Over the past four years, Katharina Bolzmacher has experienced intensively how practically challenging school can be. When the now 41-year-old teacher became principal of the Eurasburg-Beuerberg elementary school for the 2020/2021 school year, the first peak phase of the corona pandemic was just behind her and the children. “It was about finding a good relationship as a school family back then and in the years that followed,” she says. The children missed social interaction. After a phase of face-to-face teaching alternating with home schooling, it was crucial to strengthen self-esteem and cohesion among the students. A process that began with a circus project week.
Bolzmacher was passionate about the interests of schools and children. Anyone who listened to her in the Eurasburg municipal council could experience this. For example, when it came to concentrating the school with its two buildings in Beuerberg in the future or introducing open all-day care as a future model for care. There would have been a lot to organize in the coming years.
And yet Bolzmacher decided on a different career path at short notice. For the 2024/2025 teaching year she moved to the State Institute for School Quality and Educational Research (ISB) based in Munich. In the primary school department, she is responsible for mathematics throughout the Free State. Your tasks: to design teaching concepts so that as many students as possible benefit; to work on how new scientific findings can be integrated into teaching practice; and to train teachers for everyday education with a heterogeneous student body.
“A teacher must take away the fear of making a mistake”
Bolzmacher does not see her new position as a purely administrative position. “The main idea is to create a good foundation for education in schools,” she says. The proportion of children with special support needs has increased, particularly in the subject of mathematics. On the surface, the subject matter seems abstract with its numbers and symbols. It is therefore essential to promote communication about this. “Mathematics doesn’t work without language,” says Bolzmacher. “If someone doesn’t understand what is being talked about, the lessons don’t work.” This is also what the cross-state training initiative “QuaMath” (developing teaching and training quality in mathematics), which Bolzmacher coordinates regionally in her new role, stands for. In this respect, it can hardly hurt that she comes from a background in educational practice – and says that she has always taught with enthusiasm.
“I have always been passionate about mathematical and scientific topics,” says the 41-year-old. At school it was important to convey this authentically. Children are generally open and interested in all learning content, says Bolzmacher. But it is not enough to just memorize everything one-to-one in order to understand multiplication, for example. Connectable learning can only be achieved through concrete mental images. The students could practically understand what happens with three times four if they got four apples out of a bucket three times in the classroom. In order to impart knowledge, the most important thing is to talk to the children. “A teacher has to take away the fear of making a mistake,” says Bolzmacher. “Because mistakes are simply part of the learning process.”
Open detailed viewThe elementary school in Beuerberg is one of the smaller ones in the district with around 160 students. (Photo: Manfred Neubauer)
However, this is time and personnel intensive. And therefore challenging in times of a shortage of skilled workers and shrinking budgets. Bolzmacher is aware of this. On the other hand, there are initiatives that are intended to offer socially disadvantaged students good educational opportunities, such as the “SchuMaS” (for “School makes you strong”) project, in which educational institutions develop teaching strategies and concepts together with scientists.
This is also one of Bolzmacher’s tasks at the ISB. The authority reports to the Bavarian Ministry of Culture. For every type of school, from primary to vocational schools, there are departments in which the individual subjects have their own contact person – in Bolzmacher’s case for mathematics at primary schools.
Bolzmacher has worked in Beuerberg since his legal clerkship
The qualified teacher doesn’t have far to get to her new job. She has lived in Pullach in the Munich district for a long time. However, Bolzmacher’s home district is Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen. She grew up in the Waldram district of Wolfratshausen. After studying at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, she worked as a trainee teacher at the Eurasburg-Beuerberg elementary school, which is one of the small schools with around 160 students. She also applied there as a fully trained teacher and was accepted 17 years ago. She says she always liked the mix of rural character and urban influence in the catchment area of the state capital.
Giving up the school leadership role was not easy for her. But at ISB she can build on the fact that she was already committed to teacher training during her teaching career. “The great thing about ISB is that everyone has a high level of competence and we enrich each other,” says Bolzmacher.
