Last Day At Gars Gymnasium

What a terrific group of students we had that participated in this year's cultural exchange with Gars Gymnasium! Each student had a little bit different experience. Some of the students renewed old friendships from the previous year's exchange, others developed new friendships, and still others simply demonstrated to themselves that they have the self-confidence to get outside of their own comfort zone and do something exceptional. There are likely many other things that could be added, but every student that was part of this year's exchange had a unique experience that has helped him/her grow as a person.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway for everyone involved in the ERHS/Gars Gymnasium cultural exchange is this...the things that unite us are far greater than the things that divide us.

Trip To The Alps

Many of the ERHS students and their host families traveled to the Bavarian Alps today. The destination was Berchestgarden National Park, which is located in the very southeastern section of Germany.

Berchestgarden served as a private retreat for Adolph Hitler while he was in power. In this area you will find a museum of the Nazi movement and an elaborate bunker system built during WWII. Also, you can go up to the Eagles Nest and get an unbelievable view of the Alps and the valleys below.

Day At Lake Chiemsee

Students spent the day at Lake Chiemsee today. Lake Chiemsee is at the foot of the Bavarian Alps and is the location of one of the castles of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He was Bavaria's last king before it became part of Germany. The castle is located on an island that must be accessed by ferry.

We were accompanied by several different students from Gars that are interested in coming to Olney next school year. The older students at Gars were participating in graduation today. This weekend, students will mostly spend time with their host families.

Germany Update

Students spent today attending school at Gars Gymnasium. During the school day, the students attend classes with their host student, or they may have other special things planned. For example, many of the ERHS students worked with 8th grade students today to help them with their English. This was done by having an ERHS student work with a small group of Gars students and simply interact with them.

Tomorrow, students will travel to an area about 1 hour south of Gars to visit Lake Chiemsee. This is a popular area right at the beginning of the Alps.

Sightseeing In Munich

Both the ERHS students and the Gars students traveled to Munich today to tour the city and see the sights. There are many things to see in Munich, but the surprising thing about the city is that it doesn't feel that large. The buildings are not skyscrapers and the streets did not seem too crowded. In fact, many of the people were on bicycles.

Students spent the morning taking a bit of a guided tour, and then had the afternoon to walkabout, shop, and visit other sites in and around the city center. Some of the sites visited included the Cathedral of Munich, St. Peter's Clocktower, City Hall, the Hall of Generals, and the King's Square. Before visiting Munich about the only two things I knew about the city is that it was the site of the 1972 Olympic Games, and that it was connected with Nazi activities around WWII. It was a great opportunity for all of us to learn that there is much more to the city than that.

Tomorrow, students will again attend school at Gars Gymnasium. Some of the students will be going back into classes. They will talk about life in Olney and school at ERHS. They will also work in English classes and help Gars students with their conversational English.

Another Day at Gars Gymnasium

Today students spent another day at Gars Gymnasium. Several ERHS students spent time working with Gars students preparing for a final oral exam in English. This was designed so the Gars students could have a conversation with a person that is a native English speaker. Many ERHS students also attended a chemistry class that the teacher was delivering in English.

Seniors at Gars are involved with the Abiture, which is a type of final exam. Along with the Abiture, many of the students dress in traditional Bavarian attire. Males wear lederhosen and females wear a dress called a dirndl. Several ERHS students came to school today in this traditional type of clothing.

Following school, students spent the rest of their time with their hosts. Tomorrow, students will travel to Munich for a day of sightseeing.

1st Day at Gars Gymnasium

Students have had their first day at Gars Gymnasium. A student musical group played a few songs of traditional Bavarian music before the official welcome by the school's principal. 

Later in the day, ERHS students had a crash course in Bavarian history and conversational German. They will have many opportunities to practice with their host family in the next week.

Arrival In Bavaria

We have arrived in Bavaria. We left Berlin at 10:41 am and arrived in Munich after a 5-6 hour train trip. Our hosts picked us up and the ERHS students and Gars students met for the first time, or reunited with old friends.

After a bus ride to Haag, we stopped for dinner at a traditional Bavarian restaurant. Most of the host parents met us there and the students have gone home with their hosts.

The students will begin attending school tomorrow at Gars Gymnasium. It promises to be a great experience for all of the students.

Day In Berlin

Today was about seeing the sights of Berlin. We were joined about 9:00 am by Marcel Bengs, an ERHS exchange student from 2007-2008. He took a train from his home in Bonn to spend the day with us. It was really helpful to have him with our group, and the students really liked him.

Our group took a bus tour of the city with the chance to get on and off to see the sights. Some of the locations visited were Brandenburg Gates, Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Berlin Wall. After the bus tour, Marcel had set up a private tour for our group of the German Capital Building, the Reichstag. This was done by Johannes Kahrs, who is a member of the Bundestag (parliament) from Hamburg.

Tomorrow the group will travel by train to Munich. At the Munich train station we will be picked up by our hosts from Gars.

Travel Woes

What a day of travel! We left Olney at 7:30 am on Thursday and arrived at the Berlin airport at 1:00 pm on Friday. Whew! That was quite a trip. 

The plane from Newark to Berlin was delayed by 4 hours. This made us very late to arrive in Berlin, so the bus we had scheduled to take us to the hotel left. We began the adventure of trying to navigate Berlin's public transportation system of buses and trains. The students were great and took it all in stride. The good news is we made it to the hotel and it is really nice. 

After we checked into the hotel, we had something to eat and the students hit the Berlin shopping area called Kurfürstendamm. Saturday looks to be a really fun day as we will be joined by Marcel Bengs, an exchange student from Germany in 2008. He is going to tour the city with us.

Stay tuned, but be warned that WiFi is a little bit spotty. New updates may not come out in a very timely manner.

Germany Cultural Exchange

Today a group of 20 students from East Richland High School are on their way to Germany to participate in a cultural exchange program with Gars Gymnasium, a grade 5-12 school in the Bavaria region of Germany. This group of 20 students will travel from Olney to Berlin, and then to Munich, where they will meet their host families. The students will spend about 2 weeks in Germany attending school and other activities.

The cultural exchange program began in 2011. This is the third trip of ERHS students to Gars. Students from Gars will be coming to ERHS in the spring of 2016. 

Follow the trip with this blog or via Twitter @ ERHS247.

Change in Senior Honor Recognition

The East Richland High School Class of 2015 was the first class to not recognize a valedictorian and salutatorian. While there is no doubt in the mind of the committee that researched this change that this was the right thing to do, there are some that have a different opinion. Below, I will provide a summary of why we made this change.

Three years ago, our school began researching a move away from the tradition of recognizing a valedictorian and salutatorian. Groups of teachers, parents, community members, and students were brought in and the most current research on the topic was discussed. Ultimately, the decision was made to move away from this traditional way of recognizing a top student in the senior class to a criteria-based system that challenges any student to strive for this top level of recognition. There are a number of key points listed below that led to this move.

• Student success is a broad concept and one pathway does not lead to it.
• The system of recognizing a valedictorian/salutatorian funnels all of the highest achieving students into one prescribed course sequence. The result was actually limiting student learning opportunities by preventing students from taking courses in career and technical education and fine arts.
• Students were making decisions about what courses to take based on their grade point average, rather than what courses were most relevant to their future plans.
• The high school experience should be about student learning opportunities, not about sorting and ranking students.
• If one factor such as grade point average was the sole determiner of how worthwhile a student's high school experience was, then we were missing the mark. There are many talented, motivated, and exceptionally bright students that are left out because the difference in the top students' GPA was often to the 100th or 1000th decimal point. (By the way, we would never consider it educationally sound to use one score on a test, project, etc. to determine a student's grade in a class. Why then would we use one criteria to determine how valuable a student's high school experience was?)

The move to this new system has not been without criticism. The main criticism is that we have watered things down and that it is like junior league soccer where everyone gets a trophy. I would challenge anyone to look at the criteria to be recognized as Summa Cum Laude and then still think things have been watered down. The fact is that people that are critical of the new system base their views only on opinion, not on any current research in education. Those individuals that have been critical and have actually taken the time to understand the new system come away thinking this is something that should have been done a long time ago. I encourage anyone interested in this topic to do his/her own research, and then see if your opinion about recognizing one valedictorian holds up.