Chalk Dust Initiative
Chalk Dust Initiative
The Chalk Dust Initiative Oldenburg
"Kreidestaub Oldenburg" is a student initiative and a working group within the teacher training student body to improve teacher training.
Since 2017, we have been connecting young people who want to make "good schools".
Together, we address what we lack in our studies. We support and motivate each other to start our own practical projects and develop ideas on how to effectively supplement teacher training.
We are part of the Germany-wide chalk dust network. You can find information on the vision and guiding principles of the Chalk Dust Network at: www.kreidestaub.net/
"School of the future" series of events
We want to bring our topics and concerns into relevant discourses. In the "School of the Future" series of events, we invite speakers and organise exciting workshops on current educational topics. It is important to us to create space for dialogue and food for thought. In the hybrid semester, the usual event format is replaced by virtual events. Once a month, all members of the student body's Community Forum on Stud.IP will be given access to exciting videos, podcasts, websites and more.
Learning Journey" project
"What makes a good school? What is learnt and how? How do people interact with each other? The learning journey enables me to familiarise myself with different school concepts, talk to experienced teachers and engage in intensive discussions with students about their shared experiences. At best, the learning journey gives us new hope that we as future teachers can help shape and develop schools." - (anonymous)
"13.04.2018 The first meeting
The first session of the Learning Journey seminar: 12 students aged between 18 and 44, with a wide variety of subjects, interests, eating and sleeping habits, sit together in a circle of chairs and get to know each other. What we all have in common is that we are dissatisfied with the current school system. And we want to take action instead of just complaining. We want to set out to find out whether school can work differently, without pressure to perform, 'levelling down' and stress. So we will plan something without really knowing what the outcome will be. I leave the first seminar session highly motivated, curious and full of expectation for everything that is yet to come." - (anonymous)
Further insights can be found here:
Challenge" project
The “Challenge” project is an innovative concept that has already been successfully implemented on several occasions and is currently gaining ground in the German school system. Pupils in Years 8 to 10 are given the opportunity to choose a self-determined, extracurricular challenge and to carry it out independently during a temporary break from school (usually two to three weeks). These challenges usually involve sporting activities (e.g. hiking, cycling, longboarding, canoeing, etc.), but can also include supporting social projects, for example.
For the pupils, the challenge involves taking personal responsibility, experiencing a sense of self-efficacy, mastering difficult tasks, reaching and overcoming their own limits, feeling a sense of connection within the group, and taking a major step in their personal development.
They are supported in carrying out these challenges by university students who have undergone intensive preparation as part of a university support seminar.
Further information:
deutsches-schulportal.de/stimmen/project-herausforderung-eine-innovative-idee-macht-schule/deutsches-schulportal.de/konzepte/das-projekt-herausforderung/
Timetable
Winter semester 19/20
- “Project Challenge” initiative at the University of Oldenburg
- Establishing a partnership with KGS Rastede
- Establishment of a “Project Challenge” working group
Summer Term 2020 – Winter Term 20/21
- Integration of the project into the biwi module “Pedagogical Practice in Secondary Education”
- Development of a seminar concept
Summer semester 2021
- First delivery of the “Project Challenge” seminar in co-operation with KGS Rastede (first challenges in September 2021)
Summer Semester 2022
- The Challenge Project took place for the first time in co-operation with KGS Rastede. Initial impressions of how it all went can be found via this link: https://uol.de/aktuelles/artikel/schule-mal-anders-7269.
Summer Semester 2023
- This year, the Challenge Project is set to take place in co-operation with both KGS Rastede and IGS Flötenteich.
Our aim:
Two ‘Challenge Project’ seminars, each for 30 students, will be offered annually during the summer semester as part of the biwi module ‘Pedagogical Practice in Secondary Education’ (K). The seminar is led by a university lecturer and a seconded teacher from KGS Rastede, and supported by former student mentors acting as tutors.
Selected reading on the ‘Project Challenge’:
HeRiS research network (ed.) (2019). “Challenges” as a school project. Evaluation report on the 2018 project cycle. University of Wuppertal & RWTH Aachen University. Available at www.pedocs.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=17998
Rürup, M. (11 December 2018). The ‘Challenge’ project. An innovative idea catches on in schools. Guest article on the German School Portal. Available at deutsches-schulportal.de/stimmen/projekt-herausforderung-eine-innovative-idee-macht-schule/
Insider tips
We have a few cool tips for you here. If you're keen to get to grips with school content on your own, then take a look here:
- OER Lehrkräftebildung has created some nice materials on strategies for heterogeneous classes.
- The Winter School has cool new concepts, which are regularly presented at different locations, all about teacher training. Here at the University of Oldenburg, the Winter School will take place on 17 November 2023.
- The Federal Agency for Civic Education regularly presents teaching materials on a wide variety of topics.
- You can find a wide range of teaching methods from A to Z for all kinds of situations in the method file