Paul, what was your motivation for a pedagogical career?
Once I finished university, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. And teaching was just something that had been kind of in the back of my mind. So, I organized to go to a school in Liverpool, just to observe and help out for a few weeks to get a feeling for education and see if that's something that I would be interested in. And I liked it straight away. With that first bit of experience, I decided that this was something that I wanted to pursue and then got on the teaching course.
Now, this is my 13th year of teaching. So, it's been a while. But the time has gone quickly, which is a good sign. I like the job. I like teaching. And my favourite thing is that every day is different. That's what I really love about teaching in primary school. I like the variety of subjects I get to teach.
Teaching is great, because you get to see the progress that the children make, you know. This might be over the course of one hour, or, when some things take longer and you look back after a year and remember where they were at the beginning of the school year. So, it's very rewarding in that sense as well.
Mehr lesenPaul, what was your motivation for a pedagogical career?
Once I finished university, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. And teaching was just something that had been kind of in the back of my mind. So, I organized to go to a school in Liverpool, just to observe and help out for a few weeks to get a feeling for education and see if that's something that I would be interested in. And I liked it straight away. With that first bit of experience, I decided that this was something that I wanted to pursue and then got on the teaching course.
Now, this is my 13th year of teaching. So, it's been a while. But the time has gone quickly, which is a good sign. I like the job. I like teaching. And my favourite thing is that every day is different. That's what I really love about teaching in primary school. I like the variety of subjects I get to teach.
Teaching is great, because you get to see the progress that the children make, you know. This might be over the course of one hour, or, when some things take longer and you look back after a year and remember where they were at the beginning of the school year. So, it's very rewarding in that sense as well.
Why Phorms?
When my wife and I decided to go somewhere to call home for the long term, I started looking at different schools in Germany. One of the schools was Phorms. I ended up, going through the interview process with Phorms and another school in Cologne. And I was successful in both. I had a decision to make and Phorms seemed like a really good fit and a good choice. And so far, it has proven to be that way. So, I'm really happy with the decision with Hamburg and Phorms.
What makes the Hamburg campus particularly attractive for you?
I like the environment. I like the international feel of it, where pretty much 50 % of the staff are from all around the world. It’s the same with the children. It's very diverse. We have children who either themselves were born in different countries, or their parents were. The bilingual concept works well. And the staff are really helpful and supportive of each other.
Which values of the vision statement are of special importance to you personally?
The vision statement is great as an overview looking at exactly what we aim to do, what we aim to cover, because it's so all encompassing. It really does cover everything that we aspire to be.
Being in a community and being welcoming is really important. For the staff, that's how we feel. And everyone's really positive about how welcomed they feel. But also, every time we get new children in, I think everyone from the office staff to the school leadership, teachers, TAs and the all the children are good at welcoming in new people and making them feel part of the school. For example, we've had Ukrainian refugees starting over the last months or so. And it's nice to see, that’s at least my experience, they've really been welcomed into the school and quickly became a part of the school. So, the community sides of things are definitely be a big part of the vision statement and how we live it.
Then we have the international mindset. So, children being comfortable with different languages with communicating to different types of people. I think that's important.
And, I would say positivity in general is an important point. It’s about how every member of the school approaches things and builds relationships with others. It’s absolutely essential - it's really important to have a positive attitude. You know, if there's a positive environment in the classroom, or in the staff room or in the office, you can feel it straight away. Even if you're a visitor, you can walk in, and you can feel it instantly. The positivity passes on to everything and everyone.
So, maybe I would state it as simple as community, international vibes and positive mindset. That’s what our vision is about.
What did you like most about today's Pedagogical Day?
I liked a couple of things. One: working with the other departments, because normally it is quite separate. And that makes sense for a lot of things, because the experience in reception is very different than the experience in grade 3 or in grade 12. So, of course, it makes sense to be compartmentalized like that. So, that was really nice today, just actually getting to spend some more time than we normally would with the other departments. I had a lot of questions for them about how they approach things or the difficulties that they find. And it was interesting, because some things are the same and some things are completely different. That was quite enlightening. I think it's really valuable on days like today to discuss not only the issues that we see within primary, but to be able to compare and discuss and share ideas with the other departments definitely, because although we are separate, sharing our knowledge is important.
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