FROschTOsch

by Meike Melcher (BvA)

Every February the 11th grade has the chance to go to a special training in rhetoric in Hattingen for 3 days. Hattingen is near Dortmund and Essen and we went there by bus.

In the beginning we were divided into 4 groups of about 20 pupils each. The seminars were from 9am to 12am and from 3pm to 6pm. Every group had 2 to 4 “teamers” who came from universities all 0ver NRW (Northrhine- Westphalia). In the seminar we had to present with 4 t0 6 pupils how we can present something like power point presentation and posters. In between we played games to relax the mood a little bit. The second day we had to present something alone. We could choose the topic ourselfves. Everyone was very nervous to present alone.

In the evening we had free time. Some of us went swimming in the “hotel” and some went to the disco to dance.

The seminar should help us to make it easier to present in front of a bigger group alone. Everybody said that it helped and now they feel better if they have to present something in front of the class.

At the end we were all happy to get home because although it was fun, it was very exhausting to present all day.

by Marika Cholewik (BvA)

The little town Hilden, hometown of many students of our school,  is situated on the little river Itter and near Düsseldorf, the capital of state Nordrheinwestfalen. The town is more than 1000 years old, but the year of origin is not exactly known.

In the 13th century, the protestant church “Reformationskirche” was built. Through the centuries the church has been changing between the Protestant and Catholic denomination, but in 1624 it has been decided that the church should be Protestant and the Catholics built a new church named “St. Jacobuskirche”.

Important Dates in the History of Hilden:

1823 – the first post office

1849 – waterworks

1900 – the old townhall was built and Hilden got its city coat of arms

1904 – electricity supply

Celebrities of Hilden:

(16th/17th century) Anton and Wilhelm Hüls – Pastors

1560-1634 Wilhelm Fabry – famous German doctor

Ellen Wiederhold – she was the Mayor of Hilden for 25 years (1969-1994)

by Nitharsini Y. and Katrin H. (BvA)

Maybe, you already know the town Langenfeld, but here are some details about our town – where we live and where our school is.

Langenfeld is a town which belongs to the county of Mettmann. It is divided in five parts named Richrath, Immigrath, Reusrath, Berghausen and Wiescheid.

Map taken from: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langenfeld_(Rheinland)

All in alll, there are 59.000 inhabitants.

We have lots of options to go shopping! There is the “Stadtgalerie” where there are lots of shops. For example: a bakery, Madonna, C&A, the post office, a drugstore, a bookshop, etc. Since November 2009, we have a new shopping center, called “Marktkarree”. It is very big and has lots of new shops like New Yorker, a boot shop, a big multiple drugstore.

In Langenfeld you can do a lot of sports, for example: go swimming, play golf, go horseriding. In Langenfeld – Berghausen there are popular water ski facilities, in the summer there are many visitors. In the center of Langenfeld you find big sports fields where the sport clubs like football clubs, an American football club (Longhorns), basketball clubs etc. have their training. We also have a gliding airfield.

In Langenfeld there are six secondary schools, our school “Bettine von Arnim Gesamtschule” is in Langenfeld-Richrath and the only comprehensive school here. Also we have a big supermarket, two bakeries, two schools to learn driving, a hair salon, a little post office, etc.

So you can say: We like to live inLangenfeld-Richrath because it is small but we have all things we need and we are very happy

by Nitharsini Y. and Katrin H. (BvA)

by Sarah Fischer (BvA)

The Bettine von Arnim Gesamtschule – only one among many good schools or even a bit better?

There are eleven main ideas of our school, which are very important for us. One of them, the ninth, says that we should promote humour and cheerfulness. But, you may think, that this isn’t compatible with school, especially a school which has lessons up to the afternoon, don’t you?

The incarnation of fun…the “holy” 6th lesson! It’s our one hour lunch break. While our “Ballacks, Schrempfs and Co.” can enjoy themselves on the football ground, at the basketball courts or at the table tennis tables, the others can read and “work” in the library, nestle in our “Westside Café” and eat waffles, from where the smell spreads through the whole building.

But there are a lot of other alternatives: you can play snooker, join the school band and choir, a theatre group, and for the youngest there is a jungle gym.

Also, there are the canteen and of course the schoolyards. Yes, we have 2 separate schoolyards to avoid problems between the younger and the older pupils because of the age range from 10 to 17 (just in Years 5-10 ) For this reason, we have several buildings and breaks at different times so that every pupil has a fair chance to feel comfortable.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? But unfortunately, the break doesn’t last the whole day and 45 minutes end soon. End of fun for this day? No!

Of course during the following hours there are regular classes and this isn’t the favourite activity of students, like everyone knows. But we have a lot of options to spice up our timetables so that natural scientists, language talents, artists and computer freaks get one’s money’s worth. For example, every student in year 6 has to choose between French, Latin, science, DuG (for musical and art-talented pupils) and technology/home economics. And in year 9 it gets even more interesting, because the “new subjects” that are offered, focus on future occupations. Social sciences, computer science, “office”, educational studies, sports and fit for life (help for students whose graduation is at stake / learn for life to start into a good future) are only a few examples. There is something for everyone!
Furthermore, there are many extra-curricular activities, project weeks with different topics, and a work experience in a self-chosen company and a lot more!

So what do you think about the question at the beginning, now? Only one among many or better?

by Lara Kortzak (BvA)

On 12th January 2010, a big earthquake hit Haiti and killed a lot of people and a lot of them are missing. Until today, we don´t know exactly, but approximately 300.000 people died. Many people lost their homes, children and families! Now they need a lot of money to build up their country and to come back to their “old lives”.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and that is another reason why they need a lot of money, now and in the next few years. More than before.

Before the earthquake happened a lot of the people didn´t have jobs or enough food and they lived in unstable shacks.

Because of this dreadful occurrence some of our students want to organize an event to collect money for Haiti. Their hope is to make an evening with good presentations in our school and to inform the guests about the situation in this country. The money which they collect will go to the people who are in need in Haiti. They dont´t know an exact date but it will be in in this school year. Their headmaster and their teachers are a good support.

We all are very excited and happy about this idea.

by Tanja Borcherding (BvA)

Two pupils from year 10 have founded a drama group for the lunchbreak. This group is for all pupils in class 8 and at the moment the group has 7 members. This group is led by two girls from class 10 who like to play drama.

First, they make warm ups and easy games to learn how to play theatre. For the warm ups they say a sentence and have to express this sentence in different feelings, for example they have the sentence “to be or not to be – that is the question” and then they have to express this as a happy emotion, or a sad emotion and so on. Here they get more self-confidence, they will feel more courageous and of course they have a lot of fun.

In some weeks they want to rehearse a play. They want to show the play to their families and friends. The play is called “Theaterfieber” (english: drama fever). It is about a form who want to show a musical to their friends and families. So they rehearse this musical and there will be love between some characters and arguments and so on.

During the exchange the two girls held a group meeting and some British students visited the group. One of the British students joined in with the warm ups and then showed them the “beaversong” (which is a British warm up) and the German pupils had a lot of fun.

Photo from http://commons.wikimedia.org

von Amelia Smith (LHS)

Margaret Vaughan wurde in eine Familie geboren, die in die Geschichte von Kington einging. Es war eine wohlhabende junge Dame und sie arbeitete für Königin Elisabeth I in London. Dort hat sie ihren Ehemann getroffen: Sir John Hawkins. Das Paar heiratete, aber ihre Ehe war kurz. Sir John Hawkins starb. Margaret lebte noch 24 Jahre.

Der Schulbau war 1632 beendet. Das Gebäude wurde bis vor kurzem als Schule benutzt. Die Gebäude werden jetzt als Wohnhäuser genutzt.

by Rudi Floren (BvA)

The Facts

Technical progress is still going on. In the future computers will be shrunk to tiny machines, as small as credit cards and they will be very fast.

But what happens,  if no one has enough money to buy these tiny machines? What can we do, if schools haven´t got enough money? A child goes to school from the age of 6 to 18. In these years the pupil will get a lot of contact with computers. But what happens when the pupil works  with school computers that are 6 years old ?

Yes, this child will be disadvantaged compared to pupils who work with the latest technology.

How to avoid that?

To avoid these disadvantages the schools need more money to buy the newest computers. One actualization of computer hardware per year is enough, I think.

There are several ways to get the hardware up to date.

• The first option is to buy whole computers.
• The second is to buy some parts of hardware and put them in.

To do this, schools need a lot of money. But how do they get that?

• One option to get this money is to sell the old whole computers to pupils or their parents.
• The other one is to sell old hardware to 3rd world countries.

My personal opinion?

I think that in the future a school can have many IT equipment, like ‘cloud computing ¹’ from all over the world, so every pupil can complete his homework from home and learn at home and his results should be saved on the school’s server.

cloud computing ¹ = Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like a public utility. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing)

by Ailish Eickhorn (Bettine-von-Arnim-Gesamtschule)

In March 1990  a school board for a comprehensive school met for the first time. Our school was opened in August of the same year and called ‘Comprehensive School for the Administrative District of Mettmann’.

In November 1991 they decided to build a new school with an ecological concept and a modern look. In July 1992 the first meeting of the new school board Langenfeld/Hilden was held. In December the school collected toys for children of refugees.

In 1993 the pupils and teachers moved into temporary classrooms at ‘Götscher Weg’. One year later they were visited by pupils from the French partner school for the first time in May.

They began building the new schoolbuilding in September 1994 and had the first literature day in November.

The new name, Bettine-von-Arnim-Gesamtschule, was celebrated together with the great-great-great-granddaughter of Bettine von Arnim in 1995.

In March 1996, the school board decided that our school is to have six classes in each year. This was also the first year the 10th grade had their graduation. And with this also the first sixth form at our school started.

In September 1996, the day came when we finally moved into our new schoolbuilding and in 1997 we had our first graduation in this building.

In 1997 our school took the first steps to also take in students with special needs.

The first students archieved their A-levels in 1999. In this year the school had a charity walk to help refugees from the Kosovo and hosted a convention about schools with challenged students.

In 2000 the sixth form´s theatre club had its first performance and a big celebration on the 10th anniversary of our comprehensive school.

In June 2005 the former Home Secretary, Dr. Otto Schily, visited our school. In this year Mr. Behringer, our first head of school, left and Mrs. Ackers-Weiss took over.

by Eileen Ott, Sarah Arns and G. Arnold (BvA)

Our article deals with the typically German Easter customs in our vicinity.Many house doors are decorated with flowers, eggs and wreaths.

In Germany we have got many different Easter traditions. However, the Easter Bunny is the primary symbol. On Easter Sunday, we hide sweets, coloured eggs and little presents in our gardens. In the Easter morning the smaller children go into the gardens and walk along in search of the Easter presents. Of course, Easter Lamb is part of the  Christian Easter celebration, too.

Furthermore, the Easter bonfires complete the nightly celebration. In Germany the Easter celebration is still marked by Christian associations. So we also eat the Easter lamb, because in the Christian faith it is one of the most important symbols. For Easter breakfast there is a plaited yeast bun, sweet bread, chocolate eggs and boiled chicken eggs. Besides, sometimes the whole family comes together and celebrates at an Easter brunch.

A purely Christian sign for the party is the Easter bell which is rung in the Easter morning. For Catholics Easter fair is an essential element of the activities.