The academic year was wrapping up and it was the eve of the last day of school. 5 students across primary and secondary school had one more thing on their calendar before summer break would commence.
They logged into Zoom with eager anticipation, and prepared with their questions for Mr. Pauli, who dialed in from Germany. Prior to this, most of them had only read about Mr. Pauli, our new principal who is joining the school in the coming academic year. This time, they were going to interact with him directly, in a cosy and informal, albeit virtual, setting and get to know the newest addition to the GESS family a bit better.
Mr. Pauli joined the call with much exuberance though it was pretty early in Germany. We commenced with self-introductions and the ice was soon broken. There were miles and time difference between us but that did not really get in the way of the heartfelt interactions between the students and our new principal.
Right off the bat, some of them asked Mr. Pauli about his plans and ideas for the school. Naturally, the students were curious about what was in store with Mr. Pauli’s leadership. Mr. Pauli emphasised that instead of coming into the school with pre-planned changes, he wanted, first and foremost, to learn more about the school through firsthand interactions with teachers and students before initiating any changes, if necessary.
Mr. Pauli was also positively surprised when Grade 5 student Tylor asked him:
“What do you hope to achieve at GESS in your first 100 days?”
He shared that just a week prior, he had been at a meeting with the central agency in Germany that organises matters related to teachers abroad. In that meeting, he had been posed the same question. He was happy to reiterate that he would like to dedicate the first 100 days to getting to know the GESS culture, students, campus and have as many meetings as necessary with students, teachers, parents and the Board to go about this. And thereafter, using this overview, he would be in a better position to lead the GESS community forward.
One of our Grade 8 participants, Saskia, asked Mr. Pauli about when his passion for teaching began. Mr. Pauli shared that his interest for this profession can be traced backed to when he was a primary school child.
This discussion prompted our student participants to share more about their own aspirations. We heard a variety of replies ranging from fashion designer, bookshop owner to cancer researcher. This was a particularly delightful segment of the chat and Mr. Pauli remarked that it was a great experience for him to hear about the students’ dreams and encouraged them to continue to find and explore their passions in various ways.
Saskia, who previously shared that she is partially leaning towards teaching as a profession, used this opportunity to ask Mr. Pauli for his advice to aspiring educators. Mr. Pauli was quick to say that it is important to love your students or you won’t be a good teacher, and also provided advice on how to explore passions by savouring and testing them through related activities from a young age.
As the students continued to warm up to Mr. Pauli, we delved into his interests in music, favourite reads, favourite foods and so on. Along the way, some other really fun questions came up! The students were keen to hear about Mr. Pauli’s favourite tie, what his cat is called (fun fact: Mr. Pauli’s family cat will also be travelling to Singapore with him), among other things.
Of course, no talk about food is complete without discussion about Singapore’s very rich food culture. While Mr. Pauli is not too familiar with the cuisine here, he was receptive to ideas and recommendations from the students who were happy to share about some of their favourite food hunts and local dishes such as Nasi Lemak, Satay and Laksa. The list of must-tries is now ready for Mr. Pauli!
The recommendations, however, did not stop with food. Upon learning that Mr. Pauli loves cycling, both Sophie and Tyler piped in with information about their favourite nature spots: the Green Corridor and East Coast Park. Gwyneth also shared that she loves the Singapore Zoo.
Gwyneth, as an avid reader, also asked Mr. Pauli if he had any favourite books and recommended one of her personal favourites – the Hunger Games series.
The hour went by really fast, and soon it was time to wrap up the conversation; Mr. Pauli’s day in Karlsruhe had just started and he was about to have a full day ahead of him. The students shared their well wishes for Mr. Pauli’s journey to Singapore and while we all left the chat with the click of a button, the warmth of the conversation lingered.
When Mr. Pauli arrives at GESS, he can expect to see at least a few familiar faces, checking in on whether he has found his favourite biking route yet, if he has tried any of the food recommendations and how his cat Moritz is doing.
