To Germany And Back

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga -- by Hanna Hashtroud

The German program at McIntosh has many great aspects that induce students to take the course. The most notable aspect is the GAPP (German-American Partnership Program) which involves a German exchange student staying with a host family in the spring every other year and then in the summer the American students stay with their exchange student. The program helps the American students experience the German culture and encourages them to speak in German to improve, whereas the Germans spend time with their American host family and friends. I myself am hosting a German exchange student this spring and am very thrilled about it. Mr. Keough, the German teacher at McIntosh has chosen various field trips for us and our exchange student. He has made this program possible for past years.

Another fun program is State German Convention. SGC occurs every year on the first weekend of February. Students stay overnight and participate in various verbal competitions such as poetry recitation, spelling bee, and vocabulary bee. The students also participate in non-competitive activities such as Easter egg painting, making Mardi gras masks, and going to a dance. Students from MHS meet other students from different schools in Georgia and enjoy practicing their German skills with one another.

German club at MHS is also another part of the wonderful program at the school. Here with the supervision of Mr. Keough students hold meetings and schedule and decide what sorts of activities to do. For instance last week we held a meeting regarding what a dodge ball competition. We decided that we could speak to Spanish and French Club to see if they would be willing to compete. Then we organized and decided a day to play dodge ball against the other clubs. Other things that students of German club can do are bring in German food, watch German movies, or go to a local German café.

Last but not least is German in the classroom. With a teacher like Mr. Keough students are sure to sharpen their minds, focus, learn and most of all participate. Mr. Keough is a nice teacher who has a sense of humor that also makes the class fun. Students believe him to be a very good teacher always there to listen and answer questions and provide a fun educational class. For me his class makes me want to practice my German outside of class around my friends who also take German.