Normalerweise trifft man in der vorletzten Woche vor den Sommerferien immer einen „teaching artist“ von InterACT English auf den Fluren des GoGy an, der mit den bilingualen Schülerinnen und Schülern der achten Klasse ein dreitägiges englisches Theaterprojekt durchführt (wir hatten zum Beispiel schon Besuch von KünstlerInnen aus Amerika, aus Südafrika und aus Australien).

Aber „normal“ ist in diesem Jahr ja bekanntlich wenig – und deswegen konnte leider auch das Theaterprojekt nicht in der gewohnten Form stattfinden. Da Künstler aber ja zum Glück von Natur aus kreativ sind, wurde unseren Schülerinnen und Schülern eine Alternative angeboten: Ein „Creative Writing“-Onlinekurs passend zum Thema „My Experience in our New World“.

In dem Kurs, der auf etwa fünf Stunden ausgelegt war, lernten die Schülerinnen und Schüler anhand von Video-Tutorials und kurzen Übungsaufgaben, wie man zu dem vorgegebenen Thema eine Idee entwickelt, Charaktere und eine Storyline entwirft und daraus am Ende eine spannende englische Geschichte macht (und dabei ganz nebenbei noch seine Englischkenntnisse verbessert!).
Wie schon in den vergangenen Jahren wurde das Projekt wieder finanziell vom Förderverein unterstützt, wofür wir uns ganz herzlich bedanken!
Hier die kreativen, spannenden und vor allem sehr abwechslungsreichen Ergebnisse:

The sun light which hits the surface of the water and makes it look all sparkly wakes me up early in the morning.
It lightens up the dark ocean and breaks the silence which has felt endless.
For me it means another meaningless day without hope and just waiting for something to happen.
Like everyday, I start my day eating shrimps, but unlike other days I can hear a voice. It's strange because I haven't heard this voice for a very long time.
It reminds me of the old sweet days. It sounds like a whale, just as old as me.
I follow the voice.
The closer I get to it, the more pain I can hear and feel in it.
I can also hear voices other than the whale's .
These voices bring memories back, that I wish I would never remember again.
From very far away I can see the whale who is screaming for help.
I see a boat and I feel my heart beating faster.
It feels like it was yesterday.
I can see it right in front of my eyes.
The day everything changed, the day my lonely life began.
I should swim to him faster to stop this whale from being killed just like my family.
What what should I do? How could I help him?
I try to ignore my heartbeat and the thousand thoughts which go through my mind to find a way to help a whale who is begging for a free life.
I can't endure seeing the war between life and death when I see the people trying to hunt him.
I have an idea.
Slowly and quietly I get closer to the boat.
I swim as fast as I can around the boat in the hope to make it fall into the water and drown.
I think they noticed me.
As I swim around the boat, I tell the whale to save his life and to swim away while the enemies are busy following me.
I'm happy that he could save his life, but within one second I feel pain in my left flipper followed by the water which is coloured red now.
I slowly continue swimming deeper and deeper.
The darkness of the ocean and the silence in my ears make me want to fall into a very deep sleep.
As I close my eyes for a moment, I see my family waiting for me to join them.
Now I can close my eyes and be with them forever.
My never ending wait has now come to an end.

Sodabe Habibi, Klasse 8c

It's not everyday you get this type of luck.
It's May 2nd 2020. It has officially been a month since quarantine has begun. “I never knew that I could ever be this bored.“ said Jacub.
Jacub enjoyed doing martial arts before the pandemic. But now he has to stay home and just wait it out. “I've gotta find something to do or I might just go insane." said Jacub.
Jacub isn't really the creative type, but he really wants to do his martial arts again, and sometimes he does come up with some good ideas. Or at least he thinks that they are good ideas. And his teacher said that they would be doing a test as soon as this pandemic is over. So that gives him another reason to practise. He starts to look around his room. He doesn't seem to find anything that he could use as a target to practice on. But then he spots his pillow laying on his bed. "That would work." said Jacub. His door is very old and kinda weak, but he places his pillow on the door anyway.
As he starts to practice his techniques on the pillow on the door, the door starts to make some sort of cracking noises. But Jacub doesn't really care. About five minutes later he hears a knock on his door. It's his little sister Emily. Jacub never got along with his sister, as he always found her annoying. “What do you need?“ Jacub asked.
“You know, if you break that door, I'll tell Dad." Emily said.
“It's not going to break.“ Jacub said.
“Oh we'll see about that.“ Emily said.
As she leaves and Jacub goes back to practising, he laughs at that fact that his door might break. Ten minutes pass and nothing happens.
Until all of the sudden. CRACK! Jacub stops immediately. He nervously removes the pillow and to his shock, he sees a big crack in his door. He can already hear his little sister giggling, and running to his Dad to tell him what happened. Jacub has no idea what to do, and he doesn't have any time to think of anything. He can already hear his Dad's footsteps coming to his room. All Jacub can do is stand there and hope that he doesn't get into too much trouble. As Jacub's Dad opens the door, he notices the big crack in the door. He looks directly into Jacub's eyes. Jacub can see his sister standing behind their Dad with a big smile on her face.
“Look what you have done Jacub. You should have known better. And now because of your actions you will be grounded for two weeks!“ Dad said.
“YES! You are grounded. This is the greatest day of my life!“ Emily said.
“Go to your room Emily! Your brother and I need to talk.“
As Emily left, Jacub's Dad closed the door, and once againg again looked straight into Jacub's eyes. Jacub was really nervous. Even to the point that he started to sweat a little. But then all of the sudden Dad started to laugh. Jacub was confused but also started to nervously laugh.
“Just kidding. You are not grounded. Your mother and I have been waiting for an excuse to replace your door for a while now, because yours is all old and broken. But please remember to use common sense and don't break the new one.” said Dad.
“Will do, Dad.” said Jacub.
His Dad left the room and Jacub was relieved. But then his sister came running into the room. She had heard what happened.
“WHAT? I can't believe Dad didn't ground you. This isn't the last you will see of me. I won’t quit until I get you grounded!” she said.
“We'll see about that.”

Tristan Schmidt, Klasse 8c

Time changes everything – or not?

The rain was gone but my sad thoughts were still in my head. I sat on the couch in my living room. One window was open so I was able to hear the birds and to smell the beautiful flowers in our big garden. The sun was shining and the whole room seemed to be glowing on its own. On the table in front of me there was a book. But I couldn’t concentrate. It was opened on a page because I wanted to read. Some silent music played in the background, too, but I didn’t get anything. I didn’t move, I just thought. Six weeks ago I was a normal schoolgirl but then corona came and everything changed.

I didn’t know how much time had passed. The doorbell rang and I jumped up. I took a look at the time but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to meet me. As I opened the door I was shocked again. Somehow I knew the person. She just pushed me away and entered the house. “Hey!”, I said angrily but she started smiling and said: ”Hi Lina, nice to meet you.” I didn’t know what to do so I let it happen. She looked around the whole house and went in the living room after it. “Wow, I still remember the living room being like that. I loved it. It was so cozy in winters and it looked golden in summers.” She tried to remember something and then she looked at me helplessly. “Wait, what year is it?”, she asked. “It’s 2020.”, I answered. Then I realized something. “Who are you? I mean you just entered my house, told me how you liked it in the past and now you don’t even know the year. Maybe I am not the person you wanted to meet. I have lived in this house since I was born.” I said and looked her deep in the eyes.

Suddenly she started laughing. “Oops, my fault sorry. I didn’t exactly plan to visit you but now I am here to see you. I forgot you aren’t able to know me. I just saw you and thought of my past. Or should I say our past? Well it’s difficult to explain and I don’t know where to start.” She would have going on speaking if I didn’t stop her.

“I don’t really understand what you want to tell me. And why our past? I don’t know you, I haven’t even seen you before.” I felt very uncomfortable in this moment. It would have been embarrassing if I had forgotten her. But I couldn’t have known what would happen next. “Calm down I little bit. I am not here to hurt you or anything. I mean I come in peace”, she said and I immediately started to laugh. “I come from the future. Please believe me. I know it sounds unrealistic but it’s true. I wouldn’t believe it, either. And I still don’t understand this whole thing. But I am you from the future and I couldn’t see you if I didn’t travel in time right?”

As she stopped my mouth was opened and my eyes were big. But in the next moment it seemed normal. I didn’t believe in witches or superior powers or things like that before but I accepted the story. I mean everything seemed real. I know myself. Of course I was creative and had good ideas but no one would think of a lie like this. And I would know this person because she knows my name. “Lina, you said it’s 2020, right?” My future me stopped my thoughts. I nod.

“Poor you. I hated Corona time. Quarantine was so boring.” “You mustn’t tell me. I know!”, I said and both of us started laughing. “But what is about you? You just tell about the past but what is about your now? Is corona over yet?” I asked as we calmed down a little bit. “Luckily yes! And I felt so great when everything was over. You can definitely look forward to that day. The first thing I did was to hug my friends. And I didn’t think I could miss school so much. But the first time I was there I realized so many things I missed. For example stupid comments from my classmates. You can’t imagine how great everything is. Much better than before. But maybe it’s better when I leave now. I didn’t time travel before and I need to check how to get back home. Maybe I come back another time. It was great to meet you”

She waved goodbye but I tried to imagine how I wanted the world to be. I ran to the door. There was one question left I want to get answered. “Please tell me the year you are from.”, I shouted. I saw how my future me entered a weird looking machine. That must be the time travel machine. It really looked like it fell down from space. “Oh didn’t I tell you yet? I am from year 20…”, were the last words I heard. Suddenly she was gone and all of the information she could have told me as well. I really hoped she will come back soon. I really liked her. Sounds weird because she is me but it was true. Hours later a loud noise made me come outside again. I saw pieces of the time travel machine but everything was broken. I was scared. Maybe something bad happened to my future me. Without thinking I tried to fix the machine. It didn’t look who it was before but I entered it. Suddenly I felt a strange power and couldn’t move. I needed to close my eyes.

When I woke up again I couldn’t remember anything. Then I saw a known face. “You’re back”, I said to her but my voice was very silent. “Lina, what are you doing here?”, she asked shocked. “Me? But you are…. Oh no! I traveled in time right?”, I asked slowly as my memories returned. She just nodded. Now I had to explain how I came here.

“The time travel machine is definitely not able to bring you back. That’s terrible! You were just worried about me and now you are here. I am so sorry. It was a really stupid idea.” She nearly started crying. I just looked around. She was right. Everything was more beautiful than ever before. “It’s great here. I think I will enjoy being here with you.” Everything felt great. All my problems seemed to be solved. My future me was different to me and of course I was curious about why I changed like this. But I am who I am now. And I didn’t see any reason to change.

Satisfied I turn off my TV. I liked my acting in this film and I hoped many people will like it, too. I like how it showed not to lose your hope.

Julie-Marie Weber, Klasse 8c