Sustainability Spotlight: Kelleen Rosebaugh at Southeast High School
This month’s Sustainability Spotlight is shining on Kelleen Rosebaugh at Southeast High School! As part of Southeast’s World Language teaching team, Rosebaugh integrates sustainability connections in culture and vocabulary into her German language classroom.
Rosebaugh has been teaching at LPS since 2016, and recently presented her approach to teaching both German language and sustainability on a webinar for the Nebraska Department of Education’s World Language K-12 Guest Speaker Series.
After students complete German 1 and 2, they generally have a grasp on basic German language vocabulary and grammar. Once they move into German 3 and 4, Rosebaugh said, part of the focus turns to preparing them for Advanced Placement German and the AP German Language and Culture Exam toward the end of the school year.
Introducing sustainability topics becomes important in the third and fourth years because of the higher level of awareness of and participation in these initiatives in German-speaking cultures, Rosebaugh said. AP German curriculum also includes material covering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“We don’t want students to be exposed to this for the very first time as an AP student and be overwhelmed,” she said.
During the Global Challenges unit, Rosebaugh covers topics such as deforestation and habitat loss, recycling and renewable energy.
Students build up their knowledge of vocabulary terms related to each of these areas while also examining–in both English and German–the origins of the issue, who it impacts and the potential solutions to address it.
"It is a great unit to make comparisons between plans the U.S. and other countries have to meet sustainability goals and where each nation places their priorities."
The unit also plays a part in fulfilling district goals to promote student respect for others and the natural world, as well as an understanding of and respect for the connections between people. Rosebaugh’s approach to these challenges includes an exploration of solutions and advocacy options, in part, to emphasize the impact groups and individuals can make.
“If we only focus on the challenges, it’s a gloomy time,” she said. “I’d like for them to know how to make changes, and who to contact if that is something they want to do.”
Rosebaugh said that students have been excited to learn about these ideas, and have expressed surprise that they haven’t encountered the topics in other classes.
Students also use charts and infographics from sources like Statista and Our World in Data to practice reading and interpreting data.
“I like being able to use graphs because it’s less words than having a full text, but students can still see the impact across them,” Rosebaugh said.
These data visualizations also allow students to identify trends, pinpoint outliers, determine sample size and evaluate data collection methods, all while honing their German language skills.
For their final essay, students choose a challenge that interests them and explain the causes, impacts, existing solutions and actions others can take to address it. Rosebaugh said that the previous practice exploring these ideas, as well as the freedom to select their own topic helps with both confidence and retention.
“It’s a stronger memory of what we do in class, as well as helping the language stick better because it’s related to something they care about,” she said.
We are so excited to see how Frau Rosebaugh is guiding students through sustainability topics in her German language classroom, and appreciate similar efforts from Southeast’s Aly Shuster and Northeast’s Nich Andersen!
For the complete NDE World Language webinar, watch via the embedded video above or visit YouTube to access the recording and transcript.
Updated January 17, 2025
