A German Teacher In Need Of An Opinon

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>some of you might remember me: A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread, asking whether there were certain guidelines to writing a teacher recommendation.
I am a german teacher, and am currently filling out the school report for a (in my opinon) exceptional student, who's primarily aiming for Harvard and some other comparable schools.</p>

<p>Now that I started writing it, I wonder whether I am going in the right direction with this. </p>

<p>Your opinions are needed! If you should have the time to read through this first draft ,I'd really appreciate it and I'd be more than happy to send it to you.</p>

<p>Feel free to leave me your Email-adress or PM me! :) </p>

<p>Thank you so much in advance,</p>

<p>Yours,
Nikola</p>

<p>P.S.: What would I do without CollegeConfidential.com? :D</p>

<p>Thank you to all of you who already PMed me!</p>

<p>bump. Did marite respond? berurah? jamimom? They seem to have their fingers on the right pulse....and there are some writers out there...THeDad?</p>

<p>No, marite did not respond, but she can be PMed if more opinions are deemed useful.</p>

<p>nicola; marite would be a very useful editor as she is a European/American with 2 Ss in/accepted to top universities.</p>

<p>Once again: Thank you! So far I've had some amazing help.</p>

<p>Those who still would like to review my rec, feel free to contact me at any time.</p>

<p>Preferably at <a href="mailto:twkoenig@t-online.de">twkoenig@t-online.de</a>!</p>

<p>Have a great day,</p>

<p>Nikola</p>

<p>OP, I can't read the draft, but if you want to see this student get into Harvard et al., don't be shy about the strength of your compliments. In other words, concepts like, "I get up at 6:30 in the morning and teach eight classes every day for $28,000 a year because of students like this" are not out of place.</p>

<p>Also, at least at Harvard, the teacher rec is evaluated primarily as a source of info about the student's personal qualities, not his (her) academics. They can tell he does excellent work from his grades. They need to hear how the energy of the class changes when this student is absent; concrete examples of interactions you've had that illustrate his character; the way the student is patient with the slower kids in the class; etc. Anything that will help them understand the student as a human being.</p>

<p>If you have coached or otherwise worked with this student in a non-academic capacity, stories or impressions based on that work are as useful as information based on what he's like in class.</p>

<p>German style for Gutachten is more factual and objective. Americans expect enthusiasm and more superlatives with some reflection on the personality and character, not just academic achievements.</p>

<p>I helped Nikola a lot, but I am beginning to wonder about the relationship with the student, whose name is Thomas Koenig, especially since Nikola asks that suggestions be sent to Thomas Koenig's email address. Nikola sent me an email using Thomas's email address. When I queried Nikola about this, Nikola claimed that using it was a mistake, that he happened to be helping Thomas at the computer when he decided to email me. But I see that Nikola has asked us before to direct suggestions to Thomas. </p>

<p>Just thought I'd mention this.</p>

<p>Marite, thank you for that. I have spent quite a bit of time helping Nikola this week and didn't notice until you mentioned it that MY emails are also from TKoenig's email address. It does seem odd. Perhaps Nikola could clarify this a bit more.</p>

<p>First of all I'd like to thank you once again - for helping me a lot. Especially because I really didn't have any experience at all with writing those recommendations. </p>

<p>I apologize for causing that much confusion, but the explanation is pretty simple: </p>

<p>Our school's server,t-online, offers every faculty member and student a free account. Creating such an account takes 4 weeks.</p>

<p>My internet email server usally is web.de, but since there had been massive problems I had to use a different email adress, but I didn't have the time to wait 4 weeks for my account to be created and had to send in some reports and other projects in on time. </p>

<p>During class I mentioned this problem, and Thomas offered me his school account since he doesn't use that at all (he has a private account), and that came in quite handy. Since I also had to finish the school report and hand it in on time (due tomorrow!), so the principal could check on it, I simply used this email adress for my CC endeavors.</p>

<p>Not as simple as I had imagined it to be! :) Sorry about that. </p>

<p>I know that it must seem unfortunate, that I am using the student's adress I am writing a rec for, but it all is completely incidental! Especially because we have to keep all information confidential!</p>

<p>I can guarantee you that Thomas hasn't seen anything of your suggestions etc. and that I will treat all information confidential!</p>

<p>I'm terribly sorry for this mistake, and certainly didn't want you to think wrong of me!</p>