AARON BRODSKY
I was born in Toronto, Canada in 1976. I apparently had an obsession with rolling dice when I was about three years old. I vaguely remember lining up the sixes and counting them, so it’s no surprise that I became a math teacher! After studying economics and deciding against working 80-hour weeks in finance, I taught English in Japan, where I experienced the innocence and enthusiasm of children for the first time. I also met a pretty young German woman while in Japan, and we travelled through New Zealand and Southeast Asia. Then I followed her to Berlin and became a teacher at the NMS in 2006, co-founding the upper secondary math department with David Brown. I love teaching math at all levels in the secondary school, and economics in the IB Diploma Programme. I try to combine compassion and high expectations in my teaching :-) In addition, I am a principal external examiner in the IB for math HL, grading IB exams and leading a team of examiners. I was the acting head of the mathematics department from 2016 to 2018. My kids are currently attending the NMS.
Aside from teaching and spending time with my family, I play keyboard and harmonica in the teachers’ band. We have played at Boogie Night for the past five years and also at the staff Christmas party.
ANKE MÜLLER
Ich bin in Erfurt/ Thüringen geboren. Der Wunsch, später Mathematiklehrerin zu werden, entstand in der 10. Klasse, als meine ehemalige Mathelehrerin meine Fähigkeiten beim Erklären von mathematischen Sachverhalten erkannte und förderte. So durfte ich immer mal wieder Mathestunden zu bestimmten Themen in meiner eigenen Klasse halten oder unterstützte Schüler*innen mit Problemen in Mathematik.
Nach meinem Abitur habe ich 1985 mit dem Mathematik- und Geographie-Studium an der Martin- Luther- Universität in Halle- Wittenberg begonnen und konnte dieses 1990 erfolgreich als Diplomlehrerin abschließen. Familiäre Gründe führten mich nach Berlin, wo ich zunächst an 2 Schulen in Berlin- Hellersdorf arbeitete. Im Zuge einer Schulumstrukturierung in Berlin- Hellersdorf hatte ich den Wunsch, noch einmal eine neue Herausforderung in einer internationalen Schule zu suchen. So bewarb ich mich 2004 an der Nelson- Mandela-Schule und bin seit diesem Zeitpunkt hier tätig. Ich liebe die Arbeit in einem internationalen Team und schätze die Vielfalt der Kollegen*innen und Schüler*innen an unserer Schule.
Zwischen 2006 und 2021 habe ich an der Nelson- Mandela-Schule der Stellvertretenden Schulleitung assistiert und konnte hier meine analytischen und organisatorischen Fähigkeiten unter Beweis stellen. Wiederholt habe ich kommissarisch Leitungspositionen an der Nelson- Mandela- Schule übernommen. So war ich in den Jahren 2015-2021 immer wieder als kommissarische Stellvertreterin der Nelson- Mandela-Schule tätig und habe 2016/2017 kommissarisch die Oberstufenkoordination ausgeführt.
Eine große Liebe gilt vor allem auch meinem 2. Fach, der Geographie. Seit 2010 baue ich den Fachbereich Geographie an der Nelson- Mandela- Schule im Bereich der SEK II (Oberstufe) auf und bin seit 2018 als Fachleiterin für Geographie an unserer Schule tätig.
In Geographie unterrichte ich vorwiegend in der Oberstufe (Y 11-Y 13 Abitur) und in Mathematik eher in der Mittelstufe (Y 7- Y 10). Ich liebe beide Fächer und versuche meine Schüler*innen mit meinem Unterricht für diese Fächer zu begeistern und mit sicheren Kenntnissen auf die Prüfungen und Herausforderungen der kommenden Schul- / Studienjahre aber auch ihr späteres Leben vorzubereiten. Jedes Schuljahr bin ich entweder Klassenlehrerin in der Mittelstufe und/ oder Tutorin in der Oberstufe und habe so schon viele Schüler*innen beim Erwachsenwerden begleitet.
Neben dem Unterricht spiele ich Tennis, fahre Ski und treibe Ausdauersport, gehe gern ins Theater, besuche Konzerte und Galerien und lese viel. Des Weiteren reise ich gern.
DAVID BROWN
I was born in England in 1968 and studied the IB at school in London, doing both HL and Further Maths and loving TOK. I read Natural Sciences, specialising in physics and applied mathematics, at Trinity College, Cambridge, where I stayed on to do an M.Phil, with a thesis on Mesopotamian mathematics, a Ph.D. on Mesopotamian astronomy and a postdoc. By now an historian of science and of the ancient Near East, I spent four years as a research fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, teaching and researching until in 2001, I moved to Berlin as a Humboldt Postdoc, where I worked on ancient Indian astronomy at the FU. I lectured at UCL for two years on ancient history and women’s studies, and did my teacher training, and then two more years at the FU on a large project on the interactions of ancient astral science, which I published as a book in 2018. In 2006, I joined the NMS, for teaching at school offered me the best way to look after my children. All three attended all classes at the NMS from the Flex classes to IB, and the two children of my partner in our patchwork family did the same, except they ended up doing Abitur. All five did really well at the NMS and went on to study at great universities and land good jobs.
I am a great supporter of the school, especially of the diversity of its pupils and staff, but also of the quality of the education as a preparation for life. Our diversity, the varied teaching styles, the need to make do, to compromise, to do our best in trying times, is our great strength and any attempt to turn the school into a selective mono-culture would be a great loss to the pedagogical landscape of the city. Maths can play a massive role in countering discrimination and this department tries very hard to do just that at the NMS. I am proud of the achievements of the mathematics department.
I have taught every year and level of mathematics in the NMS from 7 to 13, Abitur LK and GK and all HL and SL IB courses. I have also taught TOK for many years, Studium und Beruf and Global Learning, or education for sustainable development, which I was instrumental in bringing to the school. Every now and again I have had the chance to teach Physics. I worked on the timetable for two years from 2009 and was head of maths in the upper secondary for many years and Fachleiter of the whole maths department for a semester, taking over from Aaron Brodsky and before Dr. Figueiras took the reins. I have held various posts in the school, from Vertrauenslehrer to UCAS officer and am almost always a class-teacher, but what I try to do on a day-to-day basis is to encourage as many pupils as possible to love maths.
GIVEN RAPHOLO
I was born in SOWETO (SOuth WEst TOwnship of Johannesburg). Later in my high school years we moved to Alexandra township, north east of Johannesburg. My love for teaching mathematics was inspired by my former maths teacher, Mr Maropeng in Alex. I graduated in 2004 Wits education compass formerly JCE. I worked at Deutsche Internationale Schule Pretoria as a Mathematics and Physical science teacher. In 2008 I moved back to Johannesburg to manage the TRAC lab at Sci Bono centre, teaching physical science to various schools around Johannesburg. In 2010, I moved to Berlin to teach at NMS, though the first spell was a short one, as I had to return back to South Africa for personal reasons. I have always had a longing to return to NMS and it happens that I got another chance to reconnect with the amazing community at NMS in 2014. Since 2014, I have been teaching Physics and Mathematics in various grades. I also got involved in coordinating Ubuntu activities, assisting in the office with Vertretung (substitution) for the past 5 years. I am currently a coordinator for Anti-racism and anti-discrimination with my colleague Ms Sophia Calligaro. This office assists parents, staff and students who have complaints regarding racism or discrimination and facilitates the complaints’ handling processes.
In my spare time I enjoy listening to podcasts, (if you know of any ear-gripping podcasts just drop me an email. I am versatile), watching docuseries and listening to good music. My other hobbies involve playing football, watching rugby with friends and cooking.
ERIC MELINA
SAINZA FERNÁNDEZ
I was born in Madrid in 1978, but my family -and my very strange name- come from the north of Spain. After hesitating between maths, philosophy and veterinary medicine, I ended up making the right choice and studying pure mathematics in Universidad Complutense in Madrid. At that point I was not hesitant anymore and I knew two things: that I wanted to travel and learn from other cultures and that I wanted to become a secondary school teacher. So I left home with two bags and moved to London to study a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics at King’s College. After I obtained my qualification, I was lucky to teach in a very good grammar school in London for 2 years, from year 7 to A-levels in Pure Maths. I really became a teacher there, and there I also realised how much I love this job.
Not so happy with London’s weather though, I moved to Nassau in the Bahamas to work in an international school. That was the first time that I taught IB Mathematics, enjoyed it a lot, and became an IB fan. I also got more than enough sun! My next step was Barcelona, where I enrolled in a masters degree in Mathematics Education in the UAB and eventually also completed a PhD in maths education studying the transition between primary and secondary school. All this under the supervision of… yes, Lourdes Figueiras! In the meantime, I was also teaching in another international school in Barcelona, this time the Spanish Baccalaureate.
And here we arrive at the end of the journey: the last months of my PhD had to be done in another European university, so Lourdes proposed to send me to work in the FU in Berlin, because she thought I might like it here. She clearly knows me well, and a stay that was meant to be 3-6 months has become 12 years now, and counting…
I found Nelson Mandela School by chance and I immediately knew I wanted to work here. I strongly believe in the invaluable experience that an international education provides, and I admire (and learn from) our students’ openness, social skills, tolerance and their ability to adapt and communicate in almost any language in a matter of months. I have been teaching at NMS since 2011, and I teach maths from year 7 up to year 13, both IB and Abitur.
Apart from all that, I really like cats:)
EVELYNE STREZA
I have been teaching mathematics at Nelson-Mandela-Schule since August 2012. Before that, I taught at two different schools in Stockholm (SIS and Internationella Engelska Skolan i Bromma) and prior to that I did my NQT year at a school in north London.
I was born in Romania and moved to England with my family when I was a teenager. After studying for my GCSEs and A-levels, I went on to do a B.Sc. in Biochemistry at Imperial College, London. A few months after my graduation, I enrolled onto a mathematics course at Roehampton University and I proceeded to do my teacher training at St. Mary’s university in Twickenham, London.
My passion for mathematics was ignited by my GCSE teacher, Mrs. Evans. She was always full of enthusiasm for the subject and she had a love for teaching that made everything seem possible. She is the reason why, after graduating from my first degree, I decided to embark onto the journey that led me to teaching. I try to encourage my students to love mathematics in the same way that Mrs. Evans did with me.
In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my family, hiking, doing karate, reading and drawing.
LOURDES FIGUEIRAS
I was born in Madrid in 1971. I graduated there in pure mathematics with a mention in its History and Fundamentals after having spent one year of studying in Innsbruck. I guess that the reason behind my shift to mathematics education was that I love to observe and interact with people. I started my career investigating how blind students learn Mathematics and moved to Barcelona in 1999, initially for a couple of years, to enroll on a research project (a touch, also in maths, is worth a thousand words!) The story ended with me settling down and teaching there, first at a lower secondary school and then at the university in the mathematics education bachelor and master for more than ten years. It was a great time. I had the chance to travel and visit schools in many countries, to talk to and work with very different researchers, teachers and students from all parts of the world and to devote time to think about what mathematics can and cannot do to help us to understand our world better.
In 2014 Sainza Fernández, who is also a mathematics teacher at the Nelson Mandela School and a good friend, told me that there was a vacancy to cover in the mathematics department at NMS. I packed thirty cubic meters of belongings and my two wonderful kids and came to Berlin.
I enjoy tap dancing with happy feet, being close to the water and eating strawberries with cream. The books that impacted me the most are el Quijote, by Miguel de Cervantes, Blindness, by José Saramago, and One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Marquez. A beautiful song to celebrate diversity: Contamíname, by Pedro Guerra.
SEBASTIAN WILLIAMS
I have been teaching mathematics, physics and biology at Nelson-Mandela-Schule since January 2015. I am British / French and grew up in Bavaria. Following my Abitur, I studied mathematics in Scotland and Civil Engineering in Munich. During my PGCE in Wales , I met my wife, “eine echte Berlinerin” and settled in Berlin in 2000. Before teaching at NMS, I taught at Berlin International School, Munich International School and worked in the content development of a maths website called bettermarks.de. In addition, I am a member of the NMS IT-Team. I enjoy solving maths problems, small programming tasks, web design, drawing (not only on a whiteboard), playing classical guitar, singing opera and occasionally trying the Scottish smallpipes (when I am allowed to). Other hobbies are cycling and hiking around Berlin and Brandenburg, canoeing and bouldering.
CHRISTOPHER LINDER
Born in Houston, Texas in 1972 to parents firmly rooted in classical music, I only spent four years in the U.S. before my mother moved to West-Berlin with me when I was five. Having spent some time at John-F-Kennedy school as a student learning German - and helping my mother and fellow American students learn German - I also started to fall in love with mathematics, because it seemed to have the answers to everything! But besides travelling transatlantic to visit my father twice a year, I suddenly also had to learn Schwäbisch when we moved on to Baden-Württemberg’s Stuttgart area at the onset of the eighties and Rubik’s Cube. By this time languages and mathematics were growing interests in parallel, so after a brief interlude of getting segued by various bands, acting, juggling and clowning, but perhaps especially after reading Douglas R. Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach, I decided to study Math and English Staatsexamen at the University of Tübingen, where I also got married and had two boys now 25 and 21. With Schwäbisch down pat and 16 years at Tübingen’s beautiful Wildermuth-Gymnasium, teaching all grade levels in both subjects and lots of Abitur experience, I guess it all just got a bit boring, and I felt a longing to reincorporate more English into my Alltag again. I feel very fortunate to be able to teach students that are subject to the same kind of bilinguality-binge I found myself faced with as a child, and sometimes there is so much to learn from our pupils. My favorite hobbies include playing guitar and bass, inventing an endless amount of strange little math problems, being bad at chess but loving every move, and yes, sometimes even still twisting the old Rubik’s Cube.
FELIX THEUNER
Ich bin Felix Theuner, 1996 Cottbus geboren und arbeite seit September 2021 an der NMS . Nach meinem Abitur an der MINT-Spezialschule Max-Steenbeck-Gymnasium Cottbus habe ich von 2016 bis 2021 an der FU und der UdK-Berlin Lehramt für Gym/ISS mit der Fächerkombination Musik und Mathematik studiert. Während meiner Zeit an der Uni durfte ich bereits bei der Entwicklung verschiedener Unterrichtsmaterialien zum Dialogischen Lernen, zur Mathematik der Orgel und an einem Schulbuch für Musikunterricht mitwirken. Neben der Schule bin als Popmusiker, E-Bassist und Chorleiter unterwegs und versuche die Begeisterung für das Musizieren und Unterrichten auf Augenhöhe bei meinen Schüler*innen und Sänger*innen zu wecken.
I am Felix Theuner, born in Cottbus in 1996 and a teacher at the Nelson Mandela School since September 2021. After graduating from the MINT special school Max-Steenbeck-Gymnasium Cottbus, I studied from 2016 to 2021 at the FU and the UdK-Berlin teacher for Gym/ISS with the subject combination music and mathematics. During my time at the university, I was already allowed to contribute to the development of various teaching materials on dialogic learning, the mathematics of the organ, and a textbook for music lessons. In addition , I am a pop musician, electric bass player and choir director and try to awaken the enthusiasm for making music and teaching at eye level in my students and singers.
BENJAMIN LORANG
Mein Name ist Benjamin Lorang, geboren in Berlin. Ich unterrichte Mathematik und Biologie in der Mittel- und Oberstufe. Mein Bachelor- und Masterstudium habe ich an der FU Berlin absolviert und meine Lehramtsausbildung mit dem Staatsexamen 2017 abgeschlossen. Mathe war seit der Grundschule mein Lieblingsfach. Didaktische Schwerpunkte meines Studiums waren unter anderen selbstorganisiertes Lernen, gender- und sprachinklusiver Unterricht und Handlungsorientierung im Mathematikunterricht. Meine Leidenschaft für Biologie entwickelte sich erst später in der Oberstufe. Insbesondere interessieren mich hierbei Neurobiologie und Genetik, welches auch Schwerpunkte meines Studiums waren. Weiterhin unterrichte ich das Fach “Studium und Beruf” in der Oberstufe.
Im Schuljahr 2018/19 war ich als Jahrgangskoordinator für die 11. Klassen tätig. Seit 2019 bin ich Mitglied der IT-Entwicklungsgruppe. Seit dem Schuljahr 2021/22 wurde ich kommissarisch als stellvertretender Schulleiter beauftragt. Die organisatorischen und beratenden Aufgaben bereiten mir großen Spaß. Ich bin Mitglied der Gruppe “Staff for Diversity” und der Diversity-Netzwerkgruppe, um gemeinsam auch mit anderen Schulen die Vielfalt in jeglicher Hinsicht zu repräsentieren.
In meiner Freizeit mache ich gerne Sport (EMS, Fitness und Schwimmen) oder verbringe Zeit im Theater, Kino und auf Konzerten.
MIRIAM HEUSSER
I was born in Cologne, Germany and moved to Toronto, Canada with my family when I was a teenager. In Toronto I completed high school and earned my B.Sc. at the University of Toronto in pure Mathematics with a minor in Statistical Analysis. In my final year of Uni, I met my husband and we started our family soon after that. I continued earning my M.Ed. and started teaching in the Toronto District School Board. I ended up teaching within the TDSB for 11 years. I always loved teaching math, whether it was the advanced level math with students who could not get enough of the subject and wanted to work through ‘extra problems’ in their free time or the essential level math, where I learned a lot from my students. In the summer of 2018, I moved to Berlin with my husband and kids, and we have been here ever since.
Math has always been something close to my heart. I remember when I was young, I looked through my dad’s math textbooks, being amazed at the symbols and formulas, wanting to understand it all one day. It seemed like a language and a world of its own.
My favorite part of my school day is being in the classroom with the students, learning, laughing, and finding ways to make sense of things that seem complex in the beginning. I love when students get excited about math and they don’t really want to admit that they like it 😊
I enjoy spending time with my husband and three kids, looking at and making art, reading, playing board games, and cooking fun dishes.
KARLA KOSKUBA
Maths is a subject I’ve always enjoyed; solving maths puzzles I always found fun. Now that I'm an adult I appreciate it even more; how it underpins our daily life and helps us understand the world around us – we can model the environment, understand star formation, follow a recipe, comprehend human behaviour. Even great art often has mathematical underpinnings!
I didn’t always have such a deep appreciation of how fundamental maths is in the world. My main reason to continue studying maths was that I had enjoyed and been good at it at school. My first degree was at the University of Warwick in England, in maths along with business economics. My initial career took me into chartered accountancy, which I didn't find fulfilling. However, I think it is good to try things out and change is always possible. My career then moved into becoming a research analyst, developing and maintaining mathematical models to predict human behaviour and decisions; I enjoyed using precise, logical rules to help create order out of apparent chaos. I wanted to understand human behaviour at a deeper level and my next career decision was to undertake a MSc at UCL in Cognitive and Decision Sciences, obtaining an academic underpinning to the work I was doing in my daily job. I then moved to Berlin in 2013 with my young family and into the next phase of my life. I knew that I had always enjoyed teaching throughout my life – at school I taught trampolining and piano, in my business life I developed and taught basic statistics courses to my fellow colleagues. I finally made the decision to move into teaching as a career at NMS, and I love it. Maths is a beautiful and powerful subject, and as a teacher I try to bring that wonder and excitement from understanding the world through maths patterns and logical rules to the next generation of children.
MARIA-JOSEP FREIXANET
I was born in Súria, a very small town between Barcelona and the Pyrenees, in 1974. My love for Maths and for going abroad and getting to know other languages and cultures started at an early age. Thanks to my supportive parents encouraging me to learn English in England and German in Germany during some summer holidays since I was 13, I could fulfill some of my passions. I studied pure mathematics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and finished it at the University of Glasgow (1996-97) thanks to an Erasmus scholarship. Back in Barcelona, I started working as a software engineer and I also took the additional course required to be able to work as a teacher. I worked for some IT companies for 8 years, mostly in Barcelona but also in Frankfurt am Main. I also studied a Masters degree in Financial Management at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. After some years in the IT world, I decided to try the teaching career. So I started teaching in a secondary school near Barcelona in 2005. There I’ve carried out some challenging and interesting projects. We’ve won several prizes in statistics projects contests, both in Catalonia and at national level. I’ve also been the Erasmus+ and eTwinning projects coordinator from 2018 until 2022, achieving the eTwinning School Award 2021-22 and the Erasmus+ School award. I’ve implemented Erasmus+ projects, involving both students and teachers, and it’s been very rewarding to see how these projects and the mobilities have changed the life of all of them. The countries involved in our projects have been the following: Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Italy, Austria, Croatia, France, Belgium, Slovenia, Turkey, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Moreover, I’ve also had the chance to teach 3 online subjects in different VET studies that my school offered. All these projects and challenges have given me a lot of expertise in the project-based, collaborative, international and technological scopes of teaching, which is a combination that I simply love. From September 2020 until I moved to Berlin (May 2023), I’ve had the opportunity to teach Mathematics and Statistics at university level as an associate professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. I loved it so much that I decided to start my PhD in Education in Engineering, Science and Technology at the same university in September 2021. Since then, I've been part of a research team in mathematics education in Barcelona and I’ve been attending different congresses where world-wide researchers show their work in mathematics education with the possibility of discussing it and learning from them.
When I knew there was a vacant position at NMS, I decided to apply for it, because I think it is a very special school that gathers my very different passions in one place.
On a personal level, I have two children and I love spending time with my family and friends in my hometown. I have a passion for acting, and if you combine it with singing and dancing, then it’s a win-win situation. I would define myself as an extremely curious person and I love discovering new places, learning languages and getting to know other cultures, but I am also passionate about my own culture and I take part in a lot of traditional events in my hometown, such as “Caramelles” and “Pastorets” (google them and let me know ;-)), and love hiking in the Pyrenees, going to La Costa Brava and wandering around Barcelona.
THOMAS DIX
Mein Name ist Thomas Dix, geboren 1994 in Berlin. An der Nelson-Mandela-Schule bin ich seit 2023 in den Fächern Mathematik und Ethik tätig. Studiert habe ich an der Freien Universität Berlin.
Schon seit meiner eigenen Schulzeit hat mich die Welt der Zahlen, Formeln und mathematischen Konzepte fasziniert. Doch erst im Laufe meiner eigenen Bildungsreise wurde mir bewusst, dass meine wahre Berufung darin liegt, dieses Interesse und diese Begeisterung an junge Schülerinnen und Schüler weiterzugeben.
Mathematik ist für mich nicht nur eine abstrakte Wissenschaft, sondern ein Werkzeug, das uns hilft, die Strukturen und Muster in unserer Welt zu erkennen. Als Mathelehrer sehe ich meine Aufgabe darin, diese oft als komplex empfundene Disziplin in verständliche und spannende Lektionen zu verwandeln. Ich möchte den Schülerinnen und Schülern zeigen, dass Mathematik nicht nur in Klassenzimmern relevant ist, sondern in allen Aspekten des Lebens präsent ist – sei es in der Natur, der Technologie oder der Alltagsplanung.
GERALD ZAPLAWA
Born in New Mexico in 1970, my family moved to California when I was young, and spent the first half of my life there. After studying Electrical Engineering for a year, I graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a mathematics degree in teaching and a M.Ed. in curriculum design. I spent my first 17 years teaching in San Jose. It was in 2007 that I took teaching on the road. I spent the next three years teaching in Colorado before moving overseas. I have spent the last 11 years teaching in Berlin, with a 3-year stint back in California.
Even after 28 years of teaching, I look back at my senior year in high school and laugh, as I remember, while sitting in my Analytic Geometry class, saying, “Why would anyone want to be a teacher, let alone a math teacher?!” As fate had it, I discovered a love of working with young students, helping them to find success in mathematics, which is why I made the change in fields of study. Never in my life did I think teaching would take me to so many places. However, in 2010, a friend emailed me saying that there was a teaching position at his school in Berlin, the catch being that I had to be there in 28 days. After the interview and offer, I was left with two weeks to pack up my house, get it rented, pack some things, and go. During these years, I have spent much of my free time exploring Europe having visited over 25 countries, including hiking across three, and scuba diving in two.
Let the journey continue…