deutsche Version

Information about grade 7

(This text was generated in the last year. It will be updated next month.) 

The pedagogical concept – What’s special about the year SCI

Water! We need it and use it! But what for? And where does water – H2O – come from? This one and several other questions around the element ‘water’ are essentially important in grade 7, as our topic is “Water is Life”. The idea to use this motto originated when our team tried to find a topic that can be approached from different angles. Water crosses our way in everyday school life all the time, for example in Social Studies in the lesson “Powers that Change the Earth” (7th school year), or “Hand Papermaking” (6th grade) in Work and Economics. Furthermore, we talk about the topic “Great Climate” in the 6th grade, when we are reading “The sorcerer’s apprentice” by Goethe, or building a water wheel, because the water, or the energy won from it, plays an important role there, too. Field trips to the Harzwasserwerke - a water company and dam operator – are compulsory, of course! However, you don’t only find the element water in our lessons - our classrooms and our entire building are decorated accordingly. We even rebuilt the course of the river Innerste in the hall of the B wing of our building and now we know where our water comes from! And according to our motto “Water is Life”, our flyer is called “Waterfall”. It is designated to inform parents about activities and events regularly.

And whenever we are not talking about water, we try to make our school life as comfortable and pleasant as possible. A good learning atmosphere in the lessons is essential for this, of course. To create this atmosphere our team has agreed on six golden rules, which you can find on a poster in every classroom. These rules are…

• I have all my work materials on my table when the lesson begins.

• The teacher begins and ends the lesson.

• I don’t eat and drink during the lesson.

• A am on time .

• I am responsible for a good learning atmosphere.

• I go to the toilet during my break.

This pedagogical consensus is the result of our experiences and it is the base of successful learning for every student.

As you know now, the cooperation among our team is another important point for us. Therefore, we – the form teachers of grade 7 – get together for a team meeting once a week to plan and coordinate together. However, it is not easy to meet and exchange thoughts with every colleague regularly. That is why we introduced the possibility to participate in a pedagogical forum. As of October 4th, 2010 our form teachers have the chance to get current information there, to evaluate, and to broach the issue of the golden rules, for example. Since the number of subject teachers rises in grade 7, due to the supply of required elective subjects, this forum is especially designed for the 7th grade.

For a successful school, the cooperation of the school and the parents is of great importance, of course, so it is an essential focus of the 7th grade as well. As already mentioned, we inform the students’ parents regularly about current events with our ‘Waterfall’ flyer. However, this and the group lessons are not the only time when parents can have a look at our work. We are happy to have talks with parents (almost) anytime, since the communication is so important to us.

The last specialty of our grade 7 is the topic ‘preventive awareness training’. In this training the students are learning how to solve conflicts and what to do in case of bullying. Furthermore, we have to expand this awareness training in regards to the World Wide Web, because in times of “Schuelervz.net”, “Facebook”, and other communities we are constantly asking ourselves: what are our kids doing there? They are fascinated by the world of the internet, but unfortunately, cyber bullying is not an unknown phenomenon anymore. So this is about protecting students through preventive training, and about informing the parents and the students about chances and dangers of the internet and showing them how to safely move around in the www. We want to achieve that with presentations and speeches, like the one by the State Media Authority of Lower Saxony (NLM), which took place in June, or the play “bullied away.de” by the theatre group “Comic on!” from Cologne, which premiered on September 1st, 2010. Unfortunately, events like these are very expensive and, since they are so extremely important, we hope we can keep organizing them.