As an instructor of German, I enjoy most to actively engage my students with the language and culture contexts that offer my students a range of perspectives on the German-speaking world. In order to achieve this goal, I designed and taught several activities that accompanied textbook units on German history by introducing contemporary films that connect an American perspective to this topic. Students in my German 1103 course reported that the comedic elements of the film and the familiar film music increased their interest in engaging with class discussions and also encouraged them to research more about the topics discussed in class. Other students found it motivating to engage with authentic materials like the film besides doing textbook activities. 
I believe that the most meaningful engagement with language occurs when students discover themselves as active participants and become encouraged to learn more. When I teach, my goal is to facilitate an environment where students can acquire skills that help them to work toward learner autonomy. I think that it is my responsibility as a teacher to evaluate how my materials assist students in this process. Teachings students how to work with textbooks effectively is, therefore, an integral component in my teaching. Each unit, I spend a portion of my introductory lesson to discuss the learning goals that we hope to achieve. I utilize these engagements to introduce both new vocabulary and prompts. I regularly check in with my students to assess whether my methodology and teaching plan matches their learning speed, and I frequently include practice quizzes to give students the opportunity to test themselves in a safe environment. Students in my German 1101 course described these opportunities of knowing what lies ahead, regular check-ins and intermittent assessment as useful tools in monitoring their learning process. Since my first German 1101 course, these practice quizzes have become a habitual practice in my teaching and I observed that my second German 1101 course reports similar experiences.
I consider my students the most valuable resource to consult for fostering learning environments that allow me to do so. My ideal classroom makes students co-designers of their own learning experience. Where teacher and students provide each other with a safe and comfortable environment, individual histories, backgrounds and experiences relating to German can be expressed. When I design new content, I am always open with my students about the novelty of these exercises and encourage them to be critical. Periodic check-ins with my students have become invaluable in my practice of becoming a better instructor. When I designed a new German 1103 unit that focused on “Migration” in the German-speaking world, students noted that my materials were lacking opportunities to practice listening comprehension, and that they felt very challenged by the readings that I was providing. Their feedback made me re-evaluate how I was introducing language components in my content materials and led me to transform planned reading exercises into listening exercises by recording the texts and modifying the outlined task from reading to listening comprehension. Students reported that they appreciated these recordings and that they found them useful for practicing listening to different speakers of German.
During in-class sessions and in test environments, I noticed students struggling to understand portions of those recordings, which led me to embed the recordings in the web platform that I designed for my class. Students reported that the permanent availability of the recordings on this platform enabled them to practice listening at different speeds and helped them become more skilled listeners throughout the course. Students that were challenged by test anxiety, especially, appreciated the possibility of listening to the recording on their own device during test situations. One student told me after an exam that he was able to concentrate more effectively on the task because he did not have to worry about other sounds in the room distracting him.
Connecting specific contexts with the students’ reality is crucial in educating students to become autonomous speakers of German, and autonomous learners. In designing new and engaging activities, I am curious about the challenges of learning situations, and I enjoy developing strategies and activities to solve them, and creatively facilitate active engagement. My interest in how I can be helpful in making my students’ experience of German a better one drives my ambitions for creating a broad range of activities and integrating different topics. Throughout my career at Ohio State I have learned that listening to the students’ needs and interests is crucial in having both an academically successful and a motivationally successful learning experience. When I taught my first self-designed German 1103 unit on “Migration” in the German-speaking world, I learned how important and challenging it is to keep students interested in a topic, and how difficult it can be to transmit the importance of learning about this topic. My course took place at eight am and only fifteen students—of which five were seniors—were enrolled. I used both a mid-term survey and an end-of-the-semester evaluation, as well as weekly check-ins, to make sure students felt comfortable in this learning environment. While I was impressed with the students’ academic success, the evaluations showed a decline in motivation. I later learned that I could have included more games and movement-based activities to keep my students interested, and I was determined to incorporate these in my next self-designed course.
When I was given the opportunity to teach a minor level course, I chose a similar format for the course, but instead of focusing only on migration as the primary point of discussion, I chose to center the course around the broader topic of stories from Europe. Students reported that they appreciated the variety of angles from which we covered different aspects of this topic, ranging from Greek myths, fairy tales to films, music and European politics. I included additional movement-based activities by designing course excursions that provided students with opportunities to become exposed with aspects of German culture and language that were not accessible in class. At the same time, my course design included materials like the recordings that my previous class reported as useful in their learning process. I also continued to embrace testing formats that allowed for individual needs like listening to the audio files individually. My students show me every day how diverse their learning experience is, and that it is my responsibility to designing assignments that are applicable to the multitude of their needs.
I believe that my materials are specific to my teaching personality and make what I teach an authentic experience for my students because I make my learning process as an instructor transparent to my students and include them as makers in the process. Students, in the past, have described that they felt valued and taken seriously in my class. My evaluations show that students recognize that I care how well they progress in my class as individuals. Especially because many of my students here in Ohio describe that learning German is important to them to reestablish relations to their family heritage, I aim to build on this motivation to equip students with linguistic and cultural tools that allow them to explore their personal interest but also challenge them to look beyond that notion. By providing a safe environment to make mistakes and practice their language skills, I hope to build both their vocabulary and grammar, but also their confidence as speakers of German.
My experience at Ohio State has shown me how important it is to listen to the needs of our students, and I value having learned this deeply. I have been given many different opportunities to work with different groups of students at different stages of their German career. Each and every course that I taught enriched my knowledge as a teacher in the importance of student engagement, facilitating learning environments that encourage active participation, and understanding what it is that motivates my students to learn. Being a GTA at Ohio State inspired me to make it a habit to remain aware that a successful course is only possible if both my students and I continue to work toward these goals in every lesson.