The American International School - Salzburg > News and Events > News and Events > 2020 Summer Language Program; A “Dry Run”

2020 Summer Language Program; A “Dry Run”

August 13, 2020

Back in April, May and even June, there was still great uncertainty as to whether our Summer Language Program would proceed as scheduled. Thankfully, the Austrian government, health officials and general population demonstrated excellent discipline and cooperation and brought the first wave of infections down relatively quickly; much more quickly than in most areas. Due to this outstanding response, AIS-Salzburg opened its doors to summer language students on July 19 and completed two of the regularly-scheduled program sessions with great success.

We feel very lucky to have been given the chance and opportunity to continue with on-campus programming this past July and August which enabled us to refine and further develop our plans for September with direct experience of offering educational programming during this health crisis.  This will serve us well come September.

Mr. Joe Suttmann was one of the English teachers for the 2020 SLP and found that the new classroom renovations contributed well to keeping things safe.

“The very recent and new renovations to classroom 4, where my SLP classes were held, contributed greatly to the measures enacted due to Covid-19.  Brand new flooring and ceiling, along with freshly painted walls, gave a clean and sanitized feeling to the room.  The new, room-specific classroom furnishings were perfect in establishing appropriate social distancing, while still leaving a comfortable, instructional feel to the classroom,” said Mr. Suttmann of his first lessons since the school closed doors on March 13th due to the pandemic.

When asked of any alterations he made to his lessons Mr. Suttmann replied, “I did eliminate any class group activities that would have required close physical contact of the students to each other, but my class was very content with the group dynamic we established.”

From all appearances, it did seem that the students thoroughly enjoyed all the Summer Language Program had to offer, both inside and outside the classroom.

“With our class consisting of many early or beginning learners of English, I had a strong focus on oral communication during the first period each day.  The students grew to be happy and confident as their English speaking abilities improved while recounting what they had done (and eaten!) the day before.  We also had fun with a game called “Two Truths and One Lie”, which coaxed even the most timid English speakers to add to the conversation,” said Mr. Suttmann of the assignments that were the biggest hit with the students.

We also had fun with a game called “Two Truths and One Lie”, which coaxed even the most timid English speakers to add to the conversation. 

Mr. Suttmann

Over the course of four weeks, the SLP student body represented 13 different nationalities. Dean of Students and organizer of the SLP activities, Miss Cassandra Baehler said the following of the safety measures taken;
 
“In addition to following laws put into place by the Austrian government and local companies, we always required students to social distance with people outside of our school’s community and to always wear a face mask not only on public transportation but also within any enclosed space such as grocery stores, shops, etc. We also limited our activities to those which took place outdoors in large, open spaces and within local and regional areas with few only a few positive cases reported.”
 
 

 
We also limited our activities to those which took place outdoors in large, open spaces and within local and regional areas with few only a few positive cases reported.”
 
Miss Baehler
Of course, implementing a safe program in the midst of a pandemic for the first time does not come without its challenges. 
 
“With any new procedure, it requires a lot of patience, repetition and reasoning behind it. Once the staff and students were familiar with the various procedures and protocols, everything ran smoothly. A typical challenge that we faced was weather because we wanted, to the best of our ability, to provide safe programming outdoors. Therefore, on rainy days, we tried to do things such as hiking, in which a bit of rain would not completely affect or ruin the program, student’s experience and of course everyone’s safety,” said Miss Baehler when asked about any challenges the program faced. 
 
 

Miss Baehler explained that during the week, they would leave for activities at 1:30 pm every day once language classes and lunch were finished. These activities would run all afternoon with a return to campus at 6:00 pm for dinner. In the evenings, students would either have programming planned on campus, such as competition games, challenges, etc. or head to an evening activity in the surrounding area. They would return to campus around 9:00 pm each evening, and lights out would be at 10:30 pm to ensure everyone was getting enough sleep and was well-rested for the next day.

 
Activities were a combination of active, physical sports to cultural experiences to a bit of relaxation and fun in the sun. The top picks for students were: canyoning and rafting with the amazing team from Crocodile Sports, the Lammerklamm Gorge as well as the Flying Fox, the high ropes course at Waldbad, Summer sledding and of course swimming at the various surrounding lakes and local pools. 
 
Summary videos from each week of our 2020 Summer Language Program can be viewed below. 

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