Leraar Duits Laurens Runderkamp geeft les op het Spinoza20First in Amsterdam.

World Teachers’ Day | Visiting teacher and TIR Laurens Runderkamp

07 October 2024 News item

It was World Teachers’ Day on Saturday 5 October, a special moment to show our appreciation for teachers. We are incredibly proud that we have eight teachers-in-residence as colleagues at NOLAI. Their presence and efforts create an important bridge from educational practice towards science and corporate life.

Upon invitation from our teachers-in-residence (TIRs), we visit their schools on this day to see what it is like in their classroom. We recently followed Laurens Runderkamp, German teacher at Spinoza20First in Amsterdam.

It’s still dark outside when co-creation director Kim Brandes leaves Nijmegen to head to the capital city. Laurens’ class starts at 8:45AM, and as a guest you don’t want to have to pick up a late slip at the caretaker’s office. Thankfully, Kim arrives to the school building on time, and Laurens receives her in the teachers’ lounge with a cup of coffee. Time to go back to school!

‘Opening a world for children’

Eight students come into the classroom. Today’s topic is ‘signal words’. They get a writing assignment and get to choose a theme to write a text that includes five signal words. Of course, Kim does the assignment as well and chooses the theme ‘a secret letter in an old book’. A fun assignment that leaves no room for sitting back. A Dutch-German dictionary is being used gratefully.

“I have been teaching German for seven years now,” Laurens says. “It’s great to open a world for children. You can show them things they don’t know yet, and I have a lot of freedom regarding the way in which I can do that, such as games, news reports, and music. It just depends what I feel like each day, as long as it leads to something.”

Digital solutions in the classroom

This class is a great example of the diverse elements he uses to teach German. The next assignment incorporates AI: the students use ChatGPT to correct their work. But, does this really improve their text? Kim and the students are not convinced. The algorithm removes the signal words to make the text more concise. One of the students notes that ChatGPT creates stories with predictable endings. The conclusion is that AI is not always correct.

Co-creatiedirecteur Kim Brandes voert bij Laurens een schrijfopdracht uit.

Laurens finishes up the class with an interactive game on Blooket. The students have to guess the correct meaning of signal words in Gold Quest and if they give the correct answer, they can open treasure chests with rewards or demerits. With this form of ‘gamification’, he knows to keep the students interested until the last minute.

What makes a good teacher?

After his classes, Laurens gives Kim a tour through the school building. There is liveliness and curiosity in each corner of Spinoza20First. Kim looks at Laurens’ profession and his execution of it with admiration. “It was inspiring to see one of our TIRs so in his element in practice. Laurens went from a group lesson to a one-on-one lesson to tutoring in the next class. He employed various didactical skills.”

'You need to be knowledgeable regarding your subject, but it is also very important to create a connection with the students and to see how you can help them move forward.'

What actually makes a teacher a good teacher? Laurens says: “I think that being involved is an important element. You need to be knowledgeable regarding your subject, but it is also very important to create a connection with the students and to see how you can help them move forward.”

Kim overhandigt Laurens een bedankje voor zijn inspanningen als TIR bij NOLAI.

World Teachers’ Day has been celebrated worldwide since 1994. The day was created to reflect upon UNESCO's recommendation that was accepted on October 5^th, 1966. It centres around the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and the standards for the environment in which they can practice their profession and use their talents.

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Organizational unit: National Education Lab AI (NOLAI)
Theme: Artificial intelligence (AI), Education