Texas is our state of choice, the Dallas/Fort Worth area is our residence of choice. We are bi-lingual and bi-cultural, and Education is our profession.

 

Gabriele Barwig   M. Ed., National Louis University, Heidelberg, Germany B. S. Liberal Arts, Sociology & Psychology, Regents College, New York, USA Certified Translator of English/German, Darmstadt, Germany

I am holding a Masters's Degree in Education from National-Louis University in Heidelberg, Germany (former name: National Teacher's College), and a Bachelor of Science degree in Liberal Arts with majors in Sociology and Psychology from Excelsior College, New York (former name: Regents College). I am a member in good standing of the American Association of Teachers of German.

Since 1999 I am teaching German language at Keller High School in Keller, Texas. By the Texas State Board for Educator Certification I am certified to teach German language, Psychology and Sociology. I am authorized by the German Government as a "Certified Translator of the German and English Language", and I hold a Certificate of Proficiency in English from the University of Cambridge, Great Britain.

I am a native German speaker and in addition to the language knowledge, I bring with me to the classroom the knowledge of the German culture that I was born and raised into, and that the German language is embedded in. It is not easy to convey to my students, that in contrast to American thinking, there are differing cultural concepts in this world, and that the European culture and European thinking differs far more from the American culture and American thinking than my students had come to learn:

• At Keller High School, I am the sponsor of the German Club, where I expose my students to the customs of this foreign country and this foreign culture.

• Once a year, I take my best German students on a trip to the town of Fredericksburg, Texas, which was founded by Germans, and we visit the town museum, which harbors traces and artefacts of the German influence and the German attitude towards farming and community living.

• In my Summer break I take a small group of my students on an individual trip to my homeland Germany and visit the German Black Forest town of Loffenau that I spent my childhood in. My goal is to provide the students as much of human contact and exposure to the foreign culture and foreign thinking as possible. Instead of staying in hotels we are staying in youth hostels, which allow for peer contact with German nationals the same age as my students. In our travel through the major German cities of Frankfurt, Fritzlar, Kassel, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Heidelberg, and in the exposure to the German cultural heritage as at Deutsche Maerchenstrasse, Kassel Wilhelmshoehe, Castle Hohenzollern, I hope to convey to my students a sense of German culture and German thought.

Before teaching High School, I worked as a free-lance Translator for the languages German and English and I gained experience in Adult Education:

• From 1991-1999 I taught classes in German language, as well as Functional Academic Skills in English language and Remedial Mathematics, at the U.S. Army Education Center in Darmstadt, Germany.
• From 1990-1994 I taught basic and advanced German language courses at Big Bend Community College in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.
• From 1987-1994 I taught classes in English language at the German Volkshochschule in Darmstadt, Germany.

Since 2009 I am admitted to practice before the Internal Revenue Service as an Enrolled Agent (EA), recognized as a professional engaged in the preparation of Individual and Business Income Taxes. As an Enrolled Agent (EA), I am authorized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Professional Responsibility, to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service in all 50 states. I am bound by the IRS Code of Ethics in Circular 230 (USC Title 31 Section 10: Practice Before The Internal Revenue Service), and by the continuing education standards of the Office of Professional Responsibility.

45,000 Enrolled agents in the United States advise, represent and prepare tax returns for individuals, partnerships, corporations, estates, trusts, and non-profits. Only enrolled agents demonstrate their competence in matters of taxation and report their hours of continuing professional education to the IRS. Enrolled agents are the only taxpayer representatives who receive their right to practice directly from the U.S. government - whereas certified public accountants and attorneys are licensed by states and their licenses are only state specific. Unlike attorneys and certified public accountants, who may or may not choose to focus on taxation, all enrolled agents specialize in taxation.

I first learned about accounting and income taxes in Germany in 1971-1973, as a part-time accounting apprentice to a Certified Public Accountant. In 1974 I designed and implemented a computerized accounting and costing system on a mainframe computer for a German Fortune 500 company and maintained it until 1989. In 1995 I developed a networked point-of-sale terminal system on personal computers for a German startup company and maintained it until 2001. From 2007 on I prepared individual income taxes for a Jackson Hewitt franchisee, reviewed individual income taxes for a Liberty Tax franchisee, prepared individual income taxes for a Certified Public Accountant company and a Financial Service Company. As an Enrolled Agent I use my expertise also to provide high-quality tax assistance at no cost to low- and moderate-income clients and the elderly. From 2010 on I volunteer for the IRS programs Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) as a tax preparer and quality reviewer.

 

Since 2007, every year after the tax season is over, I find great pleasure in participating in the educational process as a substitute teacher in middle school and high school. In utilizing my knowledge in Psychology, Sociology, and Educational Psychology, I focus on the student's individual freedom and on improving his/her social interest. Leading by example with a positive attitude, I treat students on an equal level, emphasizing cooperation and teamwork. I am applying the principle "Gemeinschaftsgefühl" developed by the psychoanalyst Alfred Adler and the Social Discipline Model of Rudolf Dreikurs: To pursue these goals, Adler and Dreikurs moved from Germany to the United States in the 1930s, and I moved from Germany to the United States in 1999.

"All my efforts are devoted towards increasing the social interest of the patient. I know that the real reason for his malady is his lack of cooperation and I want him to see it too. As soon as he can connect himself with his fellow men on an equal and cooperative footing, he is cured." (Alfred Adler, What Life Should Mean to You, 1931, p. 260).

From 1973 to 1998 I worked as a computer scientist at the Deutsches Rechenzentrum, now: German National Research Center for Information Technology, in Darmstadt, Germany. My professional emphasis was on portability of software, on compatibility between computer systems, and I continue to view and support the "World Wide Web" concept as a set of open, global, independent, portable specifications that were never intended to be abused and perverted by certain software and hardware manufacturers. I am a Certified Computing Professional (CCP) with 25 years of experience with computers and software. I hold ICCP proficiency certificates for Business Information Systems and for the programming languages BASIC, COBOL, PASCAL, and C++.

In the 1970s and 1980s the German National Research Center for Information Technology cooperated with multiple German state departments of education. As a member of a team of six computer scientists, I participated in this cooperation, developing INTEGA, an automated software system for creating timetables and for administrative tools for large integrated schools in Germany. During meetings with school administrators and members of the state education departments all over Germany I fine tuned the requirements and the implementation and testing of the INTEGA software on various computer systems. INTEGA: Stundenplanprogramm für Schulen mit differenzierter Unterrichtsstruktur DV hilft die Schule verwalten My book series about INTEGA: Stundenplanprogramm für Schulen mit differenzierter Unterrichtsstruktur, Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung, Sankt Augustin, Germany