What I remember most about Frau (we just called her Frau) was her energy. On the first day of class freshman year, she went up to each person's desk and shook their hand, saying "Guten Tag." We hadn't officially been taught any German yet, but we all struggled to respond "Guten Tag" back to her. I remember already feeling like this was a teacher who was personally involved with teaching each student. By the time we had her, she had developed a system for teaching every aspect of the language: how to pronounce the "ch" sound, how to remember the 16 ways to say "the," and how to recognize dative versus accusative case. Her methods were fairly traditional, but I loved the structure. Plus, we often got to sing German pop songs (from the 80s or earlier) or folk songs on Fridays. It all totally worked for me; what started out as a mostly random choice to study this language became one of my favorite classes in high school. I was secretary of the German Club in my senior year, and I went on to major in German in college and study abroad for my junior year in Goettingen.
Frau also had a very dynamic personality. As I told my friend (and our President of German Club) Vivian, I think Frau was one of the only teachers who ever yelled at me. She literally yelled at everyone at one point or another; a lot of things could set her off. I think she yelled at me because I was reading a book or distracted by something during another student's presentation. On the other hand, Frau was moved to tears about other topics, such as when we talked about the reunification of Germany. She had actually lived in Germany during WWII, because I still remember her making a joke (?) about dodging bombs in Berlin during her childhood. She was passionate about every aspect of teaching, and many of us responded to that passion by doing the best we could in her class.
Now, as a language teacher myself, I find myself thinking of Frau, reflecting on how she, for example, got a class of moody teenagers to sing German hiking songs at full volume. I'm still not sure how she did it. Nevertheless, I continue to respect and be inspired by her.
