We asked our principal and teachers to share some information about their lifes and send us some pictures of themselves. We will post the information as we receive them. Welcome to Rilke Schule!
Our Principal comes to us from the ASD Administration Building. She has worked there for the past 5 years in the Curriculum Department, specializing in Science and Math. As well, she substituted as an administrator at various schools whenever possible. She is accomplished in adult education; curriculum development; classroom delivery models; national, state, and local conference presentations & planning; and large-scale field trip productions.
Mrs. Wrabetz has K-12 administrative experience and has taught all grade levels; including multi-disciplinary elementary, multi-age, single subject secondary, and college. She worked as a district trainer in Science, Math, and Cooperative Education.
Mrs. Wrabetz traveled to Germany and other German-speaking countries, as well as many areas of the United States and other parts of the world. She is very excited about learning German right along with the students, and is planning on future trips to Europe.
Mrs. Wrabetz brings a love of Children, Science, Math, Sports, Theater, Music, and other Arts. You will find that she welcomes you to Rilke Schule and listens carefully to your concerns and ideas.
Michael Helgesen will be teaching the English side of kindergarten at Rilke Schule. This will be his eleventh year as a kindergarten teacher in the Anchorage School District. Mr. 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 is very excited about the upcoming school year. Michael lives in Anchorage with his wife, Yuliya, his two sons, Roos and Alek, and their cat, Rock.
Frau Claudia was born and raised in southern Germany. In 1984, shortly after she passed her Abitur (high school exam), she came to Alaska for “just one year”, and she is still here! In 1990 the Bittlingmaier family decided to re-locate to the Pacific island of Guam, and even though they intended to live there for “just one year”, they lived on Guam until 1997.
During this time, Frau Claudia graduated from UOG with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. The following three years she taught a diverse population of 5th graders at M.U. Lujan Elementary School. Upon returning to Anchorage in 1997, she taught 6th grade at Taku Elementary for 10 years. She lives with her husband, Kurt, and a German shepherd on the outskirts of Anchorage. Last year, 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.
Personal background: I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and have been living in Alaska since 1985. I studied German in high school and was pretty good at it then, but it has been more years than I care to admit and, to say the least, it will take a bit of a refresher to uncover what I know is buried in my brain somewhere. I've been married to Gary Nelson since 1986. We don't have any kids or pets, but we have lots of plants. In my spare time (of which I have little), I work on home improvement projects, garden, crochet, and read John Grisham books. I also like to do Sudoku and crossword puzzles.
Professional background: I received my B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Frostburg State University in Maryland in 1979 and have taken lots of Continuing Education credits, enough for a Masters Degree plus if they counted. I have focused on literacy instruction because learning to read and write is key to a quality education. I taught 1 year (subbing) in Pennsylvania right after college, then took a many-year detour into the legal secretarial field. After moving to Anchorage, I subbed for the Anchorage School District for 2 years before being hired at Klatt Elementary. I taught at Klatt for 9 years (8 years of 1st grade and 1 year of Kindergarten). I then taught at William Tyson Elementary for 5 years, where I taught 1st and 2nd grade classrooms and 2nd grade literacy.
Why I chose teaching as a career: I love 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. I am excited to be teaching at Rilke Schule again this school year!
I am originally from Great Falls, MT. I taught grades 7 - 12 German, and I also taught for 2 years in a rural school in Victor, MT. Prior to that I earned an M.A. from Ohio State University and taught Russian to college freshmen. I speak German and Russian, plus a smattering of Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish. I am an avid cross-country skier and hiker. In addition, I am married with two daughters. We hunt and fish as a family; my primary role in hunting has been to run around with the pheasant decoy to train the dog. I am excited to be a part of the Rilke Schule and to finally make it to Alaska!
For Nick Gillespie, the road to teaching German in at the Rilke Schule started in Detroit, led to Munich, Germany then to Dresden, Germany and now to Anchorage. Nick got his first degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in German. Following that he went over to Germany and continued his studies at the Technical University of Dresden where he also taught for three years. Nick just finished his Masters of Teaching at Alaska Pacific University.
Nick is an avid climber, biker and mountaineer. It was the mountains of Alaska that originally drew him and his wife up here and is one of the things keeping him here. Nick is also a professional photographer and works for a local wedding photography company. He looks forward to all the great times that are sure to come at the new Rilke Schule.
Charmin has a Master of Arts in teaching and a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, focused on Russian studies. She speaks Russian and enjoys learning new languages. She is excited about learning German along with her students. Charmin taught English as a second language at Bartlett High School for her internship. Then she 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’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, ice skating 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 travelling 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.
Hello Rilke Schule! I am so excited to join your team this year. I graduated from college in 2003 with a B.A. in German and Latin, having spent my junior year in Vienna, Austria. Subsequently I moved to Freiburg, Germany and was an English language assistant in a Gymnasium (grades 5-13) there. After that I moved to Gimmelwald, Switzerland a tiny farming village in the Alps, and worked on a farm/at a B&B while being totally immersed in Swiss mountain culture. After deciding I needed a fulltime job (though raking hay and making cheese was quite enjoyable), I moved back home to Texas and taught 3rd-5th grade Latin at a private school. I wanted to pursue German, though, so I applied to grad school and attended two years of graduate school at Tufts University in Boston; I just received my M.A. in German with teaching licensure in June and am thrilled to be able to help kids along on the road of discovery that is a natural result of learning another language. I love to ski, play piano, hike, take pictures, and learn about the Middle Ages.
Peter Birmanns was born in Aachen, Germany exactly twenty years after it became the first German city to be liberated by American soldiers in 1945. Peter grew up in this city which is often called the heart of Europe because Charlemagne built his cathedral here in 800 and because it is a bordertown to the Netherlands and to Belgium. After graduating, Peter absolved an apprenticeship as pastry baker and then entered university in the romantic town of Tuebingen in South Germany. He graduated with an MA in History and German literature. Two years of college teaching in Northern Minnesota preceded his career as a roofer. During that time Peter acquired his High School teaching license for German, Spanish and English. After ten years teaching High School Peter came to beautiful Alaska in 2008 and joined the faculty of Rilke Schule.
Ms. Campbell has taught for the Anchorage School District for the past 11 years. She began her teaching career at Nunaka Valley Elementary, where she taught for 5 years, teaching 4th through 6th grades in the Slingerland program. She then moved to Baxter where she could be more involved in the technology program. After teaching at Baxter for several years, she moved to Highland Tech High when they opened in the fall of 2003. At Highland she taught middle school English, Science, Social Studies, Math and Technology. She also taught 9th grade World History for a semester. Ms. Campbell has been a Lego League Robotics coach for the past 3 years as well as Highland Tech's F.I.R.S.T. Robotics coach, coaching the first Alaskan team to ever be team captains at a regional playoff.
Ms. Campbell's classroom philosophy is "Work hard so we can play hard." She encourages students to follow their passions, to think outside the box, and to expand the limits of their comfort zone each day. Chicken mummies, bog water studies, quarterly speeches, earthquake preparedness videos, musicals, black plague simulations, and swing dancing are some of the activities that have come out of her classroom in the past. Ms. Campbell is a theatre and opera fan and her class usually attends several plays and operas each year as well as making museum visits whenever something exciting is being shown. Ms. Campbell believes that consistent classroom structure gives students the foundation they need to focus on learning.
In her free time she enjoys reading, sewing, beading, playing video games and spending time with her son, Kyle, and dancing.
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). It was then that her life started to change and her travels would turn into a commute between Alaska to be with her now husband, and Germany to visit family.
When she made the decision to move to Alaska, she first studied business administration as an international student receiving a bachelor in logistics. She then worked for the University of Alaska. 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 is currently studying towards her Master of Teaching at Alaska Pacific University.
She enjoys skiing, hiking, and other outdoor activities. But lately, she spends most of her free time training and playing with her Bouvier puppy Maja.
I was born and raised in Alaska. I have worked for the Anchorage School District teaching music for the last 14 years. I spent a year studying music at the Mozarteum in Salzburg Austria and I am looking forward to teaching using some of my materials from the institute.
I love teaching and I have a philosophy that all children can learn and be successful in music. I teach kids to learn to read, write and play music through singing,performing, listening, dancing, and creating.
I love to ski, climb,and travel and my most exciting adventure in the last couple years has been a successful summit of Denali in 2005. My next adventure begins at the end of September 07 when my wife and I will welcome the birth of our first child. I am excited to teach music at the Rilke Schule and I look forward to the up and coming year.
I grew up in South west Germany and was fortunate enough to travel and learn many different languages. My goal was to work with children in many different places. I got close! I 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, I really wanted to return to the USA. Through friends I learned about the Montessori Method. I landed in Fairbanks 1966 and tought 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. I happily retired and did a little volunteer work. But I got bored and then I heard about the NEW German School. So here I am and love working with the staff and children and experiencing the new challenges of a new charter school. I have twin children in their late 30ties and am the proud Grandmother of 2 grandsons and a new grandbaby is on the way in Florida.
Terri Wood - TA English
Born and raised in South Carolina, I first came to Anchorage in 1996. I met my husband, Jason, within an hour of stepping foot in Alaska. I have been married for 11 years and we have 4 wonderful children. My interest in Rilke Schule began in February of 2007 when I first saw a flyer and made the decision to enroll my kids. I am not bilingual nor am I multilingual, but I do at least speak English. I am looking forward to taking the adult German classes for beginners that starts in September. 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! I am thankful to be part of such a great team and love to watch the students thrive. When I can, I also enjoy spending quality time with my family at our cabin in Petersville.
Frau Jo Sanders - Founder & Curriculun Director
Jo Sanders, a 35 year veteran of the Anchorage School District (West HS, Bartlett HS, Village Charter and Aquarian Charter), will be teaching German kindergarten. 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. She 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 will be reflected in her classroom teaching and her methods emphasize hands-on learning, lots of songs, games and physical activities.
Retirement did not last long because she could not stay away from Rilke Schule. Yes, she is back and we are thrilled! E-mail: Ballagh_Marilyn@asdk12.org
*We post bios and pictures as they are made available to us.
Our Principal comes to us from the ASD Administration Building. She has worked there for the past 5 years in the Curriculum Department, specializing in Science and Math. As well, she substituted as an administrator at various schools whenever possible. She is accomplished in adult education; curriculum development; classroom delivery models; national, state, and local conference presentations & planning; and large-scale field trip productions. 
Michael Helgesen will be teaching the English side of kindergarten at Rilke Schule. This will be his eleventh year as a kindergarten teacher in the Anchorage School District. Mr. 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 is very excited about the upcoming school year. Michael lives in Anchorage with his wife, Yuliya, his two sons, Roos and Alek, and their cat, Rock. 
Frau Claudia was born and raised in southern Germany. In 1984, shortly after she passed her Abitur (high school exam), she came to Alaska for “just one year”, and she is still here! In 1990 the Bittlingmaier family decided to re-locate to the Pacific island of Guam, and even though they intended to live there for “just one year”, they lived on Guam until 1997. 
Personal background: 
I am originally from Great Falls, MT. I taught grades 7 - 12 German, and I also taught for 2 years in a rural school in Victor, MT. Prior to that I earned an M.A. from Ohio State University and taught Russian to college freshmen. I speak German and Russian, plus a smattering of Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish. I am an avid cross-country skier and hiker. In addition, I am married with two daughters. We hunt and fish as a family; my primary role in hunting has been to run around with the pheasant decoy to train the dog. I am excited to be a part of the Rilke Schule and to finally make it to Alaska!
For Nick Gillespie, the road to teaching German in at the Rilke Schule started in Detroit, led to Munich, Germany then to Dresden, Germany and now to Anchorage. Nick got his first degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in German. Following that he went over to Germany and continued his studies at the Technical University of Dresden where he also taught for three years. Nick just finished his Masters of Teaching at Alaska Pacific University.
Charmin has a Master of Arts in teaching and a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, focused on Russian studies. She speaks Russian and enjoys learning new languages. She is excited about learning German along with her students. Charmin taught English as a second language at Bartlett High School for her internship. Then she 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’s thirst for knowledge and experiences is something that she looks forward to sharing with her students to promote lifelong learning.
Peter Birmanns was born in Aachen, Germany exactly twenty years after it became the first German city to be liberated by American soldiers in 1945. Peter grew up in this city which is often called the heart of Europe because Charlemagne built his cathedral here in 800 and because it is a bordertown to the Netherlands and to Belgium. After graduating, Peter absolved an apprenticeship as pastry baker and then entered university in the romantic town of Tuebingen in South Germany. He graduated with an MA in History and German literature. Two years of college teaching in Northern Minnesota preceded his career as a roofer. During that time Peter acquired his High School teaching license for German, Spanish and English. After ten years teaching High School Peter came to beautiful Alaska in 2008 and joined the faculty of Rilke Schule.
Ms. Campbell has taught for the Anchorage School District for the past 11 years. She began her teaching career at Nunaka Valley Elementary, where she taught for 5 years, teaching 4th through 6th grades in the Slingerland program. She then moved to Baxter where she could be more involved in the technology program. After teaching at Baxter for several years, she moved to Highland Tech High when they opened in the fall of 2003. At Highland she taught middle school English, Science, Social Studies, Math and Technology. She also taught 9th grade World History for a semester. Ms. Campbell has been a Lego League Robotics coach for the past 3 years as well as Highland Tech's F.I.R.S.T. Robotics coach, coaching the first Alaskan team to ever be team captains at a regional playoff. 
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). It was then that her life started to change and her travels would turn into a commute between Alaska to be with her now husband, and Germany to visit family.
I grew up in South west Germany and was fortunate enough
Jo Sanders, a 35 year veteran of the Anchorage School District (West HS, Bartlett HS, Village Charter and Aquarian Charter), will be teaching German kindergarten. 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. She 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 will be reflected in her classroom teaching and her methods emphasize hands-on learning, lots of songs, games and physical activities. 
Retirement did not last long because she could not stay away from Rilke Schule. Yes, she is back and we are thrilled! E-mail: 