Melissa Kiehl will miss the last two weeks of school this year, but she has a valid excuse.

The Catonsville resident will be in Germany from May 31 until June 20 as part of the Teacher Spring Seminar for the German-American Fulbright Commission.

She will learn about the educational and teaching systems in Germany compared to her experience at Reservoir High School in Fulton.

"We're very rule-oriented, I think, in the United States schools.

"There's much more liberal sense, I think, in German schools," Kiehl said. "Just the comparison of the two education systems is going to be pretty cool."

Kiehl, who teaches 54 students in grades nine to 12 in a Gifted and Talented research program at Reservoir, hopes to bring back information to share with her students next year.

Those students rarely have a chance to think about events and situations outside of their comfort zones, she said.

"Not only do they not know what happens on the larger scale of their state or their country, but they certainly don't know what happens on the larger scale of the world," Kiehl said.

Kiehl, who has lived in Catonsville for six years, praised her school and the Howard County school system for allowing her to go on the all-expenses paid trip.

She'll spend two weeks in the city of Marburg, about 40 miles north of Frankfurt, taking classes with 19 other teachers from across the United States chosen for this program.

In addition to sitting in classes, Kiehl is also prepared to talk about the American educational system.

This year, her first at Reservoir and teaching a Gifted and Talented program, marks her sixth year teaching. She previously taught chemistry at Oakland Mills High School, in Columbia.

After her classes in Germany, she'll spend a week visiting a school in the town of Mainz and another school in Hamburg.

She'll stay with teachers from each school which will accelerate her education about the German school system, she said.

She said she knows the teacher in Mainz, Gerhard Carra, since he stayed with her and her husband, Brian, this spring.

Carra, who teaches English at a business school in the town just west of Frankfurt, also took part in the Fulbright program.

Kiehl hopes to initiate a potential collaboration and partnership between one of the schools she'll visit and Reservoir.

The process of establishing a partnership can take a few years, especially if the partnership includes possible student exchanges, Kiehl said.

"I'm going with the idea that I'd like to learn more about how we could create partnerships so that I can approach my district," she said.

"I just feel like we have this sort of deficit of understanding on the global scale. And programs like this help to fill that deficit," Kiehl said.

Reservoir principal Adrianne Kaufman could not be reached for comment.

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