The Rilke Schule Academic Policy Committee is pleased to announce that on April 29, 2011, Dean Ball accepted the offer as the Principal of the Rilke Schule for the 2011-2012 school year.
Herr Ball comes to the Rilke Schule from A.J. Dimond High School with fifteen years of extensive foreign language experience in German, French, and Spanish. During his tenure at Dimond High School, he served as the World Languages Department Chair, a teacher mentor to both colleagues and University of Alaska, Anchorage student teachers, and has organized numerous exchange programs to Bremen, Germany, and most recently San José, Costa Rica.
Herr Ball brings to the Rilke Schule a passion for German culture and language, an enthusiasm for life long learning, as well as a commitment to the implementation of technology. As the Department Chair of World Languages at Dimond, he has experience in budgeting, fund-raising, and program building. Dimond offers five languages and over fifty percent of the student body is enrolled in one or more of those classes.
Herr Ball earned his Masters of Educational Leadership and Master of Arts in Teaching from UAA and his Masters of Education (Counseling) from Boston University. In addition, Herr Ball is an adjunct member of UAA’s German and French Faculty, a member of the AATG (American Association of Teachers of German)/Alaska Chapter, and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Throughout a given school year, he has striven to involve his students in many extra-curricular activities. At German Camp (Lager Nordlicht), he most often has led sessions on Fußball (an ardent Werder Bremen fan) and helped in skit writing and performing. His service as a judge at the Regional and State Declamation Contest has surpassed sixteen years. He is most proud of his students though, some of whom have taken top honors in the state. As a means by which to encourage his students to continue their study of German, he brings them to German Day at UAA. “Deak”, as those who know him best call him, evidently enjoys being busy. When asked what motivates him, he remarked without hesitation, “It’s all about opening doors to the world for kids by providing them with opportunities to achieve success,... now let’s get down to it!” Better stated, “Auf die Plätze, fertig, los!”
Born and raised in South Carolina, Terri first came to Anchorage in 1996. She met her husband, Jason, within an hour of stepping foot in Alaska. She has been married for 11 years and has 4 wonderful children attending Rilke Schule. Her interest in Rilke Schule began in February of 2007 when she first saw a flyer and made the decision to enroll her kids. She is not bilingual nor is she multilingual, but she does at least speak English. She is looking forward to taking the adult German classes. After being a stay-at-home mom for 10 years, working at Rilke Schule has been exciting, challenging, satisfying, frustrating, and rewarding. It has never been boring! She is thankful to be part of such a great team and loves to watch the students thrive. When she can, she also enjoys spending quality time with her family at their cabin in Petersville.
Born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne England, Amanda first came to the US in 1990 as a long term visitor. She officially moved here in 1994, and worked in retail. She was volunteering at her children's school a couple of years ago when she saw a flyer about Rilke Schule. You guessed it - She came to volunteer, and never left. Boy are we glad. Amanda is the smiling face (with headgear) you often see in the morning and afternoons answering questions and directing traffic, and at midday on the playground helping the children. In between those times she is tirelessly helping out wherever she is needed, sometimes in the Secretary's Office, but just as often anywhere else. If you ever need to know where anything in the building or storage units is, ask Amanda, aka the Chief Schlepper.
When she isn't at Rilke Schule, she enjoys scrapbooking, stamping, knitting, refinishing furniture, and looking after her families menagerie of puppy dogs and other wonderful creatures.
Her favorite word is actually the Yiddish "Schlep", something she is very good at.
Michael Helgesen is one of the English kindergarten teachers at Rilke Schule. He has been teaching kindergarten in the Anchorage School District for more than a dozen years. Herr Helgesen learned to speak Spanish and taught in South-Central Los Angeles for four years. He then worked for three years in early childhood at the Providence Hospital Early Childhood Learning Center. Michael has also studied German, Norwegian, French and Russian. He lives in Anchorage with his wife, Yuliya, his two sons, Roos and Alek, and their cat, Rock.
Frau Claudia was born in Schwaebisch Gmuend, in southern Germany. She was raised in that area, and lived there until she was 20 years old. She travels to Germany once a year to visit her family. Almost all of her relatives live there.
She has her Bachelors of Science in Elementary Ed. She taught 5th grade for 3 years on the island of Guam and 6th grade for 10 years at a Title I
school, Taku Elementary, here in Anchorage. This is Frau Claudia's third year teaching Kindergarten German immersion at Rilke Schule.
In 2007, Frau Claudia took a leave-of-absence from the school district in order to travel to South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana with her husband. En route they visited many local schools and Frau Claudia volunteered regularly at an orphanage in South Africa. While still in South Africa, Frau Claudia became aware of Rilke Schule through e-mails from friends and co-workers at Taku Elementary. She applied for a teaching position, and is excited and happy to now be a member of the Rilke Schule team.
Frau Claudia's hobbies include motorcycling, gardening, skiing, and traveling. She lives with her husband and their German Shepherd.
Her favorite German word is Knoedel (dumplings). She likes to eat them, too!
Frau Martin was born and raised in Zeeland, Michigan. Her family moved to Soldotna, AK when she was a junior in High School.
She received her B.A. in Elementary Education from U.A.A. She student taught in a kindergarten class. That was when she realized that she loved kindergarten! She has spent her first two years teaching Kindergarten at Rilke Schule and loves it!
She enjoys exploring Alaska, as well as traveling overseas (her next stop, Germany!!). She loves to read, scrapbook, bake, and ice skate.
Judith Keihl-Teekell was born and raised in the beautiful country-side of Oberschwaben (Swabia), a region in the very south of Germany. Adventurous and curious about other cultures, Judith traveled early on and found herself in Alaska after graduating from her German high school (Gymnasium).
She finished two years of studies in Elementary and Middle School Education at the Paedagogische Hochschule in Freiburg, Germany. Rilke Schule had just opened when she looked into a career change to finally pursue her calling as a teacher. Months later, she substituted for Jo Sander’s Kindergarten classes and knew from then on that she wanted to teach primary grades (German immersion, of course). She has been teaching at Rilke Schule ever since. Received her graduate certificate in Elementary Education from Alaska Pacific University.
She visits her home town once a year and uses the summer break to catch up with family and friends there. She enjoys skiing, hiking, and spending time with her Bouvier dog Maja. Craft projects and fine arts have always been an interest of hers that she pursues especially during holiday times. She likes to travel inside and outside the United States learning more about history and culture.
Her favorite German word is Lieblings + noun, e.g. Lieblingswort = favorite word, Lieblingsfarbe = favorite color, Lieblingsessen = favorite food......
Personal background: She was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and has been living in Alaska since 1985. She studied German in high school and was pretty good at it then, but it has been more years than she cares to admit and, to say the least, it will take a bit of a refresher to uncover what she knows is buried in her brain somewhere. She's been married to Gary Nelson since 1986. They don't have any kids or pets, but they have lots of plants. In her spare time (of which she has little), she works on home improvement projects, gardens, crochets, and reads John Grisham books. She also likes to do Sudoku and crossword puzzles.
Professional background: She received her B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Frostburg State University in Maryland in 1979 and has taken lots of Continuing Education credits, enough for a Masters Degree plus if they counted. She has focused on literacy instruction because learning to read and write is key to a quality education. She taught 1 year (subbing) in Pennsylvania right after college, then took a many-year detour into the legal secretarial field. After moving to Anchorage, She subbed for the Anchorage School District for 2 years before being hired at Klatt Elementary. She taught at Klatt for 9 years (8 years of 1st grade and 1 year of Kindergarten). She then taught at William Tyson Elementary for 5 years, where she taught 1st and 2nd grade classrooms and 2nd grade literacy.
Why she chose teaching as a career: She loves working with kids -- they are fun to be with and it is exciting to watch them grow. Young students make so much progress throughout the year. It's amazing to see them mature both academically and socially.
Frau Nelson has two favorite German words, Schadenfreude and Kreutzwortraetzel
Frau Lambert is from Holt, Michigan. She attended Central Michigan University and graduated in December 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education. Her Majors are German K-12 and Social Studies 6-12. Her Minor is History 6-12. She studied abroad twice. She spent a semester in Bielefeld, Germany and attended the Padaegogosiche Hochschule Karlsruhe for a year in Karlsruhe Germany on a full scholarship from the Federation of German American Clubs. She Student taught at Morley-Stanwood High School German 1 and World History.
When she studied abroad in Germany, she lived with a host family the first time, and lived in student housing the second time.
She loves to travel and see things she has never seen before and takes tons of pictures of those things. Her favorite German word is Zwiebel, which means onion and is really fun to say!
Frau Cooper is originally from Great Falls, MT. She taught grades 7 - 12 German, and also taught for 2 years in a rural school in Victor, MT. Prior to that she earned an M.A. from Ohio State University and taught Russian to college freshmen. She speaks German and Russian, plus a smattering of Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish.
She is an avid cross-country skier and hiker. In addition, She is married with two daughters at Rilke Schule. They hunt and fish as a family; her primary role in hunting has been to run around with the pheasant decoy to train the dog. She is excited to be a part of Rilke Schule and to finally make it to Alaska!
He attended Minot State University in North Dakota because he received a scholarship to pitch for the Minot State Beaver Baseball team. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. After graduation Herr Schlagenhauf received a teaching job with the Bering Strait School District which landed him on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. He taught 2nd grade in Gambell, AK, which is a Siberian Yupik Eskimo Village 33 miles from Russia. Yes, he could see Russia from his living room! He was the Athletic/Activities Director in Gambell as well as the Head Varsity Basketball Coach. In 2010 he recieved Coach of the Year in the Bering Sea Conference. Herr Schlagenhauf was a baseball player for 20 years and has coached baseball and basketball for the last 7 years.
In July 2010, he made the drive up to Anchorage, Alaska from Boise, Idaho with his girlfriend Amanda and Siberian Husky, Qiluk, to begin teaching at the wonderful Rilke Schule.
Frau Hale is originally from Alaska. She was born in North Pole, but moved around to the East Coast for about 10 years before her family decided to return to Alaska.
She always knew that she wanted to work with kids, but originally thought she wanted to go into Pediatrics. She started college at Loyola University in Chicago and it was there that she decided she would rather go into teaching. Frau Hale transferred to Colorado Christian University in Denver, CO and completed her Bachelors of Science in elementary education. She graduated in May of 2009 after completing her student teaching in a first grade gifted and talented class. After graduating, she moved back home and began to substitute in the Anchorage School District. Frau Hale's connection with Rilke Schule came through a parent who she worked with in the construction/landscaping business. She started subbing at Rilke in Frau Charmin's class every Friday.
In the summers, Frau Hale works for her family's business driving a dump truck for Team Hale Trucking. She absolutely loves it! It always takes people by surprise to see a girl pull up in a dump truck. She is also a hockey player and though she doesn't play as competitively as she once did, she still loves it. When there is time in the summer, she tries to get out and go fishing, camping and hiking.
Herr Birmanns is from Aachen, the most western German city at the border to the Netherlands and to Belgium. He went to university in Tuebingen, near Stuttgart in the South. He has taught two years College German and History, ten years High School and two years Middle School German and Spanish and two years Elementary.
His family can be traced back to the 13th century in the same village close to Aachen in Germany.
Herr Birmanns is married to a Spanish teacher. He has survived careers as baker and as roofer. He was hit by lightening once in the Alps, and survived that too!
His favorite German word is either Schmierfink or Faulpelz, both words he heard a lot in his childhood and again in married life.
Frau Schwicht grew up on a farm in Georgia. She graduated from UAA with a bachelors in Elementary education with an emphasis in History. She is the mother of six, and has been here in Alaska with her husband Steve for 29 years.
She has been involved with education for 12 years, teaching preschool through High School. In her three years at Rilke Schule she has taught every grade except first, and been the librarian as well!
She has been able to travel to Germany 3 times, twice with students from Rilke Schule.
In her spare time she enjoys reading, traveling and being outdoors.
Frau Cati graduated from college in 2003 with a B.A. in German and Latin, having spent her junior year in Vienna, Austria. Subsequently she moved to Freiburg, Germany and was an English language assistant in a Gymnasium (grades 5-13) there. After that she moved to Gimmelwald, Switzerland, a tiny farming village in the Alps, and worked on a farm and at a B&B while being totally immersed in Swiss mountain culture. After deciding she needed a full time job (though raking hay and making cheese was quite enjoyable), she moved back home to Texas and taught 3rd-5th grade Latin at a private school. She wanted to pursue German, though, so she applied to graduate school and received her M.A. in German with teaching licensure in 2008 from Tufts University in Boston.
She and is thrilled to be able to help kids along on the road of discovery that is a natural result of learning another language. She loves to ski, play piano, hike, take pictures, and learn about the Middle Ages.
Herr Whiteley graduated from Washington State University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education. He knew that he either wanted to teach near his hometown, in the Seattle area, or move to Anchorage. After receiving a phone call at a Mariner’s game asking him how quickly he could relocate to Alaska, he started to realize he was about to begin a new journey in his life. About a week later he found himself in a new city he hadn’t been to and teaching at an interesting and exciting place.
He looks forward to furnishing student learning in the classroom and showing students how they can apply themselves outside of the classroom. He knows he made the correct decision to move to Anchorage, and he looks forward to leaving a lasting impact on our future leaders.
Charmin has a Master of Arts in teaching and a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, focused on Russian studies. She speaks Russian and German and enjoys learning new languages. Charmin taught English as a second language at Bartlett High School for her internship. She then switched gears and taught ESL at the elementary level at Tanaina Elementary. During her time at Tanaina, she also taught an hour and a half extension of kindergarten in Russian. Charmin started at Rilke the first year it opened as a substitute teacher, felt like she had found her home, and stayed. Charmin’s thirst for knowledge and experiences is something that she looks forward to sharing with her students to promote lifelong learning.
Charmin is an avid climber of ice, rock and mountains. She relishes outdoor experiences like sea kayaking, biking, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, and iceskating, and is trying to add whitewater kayaking to her skill set. Charmin also spends time exercising her creativity making cards, beading, sewing, scrapbooking, lettering, drawing, coloring, color design, painting, and doing papercrafts, wire crafts and calligraphy. She spent four months traveling through Estonia and Russia and spent a week in Austria. This jump started her hunger to experience new cultures, gain new perspectives and meet interesting new people. She is very excited to add to her travel experiences.
Frau Denise is filling in for Herr Goben who has moved on to teach high school science.
Branden Strauch was born and raised in the little town of Augusta, WI. In 2007, he received his B.A. in German and History from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. While attending UW-Madison, Branden had the opportunity to study abroad at the Friedrich Wilhelm Universität in Bonn, Germany. After graduation, Branden and his wife, Katria, moved to St. Paul, MN, where he attended University of Saint Thomas and is currently finishing his M.A. of Education.
Following his dream to move out west, Branden was put in contact with Rilke Schule through the Anchorage School District. Shortly thereafter, Branden accepted a position and moved to Anchorage, AK in the summer of 2009. Rilke Schule has given Branden the opportunity to pursue his passions in German, history, and teaching. Branden currently teaches at the middle school level. During his free time Branden enjoys hunting, fishing, camping, and playing and watching sports. On Wisconsin!
Herr Downie was born and raised in Alaska. He has worked for the Anchorage School District teaching music for the last 16 years. He spent a year studying music at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and enjoys teaching with some of his materials from the institute.
He loves teaching and has a philosophy that all children can learn and be successful in music. He teaches kids to learn to read, write and play music through singing, performing, listening, dancing, and creating.
He loves to ski, climb, and travel, and his most exciting adventure in the last few years has been a successful summit of Denali in 2005. He and his wife now enjoy skiing with their young daughter.
He enjoys being part of the Rilke Schule community.
Frau Jakos was born in Wurzburg, Germany to a German mother and Hungarian born father. Her father joined the US military and they traveled back and forth, as a family of 5 children, between the US and Germany throughout her childhood. She grew up bilingual, speaking a young person's German, and claiming US citizenship when she turned 18 years old. Most of her adult life has been in the USA.
Frau Jakos was a 2nd/3rd grade teacher in Colorado before she attended graduate school in Seattle. She fell in love with Alaska and moved to Dillingham in 1977 after attending the University of Washington, School of Education, Educational Psychology. She has worked as a School Psychologist, serving most of the Bush communities, as both an independent contractor as well as with various educational agencies. She started her tenure with ASD some 16 years ago. Besides her work in this primary profession, she has also trained teachers in working with emotionally disturbed children in rural communities, lectured and co-authored a behavior management teacher's guide and worked as an educational administrator for SESA. Currently, she is certified as a K-12 teacher, Psychologist and K-8 Principal.
This is Frau Jakos's third year assisting the students, parents and staff at Rilke Schule. She spends time with two other ASD schools, one elementary and one middle school. Her Rilke service days are Thursdays.
Most of her friends and relatives are German. Her lifestyle, major life events and favorite places are all in Germany and/or Europe. One of the many reasons Frau Jakos settled in Alaska was it's close summer air travel proximity to Germany. German food is one of her many strong links too, "Meiner Heimat".
Frau Claudia and Frau Jakos have been best friends since 1985! She is interested in the fine arts as well as the performing arts. Cultural experiences and European history interests her. Animals and dogs hold a special place in her heart. She loves working with children and enjoys reading novels whenever she can. She would like to learn French, start oil painting again and needs to meet folks who can help her refine her limited sailing skills and/or help her get her 1966 MGB on the road again. Small airplane travel and flying over this gorgeous State are also very special interests.
Frau West grew up in south west Germany and was fortunate enough to travel and learn many different languages. Her goal was to work with children in many different places. She got close!
She became a ”KINDERGÄRTNERIN” in Germany in a Fröbel seminar, then studied pediatric nursing and spent months in England and a year in Minneapolis, USA. After several years as a nurse and nanny, She really wanted to return to the USA. Through friends she learned about the Montessori Method.
She landed in Fairbanks in 1966 and taught for approximately six years at the Fairbanks Montessori school, nine years at the Anchorage Montessori school, and 15 1/2 years at the Providence Center for Child Development. She happily retired and did a little volunteer work. But she got bored and then heard about the NEW German School. So here she is! She loves working with the staff and children and experiencing the new challenges of a young charter school.
She has grown twin children and is the proud grandmother of 3 grandchildren.
You can email Frau Sanders at Frausanders@alaska.com or you can telephone her at 345-0203.
Jo Sanders is a 35 year veteran of the Anchorage School District (West HS, Bartlett HS, Village Charter, and Aquarian Charter). She is one of the founders of Rilke Schule. Frau Sanders has been the president of the American Association of Teachers of German, the Northwest Council on Foreign Languages and the Alaskan Foreign Language Association. She was named the outstanding German teacher in the United States by the American Association of Teachers of German, was Anchorage Teacher of the Year, a Walt Disney Salute to American Education Teacher, a Fulbright Exchange Teacher, recipient of the national Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language and received the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Honor) from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Frau Sanders is a consultant and trains teachers all over the United States for the Goethe Institute and the AATG. As a local teacher, she co-founded the state German Camp, which has run since 1973 and the state Foreign Language Declamation Contest. Many of the local German teachers did their student teaching under Frau Sanders. Her personal interest in nature is reflected in her classroom teaching and her methods emphasize hands-on learning, lots of songs, games and physical activities.
The Rilke Schule Academic Policy Committee is pleased to announce that on April 29, 2011, Dean Ball accepted the offer as the Principal of the Rilke Schule for the 2011-2012 school year. 
Born and raised in South Carolina, Terri first came to Anchorage in 1996. She met her husband, Jason, within an hour of stepping foot in Alaska. She has been married for 11 years and has 4 wonderful children attending Rilke Schule. Her interest in Rilke Schule began in February of 2007 when she first saw a flyer and made the decision to enroll her kids. She is not bilingual nor is she multilingual, but she does at least speak English. She is looking forward to taking the adult German classes. After being a stay-at-home mom for 10 years, working at Rilke Schule has been exciting, challenging, satisfying, frustrating, and rewarding. It has never been boring! She is thankful to be part of such a great team and loves to watch the students thrive. When she can, she also enjoys spending quality time with her family at their cabin in Petersville.
Born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne England, Amanda first came to the US in 1990 as a long term visitor. She officially moved here in 1994, and worked in retail. She was volunteering at her children's school a couple of years ago when she saw a flyer about Rilke Schule. You guessed it - She came to volunteer, and never left. Boy are we glad. Amanda is the smiling face (with headgear) you often see in the morning and afternoons answering questions and directing traffic, and at midday on the playground helping the children. In between those times she is tirelessly helping out wherever she is needed, sometimes in the Secretary's Office, but just as often anywhere else. If you ever need to know where anything in the building or storage units is, ask Amanda, aka the Chief Schlepper.
Michael Helgesen is one of the English kindergarten teachers at Rilke Schule. He has been teaching kindergarten in the Anchorage School District for more than a dozen years. Herr Helgesen learned to speak Spanish and taught in South-Central Los Angeles for four years. He then worked for three years in early childhood at the Providence Hospital Early Childhood Learning Center. Michael has also studied German, Norwegian, French and Russian. He lives in Anchorage with his wife, Yuliya, his two sons, Roos and Alek, and their cat, Rock. 
Frau Claudia was born in Schwaebisch Gmuend, in southern Germany. She was raised in that area, and lived there until she was 20 years old. She travels to Germany once a year to visit her family. Almost all of her relatives live there.
Frau Martin was born and raised in Zeeland, Michigan. Her family moved to Soldotna, AK when she was a junior in High School.
Judith Keihl-Teekell was born and raised in the beautiful country-side of Oberschwaben (Swabia), a region in the very south of Germany. Adventurous and curious about other cultures, Judith traveled early on and found herself in Alaska after graduating from her German high school (Gymnasium). 
Personal background: 
Frau Lambert is from Holt, Michigan. She attended Central Michigan University and graduated in December 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education. Her Majors are German K-12 and Social Studies 6-12. Her Minor is History 6-12. She studied abroad twice. She spent a semester in Bielefeld, Germany and attended the Padaegogosiche Hochschule Karlsruhe for a year in Karlsruhe Germany on a full scholarship from the Federation of German American Clubs. She Student taught at Morley-Stanwood High School German 1 and World History.
Frau Cooper is originally from Great Falls, MT. She taught grades 7 - 12 German, and also taught for 2 years in a rural school in Victor, MT. Prior to that she earned an M.A. from Ohio State University and taught Russian to college freshmen. She speaks German and Russian, plus a smattering of Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish. 
Herr Schlagenhauf comes to us from Boise Idaho.
Frau Hale is originally from Alaska. She was born in North Pole, but moved around to the East Coast for about 10 years before her family decided to return to Alaska.
Herr Birmanns is from Aachen, the most western German city at the border to the Netherlands and to Belgium. He went to university in Tuebingen, near Stuttgart in the South. He has taught two years College German and History, ten years High School and two years Middle School German and Spanish
Frau Schwicht grew up on a farm in Georgia. She graduated from UAA with a bachelors in Elementary education with an emphasis in History. She is the mother of six, and has been here in Alaska with her husband Steve for 29 years.
Frau Cati graduated from college in 2003 with a B.A. in German and Latin, having spent her junior year in Vienna, Austria. Subsequently she moved to Freiburg, Germany and was an English language assistant in a Gymnasium (grades 5-13) there. After that she moved to Gimmelwald, Switzerland, a tiny farming village in the Alps, and worked on a farm and at a B&B while being totally immersed in Swiss mountain culture. After deciding she needed a full time job (though raking hay and making cheese was quite enjoyable), she moved back home to Texas and taught 3rd-5th grade Latin at a private school. She wanted to pursue German, though, so she applied to graduate school and received her M.A. in German with teaching licensure in 2008 from Tufts University in Boston. 
Herr Whiteley graduated from Washington State University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education. He knew that he either wanted to teach near his hometown, in the Seattle area, or move to Anchorage. After receiving a phone call at a Mariner’s game asking him how quickly he could relocate to Alaska, he started to realize he was about to begin a new journey in his life. About a week later he found himself in a new city he hadn’t been to and teaching at an interesting and exciting place.
Charmin has a Master of Arts in teaching and a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, focused on Russian studies. She speaks Russian and German and enjoys learning new languages. Charmin taught English as a second language at Bartlett High School for her internship. She then switched gears and taught ESL at the elementary level at Tanaina Elementary. During her time at Tanaina, she also taught an hour and a half extension of kindergarten in Russian. Charmin started at Rilke the first year it opened as a substitute teacher, felt like she had found her home, and stayed. Charmin’s thirst for knowledge and experiences is something that she looks forward to sharing with her students to promote lifelong learning.
Branden Strauch was born and raised in the little town of Augusta, WI. In 2007, he received his B.A. in German and History from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. While attending UW-Madison, Branden had the opportunity to study abroad at the Friedrich Wilhelm Universität in Bonn, Germany. After graduation, Branden and his wife, Katria, moved to St. Paul, MN, where he attended University of Saint Thomas and is currently finishing his M.A. of Education. 
Herr Downie was born and raised in Alaska. He has worked for the Anchorage School District teaching music for the last 16 years. He spent a year studying music at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and enjoys teaching with some of his materials from the institute. 
Frau Jakos was born in Wurzburg, Germany to a German mother and Hungarian born father. Her father joined the US military and they traveled back and forth, as a family of 5 children, between the US and Germany throughout her childhood. She grew up bilingual, speaking a young person's German, and claiming US citizenship when she turned 18 years old. Most of her adult life has been in the USA.
Frau West grew up in south west Germany and was fortunate enough to travel and learn many different languages. Her goal was to work with children in many different places. She got close! 
Jo Sanders is a 35 year veteran of the Anchorage School District (West HS, Bartlett HS, Village Charter, and Aquarian Charter). She is one of the founders of Rilke Schule. Frau Sanders has been the president of the American Association of Teachers of German, the Northwest Council on Foreign Languages and the Alaskan Foreign Language Association. She was named the outstanding German teacher in the United States by the American Association of Teachers of German, was Anchorage Teacher of the Year, a Walt Disney Salute to American Education Teacher, a Fulbright Exchange Teacher, recipient of the national Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language and received the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Honor) from the Federal Republic of Germany.