Lampertswalde. Ines Kutzner speaks in a clear, distinct voice. The pedagogue stands in front of a school blackboard and films herself explaining the tenses of the future in German lessons to her primary school students. Or the tricky past perfect. Or the irregular verbs. The approximately seven-minute films do not overwhelm the primary school pupils, but try to explain the most important things in a way that the children can learn – at home.
In March 2020, during the first school closings, the tech-savvy teacher began recording the first videos Youtube. As the longest serving colleague in her school. She has been teaching in Lampertswalde since 1988. “But my first job was radio and television mechanic at the PGH May 1st in Grossenhain,” says the 59-year-old proudly. In the meantime there have been 56 films that Ines Kutzner offers her pupils in home lessons to help them on her channel “Elementary School Teacher Kutzi”. The amazing thing is that it has 2,470 subscribers – so much more than the 152 students in your school!
A total of 245,507 calls were registered by noon on Monday. Apparently, you don’t just watch Ines Kutzner in Lampertswalde and the surrounding area. A user from Brazil even made a comment. Arabic and Russian native speakers bring themselves up to date with the videos in German that are accessible worldwide, as the comments show.
Ines Kutzner, as the official representative of the Lampertswald elementary school, posts handouts for colleagues, parents and students on how to use Lernsax on the Lernsax portal in homeschooling. “In the first lockdown, I was tired of the fact that we should only do repetition with the students,” says the committed educator. So she found out how other learning channels are designed and made contact with colleagues from other places. “Years ago at our school I was one of the first to use a computer for work,” explains Ines Kutzner.
As Pitko, the educational IT coordinator of her school, the woman from Schönborn is convinced that even first graders can learn with modern media – if they are properly instructed. Kutzner records the films at school, cuts them at home on the computer and then uploads them. “I received a lot of positive feedback,” says the teacher. Some colleagues also share their links, but cautiously, says Ines Kutzner. She has systematically built up her playlist for grades one to four.
She mainly teaches German, expertise and works. According to her own statements, she now invests much more time in preparation than for normal lessons. But she invites her students to take part in online lessons at the LernSax conference every day. The elementary school issued Corona laptops for this purpose. Kutzner is certain that the students need the teacher and that can also be done online. “Interactions with each other are possible. The children talk to each other, can ask questions and, funnily enough, they answer as in regular lessons,” she says. “Now in the second lockdown there were more hits again,” she says. Comments from fellow teachers even came nationwide.
The teacher is of course pleased. “This way I can help a little more in homeschooling,” she says. Because the videos are like frontal lessons, after which the students can then fill out their worksheets. That is why the pedagogue continues with her YouTube videos – in addition to her normal work via Lernsax in daily online lessons and in the school’s emergency care.
Read more local news from Großenhain here.
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