The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming! And so the excitement begins once again.

Every year for two decades, high school teachers and students in Plattsburgh have been either hosting groups of German students or traveling to Rastede, Germany, to explore culture and language for three-week periods.

In October, the groups celebrated hundreds of friendships formed during 20 years with the German-American Partnership Program. This not-for-profit organization teams with American schools that offer German language instruction. Plattsburgh has offered a three-year Regents sequence in German since the early 1980s.

Wider view

Jean Seeber, a French-German teacher, recounts the gains for teachers traveling to foreign schools.

"Teachers have a wider world view of education," she said. "They get to see an entirely different system."

Visiting teachers can observe classes and serve as guest teachers. Seeber, a member of the Plattsburgh Teachers Association, is preparing for her third trip to Germany.

Seeber embraced some practical differences: the schools were all carpeted, which cut down on noise; and the halls were twice as wide as those in American schools, so there was no jostling or scuffling. A soothing electronic gong signals the end of class, rather than a jarring buzzer. She said this resulted in students leaving rooms quietly. She also liked that schools limit the number of tests students can have in one day; all teachers must log requests for tests.

Plattsburgh students found huge improvements in their foreign language skills with German immersion, which at three weeks is equivalent to about a year's classroom instruction, said Seeber.

"We receive a whole different viewpoint of the United States," she said. "(Our students) get asked specific questions about history and politics. One student said, 'I have to go back and study my history.'"

The Americans visit the Berlin Wall and learn about the East-West German divide, and how some East Germans were forced into service.

"It's a very easy country to hate," Seeber said. "But there were a lot of unsung heroes behind the scenes."

TA President Rod Sherman said students in the program realize: "These are people I meet who, when I grow up, may be seen as an enemy or someone out to get us."

Sherman, a NYSUT Board member, has been to Germany twice as part of the exchange.

A regular host for German teachers at his North Country home, he has taken them around the East Coast and even to a NYSUT policy council conference, where he gave a presentation on distance learning.

The program receives some funding from the State Department. Sponsors help to defray travel and local program expenses, and GAPP students and their parents do fund-raising.

-- Liza Frenette