I am personally very pleased to announce that Terry Smith will receive the AATG Friend of German Award (outside the profession) this year. He will be honored at the ACTFL/AATG meeting in November in Florida. Below is my nominating letter, in case you do not know Terry. IF you want to meet him, he will be doing a session about how to play PASS AUF at the TFLA meeting in October in Houston.

MEMO : 2008  AATG Friends of German Award
TO:    The 2008 AATG Committee
FOR:   Terry Smith 
FROM: Mary El-Beheri, Director, Texas State German Contest

Terry Smith is so special I might have  a difficult time putting into words all the  things he does for GERMAN  and for Foreign Language educators in TEXAS and the USA! Words that do come to mind in describing him are : supportive,  helpful, patient,  competent, and cool!! HE is the true definition of the German Word: Mensch. 

Students in Texas who play Pass Auf put him on a tall pedestal They admire his questions and his total fairness.  Trying to out guess him is a game all players indulge in.  I know because my team won first place in Texas several years and the students were respectfully in awe of him. AND especially in the days when he had a red handle bar mustache, added to his size,  made him a  larger than life action figure!!

He is still like the Pied Piper with kids. He is MR PASS AUF.  See this site to find out what pass auf is:  http://www.germancontest.org/sprachfest/passauf.html 

I have never known anybody who loves German, kids, teachers and selling books.  He is Sales Rep, Manager, Regional Vice President, and Vice President of Sales Administration for Holt McDougal. Terry was a teacher himself and knows how much  TLC teachers need.  Terry supports  German programs in Texas and in the entire USA. He is instrumental in having up to date materials put out by his company.  Teachers depend on him for materials, and help in using them, as well as  giving his presentations at State and National meetings. He has remained an active member of the AATG and serves on the Endowed Scholarship Fund Committee. A few years ago, he assisted in getting Holt to sponsor the annual AATG awards luncheon and that participation continues today. He hosts a party for German teachers at the annual TFLA meeting.

I have known and worked with Terry for about 30 years. It seems like only yesterday that we started our State contest, but it was in 1982.
Terry and Beth have been on the State Contest Steering Committee from the beginning. We have 500-700 students at each of the three regional contests and over 1,000 at the State Contest. CHECK it out here: http://www.germancontest.org 

And to tell you the truth we would be in big trouble if Terry did not take care of Pass Auf for all our contests.  Read about it in his own words: “I serve as director of the Pass Auf contest. In this capacity, I prepare the question sets for the three regional contests and the state contest, arrange the pairings, organize the contest materials and send them to the contest directors. Each year I research, write and rewrite over 550 questions and prepare question sets of varying difficulty for approximately 21 contest rounds. I have expanded the questions for the state contest to include music selections. I purchased the CD's, burned the contest selections to CD's and purchased CD-players for the contest rooms. I also added visual cues that include public domain photographs and pictures of German cultural sites and historical events and figures, works of art and examples of German architectural masterpieces. This takes all of my free time during the months of January and February each year. To assist new teams in preparation, I released questions that are posted on the state contest web-site. At Winterfest and at the state contest, I get to read questions and coordinate the contest on-site. At the Winterfest, I also do all of the tabulation of results and calculate Sweepstakes.”
I could tell stories about Terry’s patience when we forget a school for pass auf and he has to redo the entire set up. Or one drops out.
We are indeed thankful for Terry’s dedication. And just reading his narrative brings it to life. 

Besides all of the contest work and helping teachers with materials, he also acts as a chaperone for GAAP and student trips to Austria with his wife’s Plano Senior High German Club. Thus he keeps his empathy for teachers.

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First German Embassy Teacher of Excellence Award

Meagan Tripp of Temple High School is the recipient of the first German Embassy Teacher of Excellence Award, designed to recognize young teachers who demonstrate excellence in teaching and make outstanding contributions to our profession. Sponsored by the German Information Center, this new award consists of the fees for a Goethe-Institut professional development course in Germany in summer 2009, airfare, and room and board, a value of about $5,000. A South TX AATG member, Meagan will receive her award at the ACTFL convention in Florida the end of November. Through her dedicated teaching, her genuine concern for her students, her creativity, her hard work in building the program, and her willingness to serve her profession, Meagan truly embodies this award, and we are so proud of her! Congratulations!

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