Kelly Maine Hagen, CESL/SIUC 1994-1996

Kelly writes to say: "My name is now Kelly Hagen. In August it will be 10 years that Martin and I have been married. We have 3 beautiful children (Sarah almost 8, Tobias 6 and Miriam who has just turned 3) who keep us very busy with music lessons, soccer practice, Spanish lessons, etc.) And now my life has become even busier since I've decided to go back to work. Before the kids I worked in Hamburg for 2 years at a language school and kept in contact with Kim Wilhelm. Then Martin and I moved to Bremen... I'm doing substitute teaching (13 hours a week) for a school for an English teacher who broke her leg. I been working since March. This is the hardest teaching job I've ever had! I have two 6th grade classes (34 students & 33 students) and a 5th grade class (29 students). I love it though! School is still in session (I think our last day is July 19th). Because the school is a public school and I didn't get my degree from Germany, I'm being paid out of an emergency funds account for such things. I've sent in my paperwork with all my degrees and letters of recommendation, etc. with the result that my TESOL & Spanish degrees have been accepted by the government here in Bremen, but I still need to do 2 years of student teaching with visits from supervisors, exams and a 40 page paper (maybe even for both subjects) at the end. It won't be easy. Especially with three kids. And although my German is excellent, it's not perfect. I imagine the Teacher's workshops/courses that I also have to attend in the afternoon (1x week?) will be in German. And naturally, I've forgotten over the past 15 years some of my Spanish, so I'm now attending a class 1x week in the evening. That's where I just was before I decided to look you up on the Web...I want to say thank you to you and all the wonderful teachers at CESL (Please say hello and pass on my thanks to Catherine Caldwell, Marilyn Rivers and Laura Halliday and also Dr. Angelis, if he hasn't already retired). I often think about my time at SIUC and smile. It really was a wonderful time of learning and great inspiration."