Im letzten Kalenderjahr fand erstmalig eine Begegnung zwischen den Partnerstädten Halle und Savannah auf Schulebene statt.
Bereits im Juni begrüßten wir zwei Kollegen von der South Effingham High School am Elisabeth-Gymnasium. Nun, kurz vor den Weihnachtsferien, erfolgte der Gegenbesuch, um das amerikanische Schulleben kennenzulernen und persönliche Kontakte auszubauen.
Der nachfolgende Artikel vermittelt einen kleinen Einblick in das spannende Projekt, das in seine zweite Runde geht!

Mehr über die South Effingham High School und über unsere Eindrücke erfährst Du in den Videonews "The Southnews".

SHU/SWI

You’ve likely heard of student exchange programs in which high school students experience language and culture immersion through their participation with foreign school programs. But, did you know that there are now teacher exchange programs as well? In fact, two of our own educators from South Effingham High School, Kristen Denney and John Cook, participated this past summer with a newly launched teacher exchange program between the Savannah area and the German city of Halle/Saale.

The development of the Savannah- Halle/Saale teacher exchange, spearheaded by German educator Matthias Schwitzer, is one of the latest collaborative projects between these two cities. But, why Halle/Saale? What specific interest do we have with a city that lies thousands of miles across the ocean from us? The answer rests in the shared past between Effingham County and this historic German city. You see, many of the Salzburgers who settled in and around the Savannah and Effingham areas over 275 years ago came here directly from Halle/Saale. In fact, James Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony of Georgia, met the Salzburgers upon arrival and assigned them the piece of land that would eventually become Ebenezer. It’s because of this direct historical connection that the two cities entered into a Twinning Agreement in 2011 opening the door for collaboration across a number of areas including city governments, tourism, and commerce. Until this recent teacher exchange program, the two sister cities had not developed a basis for sharing information about their educational systems at the high school level.

As local pioneers in our area for a teacher exchange program, Kristen Denney and John Cook jumped in blindly but with excited anticipation of what lay ahead of them. They had no idea that they would be embarking on an adventure that would not only open their eyes to the world of education, but also lay the foundation for lifelong international friendships with their German teacher counterparts, Ilka Schuchardt and Matthias Schwitzer.

Of the many fascinating differences Mrs. Denney discovered between South Effingham High School and the Elisabeth – Gymnasium school in Halle/Saale, she was particularly impressed with the German students’ level of independent learning. The structure of the German educational system is such that students are required to engage in more self-directed learning while teachers take on a role that looks more like a facilitator than leader. Students are expected to assume leadership in their own learning with teachers as their guides. Mr. Cook also noted how the rules generated at Elisabeth-Gymnasium created a freedom within the students’ learning environment.

Both Mr. Schwitzer and Ms. Schuchardt stated that it appears technology is far more heavily used in our classrooms than in the German settings and expressed an interest in selectively using more technology for their lessons. They also noted that the teachers work far longer hours here than those in Germany and were admittedly exhausted at the end of each school day during their time at SEHS!

All four teachers look forward to building on the special relationship that they have established, and all agree that they have become lifelong friends throughout this process. They have already begun plans to create projects for their students to work on simultaneously using google docs. The hope is that there will be much more creative collaboration and learning as the teacher exchange program grows!
The website for the Elisabeth – Gymnasium school is:
http://www.elg-halle.de (and, yes, it is fully in German!).

Siehe auch 
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