LANGUAGES

FAREWELL TO ANDREA FOWLER

Andrea Fowler is formally winding up her teaching career at the end of this year. She has made important contributions to student learning and student opportunities at McKinnon Secondary College, primarily in the Languages learning area but also in other cross-curricular initiatives.

Andrea, who is originally from Austria, came to McKinnon SC at the start of Semester Two in 2009. Andrea worked tirelessly to promote the learning and profile of languages at McKinnon SC and was always open to new developments and on the lookout for new possibilities, such as the VET Certificate II course for Applied Languages in schools. She worked on the development of course materials for the German course in VET Cert II and supported our teachers of French and German in their training. In 2014 Year 10 students in French and German started doing this course as a part of their McKinnon studies, and over many years the program ran successfully with students gaining a nationally recognised vocational certificate.

In 2013 Andrea took up an opportunity suggested by Monash University, whereby senior citizens of Melbourne’s German-speaking community (and sometimes younger ones also) come to school on a regular basis to engage in structured conversation in German with students of Year 11 German. This has been running successfully ever since, and both our students and the older visitors have commented on the benefits they have experienced from these intergenerational conversations.

Andrea has always had a particularly strong interest in opening students’ eyes to the wider world and the possibilities that it offers them and has always been keen to increase students’ intercultural knowledge and understanding. This saw her become Global Citizenship Coordinator at McKinnon SC, where she formed enthusiastic groups of students who attended meetings run by her on a regular basis, and who took part in events beyond the school. Student exchange has always been important to Andrea, and in 2013 she played a significant part in setting up McKinnon SC’s relationship with our Spanish sister-school in Cuenca, IES Fernando Zobel, and visited the school herself.

Andrea was an enthusiastic supporter of the Model UN initiative for schools (run by the United Nations Association of Australia, Victorian Division) and enhanced McKinnon’s profile in the Model UN such that since the year 2015 students from many schools come annually to our school hall for a Model UN General Assembly hosted by McKinnon. Andrea also developed McKinnon’s participation by senior students of French and German in the special Model UNs held for French and for German.

Andrea has a fantastic rapport with students and a keen understanding of the challenges that they face personally and academically and this has engendered the fond memories that many students have of their time in her classroom and in her company at school events. 

One of these events beyond the classroom is the German Exchange program. As organiser of the German Exchange I am very grateful for the support she has given me, particularly on the group trips with students to our sister-school in Kirchhain. She was always very reliable and helped students get the most out of their exchange experience. Furthermore, Andrea was a great ambassador for McKinnon SC during our exchange trips and established long-lasting friendships with our teacher colleagues at our sister-school.

Several years ago, in a December school newsletter Andrea wished the school community ‘Happy Christmas’ in 12 different languages! McKinnon SC thanks Andrea for her service and wishes her all the best for the future!

David Nutting

German Teacher

A VIRTUAL TOUR OF A GERMAN TOWN

Students of Year 7 German experienced a virtual tour of a German town of their choice on Tuesday 26 November. Miriam and Sarah from the Goethe Institut in Melbourne brought VR headsets and other materials with them to our school and set up various activity stations around the classroom before the start of the lesson. Due to timing reasons it was unfortunately not possible for all students of Year 7 German to experience this lesson, however the students involved made good use of the limited time and explored through VR-goggles a German town of their choice. 

While waiting for their turn, students moved around the room completing other activities involving listening and viewing tasks, as well as working together to increase their familiarity with the geography of Germany's states. Archer Gilmore says: "I enjoyed all the activities especially the sound matching task" and Anjali Parthasarathy says “the VR gear was an exciting way to get 'into' Germany”.

We hope that it will be possible to repeat this visit in the future.

David Nutting

German Teacher

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Bonnes vacances, Schöne Ferien, Felices vacaciones!

From the Languages Team