It all depends on the teacher with heart

On April 4, representatives from education, politics, science and administration attended the opening of the exhibition of student work from the Neißegrundschule on the subject of "The luck of having a good teacher".

Bernd Lange, District Administrator of the district of Görlitz, and Professor Dr. Friedrich Albrecht, Rector of the university, had signed the modified cooperation agreement between the district and the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences on April 4 at the Görlitz District Office. Afterwards, they both took the opportunity to open the exhibition in the presence of Marlies Wiedmer-Hüchelheim, Head of the Education and Sports Office, and many visitors.

 How lucky to have a good teacher... 

... this is something we all probably experienced at school and this sentence can be viewed from different perspectives ... 

from the perspective of the parents who want the best for their child, 

from the perspective of the principal who, together with the teachers in his school, wants to create a school in which pupils enjoy learning and teachers enjoy teaching, 

from the perspective of academics and politicians, who are particularly concerned about school-leaving qualifications and a good education for everyone, or 

from the perspective of the pupils themselves, who want a teacher who understands them and with whom they enjoy learning. 

Again and again, it becomes clear how important a good teacher is.

How lucky to have a good teacher...

The exhibition of the exciting, astonishing and diverse perspectives of the pupils has accompanied us in our work for the third year and has now arrived at its third exhibition venue in Görlitz after Zwickau and the state parliament in Dresden.

And the topic is just as relevant today as it was when the ZINT project began at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with the Astrid Lindgren School in Weißwasser and the Neiße Primary School in Görlitz.

ZINT means something like "Developingintegrative/inclusiveschoolstogether  " Only through close cooperation and mutual support is it possible to develop schools in such a way that every child is successfully supported in their learning, regardless of where they learn.

The idea of qualifying teachers from all types of schools for the challenge of integrating pupils with special educational needs in general lessons was born in 2007 - even before the Federal Republic of Germany signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Since 2008, around 500 teachers from elementary school, secondary schools, grammar schools and vocational schools have been trained in the joint teaching of pupils with and without disabilities. 

Today, the project consists of three parts:

1. The course - in which teachers undergo further training over seven modules during their vacation on issues relating to joint teaching, support planning, individual support and cooperation and advice. 

The aim is to acquire basic action and support strategies for joint teaching as well as basic knowledge of special needs education and to further develop individual skills with regard to integration and inclusion. In addition, they should act as a multiplier for integration at their school as a consultant or contact person and support integrative/inclusive school development.

2. Regional networking

Good cooperative relationships at schools are a basis for facing new challenges in school development. 

The aim is to further expand the proven cooperation in the region and to further develop internal school cooperation.

Taking into account the current staffing situation at the schools, it is also a matter of distributing responsibility across several shoulders through clear task and work structures and the appointment of fixed contact persons for the various tasks, so that the tasks at hand can be fulfilled as well as possible. Cooperation and networking between individual schools and school types should also be strengthened and even more cooperation with extracurricular institutions should be sought at regional level

 3. Further training courses -  which contribute to the systematic further development of skills for integrative/inclusive teaching and school development for multipliers for integration in a needs-oriented manner.

They address questions that arise during practical work and offer an exchange of experiences. In addition, they impart strategic skills for working in schools as well as specialist content on lesson and school design, taking into account the heterogeneity and diversity of the student body.

A particularly popular part of the ZINT project are the annual workshops that have been held since 2013, which focus in particular on the exchange of ideas and changing thematic issues relating to lesson design, learning and collaboration. The conference picks up on the teachers' diverse questions and reflects them in its conference topics. The topics and speakers are just as diverse as the questions on integration and inclusion in schools. And so, for example, the 2015 conference theme "On the luck of having a good teacher..." saw the collaboration with the two schools that played a key role in organizing the vernissage, the Astrid Lindgren School in Weißwasser and the Neißegrundschule in Görlitz.

The pupils from WSW performed parts of their play "It's normal to be different" , which was also documented on film for interested parties.

The movie

-             aims to raise awareness among children and adults about people with disabilities.

-             shows the individual abilities and personal strengths of children with disabilities and the impressive achievements they can accomplish. 

-             And documents the playful approach to the topic by the theater group of the Astrid Lindgren School based on the book "The Little Lion and his Friends"

The pupils of the TÜV-Privatschulzentrum-Europastadt Görlitz-Neißegrundschule looked for answers to the questions with their teacher Ms. Katrin Hänsel:

-           "What should a teacher be like for you?", 

-           "What qualities should he or she have?", 

-           "What should he or she be particularly good at?". 

Together with their teacher and principal Kerstin Wilke, the pupils of the then third grade asked themselves the questions: "How do you enjoy learning?", "How do you like to learn?" and "What do you think is an essential part of learning?" Each child decided on a picture of learning based on personal reference and individual strength. The children's designs were applied to canvas using acrylic paint. The result of this project is a joint work of art, the composition of which comprehensively answers the above questions from the children's perspective and can be admired in the foyer of the district administration office.

The pupils and their teachers presented their works of art to us themselves at the opening of the exhibition.

And we were able to surprise all those present when we showed excerpts from the film of class 9 H of the Radeberg learning support school, in which the students of class 9 described the characteristics of a good teacher. 

Although in very different places, with very different means and methods, all the pupils agreed: it's the teacher (with a heart) that counts ...