Katrina Griffin
I am a: Teacher, North County High School | 2016 AACPS Teacher of the Year
2017 ACTFL National Foreign Language Teacher of the Year
Come to North County High School on a Saturday in early March and you will see Overlook Elementary, Lindale Middle, North County High School and UMBC College convene for German STEM Immersion Day. You will find students singing, dancing and laughing, taking part in a variety of science experiments conducted in German. Students relish the opportunity to lead workshops, and remarkably do so in German. I am always thrilled to find when a student who is quiet in class has signed up to lead a session. Even more gratifying is seeing a student, who is habitually truant, show up on Saturday at 8:30 am to participate.
Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” My philosophy of teaching mirrors his sentiment. My main role as a teacher is to create meaningful interdisciplinary opportunities for students to teach and learn from each other. I am the guide and facilitator in the classroom, planning for learning and providing resources and space for students to become proficient in the German language and culture. It is not my job to tell students what to think, rather it is my responsibility to teach them how to think. The 21st century demands on students are rigorous, but my classroom is a safe area for students to take risks and to discover that mistakes are simply opportunities for learning.
From the first day in German 1 I empower my students to be teachers to themselves and one another. Students are strategically partnered and grouped to collaboratively complete peer edits and guided self-reflections. As a result, they learn to use all of the resources in the classroom including their peers. Students are able to advance as learners and give and receive constructive feedback, because it is linked to the criteria for success. Learning came alive last week, when German 3 students used a rubric and held roundtable discussions in order to help their classmates improve writing skills on an essay about the environment. Giving students responsibility for their own learning makes it relevant and shows them the positive impact they have on others.
It is so exciting as a teacher when you see your practice improve and you realize you are a better teacher as evidenced by what your students can do. My students now philosophize at a very high level and engage in critical thinking by holding Socratic Seminars. They speak about a variety of topics, such as whether or not parents should receive a financial stipend as they do in Germany and what it means to be a citizen. These topics are close to home and relevant, because many students are financially in need and our community is very multicultural.
It is critically important to bring students together to build community through experiences and the emotional responses they evoke. After reading one of German author Karin Gündisch’s novels, students were delighted to meet her. She explained how a book gets printed and they relished the opportunity that they “met an actual author!” I brought in German techno band Dyko, who asked upper level students to write songs about love. They produced an unforgettable CD, which included a shy boy with autism, who led his group in both song and dance. Language and culture truly bring students together. My students were so enamored after a concert by German pop band, Tonbandgeraet, that they chased after the band members for autographs and pictures. The same thing happened when German graffiti artist Scotty76 came to give an interactive art workshop. Scotty76’s mission is to bring together students of different backgrounds through the creation of art and students are so proud that the school letters which they spray painted that day are featured in the main office of our school.
These emotional and interdisciplinary connections open my students up to a world of possibilities and potentials they never thought possible. I remember helping a student get a scholarship to study in Germany one summer and her mom was reluctant to allow her to travel abroad. I knew that she would experience a life-altering change in perspective from traveling to study a language and culture. The day before the trip the mother called me in tears and said they were just too upset to pack, so I stood in my student’s bedroom, tears streaming, and helped them. In the months I waited to hear from my student, she had moved out of an unsupportive environment, gotten a job, a license and started to put herself through college. I am so proud that she found the courage and self-confidence to find her own way in the world, which further fuels my philosophy of teaching.
I am an outstanding teacher as demonstrated by what my students can do and have achieved in and out of the classroom. I strive to create meaningful interdisciplinary experiences. My students’ responses include; enrolling in German in college, using German in the military, traveling abroad with me on exchanges and tours, and winning scholarships for excellence in the German language. My students surprise themselves and their parents when they apply to be an Au Pair in Austria, or to attend a technical college in Germany. I am thrilled and inspired by these major shifts in perspective. There is nothing more rewarding or powerful than watching students overcome the social and historical scripts that poverty has prewritten for so many of them. Their world has opened up and the possibilities are limitless.
