|
News and Updates
What's
new for 2018
Teacher-to-Teacher Tips
Houstonfest Scholarships
Scholarships at State
Tips for Pair Discussion
Arrival at Heights High School
Bubble Soccer
Lunch options
Plays will be performed at Houstonfest
Daily log of changes to
state-qualifier list
Photo Gallery
2014
Important Dates
Wed., Jan. 17, 2018: Regular deadline to submit registration
spreadsheet in order to pay regular price of $10/student (payment does not have
to be mailed until 1/24).
Wed., Jan. 24, 2018: Final deadline to submit registration spreadsheet
for late price of $12/student and deadline to postmark payment.
Mon., Jan. 29, 2018:
Proof sheet of entries sent to teachers for final
verification and changes.
Tue, Jan. 30, 2018:
Research Papers due
to
David Kniess
by 11:59 p.m.
Wed., Jan. 31, 2018,
8:00 p.m.: Deadline to submit changes (adds,
drops, substitutions). After this point, no more additions or
substitutions will be allowed in individual events. Substitutions in group events may continue in emergency situations.
Thur., Feb. 1, 2018:
Videos due to
Mark Johnson by 6:00 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 3, 2018:
Houstonfest !
Fri., Feb. 9, 2018:
State online registration due by 11:59 p.m. in
order to qualify for early-bird price of $10 per student. Online
registrations submitted after this point incur the regular registration fee of $12
per student. Also, deadline to apply for the
Mary El-Beheri Memorial Scholarship.
Fri, Feb. 16, 2018:
State online registration due by 11:59 p.m.
(regular deadline). Also, postmark deadline for State payment, regardless
of whether you completed your online registration by the early-bird or the
regular deadline.
Sat., Feb. 24, 2018:
Texas State German
Contest, Texas State University, San Marcos.
Sat., Mar. 3, 2018:
Houstonfest
Scholarship applications due.
Fri., Mar. 9, 2018:
Gail Cope
Scholarship applications due.
|
Teacher-to-Teacher Tips
This is the place for teachers to share
tried-and-true strategies for preparing
students for Houstonfest. If you have a tip you'd like to share, submit it
to rustin.buck@fortbendisd.com.
The three chapters of AATG in Texas will hold a joint fall
meeting at Westwood High School in Round Rock/Austin on Friday-Saturday,
September 8-9, 2017. It will be a mini-conference and immersion weekend.
Friday supper and Saturday continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.
We plan to offer several strands of sessions for participants to choose from:
one focused on AP/IB, one focused on Texas State German Contest, and
other miscellaneous sessions on best practices and
community-college and post-secondary topics. Registration cost is $30 for
members and $50 for non-members. (Non-members, we encourage you to
join AATG
-- you will gain all the membership benefits and pay the lower registration
rate at the same time! Members, please check to see that your membership is
current.)
Friday evening will be a geselliges
Beisammensein at the Comfort Suites NW Lakeline.
Participants can arrange accommodations here at $89 for a king-size bed, $99
for two queen-size beds. We have a block of rooms reserved, so call early to
reserve your room -- come with a colleague and share a room to save money!
Comfort Suites NW Lakeline
13681 N. US Hwy. 183
Austin, TX, 78750-2209
(512) 219-1800
We will start at 6:00 p.m. Friday with Bratwurst and salads for supper and a
film offering, as well as time to network with colleagues. On Saturday
morning we will offer coffee, juices, and pastries during registration time
at the host school:
Round Rock Westwood High School
12400 Mellow Meadow Dr.
Austin, TX 78750
The schedule will consist of an opening session, a half-hour time for
contest updates (university-level colleagues may choose to have a separate
meeting at that time), individual chapter meetings, and four 55-minute
sessions. Lunch will be catered by Vert's Mediterranean Grill (Döner!). We
are currently organizing an optional Saturday evening event at the German
Free School for those who wish to remain overnight before traveling home.
Professional development credit of 6 hours will be awarded.
To register, please complete
this Google
form. Registration fees can be mailed to Anja Jarboe by
August 31 at this address:
Anja Jarboe
Marcus High School
5707 Morriss Rd.
Flower Mound, TX 75028
You can reach Anja with questions about payment
at jarboea@lisd.net.
For all other questions, contact Nella Spurlin (nspurlin@hot.rr.com)
or Sandra Dieckman (sdieckman@mckinneyisd.net).
Pass auf! Study
Guides
The State director of Pass auf! has provided a
Pass auf! Study Guide,
a list of Pass auf! Proverbs,
and a Vocabulary List for
Erdkunde
to guide contestants' studying.
As of 2017 there is a designated theme for
each year. See more information on the Pass
auf! Rules Page, Rule #7. There will be at least one question per
round dealing with the year's theme. [The theme for 2017 was the Protestant
Reformation (in honor of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's
posting of his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517).] The theme for 2018 is The
German-Speaking World 1914-1945 (inspired by the 100th anniversary of the
end of World War I in 2018).
Sign-Up List
I'm not sure how everyone handles having the students
sign up for events, but here is a sign-up
list that I use. After talking to my classes about what
Houstonfest is, I designate one morning a few days later when I hang up
these lists around the room 30 minutes before school starts, and students
can come in to sign up for what they want to do, first-come, first-served.
We continue filling them up during class throughout the day. This is
usually in October for me -- some may want to start earlier or later.
Even if you have a different method, the list may be
useful for you because it has all events listed with the correct number of
slots that are available for each. For group events that have no
maximum size (folk dance, play, skit, etc.), I included a number of
slots that I thought would be at the upper end of how many kids might want
to sign up.
- submitted by Rustin Buck
Contacts for Polka Band
Music
Fest-Musik-Haus
Box 162
Medina, TX 78055
www.festmusik.com
830-589-2268
The owner’s name is Herbert Bilhartz. He is very
helpful and asks about what type of instruments you have in your band, and
then he finds pieces of music that fit your group.
- submitted by Heidi Kirby and Julie Schneller
TRN Music Publisher, Inc.
- submitted by Laura Dunn
Source
of Choral Music
cpdl.org - lots
of free PDFs of choral music; just look up a German composer by last name.
- submitted by Laura Dunn
Source
of Poetry
http://nddg.de/gedichtliste/
My Ukrainian exchange student just showed me a great website for
German poetry. As far as I can tell, every German poem ever
written is on this site. There are just thousands upon thousands
of poems with the names of the authors. It's definitely a good
resource for contest.
- submitted
by David Kniess
|
When is the next Houstonfest?
Saturday,
February 3, 2018,
8:00 a.m. Where
is Houstonfest?
Heights High School
413 E. 13th Street
Houston, TX 77008
Link to Texas
State German Contest |