Lecturer and Outreach Coordinator Lane Sorensen sends news and greetings. We proud to pass along the news that he was recently named "2020 Rising Star Indiana German Teacher of the Year" by the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association (IFLTA) based on his "brilliant and inspiring teaching."
He also wants us to know that not even a pandemic could stop Indiana high school German students from participating in the German Theater Project., which went online this year. Seven Indiana high schools still managed to finish filming and send in their creative and vastly entertaining drama and comedy videos. Best Comedy went to Fishers High School and Best Drama went to Pike Central High School. Added to that, Fritz Krahl, the German teacher for Pike Central (now retired), won a Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication and participation in the Theater Project over the years. Thanks also to the GTP team from IU Germanic Studies for supporting German high school programs in the state of Indiana, and to David Bolter and Nina Morais for helping to craft an unfathomably weird but entertaining awards ceremony video for the high school students and their teachers to enjoy!
Most of our outreach efforts have gone online...we're happy with how the GTP went in the Spring, and we had a lot of love from teachers who said we adapted it well. The IFLTA and other conferences are also online this year (I'm organizing a couple grad students to present quick pre-recorded videos about our program there and at the IU World Language webinar).
Rebecca Haley will be the main presenter in the pre-recording for the IFLTA conference and the IU World Language Webinar that discusses our program offerings."