People

German Class
Students practice German during a class in 2019.
A picture of the Associate Director

Tessa Wegener

Tessa is the Associate Director of the German School.

How many years have you been involved with the German School?

I have been involved with the German School since 2006, when I was hired as a Bilingual Assistant. I worked as a Bilingual for three years, and then returned to the German School in 2011 as a faculty member. In 2013, I moved into the role of Level 1 coordinator, and finally, in 2016, I became the Associate Director. As the Associate Director, I have continued to teach in Levels 2 and 4.

 

Teaching at the German School is the most rewarding professional experience I could imagine and Middlebury has become a second home to me.

Students at the German School are motivated, curious, open-minded thinkers who are there for the sole purpose of learning German and gaining a deeper understanding of the German-speaking world. We often joke that they are like sponges, soaking up anything we give them, always able to absorb more. 

 

I love the intense collaboration with my colleagues. All of our levels are team-taught, meaning we all work closely with one another, developing best practices, sharing materials with one another, supporting one another, etc. 

What keeps you coming back?

The people. What makes the experience in the German School so special is the amazing people I have met over the years - the students I have taught and the colleagues with whom I have worked. 

 

Many of my colleagues, past and present, are now my close friends and we have created a close-knit community. I am excited each year to return to Middlebury and to have the privilege of working with them. We all share one important thing: our passion for teaching German.

The intensity of our program is also felt among faculty because the teaching load and pace are completely unlike a normal academic semester. However, their dedication and commitment to students’ learning are unparalleled.

 

As I mentioned, the students are incredibly inspiring and come from very diverse backgrounds.

This, in turn, provides such an enriching learning experience for everyone (teachers included!). Each student has their own reason for learning German and contributes in their unique way to the summer experience.

We have many students return year after year because they recognize how special this learning community is and because they, like us, have fallen in love with it. Many of the connections made during the language school extend beyond the summer, too, which is a beautiful thing to witness.

What’s special about the German School community?

Every member of the German School community is there for the same purpose: to foster a language learning environment in which all members can thrive and reach their fullest potential—inside and outside of the classroom.

Whether it is during a philosophy club debate, at lunch, during a film screening, on their yoga mat, or in a virtual baking class, students and faculty are committed to the pledge and to supporting one another in this journey. 

The intensity of our program and the pledge distinguish us from any other language program.

Without the pledge, the German School would not be the unique experience that it is. It is what binds us and forms the community in the first place. It is, of course, what makes it also a challenging experience. But the rewards that we all gain from our commitment to the pledge make it worth it. 

German Barbara Heck

Barbara Heck

Barbara is the Lead Instructor for level 1.5 (Early Intermediate German) at the German School. She teaches German at The Ohio State University.

I have taught in the German School for 24 summers, last summer being the first time online.

Most people think I lost my mind sometime back when I accepted an invitation to teach there for the 10th time. I, however, could not be happier about having racked up all those years. And it tells you something about how I feel about Middlebury.

Some of my thoughts on the program will perhaps sound a little Pollyanna-ish or overly enthusiastic, but I honestly love the German School.

What I love about the program and what keeps me coming back are tied up together.

Over the span of 24 years, I have never ceased to be amazed by the level of commitment of the students, by their ability to motivate themselves - even through moments of deep frustration - by their playfulness and joy in learning the language and by the progress they make in such a short span of time.

The richness of the experience for me cannot be understated – getting to know people from disparate backgrounds, watching them develop meaningful relationships with others within the language, sharing in the joy that they feel when they see their own progress, interacting with them every day in such an intensive program – it all makes for a wonderful experience every summer.

Also deeply enriching for me is the interaction with my colleagues and everyone involved in the German School.

These are people who are deeply dedicated to making the program as rich as possible for the students, to teaching the language, exercising their creative skills to make the students´ learning experience more meaningful.

While the program is exhausting for everyone, I always come away feeling renewed and energized, both personally and professionally. It would be hard to understate the role that Middlebury has played in my life. 

Teaching in the program also has this unexpected effect on me – it´s seven weeks of hard, hard work. Three hours of teaching, about six-eight hours of preparation, correction, office hours, and that coupled with pretty much non-stop interaction with students, colleagues and housemates.

If I had that schedule at home, I would collapse. But at Middlebury, that almost constant exchange with bright, talented, and funny people always makes me want more. 

When I first came to Middlebury, I taught in three different levels (1; 1.5; 2) but after a number of years, I settled into 1.5 and I am ever thankful that I did.

1.5 is a somewhat unique level because it gathers together students who have had very little German as well as those who have had more but whose skills are not quite at level 2.

Some students are bothered by the labeling of the level as 1.5 – they feel that it is just a glorified level 1, but as the summer progresses, they realize that they are dealing with linguistic, literary, and cultural themes that students deal with in the higher levels.

The skill level in 1.5 tends to be very broad but the motivation to achieve is high is each student. In 1.5 you see students move from expressing themselves very haltingly and in small linguistic chunks to communicating with much more self-assuredness and accuracy. 

I also think that the students in 1.5 create a strong identity for themselves as a group every summer.

I have often heard colleagues remark on how the students in 1.5 seem to understand themselves as belonging to the 1.5 community. While students don´t emerge from 1.5 as fluent speakers of German, they do move themselves along the continuum so that they can take higher-level courses when they return to their home universities.

About the Middlebury Vermont campus

The setting for the German School could not be more idyllic. I´m from the Midwest and have a deep affection for the flatlands, the (sometimes) seemingly endless farming landscapes populated with the occasional tree stand, but Middlebury´s campus, situated between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks, is simply breathtaking. 

The architectural unity, the lush green lawns, ever-present sense of tradition and history.

The town is small and thus doesn´t really intrude on the immersion program.

There is a laidbackness to Middlebury and its residents, which provides a nice escape for students who simply need a break from the long hours of classes and homework. 

People talk about the “Middlebury bubble” – there is this little world (for each language) on the campus – and that bubble is necessary for an effective immersion program. But it wouldn´t be possible in the middle of, e.g., Burlington or Boston or Columbus, Ohio.

Middlebury is, quite simply, the ideal place for the program.

Abdreas Martin

Martin Widmann

Martin has taught courses in level 4 and the graduate program at the German School. He teaches German language and literature at Bard College in Berlin.

How many years have you been involved with/taught at the German School?

2020 was my first summer of teaching at the German School. That means I have never actually been on campus in Middlebury.

Except for two great colleagues also based in Berlin, I have met faculty and students only in video conferences.

Nevertheless, I feel that I have become part of the team right away.

What do you like about teaching at the German School? 

From the first moment of seeing the students on screen, there was an atmosphere of interest and mutual support.

The energy emanating from my laptop almost became physical. Whether it was German idioms, or grammar, or literature, during classes or extracurricular activities, everyone was always “on” and determined to explore any given subject and to make connections.

That kind of energy carried me as a teacher.

I also feel that the learning environment fosters exchange in both directions. I taught a course on contemporary German literature, with a focus on the so-called “Wende” in 1989/90.

Noticing how these texts resonate with readers from different cultural backgrounds opens new common spaces of understanding that are not easy to be had elsewhere.

What keeps you coming back?

I like the idea of building relationships over time, of letting them grow.

Reconnecting with the students and faculty would be great. I’m sure there would be many new stories to share, books and social developments to discuss, methods to learn.

All summer long I kept thinking how great it would be to actually be in a room with these humans. I hope it will be possible next year or the year after. 

What’s special about the German School community? 

At the risk of stating the obvious: Everyone involved, students and faculty, believes in the importance of learning foreign languages.

Even online, I found that I was never on my own, in a good way. Everyone is approachable, school leadership, colleagues, teaching assistants.

Students know that they are always welcome to reach out and I really enjoyed “hanging out” with them after class just to chat.

I felt that we had really grown together as a group over the course of the summer. Saying goodbye after six weeks was very emotional. Due to the time difference between the US and Berlin, it was in the middle of the night for me when I finally logged off, red-eyed and happy. 

I split my time between writing fiction and teaching. For me, both activities complement each other. Combining them allows me to appreciate the creative potential resulting from looking at German from various native and non-native speaker perspectives, which is something I try to explore together with students.

I wouldn’t be able to do it without them. I hope they can also learn a bit from me along the way.