It all started when a young version of Mr. Stoll began his junior year of high school as an exchange student in Hamburg, Germany. He spent a year in the country and felt like the German language was a skill that he valued more than anything else he was then pursuing.

At first, Herr (German for “Mr.”) Stoll felt like teaching German was really what he wanted to go about doing as a career. He believed the community really needed someone like him and the skill to learn the language was valuable. 

Stoll is the only German teacher in the building and has been the only teacher at LHS to ever teach the language. 

He begins every morning by walking in from the hallway of his classroom and greeting his students with “Moin moin meine leiblings Klasse” which means “Good morning my favorite class.”

The first year of German is pretty simple. In the first year, you learn the basics of number letters and learn the basic words in components like weather, food, verbs, describing words, clothing, etc. During the course, students apply what they know and apply them through writing a story.

Students say they took German because it seemed like a fun language and it made the most sense out of the three world languages. 

Faith Vaught, a freshman in the German I class, says Stoll keeps you on your toes and is very entertaining.

From freshman year all the way up to senior year, Stoll gets to see how the students grow and develop. It’s a really rewarding process, he says.

Aside from teaching, Stoll describes the ways school in Germany is different from the USA in high school. In Germany, students have more freedom. They don’t have to ask to leave and there isn’t an ISS. Anyone could leave and go get food off-campus, but of course that comes with consequences with missing the entire class and could come with failing grades.

Stoll lived in Germany for about two and a half years; one year in high school, a year in college, and then about six months in Berlin. 

Knowing that students enjoy and love coming to your class is the biggest part of being a teacher. 

“I love class with Stoll, one of the best teachers I have ever had,” said junior Shane Wolz.