As their final project the German Junior Honor Society created their own children's books in German. To get a chance to share them with others, we had a Read-athon with our current 6th graders. The Spanish and French classes joined in as eleven Honor Society students presented their books to about 120 6th graders.
The books were on a variety of topics, from the first day in school to a version of the three little pigs. The students read in German and made sure to help the 6th graders understand the German. Below are some captured impressions from our 2-day event.

On November 6, 21 eighth grade students were officially inducted into Junior Delta Epsilon Phi Deutsche Ehrenverbindung. 

The chapter Pennsylvania Junior Theta was created this year by Frau Walter, the Phoenixville Area Middle School German teacher.  It’s a national educational honorary society for the study of German, and its goal is to spread interest in the study of German language, literature, and culture.  It is sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German.  In order to join the club, students had to have completed one year of German, and needed to have an overall average grade of 85 percent as well as an 85 percent or above in their German class. 

The induction ceremony started off with all club members standing up and promising to uphold German culture and language – all spoken in German, of course.  As soon as all the students had gotten onto the stage and received their official certificates allowing them to join the club, each person was given a candle.  Then, in the style of a traditional National Honors Society induction ceremony, the club president Mitchell Gibson had his candle lit, then he in turn lit the first person’s candle, and they lit the person’s next to them, and so on. 

And the stage didn’t even catch fire.

Some activities that the Honor society is working on at the moment are cooperation with PAMS’ life skills class and introducing German culture and traditions throughout the school.  In celebration of  Nikolaus Tag (a German holiday celebrated on December 6), some club members went be to Ms. Lamb’s (the Life Skills teacher) RECAP class to tell the Life Skills students about the Nikolaus tradition, fill their shoes with candy and sing a Nikolaus song for them.  Other students are currently constructing a Christmas tree out of cardboard, construction paper, and various decorations (which will again be worked on with PAMS life skills class) to be put up outside of the cafeteria.  Signs will be hung up to show students how many of their own traditions originated in Germany.   

The honor society will have many more exciting activities coming up throughout the school year and is always looking to cooperate with other groups.

Congratulations to the first ever members of PAMS’ National Junior Honor Society of German: Katherine Bland, Karly Burton, Maddie Cooke, Caroline Costello, Mitchell Gibson (President), Kaleigh Hartson, Jordan Hrynkow, Kayla Johns, Christian Lehning, Eva McDonnell, Tim Miles, Amanda Monachelli, Cailin Robinson (Treasurer), Tanner Romance, Nina Shafer, Maggie Shillinger, Tyler Skomsky (Vice-President), Jacob Straka, Matthew Tague, Quinn Vollmer (Secretary) & Aaron Weiss.

 Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

-Cailin Robinson, Treasurer of Junior Delta Epsilon Phi

The members of the German Honor Society had their first meeting this Thursday. They voted on their representatives for the 2012-2013 school year.  Congratulations to our officers:

President: Mitchell G

Vice-President: Tyler S

Secretary: Quinn V

Treasurer: Cailin R


Thank you also to everyone who ran and was willing to take on these responsibilities.

After our first meeting members of the honor society have already gotten busy and started the first projects. Some students started to build a cardboard Christmas tree, while others are finding instructions to craft ornaments and teach them to PAMS life-skills class. A group of students is also in the process to prepare a Nikolaus visit to the life skills class to tell them about this tradition and fill their shoes with candy. Exciting things are happening!

Don’t forget that the induction for members of the Honor Society will be next Wednesday at 6:30pm in PAMS’ LGI room.

Here, as promised, the audio file to practice your lines. Please don’t forget to wear red, black or yellow or any combination of those three colors on Wednesday.

I'm excited to announce that a chapter for the National Junior Honor Society, Delta Epsilon Phi has been established here at PAMS. The honor society is for students at the Middle School who are in their 2nd year of German and who met the requirements of ending 7th grade and the first marking period of 8th grade with an average of 85 in German and as their overall GPA.

The invitations have been given to the eligible students and about half of the eligible students have already turned in their forms to join.

Our formal induction will be held on December 5th at 6:30pm at the Middle School. Parents, grandparents and/ or other guardians are welcome to attend and celebrate with us as the students receive their certificates.

I am very excited to meet with you all and come up with ideas of how we can get the school and the community involved and aware of not just the German culture, but also an awareness to other cultures around them. We will cross with other classes and organizations for this and I am hoping that this will be a great experience for everyone involved.

Our first meeting will be held on November 29th at 6:45am. Looking forward to seeing you there!