestly has no first tier security significance for Americans (remember, Israel's security needs and American security needs are distinct), aside from the evidence that American complicity in Israeli aggression does create anti-US sentiment throughout the world, is juvenile and simplistic. Hamas doesn't plot and conspire to kill Americans, as far as I know, they plot and conspire to kill and maim Israelis, soldiers and civilians also, in their retrograde war against Israeli occupation.

So the Mexican-USA / Gaza – Israel analogy is ridiculous, and anyone making it is hereby christened an ignorant partisan. Another empty argument: Israel left Gaza completely in 2005, and the Gazans responded with rockets. This is a common strain from Israeli-apologists, and it's bogus. The era of Hamas rockets came after Ariel Sharon's last gasp as the Israeli leader – known for his violent, deadly outbursts on the battlefield against innocent Arab civilians - enacted his unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. The world was supposed see this stroke of Sharon's gesture in a positive light, as if the Israelis made great sacrifices in leaving Gaza. They shouldn't have been there in the first place, first of all, and when they finally adhered to handpicked portions of UN Security Resolutions relevant to the Israel/Palestine conflict and left Gaza, they forgot to leave behind the keys to the great wall that imprisons this coastal strip. It's not a withdrawal when you remain in control of all border crossings, airspace, sea lanes, and when you exploit unhindered access to Gaza neighborhoods by air, land and sea with high-tech weaponry. Israel never withdraw from Gaza, they created the largest open air prison in the world, and bombed and strafed the region endlessly ever since their unilateral folly of withdrawal. Ariel Sharon's actions underscore the abject futility of unilateralism in this conflict and only lend support of face-to-face negotiations between parties, including Hamas, in this age-old war over land.

President Bush's only righteous action he accomplished in the region is the encouragement and assistance given to the Palestinians in holding parliamentary elections in 2006. By all accounts, it was the freest and fairest election the Middle East had ever seen. Pity he didn't respect the results of the election when Hamas won a majority in parliament. Most likely through pressure by highly vocal minority groups in this country, our former President once again squandered an opportunity by ignoring the will of the Palestinians and refusing to give Hamas a chance to govern. Boycotts began, international aid was withdrawn, and the Palestinians were left to wonder about America's fealty to democratic values. The loser party, Fatah, couldn't tolerate the results either and with assistance from Israel and America attempted to wrest power from Hamas in Gaza. Another failure of American/Israel policy ensued – this American/Israel sponsored civil war between Palestinians - and Hamas was left in total control of the Gaza Strip with a solid undercurrent of support in the West Bank where Fatah, the remnants of the PLO, assumed power.

It's not suprising why Hamas won. They have had a long history of providing vital services for the largest number of Palestinians. Hamas created and maintained schools, medical clinics, religious services in the communities they held sway, and they had a reputation for honesty in the courts and municipalities. People I have spoken with on the streets of Ramallah put more faith in Hamas-sponsored judicial appointments in the court systems than they did in Fatah-loyalists manning offices in the government buildings.

More later . . . . .

BOSS GT-10

2008-11-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

I recently added a new gadget to my sonic toybox, the BOSS GT-10 multi-effects guitar processor. It's a sweet ride, a universe of atmospheric sounds, and for your edification I offer you a few sound files, a few little extracts of guitar-based noise files I conjured up of late. Yes, they are rough, but they sound sweet. At least I enjoy them. I dedicate this mp3 playlist to Barack Obama and his campaign.

Here it is click right here - DON'T BE SHY

Vote Barak Obama!

2008-10-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

As the new school year approaches . . .

2008-07-27T15:51:00.001-07:00

I prepare myself mentally for the mental landscapes before me. The teenagers I work with have great potential to create interesting cultural artifacts, now I need to ensure that each day is spent learning new things and reinforcing old things. The house building metaphor becomes relevant: start with grading the area clean (make connections with existing knowledge schemata), start a foundation (steady exposure to target stimuli), reinforce foundation (practice new content in meaningful contexts), and so forth. Here is a website that examines planning a curriculum that works toward the acquisition of new knowledge and skill sets.

curriculumindex - Planning a curriculum - resources, etc.

Dancing!

2008-07-22T19:35:00.001-07:00

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch the above video without smiling.

Summertime!

2008-06-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

Snakes are back in my front yard and that means that summer is nigh. Carolina summers are a treat: sultry, sunny, muggy in the evening, perfect sitting on the porch weather and getting in touch with neighbors, friends and family. So enjoy the summer, close to home preferably.

Summer also means that school is finishing up, and my first year at Enloe High School was a thoroughly enjoyable one. The second high school I have served since beginning in this hallowed profession 15 years ago, William G. Enloe offered me a challenging and rewarding atmosphere of high end academics. Very nice change of scenery, it was, but my former high school Southern High School, still calls, for instance yesterday, when I went to a graduation party of a student, Brendan S., whom I taught at Spartanland last year. It was fun to drive back to East Durham and visit with some memorable kids, and I appreciated their warm welcome in the hot Carolina afternoon. One student I did teach at Southern, a certain Jeremy R., finally graduated - well, tomorrow is graduation - with zero absences in his entire 13 year stint in the Durham Public Schools, an awesome achievement. You can see his picture at the Durham Herald Sun newspaper from today, and a nice article written about him and several other DPS students whose attendance was also 100% durable. Better yet, I'll just share the picture on this blog of this fine group of students; Jeremy is the fellow in red standing at the left.

Yesterday was a day of student appreciations. A trio of terrific talents from my Advanced Placement German class invited me to a little dinner at restaurant in Raleigh. I gratefully accepted and had a wonderful evening with these übercool students. They offered me up as a further token of their appreciation a CD, Rockin' the Rhein with Grateful Dead, an appropriate disc, given our time together in German class and my admission that classic rock and roll is my first preference when I reach for the music dial. Great to be honored by students, nice to know that I make impacts on these kids.

What else? Too much. Politics could very well take up some space, but the sheer depressive quality of the events that I care most about, events that I have recently expounded upon here, only angers me and throws me into some despair. So I'll avoid rambling on about the Middle East, but there is one article that might be interesting, by a columnist I read at antiwar.com, Charley Reese: Middle East Pop Quiz. Pretty interesting. Anyone notice how the price of gas spiked after some dipshit in the Israeli government squawked about the inevitability of attaching Iran? Even after American intelligence assessments about Iran's WMD programs concluded that Iran currently has no weapons program underway that would any time soon threaten American interests. Beware the warmongers in Washington and Israel. Call your Congressman or Congresswoman now and tell them to back off threatening Iran.

Peace

Give to antiwar.com

2008-05-30T15:03:00.001-07:00

I don't normally ask anything of my quaint base of regular readers, but in this case I feel a need. The website I have linked below, antiwar.com, has been my source of information and commentary for many years now, and it deserves your support. I am tired of mainstream media outlets giving warmongers and war profiteers a free pass as they run amok in Washington D.C. The criminals have been exposed as the cheats and liars that they are, but sadly America still gets spoonfed sugarcoated versions of world events: little if any context, no alternative viewpoints, few facts, mostly hot, irritating air. Antiwar.com twice a year asks readers to contribute to keep their small but significant operation a float. Surf on over and decide for yourself if the website piques your interest. You won't be disappointed.

If you're wondering who the folks are who run the website, you can read about them here.

Antiwar.com

Politics and the American Way

2008-05-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

I can't help but notice at my favorite politics website, antiwar.com, a plethora of articles that examine American politicians' fondness for publicly supporting Israeli security needs above all else. As if American foreign policy in that hateful region rests entirely on the premise that what is good for the Israeli political establishment is good for American interests. Let's list a slew of these articles that turn on its head this rabid dogma that is in fact harming American interests.

First, an article from Salon magazine entitled "Finding Obama guilty of insufficient devotion to Israel." The article by Glenn Greenwald speaks about Barack Obama's interview with the Atlantic Monthly's Jeffrey Goldberg, in which Mr. Goldberg asks pointedly to get to the kishke of the matter: do you swear an oath the security of the nation of Israel without condition? Barack does a yeoman's job of taking the politically expedient route of stroking Israel's massive ego. If he was honest about the situation, he wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hades of getting elected. He ducked and dove, but managed to pull off a few zingers pertaining to Israel's long history of violating the human rights of the Palestinians. Good job Mr. Obama, don't let the rabid Israel-firsters get you down, because anyone who truly cared about Israel would actively support and work towards a just peace settlement with the Palestinians and rapidly implement the peace agreement. I'll end this section with a quote from George Washington, in which he addresses the danger of hardcore bias toward any one nation to the detriment of others:

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.

Read Washington's entire address for yourself. It is time we start heeding his words.

Justin Raimondo also speaks of this "inquisition" of an interview between Goldberg and Obama, and offers the most humane quote from any of the presidential candidates on Israel's practices in the West Bank, the future heartland of a Palestinian state:

"My job in being a friend to Israel is partly to hold up a mirror and tell the truth and say if Israel is building settlements without any regard to the effects that this has on the peace process, then we're going to be stuck in the same status quo that we've been stuck in for decades now, and that won't lift that existential dread that David Grossman described in your article."

Good Job, Obama. It's not enough, but I understand the limitations of the American political scene when speaking about Israel and the Palestinians. Justin Raimondo's article is called Obama v.s. The Lobby and it deserves your attention.

Ran HaCohen, in his regular Letter from Israel column at antiwar.com, speaks about Israel's 60th birthday. Quite the critic, he is. If only America had journalists as brave as the Israeli Ran HaCohen. It is quite astounding that Israelis themselves are more critical of their government than American politicians. Poll after poll in Israel indicate that about 60 percent and more support negotiations with Hamas in Gaza. Why can't the will of the people be expressed in a democracy? Anyways, read Ran's article; it's illuminating.

Nun - as I say in my German classes - enough is enough. Thanks for reading. And before anyone starts casting aspersions on me for calling attention to the articles linked from this humble blog, let me say this: my position on the Israel-Palestinian conflict is no different in its essence than that of American Presidents since Ronald Reagan, at least. I just get impatient about working towards implement the noble and righteous goal of two states with well defined, internationally recognized borders in the Holy Land, Israel and Palestine.

Jimmy Carter gets the shaft

2008-04-22T16:28:00.001-07:00

I guess I can't get enough of former President Jimmy Carter and his "peace mission" to the Hamas leadership in Syria. The article entitled Jimmy Carter Gets the Point by Philip Giraldi sheds some light on the abysmal treatment heaped on Mr. Carter by political elitists in America and Israel. How the media pilloried his efforts to achieve understandings between Israel and Hamas is sad testimony of the level of discourse in this country on the conflict. Israelis themselves, people on the front lines of this war of attrition, advocate for negotiations with the Hamas leadership. Israelis in general are more pragmatic about their conflict with the Palestinians than the American mainstream media outlets, as if these narrowminded opinion makers stateside are more aware of the realities of the conflict than the Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land themselves. An embarrassment. But Mr. Carter there are people who appreciate your integrity and honesty. Keep up the Great Work.

The Surge

2008-04-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

In the works is the trip to Germany next summer, in the summer of 2009. Our exchange school in Schwetzingen has decided to remain in partnership with us, despite our inability to muster a trip their town near Heidelberg this summer. So the tentative plan is to welcome them over in the Spring of 2009 and then reciprocate that summer, late June to early July. We hope to get an email/Inter exchange set up with our classes before then to prepare the groundwork for the visits. Peter Fuchs, the teacher at Hebel Gymnasium in Schwetzingen is keen on the idea. Click the picture to the left for a a view of their school. And of course the link above to see their very interesting website.

Other things occupying my headspace include President Jimmy Carter's trip to meet Hamas leaders in Syria. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but he did it, that grande homme of peace and justice. Pity his efforts to communicate with enemies, well, Israel's enemy really, are being ridiculed by American politicos. Secretary of State Rice says she fails to see any benefit to meeting with Khaled Meshal, while an Israeli minister passes along a message for Carter to the Hamas leadership concerning mutual issues. This is a tacit agreement that Israel is open to negotiating with the intransigent Palestinian group, while America squwaks endlessly our failed policy of isolating Hamas and forcing it to her knees by intense diplomatic and financial pressure. I can't think of any other example in recent human history of how an occupied, impoverished people who voted fairly for their leaders are subjected to the horrifying sanctions spearheaded by American chickenhawks in their zeal to support Israel. The United Nations is impotent, the EU is disinterested, the Arab Gulf States have other priorities, namely earning oil revenues and keeping their monarchies intact, and Palestinians in Gaza suffer, and the ones in the West Bank are forgotten in a fog of weak-willed "peace negotiations."

Another pity is that on the day of Carter's meeting with Hamas, Gaza erupted in border violence, starting with Hamas operations to infiltrate the Israel-Gaza border and kill and maim, and the typical hyperviolent Israeli response resulting in chaos and death. You'd think that if Hamas wanted to attain some respectability in the formalized world of international diplomacy, it would exercise restraint. But then again, I don't live under the rules of the Gaza-Israeli dispute, which is comprised of low-level Palestinian actions and heavy Israeli reprisals, or ulta-violent Israeli operations and low-level Palestinian reprisals. After the dust briefly settles, people are pointing fingers at one another, with the Arabs spending way more time burying their dead.

Let's hope that President Carter can coax Hamas into accepting a unilateral ceasefire and more flexibility. If he fails, we return to the status quo. A lazy world seems satisfied with that.

My wife says I should stop listening to the news because it makes my cynical and on edge. She's probably correct.

April Fools

2008-04-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

"Been a Long Time since I rock and Rolled!" I shake my head whenever I reference a rock band as decadent as the Led Zeppelin. Their glory days of wanton English Rock Blues wanderings across America in the 1970s combined immoral excess and soaring, anthemic rock music into a potent brew that remains with every Zep fan of that age. That is, if you were into their sound then, you're into their sound now; it sticks to your memory banks and continues to entertain. So I plead guilty to subscribing to the Zeppeling-line of thought. By the way, the picture to your right came from the "official Led Zeppelin Website, http://www.ledzeppelin.com/." Visit the website for the multimedia scoop on this legendary band.

The verse I quote above, of course, comes from their song Rock and Roll, and the lyric describes the attention I have been giving this website for the last two months, when in fact much has occurred. Like what you may ask? Well, like BASEBALL SEASON! With Detroit Tigers attempting another run to the playoffs. They missed it last year, and the year before lost in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006, and now, Good Grief, they begin the season losing game after game. Their record currently is 3-10, but their looking to sweep the Minnesota Twins for their first sweep of the season. Come on Tigers!

Visit their Official Major League Website at http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=det

President Jimmy Carter is visiting the Middle East in his capacity as diplomat, peacemaker, gadfly. He plans to talk to Khaled Meshal, the exiled leader of Hamas in Syria. President Carter says that not negotiating with your enemy is counterproductive. I would have have to agree. As much as I dislike Hamas and their style of governance, and their public rhetoric against Israel and support for low-level resistance against Israel's violent occupation, there is value in talking to them and persuading them to lay off the anti-Israel rhetoric, and publicly state their acceptance of a two-state solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict. Of course, it would also help if Israeli actions were in sync with its public statements of the need to erect and support a democratic Palestine in the West Bank. It is shameful that Israel has shunned President Carter's visit to Israel and Palestine because of his political philosophy. After all, his efforts in the 1970s secured a peace treaty with Egypt, which in turn allowed Israel to focus her attention on its colonization of the West Bank and Gaza. President Carter has devoted his life to peace and justice throughout the world for everyone. Treating him with diplomatic disdain like this is a truly classless act for which Israel should be embarrassed and ashamed. I hope President Carter can knock some sense into Hamas.

I ran across an interesting article, keeping the subject focused on the Middle East, and this article concerns Israel's purchase of oil from Iran. Israel enjoys calling attention to Iran's purported nuclear weapons program, and scolding people who do business with Iran, but it happily purchases oil from the country, know full well where the oil comes from. I bet America gets lots of oil from Iran also. And Iran also, while calling for Israel's dismantling, has no problem selling oil to her. All this talk about boycotting Iran and shunning Israel appears to be a sham when money and energy needs are involved.

Article from commentisfree.guardian.co.uk - Israel's Tehran connection

In the Words of Noam Chomsky

2008-02-27T16:47:00.001-08:00

I have always enjoyed Noam Chomsky's droll, but heavily researched writings on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He speaks with an eloquence and authority that is virtually unmatched in the world of talking heads that dominate mainstream American commentary on this tortured war between two Semitic tribes. Unfortunately, his brilliance and commanding knowledge of chains of events that precede dramatic and violent acts rarely makes it to the dominant airwaves, and we are left with an abysmally superficial, one-sided narrative of the war between Jews and Arabs.

Mr. Chomsky, world-renowned linguist and first-rate critic of American foreign policy now writes about the recent assassination of a certain Imad Moughniyeh, a senior commander
of Hezbollah,in Damascus, Syria. American State Department officials hailed it as a triumph in our war on terror. But who was this man? And how is his death a blow to terrorism? And what does the word mean anyways? Is the word terrorism a useful term or one so laden with political, prejudicial bias that it is rendered meaningless to a more discerning public? Read the article by Professor Chomsky and decide for yourself. His writings are really required reading for folks interested in the Middle East Wars.

The World's Most Wanted - by Noam Chomsky

Let's See . . . . What's New?

2008-02-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

Tons of things, like tonight a Lunar Eclipse entertaining Earthlings in the Western Hemisphere. Always a nice show for terrestrial sentients, if anything to pry people away from the gadgets and gizmos for a second to look up into the heavens. Check out the Astronet, a Dutch-based website on all things astronomical, for a preview of this celestial event.

My favorite website for world affairs, antiwar.com, is having their regular fundraiser. I would encourage all armchair foreign ministers who care about war and are angered at those who advance it to support this important web-based portal to alternative viewpoints on the state of the world today.

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a certain Hans Schlegel, a German astronaut, doing a spacewalk and working on the Columbus Laboratory which is now a part of the International Space Station. Note the German flag on his sleeve.

Upcoming and beyond

2008-01-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

By the end of the week I'll be in New York, NY for a couple of days, getting acquainted with the GAPP Exchange Program that I inherited from the former German teacher at Enloe High. She worked hard to create the exchange with a school in Schwetzingen, German, who are looking forward to a visit this summer from a group of German students at Enloe. At their website, linked above, the Hebel Gymnasium has a nice log of their time spent in Raleigh North Carolina. It's in German, but any translator could render it in readable English for you, if interested. I'd recommend freentranslation.com. I am working hard to get things in place for this monumental visit. International travel I am familiar with, but carting and supervisors teenagers overseas I am not; regardless I am moving ahead. The kids who've expressed an interest in spending three weeks in Schwetzingen and German are excellent students, however, so I forsee no problems at all. The picture to your left is one I took the last time I was in New York, in 2004. Looking forward to another visit to that grand city.

So if I do go to Germany this summer, I'd probably skip again travelling to Ramallah, Palestine, which had consumed my summers of 2005 and 2006. Those were fantastic trips, but last summer of 2007 I chose to remain stateside, for various reasons. Travelling to that region, however rewarding it always has been, can be difficult for many Americans. An utter irony, given the fact that Israel, recipient of unimaginable financial and diplomatic largesse frm American taxpayers, controls the borders to the Palestinian territories. Click the picture to the right to see a short collection of photos I took of Ramallah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the Summer of 2005.

Speaking of that wretched part of the world, I take issue of course with our Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice pusing for a UN Security Council resolution against Iran's alleged nuclear program. Even after a National Intelligence Estimate concluding that Iran had halted its drive to acquire and develop nuclear weapons, America still wants to beat the drums of war against that Islamic Republic. All the while Israel maintains a squeeze on the open air prison that is Gaza and while Hamas hardcores continue to launch crude homemade missiles into southern Israel. I mean, how about a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to the siege of Gaza's 1.3 millions Palestinians and an immediate start to negotiations that would result in a peace treaty between Gaza, the West Bank and Israel? Resolution to that age-old conflict would do more to strengthen our security than provoking Iran into a war with us. Clicking the picture to your left will lead you to a Yahoo! Slide show of the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel.

January is here, 2008

2008-01-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

Two-thousand and eight is already shaping up to be a great year. I ushered it in after a fantastic visit to Michigan for my brother's wedding, and now I am chest-deep in teaching German at Enloe High. Which by the going great....what kinds of things are we doing in the five levels of German I teach? In German 3, we are learning key vocabulary in reminiscing, for instance, at class reunions or family reunions, and they're also studying elements of searching and securing a job. We also played a terrific game, Hansa, that purports to simulate sailing experience in the Hanseatic League of the 13th and 14th centuries. We'll continue to read about the Hansa in our class. As far as grammar goes, double infinitives with modal verbs, past tense, indicative and subjunctive, of said verbs, etc.

AP German are lampooning our current crop of American presidential candidates; they deserve to be ridiculed and also praised; their lampoons will include their platforms expressed in German key phrases and statements.

German 4 are preparing a skit between a therapist and patient who is having doubts about his current family situation. I hope to get audio recordings of their efforts online shortly.

German 1 are writing postcards describing an eating establishment in the German city of Mittenwald, learning how to order food and drinks from an ice cream parlor, and future tense.

German 2 are writing postcards about a sojourn in Düsseldorf while preparing a skit concerning a visit to a department store.

It's a crazy week, in that I want to finish these chapters and projects before the end of the week, which thereby ends the semester, so I am driving the kids fairly hard in class. They ar eup to the task.

More news? I ran across an article written by John Mearsheimer, who along with Stephen Walt wrote a devastating critique last year of America's relationship with Israel, and this new article by the bold Professor states eloquently what I have said all along: American politicians unwavering support, uncritical support of Israel does no party involved in the conflict any favors. Instead of coddling Israel's failed leadership while supporting its economy with billions of American dollars, we should be smartly pressuring them to make peace with the Palestinians in a two-state solution and do it NOW. American should not tolerate breaches of agreements by Israel and should assist them them in making a secure and lasting peace. It'll do the world many a favor. The name of the article is Candidates’ Unconditional Support Isn’t Right for Jewish State and is a good read about the nefarious nature of America's special relationship with this rather belligerent state in the Middle East. And if you want to read the critique they published about America and Israel, then zoom to Amazon and read about the book they created from their paper. The actual article, The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy, is also available online.

Because in the end, solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict equitably would largely deflate Muslim animus toward America and the West, despite what the pundits want to tell you.

By the Mearsheimer article was found at an interesting left-leaning website called commandreams.org - Breaking News and Views for the Progressive Community.

What's Going on?

2007-12-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

It's high time I update this blog. Sorry for the delay. Not that anyone ever reads it, although I do get comments from students about it. Ah, yes, those Enloe students. I send them with great regularity to kandah.org to get their assignments, and they notice the lack of updates at the main page. So astute they are.

I recently completed the book The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East, by the incomparable Robert Fisk. He's a correspondent for the British newspaper the Independent, and he's based in the Middle East and has been for many a year. Robert Fisk has been covering wars in the all the tormented regions of the Middle East for years, and his firsthand accounts of the atrocities and the politics and the bloodthirsty megalomania of the conflicts' main players are unsparing and without peer. The most astounding aspect of this dense and compelling book is the thread that winds its way throughout: the Western powers' zeal to control and manage the regions according to its own geopolitical goals has resulted time and again in failure. Nobody has been able to force the Arabs and Persians to bend completely to the will of the Western powers, and current attempts to forge new realities on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan through military means is yet another example of the failures of Anglo-American foreign policy folly. We in the West simply continually to repeat mistakes of the past. We support corrupt dictators, and when they begin to put the interest of the countrymen above that of the American interests, we work, either explicitly or covertly to undermine and take down the regime. It's depressing, this book is, but Americans need to know how bankrupt American foreign policy is the primary cause of the regions current political malaise.

I am working my way through a Pimsleur series of language CDs, namely, Eastern Arabic I. My familiarity with this particular dialect of Arabic is generally advanced, but I thought I could benefit from a more aural, formalized course of study in the language. The dialect offered in this particular series is closer to that spoken in say Damascus Syria than the one I would be more exposed to in Palestine, but I am skilled enough the appropriate lexical and pronunciation adjustments. I would recommend the series. Makes for decent listening on my 45 minute jaunt to work very morning.

Step Right up

2007-10-27T20:06:00.001-07:00

I stumbled across an interesting article in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, which by the way is an excellent source of news about Israel and its struggle with Palestinian nationalism. The article describes how Arab Christian clergyman, representing a tiny minority of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, are now being prevented from traveling easily from church to church in the lands they minister. Now, Israel has always limited movement of Palestinians in the lands they occupy militarily, mostly in rather cruel and overbearing ways, but in this case Christians, whom Israel has historically supported in Arab lands, are now bearing the brunt of these restrictions imposed on the non-Jewish majority in the West Bank and Gaza. My point is, since American Christian groups are quick to cry foul when they feel their rights to practice their religion are trampled upon, I would hope they would file formal complaints with the Israeli government on the treatment of Arab Christian ministers. And perhaps some will protest; my faith in the human race to express support for oppressed peoples remains strong. But given the recent lovefests between American Christian groups and Israeli Zionists, a bizarre, self-serving relationship if there ever was once, I am afraid this violation of the right of Christians to practice their religion in the lands of their birth might go unnoticed.

The pictures in this section are ones I took at the Church of the Holy Sepulchure in Jerusalem. The massive edifice is a testament to the significance Jerusalem and its environs should hold for the Christians of the world. Let's hope that Israel's propaganda allies in the American Christian Church, mostly a conglomerate of ultra-rich, rabid right-wing Evangelical sects, step right up and condemn the restrictions imposed on their brothers in the future Palestinian state. Read the article:

Israel rescinds Arab Christian clergy travel rights in W. Bank - Haaretz - Israel News

Cruising Altitude

2007-09-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

A new update, finally, to this blog, and thanks for reading it. I am just teaching away at Enloe High School with a primo schedule filled with eager German students, all day. It is an excellent job. I transitioned nicely enough, and I welcome the challenges inherent in teaching 5 different levels of German for the first time, full-time. I was told by colleagues that my previous 14 years at Southern Durham High School would rapidly recede into a foggy memory as I become entrenched at my new school, but they haven't. Not a day goes by without thinking about the halcyon days at Southern. I got along great with the kids there, and the teachers and administrators, but on the whole, the environment at Spartanland was chaotic, loud, brash and ultimately grating on the nerves. Someone needs to a write a book, a memoir, about Southern Durham, and maybe one day I will.

Other things going on, oh, why not, I'll mention the new DVD I picked up, about my old friend Frank Zappa. Not a personal acquaintance, mind you, just his music and monstrous creative genius exacting my aesthetic tendencies. This particular media event profiles his two early-mid 1970s records, Apostrophe(`) and Overnite Sensation. Now, there is some fantastic music on both these records and I would recommend them to anyone interested into first-rate orchestral rock, but some indecent imagery on one song in particular makes the pair of classic recordings a mature person-only affair. And even that song is a funky, soulful masterpiece that presages the emergence of rap/hip-hop lyrical delivery styles by 5 or 6 years. The sheer musicianship is astounding, and it's a minor miracle that such proficient players took part in Frank's absurdist compositional sensibilities. So there, I recommend the Classic Albums Series documentary on Frank Zappa's twin outing, Overnite Sensation and Apostrophe(`) You can buy it direct from
zappa.com

New School Year, New School

2007-09-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

After 14 years teaching German and a variety of other subjects at Southern Durham High School, I begin a new school year plying my trade at a new high school, Enloe High School, in Raleigh. I started last week, earlier than intended, and what an eye opener it has been. You must understand: I have only taught at one school, Southern High, and that was my yardstick of what a modern urban high-school was like. How they are run, how the students behave, the curriculum, athletics, and everything else, all these attributes of Southern's peculiar culture and evolution informed my view of high-school. So anything other than Southern was doomed to the inevitable comparisons.

Now I'll try to avoid the comparisons and say this: my years at Southern have been a rewarding and challenging experience of ups and downs and successes and frustrations, but on the whole, I made an impact there, and the school has made an impact on my psyche as well. I'll miss my colleagues in the Foreign Language Department, all of them, and the other teachers as well. I found them all to be a mostly caring and professional faculty, and I was honored to be a part of it all those crazy years. Southern had that reputation, but I ignored it mostly, and focused on how to keep the kids focused on higher learning. Difficult task at a school struggling with a history of low achievement and rising ruffian visibility. The kids there, despite their generally socially obtuse collective demeanor, are a deserving lot who need talented teachers just like any other group of teenagers in the Triangle's public high-schools. So Best Wishes, Southern High School! I'll see you at graduation.

My position at Enloe entails a day-long spell of teaching only German, and that I find thrilling and rewarding. No more Computer Programming, which had become at Southern a bit of a drag on me, for various reasons. Teaching at Enloe is really a dream gig for me, and I am going to run with it. The kids at Enloe seem eager and polite and positive, characters and individuals with a sense of humor and a sense of what a school's mission is. I am stoked about it. Go Eagles! Go Spartans! See ya!

Rosie, R.I.P

2007-08-18T07:27:00.001-07:00

Two days ago, Thursday, August 16, 2007 at around 7:30 PM, our beloved beagle dog Rosie passed away and started chasing rabbits and playing soccer in the the great dog playground in the sky. Kind of fitting that our little hound dog died on the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, but then again not so terribly fitting, because we'll miss her a lot. Cancer was discovered in her, and we and the vets did all we could to make her life better. She died at home underneath an end table in our living room, which became her little den for the past few weeks where she minded her own business sleeping and resting. We knew it was coming, this sad demise. Rosie loved kids and loved playing, but this year she had a rough one, and we were grateful that she spent her last days in her house surrounded by her family. She entertained children and adults in Michigan and Minnesota, where she'd accompany us on our road trips to visit family. Her bark was loud and full of vitality; every visitor to our home was greeted with her beagle bark and wagging tail. Nobody was afraid of Rosie, we all knew her energetic barking was her way of expressing happiness at any and all visitors.

So here are some pictures of our family member Rosie the Beagle. She'll be missed.

Summer Nights, Starry Skies

2007-07-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

The past week saw a return of my trusty little Meade Telescope. Taking it out one warm Carolina Summer evening on my back deck, I was rewarded with superb vistas of our neighbor the moon and of the planet Jupiter in the low southern sky. Now, from my back deck, I don't have a large sky to look, only because of the trees that surround my house. But the sky I can easily see always displays some heavenly highlights. Take a look at the picture to the right. Click it to see in the center of the picture the planet Jupiter and the object below is the star Antares, in the constellation of Scorpio. They are buddies this summer, and they dazzle in the southern sky. To the right of this duo is the moon, which is hidden by the trees. I took this picture with my Panasonic DMC-FZ5 digital camera. The exposure time was 6 seconds with an f-stop of 3.2 and an ISO of 400. Not a bad shot.

The moon also shined bright that evening. I always like looking at our satellite with this modest scope of moon. The craters and mare are crisp through the viewfinder, and it always amazes me that an object so far away - 384,000 km - can appear with such stark detail in my head, in real time. It may seem mundane, peering at the moon, but it offers some spectacular vistas through any telescope. I offer you all some pictures of this stargazing session. Maybe one day soon I will get more ambitious and lug the telescope to a better viewing locale. But there is nothing like being able to step outside my back door and visit with the night sky, however limited my horizon might be.
Here is the moon taken with the same camera, with an exposure of 8 seconds and an f-stop of 2.8. An another, a close-up of Luna, for your enjoyment:

It was 40 years ago this summer

2007-07-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

I was a small child when the Summer of Love, 1967 took off San Francisco. So do I even have a right to mention it here? I wasn't really there? Well, of course I can mention it, because we all know this little old hippie movement had a huge impact on American culture. Rolling Stone Magazine this month covers the 1967 Summer of Love with a sweet collection of articles of not just San Francisco, but also London and New York and Los Angeles, other cities hosting highly creative musical and artistic movements. Detroit is profiled also, the Motor City, Motown, but it was also a major American city that erupted in racial violence and symbolized a darker reality of relations between black and white people in America.

So why not? How about a few Youtube videos of great cultural moments from 1967. It'll be a tribute to my upcoming trip to San Francisco, where I might experience some of the spirit of this age. By the way the mp3 Sample of the Day to your right should be digested. Within months of the eruption of the Summer of Love, Frank Zappa came out with a devastating musical critique of the youth movement of the late sixties. He voiced private concerns of the Sixties leaders themselves, and also public concerns and thoughts of the government leaders of the day. They mostly dismissed Flower Power as a wasteful youth movement that encouraged . . . . .brb

Jimi at Monterey

Detroit Race Riots

Frank Zappa at the Garrick Theatre, New York

The Great War for Civilization

2007-07-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

I am making my way through this terrific book, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East. It's a journalist's account, one by the great British journalist Robert Fisk. He's put himself in harm's way repeatedly to bring to us armchair diplomats and current event analyzers first hand accounts of history in the making. The man has covered the Middle East since the mid 1970s; he was there during the Iranian Revolution of 1980, the Lebanese Civil War, the Israeli invasions of Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, the bloody Iran-Iraq War, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the US coalition to oust him under President Bush, Sr., and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Robert Fisk has interviewed America's archenemy Osama bin Laden, and heard his threats on the West a few years before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US. This particular book is a fascinating travel documentary and war journal of these monumental events that have led America and her allies to the current predicament it now finds itself.

His prose is sometimes elegant, sometimes difficult, but the scenes he evokes are exactly what Americans need if they truly want to fathom the lives of the major players in the region. We can't make decisions in a vacuum without requisite background, and Mr. Fisk provides that all important background, and often it isn't easy to digest. He has heaps of criticism to throw on American, British, German, French and other rouge players who have worked to destabilize the region through amoral alliances with despots and dictators. Read this book; it's monumental.

Some links for you.

Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988 - from the Iran Chamber Society - not a bad overview of the war.
Iran-Iraq War - from the Columbia Encyclopedia
Map of the Iran Iraq War
Iran-Iraq War and Waterway Claims
Robert Fisk - Wikipedia Entry
Articles by Robert Fisk from his current Newspaper, The Independent

Cartoon Jazz and Electronic Travels

2007-07-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

I discovered again the music of Raymond Scott, a composer and purveyor of electronic devices for 50 years. His music was well-known to fans of 1940s and 1950s Warner Brothers cartoons; millions of people knew his famous melodies. The man also pioneered the use of electronic devices for the sequencing of musical tones. He fell into obscurity, dying in 1994 after a series of heart attacks and strokes left him debilitated up until his death.

His music is a diabolical mixture of big-band jazz, frantic bebop, European chamber music and sounds from an immense variety of sources. I have a sound file to the right you can click to enjoy a Raymond Scott snippet. I'd recommend the Manhattan Research Inc. recording. It's a grand collection of chamber music performed on his ever growing collection of electronic sound generating equipment. The once CD that aided in his revival of sorts in the early 1990s was the record Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights, a compilation of his most well-known cartoon themes all done in a big-band jazz orchestra format.

Some Links on Raymond Scott

Other news: Southern's webserver underwent an unauthorized and unintentional erasure of ALL data. Backups were old but they did the trick.

Summertime, 2007

2007-06-25T07:09:00.000-07:00

My favorite time of the year has begun: summertime in North Carolina. Hot muggy nights with the windows open, the sound of insects and frogs a symphony. Hazy sunny days, high temperatures a green paradise. Nothing nicer than North Carolina in the summer.

A trip to Wrightsville Beach last weekend highlights a good beginning to this summer. The ocean was a welcome change of scenery. I always find trips to the ocean recuperative, and this time was no different: always good memories of trips to the ocean. And Wrightsville Beach's proximity to Chapel Hill makes it a prime destination for busy beach lovers.

No travel to the Middle East planned for the summer; the past couple of summer saw me in Ramallah visiting family and learning the ins and outs of doing business in the area. It's a troubled area these days, what with the Hamas victory in Gaza separating the Fatah-dominated West Bank from it and dashing hopes, temporarily probably, of a unified Palestinian State. I hope next year to return to Ramallah, like it or not. For the most part, I like it.

Have a good summer everyone. I'll try to kepe this page updated as the season moves forward. Peace.

Current Items of Interest

2007-06-13T20:27:00.000-07:00

Poachers killed one of the two remaining white rhinos in Zambia this past week, on Monday. These magnificent animals ar ekilled for their horns. People in various parts of the world value these horns for medicinal purposes. Hogwash, for sure, these horns, whose composition is basically hair and skin. have no value in medicine. It's another example of supernatural thinking destroying our environment.

A Few Links

Bob Dylan wins a presitigious art award in Spain this past week. His career in music and society is most deserving of this recognition. In 2004, his entire lyrical ouevre was among many outstanding literary masters considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature. One day, Bobby Zimmerman may get it. If not, his contribution to world culture will always remain secure.

Gaza is spiralling to a bloody conclusion of its simmering civil war between Hamas loyalists and Fatah militiamen. It looks like Hamas has the upper hand, much to the gross disappointment of Israel and America most likely, who want to see the democratically-elected Hamas government fall. Hamas positions are unproductive to the peace process, to say the least, but the West should have given them a chance to find redeeming value in winning a popular election and therefore attempting to govern. Instead, American-led boycott of the government created widespread devastation of the Palestinian civil society and forced Hamas to dig in its heels to even more hardcore position points. Even while it struggled to find moderating streams of consciousness in its political program, Israeli and American pressure always led to them to radical things, specifically those Qassam rockets raining wildly on southern Israeli, with legendary inaccuracy.

To the right are Palestinians displaying near a Fatah police station in Gaza City yesterday during a demonstration of some sort.

So just a few things on my mind today.

Late May, 2007

2007-05-30T19:57:00.001-07:00

A few updates to the webpage, nothing major, just the addition of a few favorite links to the right. These websites were removed temporarily, but now they return, allowing me easier access to news sources I need and enjoy. A personal website, if anything, allows you to manage the WWW to your liking, to keep things easy to access. By default, it's a window into someone's personality. In short, a website is whatever you want it to be.

Like for instance, a place to post a recent picture I took on the West Virginia turnpike, while travelling from Michigan with family members. I like the lush green background of the West Virginia hills, and thought I would share it here.

Or maybe even a short snippet from a current album I am listening to, one by the late great Frank Zappa, called Imaginary Diseases. It's a live recording of his Petit Wazoo band, a more streamlined version of the big band music he was experimenting with in the early 1970s, post-Flo and Eddie. Until I find a useful way of delivering this audio from blogger, I'll just give the link to the beginning 20 seconds of the DC Boogie from the Frank Zappa record, Imaginary Diseases.

The Educational Musings link to the right, Issues at Southern, needs an update and soon I'll prepare a final summative report of my time at Southern this past year. A good year it has been, and I intend to enjoy more good years at Southern.

Webacademy Year Wrapping up

2007-05-24T02:57:00.000-07:00

The past year saw me teaching German online to a bunch of high-school students from around North Carolina, mostly Cumberland County. The Cumberland County Webacademy afforded me this opportunity to extend my German classrom outside the Durham area and into cyberspace for real-time, synchronous instruction. The students were great, the milieu of the Whiteboard and the chat window and the Microphone - yes I was speaking to them in real-time - was a milieu the kids understood. Ah, yes, Technology, the common language of the new generation. I hope to continue with this work next Fall in the newly constituted North Carolina Virtual Public School, which builds upon the successes of the Webacademy and creates a statewide umbrella for not just North Carolina students, but also for anyone around the world. Thanks, students, for an outstanding year of German online. Above to the left is a screenshot of last night's final Live Classroom Session. Get a taste of the CyberGerman, gone live!

Alternative News Sources

2007-05-23T05:50:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of the same old news format on cable stations and network tv? Then try some Internet-based news delivery. Always on the prowl for news websites, I ran across again the great news site, The Raw Story. The reports provide an antidote, in my opinion, to the scrubbed-down, emotionally charged truth carnage that appears on the mainstream media outlets. Love the Internet.

"Fighting Words"

2007-05-19T17:27:00.001-07:00

Former President Jimmy Carter has been taking aim at various pillars of current American politics. His latest book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid skewered the current Administration's handling of Arab-Israeli peacemaking, and he spent considerable effort defending the book. He's been a consistent opponent of waging war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and now President Carter publishes his most scathing criticism of President George Bush to date. No doubt, people will be talking about Mr. Jimmy's Carter's comments that

"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered . . . But that's been a radical departure from all previous administration policies."

He blasts the Iraq War, Middle East peacemaking, the environment, and even faith-based government initiatives, where he says

"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion. As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."

Read extracts from the President Carter interview at the Arkansas Democratic Gazette. There is an audio extract there also of these "fighting words."

Carter blasts Bush on his global impact - Yahoo! News

on the Road to Jerusalem and the Holy City Itself

2007-05-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

As promised, I offer another slideshow of original photos I took in the summer of 2005. These deal with the road trip to Jerusalem from Ramallah through the Kalandiya checkpoint, one of the hundreds Israel uses throughout the West Bank and into Jerusalem. Kalandiya has taken on a permanent status, with buildings and roads and gates erected there, and it has a generally more organized system to controlling the movement of peoples. In any case, Kalandiya remains an obstacle for most Palestinians. I went through it each time en route to the Holy City, and I never experienced any problem, other than delays.

So here it is, I hope you enjoy this slideshow of the Road to Jerusalem

Here is another presentation of these pictures: a webpage of thumbnails you can select at your leisure.

A Short Slide Show of a trip to the West Bank, Ramallah Palestine

2007-05-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

For the past two summers I had been spending a few weeks in Ramallah. I visit relatives, do some sightseeing, keep my parents and uncle company, live like the Arabs and Jews do, mainly. I feel right at home there, and traveling there with my brothers are highlights of my life. So in the coming weeks I'll post some slide shows like the one above of my travels to that tense yet beautiful part of the world. You can call these series of slide shows a commemoration and remembrance, because this summer I am staying put stateside, barring any emergencies.

Scenes of Ramallah