Danish lesson and teaching!

We had a lot of Danish lessons. What could I use from Danish lessons so far? The colors, the words like what, where, when, how,… So that was very useful! I also used the sentences for introducing myself.

On Thursday I teached an art lesson in the Danish language. The pupils were 8 years old so they don’t understand English. Wow, this was hard but the pupils did understand me! First they heard a sound from insects and they had to name a lot of insects. Then they smelled and touched the grass that I brought with me. I find it very important that pupils feel, do, hear, a lot of things in real! After this they had to name the insects. I had my little paper for peeking with all kinds of insects in Danish. After this I gave my instruction in Danish and surprise surprise, everyone did what they were expected to do! I showed also one of my exemples so that they could see how it's supposed to look like.
First I was a little bit afraid that this lesson would be too difficult for them. But as you can see on the pictures, it was just for them! Now I know that this lesson works for 8 year old children, I can use this in my own practice in 3 weeks! Woehoe, one lesson more!

This was a chance to learn more Danish on my own while I was teaching!

Evalutation from the pupils:
- “She will be a good teacher.”
- “She is very sweet.”
- “The lesson was very funny.”
- “ She helped me, that was good.”
- “ She is trying to speak Danish, that was good.”

I was very happy after those comments from the pupils! I went home singing!

Teaching... and I loved it!

This second week of practice I’m teaching myself. On Monday, the day before I had to teach, a lot of questions:
- Will the pupils like me?
- Will the pupils eat me?
- Are my lessons good enough?
- Will they listen to me?
- Will they do what I ask them to do?
- …

Well, I’ve been teaching for 2 days now and I’m still alive.

My second lesson was art class, it was based on Keith Haring and I must say the pupils worked very hard. First they say a powerpoint about the works from Keith Haring. They got inspiration out of it. Then I explained what they had to do. Luckily Ellen was there to explain a little bit in Danish. I made to examples so they could see what the final result had to look like and then they started. Everyone was very active, they were drawing, cutting, coloring, designing,… all the time!

Organisation: The pupils worked individually but they were sitting in groups so that they could share their inspiration.
Communication: I told and showed first what they had to do. After the explanation they worked and I helped them were it was needed.
Type of activity: This is an art lesson so it was a creative one. They had to design something from their own. They were very active and worked very hard. Every pupil could work on his own speed and could draw whatever he/she wanted.
Materials: I used powerpoint, my own examples, pictures from Keith Haring on the tables,…
Language: This was a cross curriculum lesson. The pupils can speak English so they had to speak English in art class.

I really liked teaching this lesson. The pupils listened to me, they showed me their works, they asked questions,… Even the teacher said me that it was good and that she will use the same lesson next year!

My third lesson was an English lesson about Belgium. I made a lot of effort by making a corner work with a lot of materials! I made a ‘true or false game’, a smelling corner, a word grid corner, a comic book corner, a quiz,… So a lot of trouble for 1,5 hour learning about Belgium. But my work is been rewarded: the pupils came to thank me and said goodbye after class, shaked hands, wished me a nice afternoon,…

Organisation: I made 6 different corners within each corner 3 of 4 pupils. The pupils had to work together in the most corners. In one they had to work individual.
Communication: I explained first what they had to do and what they had to take. After this the pupils had to go to work and I helped when pupils needed me.
Type of activity: This was also a creative one because I made a lot of materials with just the things I have brought from home. The pupils had to be active to make it work. First I thought that the classroom would explode if they work in groups but they didn’t shout, screamed,… at all! There was a lot of differentiation. In every corner they learned something different then in another one. At the end I planned a quiz about the things they had learned. It was a big surprise for me that they remembered the most famous places, persons, comic books, smells,… from Belgium. They probably remembered a lot of things because they didn’t realize that they were learning, they played games…

2 points that weren’t so good:
- There were 2 mistakes in the word grid.
- I didn’t have a surprise for the winning team. (The pupils didn’t said anything but I thought about it at the moment they won…)

First days of practice

Today and yesterday we went to the Hertug Hans Skole in Haderslev. Carlos, Eliska and I will do our practice their. Before going to the lessons everyone had to come to the gym. There was a morning opening. Everyone had to sing songs and after that we went to the classroom. It's a nice beginning of the week. Everybody sits together before they have to listen and pay attention in the classroom.

We did an observation in an English lesson with Brigitte. The pupils are 11 years old. They chose a subject for a presentation a week ago. Now they had to finish it en present it. The pupils worked in pairs about an animal. They had to present it in English. I think it's a good exercice. The pupils can choose an animal according to their own interests and they had to speak the language. They could talk as much as they liked. If they can't speak English very well, they kept it short. Others spoke for a longer time. We would call this differention. They were very creative: they made drawings, collages, printings,... . It was a very creative, activating and differentiated lesson. The pupils worked also very independant. They could chose the way of presenting it, what materials (paper, computer,...) they used, chose their own words, look them up in a dictionary, ask the foreign students,... . When the children didn't understand something the teacher was never far away to help. This is also a way of teaching in Belgium. We are very pro differention.

I have one negative point about this class: they a sitting everywhere, are talking,... It's a different way of discipline and respect here. I will have to get used to it because in my class they can harldy move or I have seen it!

After the English lesson we went to the gym with Rikke. The pupils from grade 3 had sports. This was very different from Belgium! Boys and girls have gym seperate. The teacher had only 14 girls to teach. They had a warming up that I will keep in mind, it was a good one! The pupils had to run in the hall. When the music stopped, the teacher said an exercice like touch the red line with your nose, touch the blue line with your elbow, touch the blue and yellow line with your hands,... After they warmed up, they played some ballgames. Some were simmilar to the Belgian one, others I didn't know. The pupils asked for Belgian games next time, so I will prepare a whole lesson of Belgian games that we can play outside.After the lesson all pupils have to shower. Pupils in the school were I will be teaching they don't take a shower after gym. I can smell them already!

On Tuesday we saw the 11 year olds. The teacher scared me in the morning by saying that she shouts alot and that the pupils are noisy. But it wasn't totally true. They were very nice and they came immediatley to us with a few questions about our names, country's,... So after we met, they started making name tags and painting easter eggs. They made them from klay last week and now it was time to paint them. They worked individually for about an hour and when they finish they have to work in their books. Every single pupil has a book where they can write, paint, cut,... . It's good and I think it will stimulate their creativity. Every one does something different so is very differentiated. The pupils know what they have to do and the teacher walks around to watch and help them.

This was a curriculum crossed lesson! The teacher is also an English teacher and the pupils had to speak English in art lesson! Very interesting because I find it very hard to work crosscurriculum with language and an art lesson.

Tommorow we will teach this class and I'm looking forward to teach them. It's a very nice class and hopefully they will work with me!

school visit: Kristne Friskole

On wednesday the 25th of February we (Misa, Eliska and me) went to the Kristne Friskole in Harderslev. When we arrived the teachers invited us to the staff room. It's was very nice in there. All teachers spoke with us, offered us coffie, the, Danish bolls, breakfast,...This school is a smaller school then the last one we visited. This one is a private school with 150 pupils. Every morning they start with a prayer. All pupils and teachers are gathered in the hall were they sing and pray.

After the prayer we went to see an English lesson. We had to introduce ourselves in English, so that was easy. Wait till we had to do this in Danish... They had to read a text. I think this took to much time, some of the pupils started to wisper, started to move on their chairs,... . After they read the text, they had to do a grouptask. They had to combine sentences from the text. It's good that they do this in groups because they will learn from eachother. I noticed that groupwork and learning from another is very importent in the Danisch schools.

The next lesson we saw was again an English lesson with the same teacher. I don't have to teach English but I thougt that maybe I could find a new practice method to teach language. The children had to read a text and after that they had a listening exercice. In this class there were 2 teachers. The other teacher was helping 3 other pupils who had difficulties with English. Maybe it's good to have a helping hand in the classroom. The weak pupils get extra help and the stronger one's can continue on their own level.

After two lessons of English it was time for something else! A music lesson, I really looked forward to see this lesson. Maybe it will give me some new ideas! And yes, I found one! All the children listend to Vivaldi and the four season. There was a stop after every season and the children had to tell what they tought, how they feld,... Then they listend again and they had to tell which season it was. I will use this in my own music lessons. Nice detail: they had their own music class. Wauw, this was so big en so much space. There were instruments all over the place. I want this to! You have so many possibility's in a big room then in just a small classroom.

And for the last lesson, we saw English again. But this was special... We introduced ourselves in Danish. Jeg hedder Anja. Jeg kommer fra Belgien. Jeg er treogtyve ar. (It's a special a but I can't do this on my computer...) After the introduction the pupils asked if we could say something in our own languages. I said something and the teacher answered me back in Flamish... Finally, I could speak in my own language! Woehoe! After the lesson I spoke with her in my language and i turns out that she lived in Roosendaal, 5 kilometers away from the place where I live. Small world, isn't it?

I have found a few differences comparing to Belgium:

- Teachers are teaching 28 hours a week. I have to teach 36 hours. Teachers in Denmark can correct tasks and evalutions when they are free. We have to do this in the evenings.

- When teachers are free they can help weakers students in the classroom. In belgium we have special 'remedial teachers' to help those pupils.

- In the Kristne Friskole they work with grades and I still don't know what grade is what age. I know they have a primary and lower secundary school. The children are going to the same school till they are 15 or 16 years old. In Belgium that age is 12 and after that they go to the secundary school.

School visit: observation

On Thursdag 5 february we went to a primary school. This is how our day went.

1. Tour

Annette showed us the whole school. It was an old school with new buildings. When children arrive they can choose what they do: sitting in the class, playing in a hall, playing on the playground, reading on the computers,... In belgium they have to stay at the playground untill the bell rings and the teachers says that they can come in.

2. In the classroom

At 8.15 the pupils and the teacher are in the classroom and then it begins. They overflow the tasks of the day, the calender, the planning of today,... After the formal stuff we went to the artclass untill 9.45.

3. Art

The children made the week before statues from clay and now they painted them. We were sitting at the of the class. We couldn't help the teacher, we didn't understand the children,... so it was just sitting and taking pictures. At 9.30 we went back to the classroom and started the first break. The children were eating in the classrooms. This is another difference, we have a break at 10 and children eat at the playground.

What i did noticed and it's the same in Belgium: the children are being approached very positive. They get compliments all the time. I also do that for the wellbeing of the children.

4. Writing

After the break the pupils had to write the letter 'h'. I saw myself in this lesson. I gave almost exact the same lesson during my experience in November. The teacher made a big house and wrote the letter on the blackboard. The pupils practiced a litte bit and said all kind of words with 'h'. A creative lesson like I would have done it!

5. Maths

In this lesson I saw what I wanted to know about Danish lessons. Do they have differention in learning? Cause in Belgium, we do that a lot! And yes, they do it here to! There were 5 different things to do in the mathslesson! Some children were making tangrams, others were making figurs, other pupils played a maths game, others were building with specials cubes. And they learned by playing! That's the way it should be done!