When Frau Ernst spoke English on the last day of class, her students uttered gasps of surprise.
After all, students at Rundlett Middle School know what to expect when they sign up for German class: a whole lot of Deutsch and very little Englisch.
“I had to practice a little this morning,” the teacher joked. “How am I doing?
Laura Ernst has taught German at both the middle school and Concord High School for 21 years. She was recently named World Language Teacher of the Year by the New Hampshire Association of World Language Teachers.
Despite knowing little German beforehand, students begin to pick up the language quickly – especially in an immersive environment, Ernst said. Her eighth-grade class just finished writing full-length letters to an imaginary German pen pal as part of their final exams.
“I think they’re surprised themselves when they sit down and they realize they can write this much in German at the end of year one,” the teacher said.
Some of the eighth-grade students will find themselves in Ernst’s class once again in five years’ time for German V. Over their high school careers, many will participate in the school’s German club, which Ernst helps supervise, and the German American Partnership Program, a month-long student exchange with a high school in Wegberg, Germany.
“My mission is to help kids understand another culture, another way of speaking – not just tolerating something being different, but celebrating it and accepting it,” Ernst said.
About 25 students from each school participate in the program every year, Ernst said. Concord families host German students for the month of October. The following summer, Ernst and her colleagues lead a trip to Germany, where many Concord students stay with the family of the student they hosted the previous fall.
This year’s group is set to leave Sunday night.
“Without fail, students always report back saying they just learned so much after being immersed in the culture,” Ernst said. “It’s really the beauty of it – they lived the language, they lived the culture, every single day for a whole month.”
Ernst tries to mimic this experience in her classroom by playing German music, teaching German games and using German treats – such as gummy bears, the class favorite – to motivate her students.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say a Gummibar from Frau Ernst always went over well,” said Leighton Sackos, a Rundlett eighth-grader.
Ernst’s middle school classes have also performed poetry slams, made movies and had frequent “misch misch” sessions, where they split up into small groups to discuss a topic in German.
Rundlett’s seventh-grade students only spend a couple days with Ernst, as part of the school’s exploratory program that allows students to try out each of the four foreign languages offered – German, Spanish, French and Latin.
“You learn a lot in six days, in any language really. More than I thought I would. We learned numbers, colors, body parts, hobbies, all in German,” seventh-grader Nautica Belmosto said.
This introductory program allows students to see if they want to continue to pursue the language, which can be challenging at times, Ernst said.
“I think they want to be pushed,” she added.
Ernst mixes in new lessons with content the students have long since mastered, to keep the students’ workloads bearable yet exciting. At the end of the day, she said she’s just happy to share the language and culture she loves.
“I’m lucky – I get to speak German all day,” she said. “I like it when it clicks with the kids and I see them starting to enjoy it themselves.”