Silvia Weir

German Teacher - Retired

[Brian Tolentino M.Ed @TolentinoTeach]

Students need all kinds of teachers.

- The extroverts who bring energy.

- The introverts who lead with quiet thoughtfulness.

- The serious teachers who bring structure and focus.

- The silly teachers that put students in a state of relaxed alertness.

- The spontaneous teachers who model a creative spirit.

- The organized teachers who bring clarity and consistency.

Part of education is learning how to work with, learn from, and relate to people who are different from ourselves.

[Christopher Hughes MBE @chrislinguist]

When I chose German at school, I had no idea it would be a giant step on a journey that would lead to countless other languages, unforgettable experiences and a career I genuinely love. Languages may not be "easy", but they change your life. German changed the course of mine.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Ronald Reagan: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman…But Anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American…This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America's greatness.”🇺🇸

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

The most influential immigrant group in American history is the one nobody argues about, because almost nobody remembers it was them.

Start at the beginning. The Continental Army was a half-trained mess until Baron von Steuben, a Prussian officer, showed up at Valley Forge and drilled it into a real fighting force. The freedom of the press you take for granted traces back to John Peter Zenger, a German immigrant printer whose 1735 trial established that you can't be jailed for printing the truth. German-Americans were shaping this country before there was a country.

Then look around your own life. Your Christmas tree is German. The hot dog (Frankfurt), the hamburger (Hamburg), the pretzel, the delicatessen, all German. Kindergarten is German, the word and the idea, brought over and opened by Margarethe Schurz. Blue jeans came from Levi Strauss of Bavaria. Heinz ketchup, Steinway pianos, Oscar Mayer, and the big four beers, Budweiser, Pabst, Miller and Schlitz, were every one founded by German immigrants.

The Brooklyn Bridge was engineered by John Roebling, born in Prussia. The Santa Claus you picture every December, plus the Republican elephant, were drawn by Thomas Nast, a German immigrant. Pfizer was founded by Charles Pfizer, who arrived from Germany in 1848. Boeing was built by the son of a German immigrant. John Jacob Astor showed up from Germany with next to nothing and became America's first multimillionaire. Charles Steinmetz, a disabled immigrant nearly turned away at the border, went on to make modern electrical power possible.

And it kept going. Wernher von Braun designed the rocket that put America on the moon. Einstein was German. Carl Schurz, a refugee, became a Union general and the first German-born US Senator. Eisenhower commanded D-Day and won the White House under a name once spelled Eisenhauer. Babe Ruth was a German-American kid from Baltimore.

Here is the kicker. German is the single largest ancestry group in the entire United States, around 44 million people, bigger than Irish, English or Italian. The biggest thread in the whole American fabric, and somehow the quietest.

They never asked for parades. They just trained the army, freed the press, engineered the bridges, founded the companies, built the rockets and lit up the Christmas mornings, then blended in so completely you forgot they were ever the "other." That might be the most American story there is.

[Christopher Hughes MBE @chrislinguist]

From Spanish, French and German at school to Albanian, Basque, Farsi and Mandarin, every language has given me something priceless: new people, new cultures and new ways of seeing the world. Don't learn a language to tick a box. Learn it for the life experiences it will unlock.

[Yaw Nyame, MD | Mind & Body @Yaw_nyame35]

Germany has a concept called Mülltrennung. Literally: trash separation.

You have four bins. Paper. Plastic. Organic waste. Everything else. You sort your garbage. Every day. Every item.

If you don't, your landlord can inspect your trash. Your neighbors will leave notes. And you can be fined.

Germans do not see this as a burden. They see it as the bare minimum of living in a society. 🇩🇪

[Christopher Hughes MBE @chrislinguist]

French is a gateway to diplomacy and culture. German unlocks science and philosophy. Spanish connects continents. Italian sings with music and art. Mandarin reveals new traditions and mentality. Every language broadens perspectives and fosters deeper engagement with the world.

[Mayukh @mayukh_panja]

A quality I really like about Germans is that you can have intense political discussions, completely disagree with them, and then still be totally chill and have a beer together without the disagreement becoming personal.

A quality I really dislike about Germans is that they tend to enjoy such discussions more than they should.

[The Drunk Republican @DrunkRepub]

Thank you, European soccer fans, for reminding us of how great our country is.

With all the political bickering I’m afraid we too often take it for granted.

Your timing was impeccable, on this our 250th birthday, and we are forever in your debt for bringing the beer.

I encourage every American who hasn’t been to Europe to do so. I’ve been many times and it’s an amazing continent with amazing history and even more amazing people.

But make sure you post pics, as something tells me they may need to be reminded occasionally, too.

[Yaw Nyame, MD | Mind & Body @Yaw_nyame35]

Germany has a concept called Feierabend.

Literally: celebration evening. The moment work ends and life begins.

Shops close. Emails stop. Your boss does not call.

It is not a suggestion. It is a cultural boundary. And it is sacred.

Germans do not live to work. They work so they can Feierabend. 🇩🇪

[Jen @jenteach13]

You want to fix education?

Fund the classroom.

(#clearthelist should not exist.)

[Fixing Education @FixingEducation]

Teachers, if someone tells you how “lucky” you are to have summers off, remind them they don’t have to be jealous.

America is currently short more than 400,000 teachers.

They can become a teacher too.

[The Modest Teacher @ModestTeacher]

Technology in classrooms isn’t bad, it’s the over-reliance on technology that is bad.

[Brian Tolentino M.Ed @TolentinoTeach]

If you want to improve reading scores, you have to get students to read.

It is that simple.

All the other systems, methods, and protocols are fluff.

Gotta get students to put down their phones, and pick up books.

[Christopher Hughes MBE @chrislinguist]

I’ve seen languages open doors, build trust and create moments of genuine human connection that no algorithm could fully understand. Of course, AI has its place, but professional linguists still matter because meaning is human, context is human, and responsibility is human too.

[Travis Akers 🇺🇸 @travisakers]

Dramatically reduce laptop use, bring back hard copy textbooks, handwritten assignments, teacher lectures and written notes, accountability for deadlines, removing chronically disruptive kids who are taking away from other students, and ban cell phones.

Get back to what worked.

[Jen @jenteach13]

Nobody talks about the Sunday lesson planning, the Friday night grading, the lunch period that was never really a break.

[Brian Tolentino M.Ed @TolentinoTeach]

Classroom management experts often make it sound like once you set routines, rules, and norms, the hard work is over, and the class will run itself.

In reality, that’s rarely true.

Teaching requires constant attention. The moment you ease up, things start to slip.

You have to stay steady, stay present, and keep your foot on the gas.

[Christopher Hughes MBE @chrislinguist]

When you speak another person's language, you connect with their heart and soul. You show that you respect their identity and heritage. You're open to their outlooks and traditions. You're not limited to one narrow worldview. You meet other people on their own terms. You thrive.

[Brian Tolentino M.Ed @TolentinoTeach]

Students need to read books. Entire books.

Our society is distracted, unfocused, and in a hurry.

A curriculum that rushes through content perpetuates the anxiety of our time.

Reading a book (slowly and leisurely) is a countercultural act.