Second Week of Teaching Practice

The second week of our teaching practice was about me and Katka teaching English to the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th grade. After the first week of observing we knew very well that it is possible to have all lesson in English and the pupils would understand. We weren't quite sure about the 5th grade because Rebekka did not use much English when teaching this class but we tried.
To sum up activities we did:

• 3rd grade: We used computers to make the lesson more attractive for pupils. They usually use www.manythings.org but we found another website: www.britishcouncil.org/kids and taught them a song: "I Can Sing a Rainbow". Moreover, we played some icebreaking games such as: Saing names as quick as possible, Simon says and How much do you like. Next lesson we also used computers for about 20 minutes to introduce the fairytale about Little Red Riding Hood to children. After that me and Katka played the fairytale using puppets. Some children really loved this activity. We made them more active by giving them puppets and everytime they heard the name of the character they were holding they had to raise their hand. I think that teaching English to the third class was a succes and we made it without difficulties. We also managed to use computers in our class but not for whole 45 minutes because it would be boring both for pupils and teachers.
• 4th grade: Teaching English to this class was a kind of challenge because there were 23 pupils. Some of them are already very good at English. However, some of them refused to talk to us. Because of the big number of pupils and not enough space in the classroom it was difficult to use some movement activities. We chose the topic: "Birthday" and "Parties". In the first lesson we taught pupils some new words and they also learned a birthday song: "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". They also created a birthday invitation and it was quite a nice lesson. Next lesson we wanted to teach them some verbs concerning preparing a party. We intended to use Total Physical Response but it did not work in the end. The mood in the class was not suitable for this activity so we had to change our plan on the spot. This lesson lacked a moving activity, so it was a bit boring, although we prepared it carefully.
  
• 5th grade: Altough pupils from the class are not used to having whole lesson in English, we hade to do it in English because our Danish really sucks.:) Surprisingly, nearly all pupils understood our instructions without difficulties and everything worked well. We talked about food with this group. We used a drawing activity (pupils had to draw their favouritte meal and others had to guess), we played: "How much do you like", we sang" Five Fat Sausages" (without the music because the recording did not work :), and played another game which included clapping. Our next lesson was supposed to be about learning a pancake recipe and practicing cooking verbs. We really planned it carefully but however the lesson was canceled because of a concert. So we went to the concert instead. The last lesson with the 5th grade was about preparing pancakes and milkshake. We gave pupils instructions in English and they were also given a handout and they worked very well. We were amazed at how nice pancakes they prepared.:)
  
• 8th grade: Teaching English to the 8th grade was wonderfull. All pupils were very nice and friendly and it was a pleasure to teach them. We did not do much grammar with them but a lot of speaking activities. We talked about stereotypes and images that represent certain countries. We used role play and they really enjoyed being "someone else". We also talked about travelling and searching for a holiday destination and we had some jokes as a conclusion of our teaching. We also revised adjectives derived from countries.
  

To Sum Up: Teaching English to Danish pupils was a wonderful experience. Due to their good level of English it is easy to have all lesson in English only. I specially enjoyed teaching English to the 3rd grade because the children were very sweet and keen on our activities. We could also use activities that we cannot do with adult learners because it would be too childish for them.
Else was also satisfied with the job we did and praised us a lot, which made us happy.:)
At home I will try to use English more when teaching beginners because I could see that when you use very simple English and help yourself with gestures and mimics they can understand you very well.
It thrilled me that there were mostly 15 pupils in each class. It is ideal for language teaching because pupils have more opportunities to talk.
It was also to teach in pair with Katka. We complemented each other very well. While I was asking pupils, she wrote on the greenboard and vice versa. Also planning lesson in a pair was much easier and funnier.

First Week of Teaching Practice

The first week spent at Haderslev Kristnefriskole was about watching, observing and getting to know each other.
We have seen English classes in the 3rd, 4rth, 5th, 8th and 9th grade.

What surprised us in:

• The Third Class:nearly all class was taught in English and pupils could understand the instructions without difficulties. Else used a lot of gestures and mimics to intensify what she was saying. All the activities were playfull and very funny and children enjoyed them thoroughly. Else uses a lot of songs, chants, poems and games to make children engaged in the class.
• The Fourth Class: It was very similar to the Third Class. Else also uses games, chants and songs when teaching English to this class. Moreover, the pupils are used to working on computers during the class. They use webpage www.manythings.org with plenty of games and excercises focused on English grammar, vocabulary, spelling and listening. It was quite shocking for me that each child has got a notebook. It is quite unusual in the Czech Republic.
• The Fifth Class: This class is taught by Rebekka, who is not a qualified English Teacher. She does not use English a lot when she talks to her pupils, although her level of English is pretty good. The majority of the lesson is in Danish. She does not use a lot of warm-up activities and there was also no summary in the end. Therefore her classes were not very beneficial for me.
• The Eight Class: Else is really great with small children but she seems to me a bit hopeless with teenage pupils. She is extremely kind but when teaching English to older pupils, she should me more strict and energetic. I also suggest that she use more activities to make pupils busy. When they are busy with taks they have no time to be naughty and loud.
• The Ninth Class: Surprisingly, there are only girls in this class. The ninth class is supposed to take a major English exam. Therefore, the classes we saw were focused on practising for the exam.
  

To sum up: I really like Else's teaching style when she teaches English to children. She knows a range of different activities to make her classes interesting and funny for children. However, when it comes to teaching teenagers, she is not energetic enough to make pupils work properly.
Rebekka is a nice teacher too, but she should use English more in her classes. When 80 % of a class is in Danish, you cannot call it an English lesson.

Teaching Practice at Haderslev Kristne Friskole

On Wednesday 7th we had the last session with Iben and we talked mainly about our teaching practice and how to get prepared for it. We came to the conclusion that we don't have enough ifnormation and we do not know what we are expected to do, which is quite a stupid situation, especially when you don't know the language the pupils speak. But on the other hand it's a serious challenge. :-)
On Thursday 8th we visited our teacher-trainer Else Wiwe at Haderslev Kristne Friskole. She's such a nice person, very friendly and kind. She gave us some information about her English classes at Haderslev Kristne Friskole and about her pupils and then we visited an English lesson in the 9th class. We became part of the lesson as we were in groups with students and talked with them about the Civil War in the USA, stereotypes, national identity and racism. Such difficult topis but we were amazed how good English some students can speak. Wonderful!
Else also invited us to the children performance in the gym and we were happy to go there. The performance was really funny, there were two choirs - one from Haderslev, one from another school and we really enjoyed it, no matter we didn't understand a word in Danish.:-)

Drama in Aabenraa

On Tuesday a group of 13 people set off to Aabenraa to have "Drama and movement" class there. This class was taught by Flemming Rassmusen. First we played some icebreaker games and then tried to express ourselves through gestures, mimics and movement.
We also did little acting and created a poem, being inspired by music and a picture. The poem of our group is as following:

What a sad day today
All I eat tastes like clay.
My heart is broken and never will be fixed
and all my feelings are utterly mixed.
Without a soulmate, without a single friend
I find myself in the country of Neverland.
I just wish I could to go Legoland.
Istead I have to walk to the graveyard
But I cannot walk

my steps are so hard.

After the lesson we went for a walk to the beach and then went home tired but happy.
On Friday we used masks a lot. First there were some warm-up activities (based on running and imitating) and then we acted. We were embryos discovering our own bodies and the world around us, we also created a story corresponding to a music extract and we also reflected what we had done during those 2 sessions.
In my opinion, both classes were very beneficial and I enjoyed them thoroughly. Some of these activities could easily be used with pupils.

A Trip to Aarhus

It's 5.41 A.M. and I cannot sleep. I woke up at 3 A.M. and since then I haven't fallen asleep. Therefore, I decided to brush up my blog a little bit, although I've got a feeling that few people are interested in reading it and viewing pictures.
On Tuesday our group of 11 people (me, Vojta, Katka, Viki, Mery, Caroline, Siv Hege, Kari, Ania and her boyfriend and Zeliha) went on a trip to Aarhus, the 2nd largest city of Denmark. We expected a lot but I was a bit disappointed. The weather wasn't very nice and both the Ancient Museum and the Organic Garden we wanted to visit were closed. Also the train and bus tickets were very expensive, there was a long queue at the ticket office and besides the train had a 45-minute-delay. I thought that just Czech trains are delayed constantly. Moreover, we got on a wrong train as there are no signs and you cannot recognize where the train is going and you always have to ask somebody to be 100 % sure.
We bought some pizza in Aarhus and I got sick later so I wonder if it was because of the pizza. I think so..:-(
However, I was glad that we've seen something new. It wasn't a bad day at all, we had fun and hygelige time in one of the Cafés in Aarhus.

A Trip to Legoland

On Saturday 27th March we went to Billund, the town of Legoland. It was the first opening day of the season and therefore tickets' were really cheap (110 DKK). We tried all attractions and had a wonderful time. We arrived home at 20.10, ordered pizza, bught some Chinese food, drank bier and had hyggelige time.:-)

Week 12

Music on Monday was great as usual. We listened to a classical song and then we were supposed to act and say what we think the music says. It was a great activity which could be easily used in classes. We also sang "Singing All Together", which is probably the anthem of this Erasmus Stay. I was playing the piano and other students were singing and it was really a wonderful feeling. I continued playing at home, too. We are so lucky that we have a piano at home!

The last lesson of Special Needs was interesting, too. Bodil was talking about dyslexia and then we presented our presentations about special education. All those presentations were carefully prepared and therefore not boring. Sometimes presentations are really bothering, too long, there are no pictures, videos and so on. But in this class all the presentations were very interesting. I specially liked the Polish one.

On Wednesday we had the last lesson of Globalisation and Citizenship and then we went shopping to get the ingredients necessary for cooking lesson on Thursday.

Cooking on Thursday was really funny and the result was simply delicious. We had potatoe-and-leek soup, lasagne stuffed with vegetables, salad with beet root, carrot, apple and onion and apple cake. And we also tried Røgrød med fløde(I had to google the name:)), which are all red berries you find with cream. Really delicious. I`m really looking forward to trying some recipies at home!

The only stupid thing was that some Danish students didn`t feel like talking in English. But at least some of them did.

On Thursday, me, Ania and Loes were also interviewed by a journalist about how we like the stay here, why we chose Denmark, what is different and surprising and so on. He also took some photos of us so maybe we`ll be on the cover of a magazine.:))

Week 11: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Wednesday was probably the most important day of the week. We all gathered in the assembly hall, Jette and another teacher said a few words about internalisation and globalisation and then we divided into groups and each group was supposed to produce something.

Me and Katka were in the group that dealt with English Teaching. We were talking about stereotypes and prejudices and how to include international issues in language teaching. It was quite nice lesson but I was really disappointed because people in my group kept talking nearly all the time, although it was supposed to be an English lesson.:( And its really a stupid feeling when you are the only one who does not understand the language and cannot participate.

In the afternoon we presented our products from those workshops and also introduced our universities to other students. Some people were really surprised how big, modern and nice our university is. That`s probably because of the fact that some people still think that the Czech Republic is somewhere between Russia and Ukraine.:))

On Thursday we were supposed to have P. E., but Jacob was ill and we had literature with Pascal instead. It was quite nice, we were talking about books for children, how you can use them in your lessons and we were talking about some books which encourage internalisation.

Then we went to Ribe - we visited the Viking Museum and did a sightseeingtour in the town. It was great. We also bought some delicious pastry and I must say that the Danes are really good at baking.

In the evening at Student Cafe there was Eurovision Song Contest. Every country prepared a special song and some dancing, there were 3 judges and just one winner - Belgian Girls. But I helped them win because in the course of their dance they asked me to joing them.:) Our Czech group prepared a Czech-English song. We used a folk song for children and translated it into English and then Katka sang in Czech and Vojta in English. But we were so nervous before our performance. I don`t want to be a professional singer anymore, because it`s so stressful.

Friday was the day of saing goodbye to International Students. We had music in the morning and practised "Let It Be" , the other group finished their pocket films. Then we performed the song and then watched those films. They were all great and very funny. After films there was a Danish buffet - so many wonderful dishes - fish, pork, vegetables, pate... But buffet is quite dangerous to your health because you want to taste everything and then you are really stuffed.

But I find out that food is an international topic, because I talked about food with international students and you can talk food for hours and it is still pretty interesting.

Then we had to say goodbye and it was really very sad.:( We met a few international students in the evening in Cafe, but most of them had already left. Saing goodbye is always the worst part.

Week 11: International Week: Monday and Tuesday

I think that the only problem of the International Week was the fact that it was too short. Otherwise, we all enjoyd the programme thoroughly.

On Monday we were getting to know each other - we drew a picture of our nationality and then drew a picture of another nation. It was a great activity and I think we all did our best and the pictures were great and all the importang characterictics were included in them.:)
I also liked dancing lesson with Pia Paustian. It was really funny and all those dances were great. The only problem came when she decided to teach us a Danish song - Danish is just impossible to pronounce, at least for me.

On Tuesday we "learned" how to prepare sandwidches and Karen, our teacher, told us about the tradition of coffe table. It means that you prepare many different sweets, make strong black coffee, invite your friends and then eat and eat until you think you are gonna dien. Then you make a short break and then go on eating. Great tradition, I wanna try it once.:)

Then we had music with Annette, which is quite a nice teacher, but maybe too kind and she lets students do whatever they want. I`m used to teachers who are the only authority in the classroom and they organize activities and so on. It was quite different Annette - she had some ideas in mind but we also did our own activities - we were trying to learn a Spanish song, a Belgian one, a French one and many others.

But the best part came in the evening. Each nation prepared some specialities typical of their country. Then we put it on the tables in the canteen and ate it all. It was so delicious. So many different tastes. We couldn`t move in the end.

Visit to Favrdalskolen

On Wednesday 11th we visited Favrdalskolen together with Bodil, our Special Needs teacher. At first we had some difficulties with geting up and finding the right building but we made it in the end:-)
The school consists of many huge buildings and it reminded me of a maze. I wonder how pupils can find their way there.:-)
We were guided by the headmaster himself, who was very nice, friendly and informal. In the Czech Republic headmasters are usually very formal and they also wear suits.

The school was nicely decorated with pictures, paintings and drawings. All teachers we met were very nice and most of them were really young.
We were lucky to see an excerpt from a children's performance and we also saw2 blind children (a girl and a boy) being engaged into normal classes.
We also visited a class taught by an English native speaker named Tim. He told us that he usually teaches one class for all day and next day they have another teacher.
Tim showed us what he did with children. It was a magical calculator - 7 sticks covered with numbers that enable you to multiply. Incredible.
The school is very modern, though built about 25 years ago. There are many computer labs, a library, a big gym and a theatre hall. They have special classrooms for cooking lessons and for woodcrafting, too.
To sum up: The atmosphere in the school was really relaxed and we all liked it a lot. One visit to a school is 10 times better than one day spent at university.

The last Danish Lesson - the best Danish Lesson.:-)

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the last Danish lesson as it wasn't based on speaking but on creating a poster with traditional recipes. Me and Katka worked in group with Viki and we created a Goulash poster as goulash is popular both in Hungary and the Czech Republic.
This activity was really great but a bit time-consuming. Each group created the poster in its own style and therefore each poster is very creative and original.
The Danish teacher was very nice and friendly, though a bit confused as she thought that we had one more Danish lesson next week.
In the evening there was Czech-Polish-Norwegian night in Student's Cafe. We prepared traditional Czech refreshment called "Jednohubky", one version with cheese and garlic spread, one with fish and onion spread and all people liked it. Norwegian girls baked great waffles and Polish girls had 2 funny games (eating apples in pairs without using hands) and feeding a person, while the feeding person is blindfolded. We all enjoyed it a lot.

Tuesday 9th, the best day

On Tuesday 9th we had a wonderful physical education class. I think that we all thoroughly enjoyed it as Jakob is probably the best teacher we've had here so far. We played a great number of enjoyable games from different countries. We also sang some national songs and everything was great. After P.E. we had a break for lunch and then Special Needs with Bodil. Although we didn't learn much new in this lesson, I quite liked it as Bodil is a nice teacher and she allowed us to discuss the key points she talked about.
After school we prepared a wonderful lunch - tortillas stuffed with meat and Mexican beans with sunnyside-up eggs and Chinese leaves. Without a doubt, Katka is the best cook in Denmark!
You can see the picture of our lunch and of me typing posts for my webblog.

A New Month - A New Hair Cut

As Czech People are very economical, we decided not to pay 150 DKK for a visit at a hairdresser's and cut our hair themselves. Jesper cut my hair and Katka cut Vojta's. You can view a few pictures and judge how successful we were.:-)

Walking through Haderslev with Vojta and Katka

Week 8 and 9 in Denmark

On Friday 26th there was a costume party at school and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was a bit complicated to get a costume here but finally I made it and disguised as a devil. We danced until the dawn and I went to bed at 3 A.M.
We had a rest at the weekend and I visited Belgian girls in their residence and I had a delicious dinner there.
In Week Nr. 9 we didn't have any special subjects. We were really disappointed by the optional English lesson as it was not focused on conversation, grammar or vocabulary, as we had expected, but on analysing a poem. Therefore, we decided not to attend this course any more.
Moreover, we had Special Needs but we didn't learn anything new in this lesson.
On Thursday we day a delicious lunch in the canteen. What's more, it was for free! Great.

God bless Music and Physical Education

I must say that this week I've enjoyed Music and Physical Education most. Both of these subjects were carefully prepeared, included a lot of motivation and we were really active and had no chance to get bored.
Although I'm not much into sport, I thoroughly enjoyed P.E., because Jakob - our teacher - prepared a great number of interesting games for us and he himself was really friendly and nice.
I was also keen on the music lesson as we learned one great song in English and learned some tricks how to use music in other classes. Also the music teacher Else was great and I'm looking forward to seeing her again.
What I did not enjoy at all was the Danish lesson. Our teacher probably wants us to learn a lot of phrases - but the problem is that we still do not know how to pronounce them and she repeats everything twice at most. She also wants us to read dialogues, although we are hopeless at reading in Danish. Less would be more in this case, some basic phrases would be perfectly sufficient for our purposes... I'm really getting under pressure during her lessons as I do not know how to pronounce anything and I'm feeling really stupid.
I quite liked the first part of Comparative Education with Tove Heidemann, as the first part of it was focused on social psychology. In the second part she wanted to tell us something about encyclopaedic approach in teaching. However, the information she was telling us were about 10 years old and the current situation is totally different. Moreover, Tove said she is not a teacher ad you can recognize it very easily as she wasn't able to answer some of our simple questions concerning education in Denmark...
I quite liked Globalisation and citizenship with Torbjorn as we discussed a lot. But 3 hours are too much, although there were some breaks. I also didn't like the idea, that after 45 minutes he let us go for lunch for 45 minutes and then we were to continue in studying. When you have lunch at home you are not feeling like going to school again. In my opinion, it's better to skip breaks and finish earlier than to have 3-4 breaks during the lesson.
Jorn Buch is a real historian - he's keen on everything he's telling us but we are not keen on it at all. Although he should tell us something about Danish history, he spends the most of the lesson telling us some information about Germany.

Unfortunate events in our kitchen

On Sunday evening me and Katka were sitting in the living room and drinking strong black tea. As midnight was approaching Katka got hungry and decided to heat some rolls in the microwave. She put them in and turned the microwave on. Two minutes later the kitchen was full of steam, black smoke and terrible smell of burned rolls. We opened the window and the front door but the smell is still there.
On Monday Zeliha tried to prepare some French fries but the oil in the frying pan caught fire and we had to put the pan out and wait until the fire went out. In the picture you can see the burning frying pan.:-)
I think that we must be staying in a haunted house because something strange happens every day. Maybe we can make a horror film here...

A Trip to Copenhagen

On Wednesday 17th we left for Copenhagen. We travelled by bus and by train and the journey took about 3 hours and 30 minutes. After our arrival we went to the Danhostel, got installed there and went sightseeing.
On the first day in Copenhagen we took the City Tour Bus and visited the Rundetaarn (built by Christian IV between 1637 and 1642, it used to be an observatory, a library and a library). There was a marvellous view of the whole city, although the weather was a bit cold and windy. We also walked along Stroget (a shopping street number 1 in Copenhaged and the longest shopping street in Europe, 1.1 km long). In the evening we had a delicious dinner in a Chinese restaurant. We paid 100 DKK and could eat anything we wanted. No wonder we spent the rest of the day lying in bed and doing nothing.
On Thursday, Feb 18th we started the day with a delicious breakwast and then went sightseeing. We could see the Royal Library (called The Black Diamond as it shines at night). We wanted to go on a boat trip but the boats didn't sail due to the frozen river. That's why we had to walk for about 40 minutes to see The Little Mermaid. But it was worth-doing as The Little Mermaid is probably the most famous symbol of Copenhagen and is really beautiful. You can also come to her and touch her.
We also went to Amalienborg Castle and watched changing of the guards accompanied by great music. Then we went to the oldest cafe in Copenhagen called Sommersko.
In the evening we went to the Mediterranean Restaurant Riz Raz. The buffet there was flavourful and we kept eating until we got extremely full. To get rid of the energy we gained we went out and searched for a disco. Unfortunately we didn't find the one we were looking for but we discovered an Australian Bar with extremely friendly prices - a bottle of bier for just 10 DKK. So walking back to the hostel was really funny!:-)
On Friday 19th we packed our suitcases and got ready for going back to Haderslev. Before that we wisited the National Museum which is enormous and has a great number of fascinating exhibitions. I especially liked the Children's museum with replicas of toys you could play with, and the Café where I ordered wonderful hot chocolate.
Everything in Copenhagen worked like clockwork except for catching the bus. The train was a little bit delayed and that's why we didn't catch the bus to Haderslev. As the result we had to wait for an hour for another bus. But we did shopping instead to kill the time.
To sum up: Copenhagen is a wonderful city and I really enjoyed staying there. I would like to go there again in spring when everything is green and weather is more suitable for sightseeing!