Today's blog post was written by Simon Schütz. Simon is a student and currently a high school graduate. He writes for our teech blog from his perspective. Personal, authentic and "right in the middle" of school life, he gives us impressions of how he experiences the current school year. In the following article, he reviews the past year. About school closures, distance learning and how even "Stadt-Land-Fluss" and "Montagsmaler" found their way into the "digital classroom"...
I have since forgotten the exact date. Nevertheless, the first lockdown, combined with the closure of schools, was certainly one of the most formative events of my school days.
Towards Friday we were informed that the school would be closed from next week. It was not yet clear how lessons and school life would change during this time. Communication within the school community reached an all-time high that weekend.
While some were looking forward to the supposed "corona vacations", teachers and school administrators in particular were faced with huge challenges: How could lessons be organized when all class members were at home? How could this work technically? How can we ensure that all pupils have access to a laptop?
Then Monday came. And everything was new. The lessons either consisted of completing tasks that we had been given in advance by our teachers. We were already familiar with "doing tasks" from before distance learning. What was new, however, were the "video conferences" that were still being tested at the beginning - a term that had probably rarely been used in a school context before.
Although "everyday school life" could sooner or later run relatively smoothly online, something was still missing: the classmates. Because although we sometimes saw each other in front of the screen, it was the distance to our classmates and friends that was particularly important.
And so conversations with friends, evenings out and even parties shifted to the online world for a while. We frequently spoke to each other on the phone and were often in voice chats with 10 people at the same time. Even classroom game classics such as "Stadt-Land-Fluss" and "Montagsmaler" found their way into the digital world and helped to maintain a certain level of sociability. However, this was especially true for us older students. Many younger ones certainly had a harder time here than we did and couldn't easily meet up virtually via chat, phone call or similar.
To sum up, this time was very formative for us pupils and the entire school community. I still occasionally think back to it today.
But where do we stand today? That certainly varies from school to school. After more than a year of the pandemic, everyday life is gradually returning to our school. The first step was the return to face-to-face teaching. Although distance learning can also have its advantages - no travel, more flexibility, the opportunity to learn to organize yourself - learning together with your classmates in one place is something very special. After a few weeks, group work was allowed to be carried out again at our school, which we students were very grateful for.
And even with our planned study trip to Berlin, which had to be canceled last year due to the pandemic, there is good news, because: It can be made up for! Although the duration will be shorter and the destination will be Munich instead of Berlin, we are already looking forward to it.
Now to the following question: Has school become more digital? In some areas, this can definitely be observed, for example with homework. We now receive some of it digitally via the school platform. In addition, more and more digital devices are being used and more and more of my classmates are taking notes in class on their tablets. However, the following anecdote should not be forgotten at this point: The well-known overhead projector can still be found in classrooms.
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