Inspiring Women SUMMER 2020

in the evening (so being able to spend time in my apartment in daylight is actually quite nice
right now). Maintaining a work-life balance has always been a challenge for me, but I love to
go to museums and different events related to the UN and the Sustainable Development Goals
hosted by the many organizations in Berlin. I am single and live by myself. Being used to being
surrounded by so many students and people on a daily basis and then shifting to this new
situation was definitely challenging. I always look forward to seeing my family in Bavaria,
especially my three nephews, during school breaks.
What was the first step you took to get involved in the COVID-19 response? Due to my job, I was
automatically involved in starting remote learning or “quaranteaching.” Our IT Team at school
had set up everything we needed weeks before the schools closed, so we were very fortunate.
However, there was still a lot to learn about all the possibilities our programs and platforms had
to offer. I signed up for many educational webinars regarding distance learning and
experimented a lot with the online platforms
my school uses to be able to ensure quality
teaching from home.
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Since COVID-19 started, tell us about a typical
day for you. For my own well-being, I start
every day, rain or shine with a 10km run
through the park before school “starts” in the
morning. To keep some sense of normality, I am
very excited that I am still able to get my
morning iced quad latte at Starbucks on my
way home. I have regular check-ins and online
lessons with my students in each subject – next
to the academics, pastoral care has been
more important than ever: e.g., in reassuring
the students, being positive and being there for
them, and calming them down especially with
the uncertainty of what the consequences of
their cancelled IB and IGCSE exams are.
I spend a lot of my day answering student emails and I usually have at least two or three online
meetings each day and then do my lesson preparations, which are far more time-consuming
than before. Finding the right balance of workload for the students, creating a balance of
screen time and non-screen time, ensuring that instructions are clear, breaking the lessons into
manageable bits and predicting the rate of engagement and diligence while taking into
account the students’ personal circumstances and guaranteeing that each and every student
has the same access (e.g., internet) to the learning going on is very challenging and takes a lot
of time. While some students are thriving during remote learning, many students are struggling to
adapt to the new ways.
What has surprised you most about life dealing with COVID-19? I am very proud of how I have
been able to be alone without being lonely. I miss my students and my colleagues very much,
but I am very grateful for the possibilities we have today – for example, WhatsApp video calls –
to make the situation more tolerable.
I was also overwhelmed by how quickly things change and how flexible you have to become to
whatever is thrown at you. We have been struggling with cancelled IB and IGCSE exams and
the consequences and following constantly changing instructions from local authorities and the
government with very little support and guidance. Our current challenge is to figure out how to
combine online lessons with in-school lessons. Our grade 10s have just returned for two days a
week; next week Grade 9 and 11 will follow, while making sure that there are never more than
two grade levels in the building at the same time. It is also unbelievable how quickly time passes
– each day and week.