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ABOUT ME

Living, Loving and Teaching in Germany

MY TEACHING JOURNEY - UNEXPECTED DESTINATION

If you had told teenage-me that I’d one day be living in Germany, teaching in international schools, I probably would have laughed—loudly. 

I started my teaching journey in Deaf Education, but everything changed after a year studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany in 2007. I fell in love with the country, the culture, and the bakeries (seriously, have you had a German pretzel?). When I returned to the U.S., I found myself homesick for a country that wasn’t even mine.

I knew I had to get back to Germany, but there was one tiny problem—American Sign Language wouldn’t do me much good in Germany. So, after much prayer and soul-searching, I switched my focus to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Best decision ever!

MY TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Following my student-teaching year, I landed a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English at a German high school in 2012, and from there, my international teaching adventure took off. I’ve worked as a classroom teacher, English support teacher, and curriculum coordinator in international schools with the International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Teaching in an IB international school showed me the magic that happens when students connect their learning to other subjects and the real world. But let’s be honest, it also highlighted the very true reality of how little time teachers have to actually plan those meaningful lessons.

CURRICULUM COORDINATOR WITH CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

As a curriculum coordinator, I spent a lot of time brainstorming teaching ideas with my colleagues. I loved coming up with new ways to engage students, but I quickly realized that what they really needed were ready-to-use resources to allow them to actually do the ideas we came up with. So, rather than asking teachers to spend more of their precious time trying to hunt for resources, I started creating them. And that’s what brought me here, hoping to save teachers time while giving students learning experiences that matter to them.

FUN FACTS ABOUT ME

  • I love any reason to dress up…be it fancy clothes or a kangaroo outfit!
  • My current coworkers are a baby who keeps me on my toes and a husband who has become an expert at making up funny songs during diaper changes! Maternity leave has given me the opportunity to create resources that I never had the time to make when I was full-time teaching.
  • We speak both English and German at home, but I make a terrible translator because my brain doesn’t easily switch from one language to the other. I often end up repeating what the person said in the same language, rather than translating it.
  • I love to sing and dance, but I’m definitely a better dancer than I am a singer. You can ask my husband, who is the musician, or anyone standing close enough to hear me sing at church…It really is that bad!
  • Unfortunately, I don’t remember a lot of sign language but I do remember the sign for “bacon”. A very important word to know, if you ask me!
  • I love cooking…and eating for that matter. Tim Mälzer’s “Heimat” is my favorite German cookbook.