As we moved away from our mini-unit on Sophie Scholl and resistance during World War II, we are now trying to answer the question in class: What is intolerance? What does it feel/ look like? And how can I express what I know about intolerance in German. To lead from the topic of the Holocaust to a unit concerned with intolerance in school, we read and analyzed a very powerful quote by Martin Niemöller about personal responsibility:

“First they came for the socialists and I didn't speak out—because I wasn't a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out—because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

The students' objective was to rewrite the quote to match their own lives. Here are some of the students' quotes:

After all this work in the last couple months, we closed our environment unit with some unique action plans. The task for the students was to have a report and a presentation on how they can save the environment. Some students chose to make posters or PowerPoints, others did videos or ads. The more creative the better, and of course everything should be in German and present what they learned.

Every presentation had to have a verbal part. Unfortunately the camera that I used to tape the presentation stopped working after the first couple ones, but fortunately some students did some video taping and recording of their own. Enjoy!

As part of our review for the action plans and unit test, the 8th graders recorded statements on how to save the environment. Here are some of the clips, enjoy!