Frau Laurie HaughI started teaching at GBS and for the Glenbrook Academy in August 2010, which makes it easy for me to keep track how long I have been a Titan! Before that I taught all levels of German at Maine East and Maine West High Schools. I was very sad to leave my first job teaching, but I am so happy and consider myself lucky to get to work at such an amazing school with inspiring colleagues and incredible students.
History with German I started learning German as a freshman in high school at Elgin High School. My Opa was German, but I never got a chance to meet him. When I participated in my high school exchange with Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany, I fell in love with the people, the culture and the language. Since 2001 I make it a point to spend at least 3 weeks a year in Germany and since my friends started families, I find myself there multiple times a year. I love it and I love the opportunity to get my students to fall in love with it as I did. As a direct result of my 3-week GAPP exchange, I spent my junior year of collage abroad in Freiburg. I loved that year so much but wanted to get to know another part of the country, so I applied and was awarded a Fulbright teaching assistantship at a school near Leipzig, Germany. Education Masters in the Education of World Languages - Concordia College - 2015 Masters in Education w/ ESL endorsement - National Louis University - 2011 B.S. German Education & Mass Communications - Illinois State - 2006 |
Frau Renate TothGuten Tag! I started teaching German at the Glenbrooks in August 2014. Before that I taught all levels of German at Addison Trail High School for a year. I am excited to be here working with such hard-working and dedicated teachers and such enthusiastic students!
History with German My parents were German immigrants, so I was exposed to the German language from the earliest age. Multiple visits to Germany throughout my childhood ensured that I maintained some level of proficiency in German in order to communicate with my family abroad. In junior high I began learning French, and throughout high school I learned both French and German. These language studies continued into college, and as an undergrad at Northwestern and the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, my studies were focused on languages and political science. I spent my junior university year in Vienna, Austria, attending classes at both the Pädagogische Hochschule Niederösterreich in Baden, Austria and at the University of Vienna. My wage-earning career began with work running a book import company, bringing in books from German, French, Italian, and Spanish-speaking countries. After living in Germany for half a year, I next worked with an engineering firm back in the U.S. as liaison and translator, working to re-privatize the firm’s East German holdings after the fall of the Eastern German regime. While working on a Masters in Library Science, I worked for Dow Jones News Service in Chicago, and upon completion of the degree I was employed by the German government as Librarian at the Goethe-Institut German Cultural Center in Chicago. I completed my teacher certification coursework three years ago, and I plan to finish the remaining coursework within the next year to complete the Masters in Teaching. I love working with students! I have two teenagers of my own (yes, they speak German!) I hope to inspire the students at the Glenbrooks to continue their German studies throughout their lives and to reap the many personal and professional rewards that the ability to speak German can bring them. Education Master of Arts in Teaching National Louis University - in progress Master of Library Science Dominican University B.A. German Language and Literature University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |