Extremely Funny and Incredibly Pleasant!;-)/ Extremne zabavne a neuveritelne prijemne!;-)

Wednesday and the first school day after the Easter holiday- this time music lesson with Else Marie...what´s in the programme? presenting our "Dwarf mime", working with musical instruments - accompanying stories with our own music!, learning rythm (DanielDanielDanielDaniel, Iva, Sylvie, Chaaar....lot,Kate.....:-)- quite confusing but funny). Dinner at Thora´s place also with her boyfriend and Mette- delicious pitta bread with various ingredients we could put into it!(lovely garlic) and ice-cream!;-) Watching football match on Tv- Denmark against Tjekkiet! The result? The game ended in a draw! But Danes admired our Czech guy "Dino" (Koller)..:-)

Thursday- English lesson with Jette- we were supposeed to finish reading the book "Extremely loud and Incredibly Close" by J.S.Foer by that time and now the discussions about it follows...We´re divided into groups and we talk together about crucial points of the book...I must admit that in the beginning it was quite a hard reading for me, because it´s actually a post modernist work and there are more stories told by different characters in the book, each of them concerns with different period of time...but when you hold on and get to the end of the book you gradually disentangle the interwinded stories...and after all I took a liking of the book!:-)

Friday and meeting Thorbjörn- preparation our teaching practice for the following three weeks, but to be honest there wasn´t much to discuss yet because in that time neither of us knew what (s)he would be teaching, which classroom etc. so we tried to use the time to search some info in internet about the Danish curriculum, what the difference between Danish public and private schools is...And in the midday we set off on our excursion to Sonderborg to visit local castle and afterwards to Danfoss Universe. So at first a bit of history lesson followed by scientific explorations! We really enjoyed it...who wouldn´t actually?!;-) Exploring what lightenings are, reading about glaciers and experiments of all kinds! a real world of wisdom! See: http://uk.danfossuniverse.com/

http://www.world66.com/europe/denmark/sonderborg

Short visit of Friday Café and Tribunen ended the fine day...

Saturday trip to Kolding and visit one of our Danish teachers Hanne (Danish literature teacher- we had her lesson in the very first week here in Denmark), who invited us for lunch in her house! Oh, how lovely the visit was! Hanne´s house was really charming and it completely fit with its inhabitants´characters! The atmosphere was filled with warmth and hospitality of our hosts and we felt there very relaxed...besides all it was really unique experience to see how Danish people live...We had also the chance to taste some Danish specialities (fish in curry sauce, dark bread, Danish cheese etc.) ...We spent wonderful time together..THANK YOU, Hanne and your family! Then we got to know a bit the town centre too...that day was by chance the day of 200th anniversary of the local castle that was put into fire 200 years ago... and on this occasion the Crown Prince was supposed to come and take part in planned celebrations in the evening! The town seemed to be nice and it would be surely worth of another visit one day!

Sunday and relax in the gym and work on our presentation of the book for our English lesson on Tuesday...

Streda a prvni den ve skole po velikonocnich prazdninach...moc se nam nechtelo, neni divu, ze, kdyz prazky byly jednim slovem fajn...:-)celej den mame hodiny s Else Marii a predvadime nas dcv.- pantomimu o trpaslicich (dostali jsme cd s hudbou a meli na ni vymyslet odpovidajici pribeh o trpaslicich:-))- s holcinama jsme sehraly neco jako "trpasliciho Hamleta"...:-) zbytek hodiny (az do 14h!) experimentujeme s hudebnima nastrojema, mame vymyslet "hudebni doprovod" k ruznejm pribehum atd...uz nas to celkem unavuje, prece jen je to porad dokola a prvotni nadseni z uplne prvni hodiny tohohle typu uz nas preslo...Vecer mame domluvenou veceri u Thory, sejdeme se tam vsichni Erasmaci (az na Tima a Manuho- ti maji fotbal), prijde i Mette a Thory pritel...S Katou dorazime na misto o neco driv, abysme Thore pomohly s pripravou, ale moc nam to nezabere, pze k vece jsou pripraveny pitta chleby a my k tomu nakrjaime ruznou zeleninu, sunku atd. a pak si kazdej sam tvori svoje vlastni pitty...nemuzu si vynachvalit nalozenej cesnek...mnam...jako dezertik nanukovy dortiky...nj, uz zase mluvim o tom jidle...:-) pak sledujeme vsichni tv- prenos fotbal. utkani mezi Danskem a CR(jaka to nahoda!;-))...znaji naseho Kollera..:-)...hra skonci nerozhodne, aspon se vyhneme trapne situaci, ze by se jedni radovali a druhy byli zpruzeny, ze...:-)

Ctvrtek si muzeme prispat, anglictina nam zacina az ve 12:30, mame diskutovat o knizce, kterou jsme meli na dnesek precist (Extremely Loudly and Incredibly Close)..ve skupinkach se o tom bavime, co se nam na knizce libilo, cim je zvlastni atd. musim rict, ze ze zacatku to byla docela fuska se tim prokousavat, clovek se v tom pribehu nemohl moc vyznat, vypravelo ho vic lidi, v ruznjech casovejch odstupech (co bysme taky chteli od postmoderniho dila, ze), ale vydrzela jsem, do konce a vyplatilo se, clk zacal postupne chapat....:-)

Patek dopol jsme nejak ve skole prezili, cekaly nas docela nudny hodky s Thorbjörnem, kdy jsme meli mluvit o nasi nadchazejici praxi na mistnich skolach, ale bylo to jaksi k nicemu, pze nikdo v tu dobu jeste nevedel, jaky tridy bude ucit, tudiz jsme zadny pripravy nemohli jeste delat...cas jsme zabili na internetu, kde jsme hledali neco o danskym vzdelavacim systemu...odpol nas cekalo dobrodruzo- exkurze do Sonderborgu- vetsi mesto na vychode (na ostrove), navstivili jsme tamni zamek (spis muzeum, vse se tam vesmes tocilo kolem vztahu k Nemecku, pze tohle mesto driv bylo jeho soucasti)-Lasse nam delal pruvodce..pak vyprava do Danfoss Universe (experimentalni centrum vedy a techniky)- tady jsme se vyblbli...meli jsme tam jen dve hodky casu, tak jsme litali po celym arealu a snazili se prozkoumat co nejvic...clk se tady dozvi zajimavy veci (trebas co jsou blesky, jak vznikaji ledovce, teplo atd.) a sam si tu muze spoustu veci vyzkouset...nektery veci jsou i o logice (sestavovani ruznejch kostek), zkouseni nasi odvahy (polozit se pod metrakovej kamen zavesenej ze stropu..)..jsme tam byli jak maly deti, fakt... a jsme vdecny skole, to za nas cely zacvakala...( a ze to nebylo malo...vstupny pro skupinku nad 10 lidi vyslo pro kazdyho na 75DK)..vecer i kdyz utahany jeste jsme vyrazili na chvili do FC a Tribunen....

V sobotu nas cekal dalsi vylet...tentokrat do Koldingu, kam nas pozvala Hanne (ucitelka literatury, kteoru jsme meli hned prvni tejden) na obed primo k ni domu...musela pripravit obed pro celkem 12 lidi i s jejim manzelem a dcerou, tak jsme ji za to aspon koupili bonbosku a tulipany..bylo to fajn mit prilezitost videt, jak bydli normalni danska rodinka...dum meli moc utulnej, takovej, kterej presne odpovidal jejich charakteru, nic moderniho, ale clk se tam cejtil dobre...k obedu jsme meli naco jak "bufet"- ruzny zeleninovy salaty (zvlastni nazvy- neco na zpusob kuskus s pomerancem), dansky speciality- ryby v kari omacce, tmavej chlebik (ten nesmi nikdy chybet), syry, cokolada...pak s plnejma brichama na prochazku do mesta...hezounky nakupni ulice, cisty, pak na hrad...ale dneska byl zavrenej, pze se tam chystali na privitani korunniho prince, kterej mel vecer dorazit u prilezitosti 200. vyroci zachrany hradu od pozaru. Chteli jsme tam puvodne vydrzet az do vecera, abysme kralovskyho clena pozdravili:-), ale okolnosti nas jaksi donutily vyrazit smerem domu...(usoudili jsme, ze 4 hodiny bezcilneho bloumani po meste by nebylo asi nejzabavnejsi)...vecer spolecnej (po jistych peripetiich se shanenim jidla na spolecnou veceri se nam nakonec podarilo ukuchtit testovinky a ryzi s tofu a parkovou smesi ( ála co dum dal:-))..

Nedele leharko, odpol posilovna a prace s Kate, Danielem a Cha na prezentaci knizky na hodinu aj...

Easter break/Velikonocni prazdniny

Friday- the last day at school and farewell with the international students, my sister is coming in the evening

Sunday and the first of our planned trips
- fiord (at a village Örby)
- Törning Mill (unfortunatelly we didn´t manage to find the mill there)
- Christiansfeld (for me and Kate it´s already the second visit of this “town of honeycake“, so we already know which places we can´t miss there°-))

Monday
- First stop in Lögumkloster (beautiful cloister)
- Mögeltönder (incredibly charming village with small houses like from a fairy tale, worth of visiting!, also a castle of prince Frederic- Schackenborg- in the picture, but it´s not accessible)
- Tönder ( a smaller town with a nice shopping street)
- Bowling in Haderslev with Mette and her boyfriend- quite fun even if I didn´t play so well…:-)

Tuesday
- Egeskov (it´s said to be the most beautiful water castle in Europe but unfortunately we´re not lucky, the castle is closed in this time of the year:-() -see the picture
http://www.egeskov.dk/en/node/378


- Odensee (birthtown of H.Ch.Andersen, I´m really excited about the Andersen´s museum- a rich exposition telling very interesting info from the story-narrator´s life-e.g. Andersen´s hobby was “paper cuts”- he made it when telling his stories to his friends´ children…), nice walk through the town (nicely neat park decorated with flowers in various shapes…) http://www.visitdenmark.com/uk/en-gb/menu/turist/inspiration/storbyferie/odense/odense.htm

Wednesday
- day off, having a rest, dinner at Tim´s place with his landlords (delicious pizza and tons of pancakes), concert in Tribunen

Thursday
- Aarhus- Vikings ´center, Den Gamle By (The Old Town= open-air musem-see the picture), walk through the city (in rain), the “Women museum” wasn´t unfortunately open anymore that day
http://www.visitdenmark.com/uk/en-gb/menu/turist/inspiration/storbyferie/aarhus/aarhus.htm

http://www.dengamleby.dk/english.htm

Friday
- Ribe
- Esbjerg (fishing port, funcionalistic building of the town hall)- sea, the sculptures of “Four sitting men” - see the picture
http://www.visitdenmark.com/uk/en-gb/productpage/produktside.htm?CallerUrl=/&id=7079
- Party at Jesper´s place (I fell in love with “ raspberry BacardiJ) and afterwards dancing in Crazy Daisy till 4:30a.m.(great night!!!)

Saturday
- celebration party of Sylvie´s and my birthdays! We´ve got everything necessary for this occasion, even the birthday cake (biscuits with “quark” and pine appleJ) and birthday balloons!;-)

Sunday
- the last day of my sister´s stay in DK….however the planned departure doesn´t take place, because no bus has come! We don´t know what the problem was (any accident on the road?)…We have to find another alternative how to get back to Prague..it´s really annoying…but fortunately my sister gets safely back home and subsequently we find out that the problem was that the bus didn´t really come at all because that bus relation was cancelled and the travel company hadn´t announced it to travelers…- isn ´t it lovely to travel?!;-)

Monday
- catching up the missing sleep, doing some stuff for school


Velikonoce byly ve znameni cestovani, prijela i segra, takze tech celejch deset dni bylo moc fajn... V sobotu jsme zasly na chvili s holcinama do "Kafky" posedet...v nedeli nas cekal prvni vejletek- k fjordu, pres vesnicku Törning Mill, kde mel bejt nejakej mlyn (podle Jette), ale my ho teda nenasli...:-), no nic, zajeli jsme jeste do Christiansfeldu (my s Katou uz jsme tam byly, tak jsme presne vedely, kam nase spolucestovatele nasmerovat, samozrejme nesmela chybet ochutnavka perniku:-))

V Pondeli jsme meli pred sebou trochu delsi trasu- do Tönderu, cestou jsme se stavili v krasnym klastere Lögumkloster a roztomily vesnicce Mögeltönder (domecky jak z pohadky, pripadala jsme si tam jak v risi nejakejch hobitu:-))- jakoby se tam zastavil cas... a pak mestecko Tönder- utulny, mensi.

Utery- daleka cesta az do Odensee (rodiste H.Ch.Andersena), na ceste jeste zajedeme k Egeskovu (pry nejkrasnejsi vodni zamek v Evrope), ale otvira se az nekdy na konci dubna, takze mame smulu, tak apson udelame par fotek za plotem..:-)Odensee nam to ale tohle zklamani vynahradi...Je to vetsi mesto a hlavni atrakci je tam samozrejme muzeum slavneho rodaka, jehoz soucasti je i jeho rodny dum...maji to tam opravdu vymakany, do poslednich detailu, clovek se tam dozvi zajimavy info o jeho zivote, v jedny cely mistnosti se nachazi vsechny jeho knozky pohadek ve vsech jazycich, do kterejch byly prelozeny..najdeme tam i ceske vydani;-), lidi si tam muzou i pohadky cist nebo poslouchat z takovejch "automatu"..i mestecko samo o sobe je moc hezky upraveny, i parcik atd..Odvezu si odtud i suvenyr- tricko (darek od Peti k narozkam:-)) http://www.novinky.cz/clanek/130794-v-odense-u-pohadkare-andersena.html

Stredu venujeme nabirani sil na dalsi cesty, takze relax, posilovna a vecer setkani s ostatnima na veceri u Tima (pizza a tisice palacinek:-)), pak na chvili na koncert do Tribunen

Ctvrtek je narocnejsi- ceka nas asi 130km vzdaleny Aarhus...na ceste se zastavujeme ve Vikingskem centru (jen si projdeme okoli, prohlidneme rekonstrukce vikingskych domu) a smerujeme do Den Gamle By (skanzen s domy prevezenymi z ruznych casti Danska, z 18., 19., 20.st.- opravdu nadhera, bylo to vlastne vystavene cele mesto, s ruznymi obchody, v nekterych jsme taky natrefili na lidi v dobovych kostymech, takze atmoska tam byla temer dokonala...pripadala jsme si tam jak v Dr. Quinn...:-)) Aarhus uz nas tolik nenadchnul, prece jen ty vetsi mesta nemaji toho spravnyho ducha, nebo jak bych to rekla...:-)

Na patek mame naplanovany posledni vejletky- do Ribe (zajdeme do mistniho kostela a kavarnicky na chokokaffe:-)), zacina poprchavat, jeste nas ceka Esbjerg (na zapadnim pobrezi)- je silena zima, mesto jen prolitneme, popravde tam neni dvakrat co k videni:-), tak se jeste rozhodneme rozloucit s vejletenim morem! A to je ale zazitek a fakticka tresinka na dortu!!:-) Turisti nechybi ani tady- hlavne diky obrovskymu sousosi ctyr sedicich muzu hledicich do sireho more:-)) Vecer je party u Jespera, pak se presouvame do Crazy Daisy, kde parime az do 4:30. Tahle akce nemela chybu...

Sobota a nase narozeninova oslava je tady! tak jdeme slavit! Nechybi ani narozeninovy dortik, kterej dopol nejak improvizaci zhotovim (susenky, tvaroh, ananas) a bytecek u holek vyzdobime i balonkama, takze atmoska je vesmes priznacna...

Nedele uz je relaxacni, segra se bali dom, v noci ma odjizdet, ale bohuzel to neklapne, bus do Koldingu jaksi nedorazi, takze Peta se musi dopravit do Prahy vlakem druhej den...neni rozkosny cestovat?!;-)

V utery dospavam predeslou noc a delam par veci do skoly...

International week

The first day of the international week. We meet our new "schoolmates" around 9 a.m. and after some organizational infos, we start getting to know each other. Then we teach the others our "line dances" and have a good time all together. An interesting lesson with Jette follows. It concerns with body language and its significance in communication. We also try to practise our body language. In groups we´re given a pile of cards with a picture depicting a person in a certain position/with a certain expression in his-her face etc. and we´re supposed to mime it and others in the groups have to guess/discuss what the concrete expression indicates etc. I find BL very interesting and decide to get to know more about this "topic" later on...(Jette recommends me a book with a title:"The DefinitiveBook of Body Language" written by Allan and Barbara Pease)..Afterwards the first Danish lesson for the IS comes..The Danish students who participate in all our lessons this week are our teachers!:-) Well, we Erasmus students are already a bit more knowledgeable in Danish after a few Danish lessons we had in previous weeks but it doesn´t matter because today we also learn some new phrases (Hvor gammel er du? Hvad er klokken?)..In the evening we meet at school again to have dinner in the canteen and to sing some Danish songs too. However the day doesn´t end for me yet. Me and my Czech "collegues" prepare some children´s rhymes and songs for tomorrow´s lesson.Tuesday lessons in the morning are led by Ole, Daniel and Karsten who have prepared a plan for us. The title is"intercultural competence and stereotypes", we discuss how foreigners percieve Denmark and how Danes can see themselves. The results are quite interesting. Foreigners talk about rather practical things, e.g. expensive way of life in DK, cold weather, design, "special" coins etc.), unlike the "natives" who pick up rather the Danish character -e.g. open-minded (porn, gay weddings), eager to learn foreign languages but scared of foreigners, keep distance, liberty of speech (Muhammed drawings), Jante law, "Hugge" etc. This was Denmark but what stereotypes do we keep about other European countries which we come from... ?Work in groups and each is given one country to think about ( we have to write down "typical characteristics" of Belgium and to draw a "typical representative" of that country)- Afterwards each group presents their "product". All countries are depicted in a more or less positive way (except for one remark made by a Danish boy who describes a "typical Austrian girl" to have a small mustache:-))..only our country- the Czech republic comes from this "activity" as a total loser..:-( In the picture we can see the figure of a boy wearing a Nike- T-shirt, holding a glass of beer in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other, the package of cigarettes lying at his legs...The "interpretation" of this drawing is given by a Danish girl: People in CR wear false- brand clothes sold by Chinese, we drink a lot of beer and vodka ("never drink vodka with a Czech guy") and many people go to our country just to buy cheap cigarettes...that´s all! This means Czech Republic for the others??? Quite sad, I would say..We are quite struck by these stereotypes and feel quite sorry for those who made the drawing because they managed to prove in this way how limited knowledge they have... and I was also quite disappointed that these people didn´t show a slightest sign of empathy or "etics" (what one can afford to say not to offend the others). Democracy/freedom of speech is a nice thing but it should have its "moral limits" otherwise I would call it rather ignoracy...However the day goes on and we remember our childhood playing some "traditional" games, singing "national"songs and saying "national" rhymes...more or less we find out that in many countries the songs/games/chants/rhymes are similar and that these are sth that "connect" us regardless of which part of Europe one comes from...It´s raining and we´re setting off on a trip to Ribe..in the mini buses we´re "praying" for better weather till we arrive at the destination but we aren´t lucky..At first we visit a Vikings museum with a very rich exposition..we also come back to our childish years when dressing up the Vikings clothes and "fighting" with swords as real Vikings..:-)A short walk through the town, visit of some beautiful design shops and hurrying to "warmth of our mini buses"...It´s a pouring rain and we are all cold and wet but we can´t miss to see the sea! Way back home doesn´t take so much time and quickly home to change the soaken clothes. In the evening our "Czech Three" is cooking! Easter cakes for Thursday! We have to acknowledge we´ve done a good job;-) and are falling to our beds completely tired...
We spent the Wednesday morning at basic schools as every week just to observe and get "a taste" of the Danish school system... This time we´re going to visit "Realskolen" along with Sarah from Germany and Saskia from Denmark...At first we´re welcomed by the headmaster and told the basic infos about the school- it´s a smaller private school and what is quite special about it there are 11 classes including the class 0 and 10 ( additional voluntary school year)..The school also tries to focus on the development of good relationship between the school and parents...The school is also involved in a social programme that should trace this relationship and it´s given grants for it from EU..Then we are allowed to have a look into an English lesson in the 7th grade..afterwards the two lessons of religion in the 9th grade...At the beginning we Erasmus students are asked to introduce ourselves in English to the pupils and say sth about our national school system...We also make the children familiar a bit with the Erasmus programme..We get ot know that our country is not so "foreign" for the children in this classroom because every year the nineth graders go for a trip to CR for a few days..nice..:-) The lessons are however led in Danish so we don´t understand much but still, it´s quite interesting just to sit there, observe pupils´behaviour and percieve the frinedly and relaxed atmosphere in the classroom...I like it..Then it´s time to go back to school and discuss our school experience with other schoolmates... Unfortunatelly the planned hip hop dance lessons are canceled because of the teacher´s illness so we use the free time to go to the gym...
Thursday and morning lecture about "Soundscape" with an Austrian teacher from Wien Jutta Kleedorfer- we listen to a record of sounds that follow the trip of a fictional American girl Rosie that is for the first time in Wien..It´s a kind of experiment made by the pedagogical institute in Wien how one can imagine a completely foreign city, one has never been to, just according to sounds...Then the teacher reads us some children´s stories with morals in the end ( a symbolic story called "Zack bumm" and "Esel"..quite "educative"..:-) However the long expected event comes afterwards- the international afternoon! There are some stands for us Erasmus students, international students(who have come here just for this week), Danish students who experienced a school practice in Nepal for 6 weeks, Euro prof students, Inter health stand..The idea of this event is to present visitors all these interantional programmes and in the same time also their own country...We´ve got our own "Czech stand" where everyone can have a look on our presentations form our stay hete in Denmark, on the brochures promoting our country and to taste our Czech Easter bread ("mazanec").. in the evening there is another plan for us- pizza with others and "Eurovision song contest"...Our "Czech Trio" chose a Czech song "Kdyz se nacancam" and we accompanied it with a small "pantomime" just to depict the story of the song so that the audience could at least a bit imagine what the song is about...and we were successful;-), got to the final three best singers and in the end we won the contest! Wow, that was great and we had a lot of fun practising it and also were happy that the audience enjoyed it with us..Dancing at Crazy Daisy till two a.m. was another perfect event..;-)
And how would I summarize the past week? I really enjoyed it even it was so busy that we went to bed quite exhausted around midnight every day, but the experience was worth of it! The international students brought a kind of "fresh air" into our Erasmus group... thanks to them we had the possibility to get to know other cultures (Portugal, Austria, the Netherlands) and it seemed to me as if I travelled the whole week long through above mentioned countries on my own...I realized that European countries are of course different in many ways but still we can find some similarities (the "national" songs and rhymes, even the food!- the Portuguese guys brought for the international afternoon a kind of Easter sweet bread that was quite similar with our Czech "mazanec"- that was a bit surprise for me:-))...I´m really happy that we could experience this "journey through Europe" and thank to all of its participants!;-)

Trip to Jels and Christiansfeld and Wedding/Vylet do Jelsu a Christiansfeldu a Svatba

Weekend and free time to go for a trip...we´ve planned to visit a near small town Jels by car (Finnja is driving)..we set off around 9a.m. and are in the destination in 20 minutes..the information center is open from 10, so we shorten the time walking to a local cemetary... a bit morbid but we agree it´s a nice graveyard, projected like a maze from neatly shorn hedges...in the tourist center we take some info brochures and pay for visit of an old mill... afterwards we walk to the Orion Planetarium (that is open only on Sundays) and to Viking Pageant- open-air theater...we´ve got still enough time so we decide to go to another town Christiansfeld- "The Town of Moravian Brethern"...small, hostiorical, very nice...and special from many reasons. Its treets are straight and meet in right angles (took an inspiration from American cities?:-)). Another speciality is Christiansfelder honeycake(gingerbread)! We can´t resist and have to taste it!:-) It´s delicious but we actually know it from CR, the town Pardubice is well known for it too...Then we take a walk through an old Brethern Churchyard Gudsageren...the atmosphere is quite unique, peace everywhere...and all the gravestones are identical as a symbol of equality of all people after the death.... See: http://www.sydjylland.com/

In the afternoon we´ve got the opportunity to experience a special occasion- the Danish wedding! Coincidentally it´s the wedding of our two schoolmates from English lesson(Sinne and Sören)! It takes place in one of the Haderslev churches...it´s a real experience...the beautiful bride in a white dress walking slowly with her father towards an altar where the man of her life is waiting for her...then both of them are sitting down on chairs opposite each other together with their parents and siblings...The priest starts talking (of course in Danish:-), the words are often interrupted by singing...at a certain moment when the woman-priest is talking, people start smiling, unfortunately we don´t know why, but afterwards we get to know that the priest said sth about the characters of the bride and bridegroom and she also mentioned sth about the "history" of their relationship (it must have been sth. "spicy" that it made the people laugh;-))...that was nice and made the ceremony more personal...we were a bit surprised we couldn´t see any "newlywed kiss" but we were assured that this was rather an exception and normally also Danish newly-weds kiss:-) The whole ceremony took about half an hour, then the newly-weds came out of the church and it was the time for family, friends and others to congratulate them ... Wow, really nice...

In the evening a small "beforeparty" with a lot of unhealthy food (the only healthy stuff were slices of cucumbers and carrots:-)..and then just going downstairs to a concert (in a pub Ras that is just in the same house where we´re staying...)..unfortunatelly there was so many people in such a small place and I was so tired from previous days that even the band was playing very well and I liked the music a lot I couldn´t help myself and had to go to bed....:-(

Vikend je tady a tudiz i cas na nejaky ten vejletek..planovali jsme ho uz dost dlouho, tak dneska ho konecne podnikneme...Plan je nedaleky mestecko Jels...frcime autem- je tady Finnja z Nemecka...mistni info centrum otevira az v 10h, takze si cas zratime prochazkou na mistni hrbitov..:-) je moc peknej, i kdyz to zni morbidne, ale je hezky udrzovanej z zivych plotu, ani si clovek nepripada, ze je na hrbitove...v info centru nabereme brozury, zaplatime 10DK za prohlidku stareho mlynu a vyrazime do Vikingske vesnice...je to tam ale mrtvy,sezona a vsechny predstaveni zacinaji az v cervenci, takze je to tam takovy smutny v tyhle dobe...je tady taky planetarium, to je ale otevreny jen v nedeli....mame jeste dost casu, tak se rozhodneme popojet dal a navstivit nedaleky Christiansfeld- Mesto Moravskych Bratri...je maly, utulny a ma hned nekoli zvlastnosti...ulice jsou pravouhly (snad po vzoru nejakych americkych velkomest) a taky se tu vyrabi jedna dobrota- medovy pernik(v podstate n eco jako nas pardubicky)..neodolame, musime ochutnat..je mekkouckej, dobrej...nadlably se jeste projdeme po meste, zavitame i na hrbitov moravskych bratri (vsechny nahrobky jsou stejny, symbolizuje to rovnost vsechn lidi po srmti)... a razime domu...ceka nas mimoradna udalost- danska svatba! a kdo ze se bere? shodou okolnosti jsou to nasi spoluzaci z anglictiny- Sinne a Sören! Je to fakt zazitek mit tuhle prilezitost, pro me vubec je to teprve asi druha svatba, na ktery jsme byla...Nevesta v klasickych bilych satech, zenich v obleku...zvlastnosti..u oltare nestoji, ale sedi na zidlich spolu s rodici- nevesta a jeji rodina na jedne strane a zenichova strana naproti...Oddavajici- zena ma proslov- v danstine:-) , mezitim se nekolikrat zpiva a na konci par poklekne pred oddavajici a rekne sve "ano"...novomanzelskoho polibku se ale nedockame..:-((jak potom zjistime, normalne se Danove libaji, tohle byla pry snad nejaka vyjimka, nevim proc..:-)), venku se pak manzelum blahopreje (nevesta chudak drkotala zubama, byla priserna zima)...napadlo nas se taky zeptat , proc se lidi behem proslovu parkrat pousmali, co tak vtipnyho knezi rekla...prej mluvila o povaze nevesty a zenicha (znala je osobne) a zminila i jakysi vyvoj toho jejich vztahu...to bylo hezky, takovy osobnejsi...moc peknej zazitek...

vecer jsme se sesli u nas na byte na mensi "predparty" plnou nezdravyho jidla (jediny zdravy byly platky mrkve a okurky:-)) a v danou dobu jsme se presunuli jen o dve patra niz do hospody Ras, kde mel koncert nas kamarad dan Lasse...skoda, ze tam bylo tak strasne moc lidi, nedalo se hnout... a ja byla silene utahana..takze jsem to uz pred pulnoci byla nucena zabalit, i kdyz me to docela mrzelo...mohl to bejt peknej vecer...nekdy priste...

Karaoke!

The last lesson of citizenship is concerned with inductive way of learning (problem-solving based tasks)- we go on in the philosophical topic from the previous lesson (P1- TT- EE-P2; P1= the first problem, TT= theory of solution of the problem, EE= elimination or confirmation of the theory, P2= another problem; "All life is solving problems":-)) We have a task to make up an exercise for children in which they could use above mentioned "formula" and as teachers to connect this exercise somehow with the theme of "citizenship"...we come up with an idea to ask children to make up a theory how people in prehistoric times hunted mammoths and check it subsequently in books or on net to confirm or eliminate their theory.. and how can children profit from this task in relation to "citizenship"? Well, quite a difficult question, but what about the fact that through hunting men had to cooperate, relied on each other that means to live in peace, be tolerant..and that´s actually the same also nowadays..when people want to achieve something big, where more people are needed, the sense of mentioned qualities is necessary and children should realize that. Well, that was connected with my major History but Daniel has to do the same task in his subject Chemistry and to make up the usage of his exercise in connection with citizenship seemed to me quite illogical. We finish a bit earlier and we use the time to plan our tomorrow trip and to draw posters for international week...Afterwards Jette comes for a while just to discuss a bit the plan for following week that will be quite busy because of coming inernational students...After the school we stop for an hour at Friday Café for a cup of tea, then a small shopping in Lidl...
In the evening we set off to Friday Café- tonight there is Karaoke Show!!! Shortly after 8p.m. the show begins! Daniel is going to represent our Erasmus group..that´s great...but the suddenly Charlotte decides to participate to and she manages to persuade us (with Kate) to join her!!! I can´t believe it! Me standing on the stage and singing publicly... we need a shot to breathe it out...-) It´s already here..we can here our names to start our performance...we decide to sing Avril Lavigne´s song "Sk8er boy"...well, what a fun, even if we don´t manage to follow the lyrics, it´s so fast...in the end I can´t catch my breath...:-) great experience...and Daniel- he sings much better than we, even so well that he becomes the winner!!!! Congratulations, Daniel!;-) We enjoyed this evening a lot...:-)


Posledni hodina "obcanstvi"...navazujeme na minulou hodku- induktivni uceni (reseni problemu)...mam ve dvojicich vymyslet pro zaky nejaky takovy ukol, kde by musely pouzit vzorec (P1- problem, TT- vymyslet vlastni teorii reseni problemu, EE- potvrzeni nabo vyvraceni teorie, P2- dalsi problem)...z dejaku prijdeme s tim, ze by slo zadat detem, aby popremejslely o tom, jak lovili v praveku muzi mamuty...pak by si to potvrdily nebo naopak vyvratily vyhledanim potrebnejch info nekde v knize nebo na netu...no strucne receno, tahle hodina neprinesla nic novyho, obecne je docela bezny, ze se od ucitelu ceka, ze budou detem zadavta takovy typy ukolu, u kterych budou muset premejslet a ne se jen srotit...
skoncime driv, cas vyuzijeme na planovani zejtrejsiho vyletu a kresleni poutacu na pristi mezinarodni tyden...
Vecer do Friday Café, je tam Karaoke show! neco malo po 20h to zacne...i nas Daneil se zapsal...odvaznej...:-) jenze pak prijde i Charlotte s tim, ze bysme do toho taky mely jit..no a kdyz vidime, jak to ostatni berou ze srandy a s nadhledem, hecneme se a taky se zapiseme! Pak tomus Katou nemuzeme uverit, ze jsme se nechaly do toho ukecat a musime jit aspon na panaka Fisku, abysme to rozdejchaly...:-)Uz je to tady, slysime nase jmena, rychle na podium..:-) Vybraly jsme song od Avril Lavigne " Sk8er boy"...ty vado, to je rychlost, nestacime sledovat slova, tlemime se, lidi zpivaj s nama, tleskaj do rytmu, je to bozi pocit, sranda...nakonci mam co delat abych popadla dech...:-) jsem rady, ze jsme se prekonaly, i kdyz porota se k nasemu peveckemu vykonu moc nevyjadrovala a radsi to stocila na nase tanecni schopnosti...:-))super vecer...;-)

German school and Quiz Night/Nemecka skola a Vecerni Kviz

Usual Thursday school visit- this time a German school- "Deutsche Schule Hadersleben"...Today it´s raining a lot...Fortunately the school is not so far away....It is a small school with ap. 180 pupils from the German minority living in Denmark...Because of its "special status"(being a German sschool ) it must follow the rules of not only the Danish school system, but also the concepts of German educational system and then it creates its own plans...Pupils are taught in German, otherwise they can speak Danish, so in the final school year they´re supposed to speak fluently in both of these languages... In the 5th grade children start learning English (the first year three times a week, later on four times a week)...The school puts the main stress on following three fileds of interest: languages, creativity (music, drama, etc) and IT. We also get ot know that the school cooperate with other "partner schools" in Germany and also in the Czech Republic (Liberec)- that´s a nice surprise (every mention about our country pleases;-)) (by the way, the headmaster Phillipp Rogge could say "hello" in Czech:-))...after a short introduction of the school by its headmaster we were allowed to have a look into the class of 7-year olds (they had just Maths- counting up to 100:-)) and afterwards an English lesson in the 5th grade (role-plays, singing songs: Head and shoulders,.. and a new one: "One finger, one thumb, keep moving"- quite funny, children divided in groups had to learn the song and train a "performance" for the class...)..We spent there only about two hours so one can hardly judge the school then, but generally spoken I like the idea of bilingualism very much and it was really nice to see how natural it was for the children to speak both languages, Danish and German (we "witnessed" a situation when there was a girl talking with another girl in Danish and the other one was answering in German.:-))See also: www.deutsche-schule-hadersleben.dk
In the afternoon we met other others in an assembly hall for a concert! And not just an ordinary one, but the musicians actually played the work composed by children! Who would imagine a traditional music, would be really surprised..by the way as we were...:-)the music was based on using different types of sounds (not only produced by musical instruments but also by various "tools" and even by your body...) a real unusual experience...
Afterwards we had an English lesson that started with a warm-up activity- in groups we played a short game to practise vocabulary (a pile of cards with words, dice and each number on the dice was connected with a certain type of task)...we went on working on our HW for today (interpratation of a song- ours was Wiil Smith "Tell me why") and then we were supposed to present it to others and make up some vocab activities based on the lyrics as if we were teaching at school..I really enjoy these English lessons and I´m always surprised how quickly they are over...They seem to be very useful and practical for us future teachers...

In the evening we agreed with others to go to Tribunen for a "Quiz Night"...Young Danes sitting at tables and competing in quiz! I liked this idea of entertainment and at the same time one always gets to know sth new thanks to the asked questions ( a pleasant way of "education".-))- e.g. Who is the Danish Minister of Transport nowadays, or another sort of questions: Which musical instrument can Madonna play? etc...:-)

Ctvrtek je jako vzdy vyhrazenej navstevam skol...tentokrat se vypravujeme do nedaleky nemecky skoly...dneska docela dost prsi, bojuju celou cestu s destnikem, prece jen asi nejni stavenej na vetrny dansky pocasko...oddechneme si, ze jsme na miste...jdeme nejdriv za reditelem, kterej nas seznami s chodem skoly, mluvi nemecky, docela se chytam...je to mensi skola, asi jen 180 zaku, kteri pochazi z nemecky mensiny zijici tady v Dansku..."zvlastni status" skoly ( to ze je nemecka), ma vliv na jeji fungovani ve smyslu, ze se musi ridit nejen danskym skolskym systemem, ale i nemeckym a nakonec si tvori sve vlastni plany...O skolu je v poslednich letech dost velky zajem, jak rika reditel, holt trend umet jazyky je cim dal vic aktualnejsi...na skole se vyucuje v nemcine, jinak deti mluvi, jak chteji...po absolvovani teto skoly by pak deti mely umet plynule mluvit obema jazyky....program skoly teda klade hlavni duraz na jazyky, pak na tvorivost (hudba, drama atd.) a na informacni technologie(pocitace)...Skola taky spolupracuje s dalsima partnerskyma skolama v Nemecku, i v Cesku (v Liberci)- to je ale mily zjisteni (kazda zminka o nasi maly zemicce prece potesi:-), no a kdyz jeste slysim, jak reditel rika cesky "ahoj", nemam slov...:-))) Ale jsme tady, abysme poznali, jak to tu chodi, takze nejdriv zajdeme do 2. tridy- maji zrovna matematiku...zeptam se ucitelky, jestli si tu tridu muzu vyfotit, ona dulezite, ze se musime zeptat nejdriv deti, jestli s tim budou souhlasit..zadny z tech 7-letejch spuntu nevypada, ze by vubec vedel o cem je rec, natoz aby jim vadilo, ze si je vyfotim...ale dobre, respektujme osobnost deti...pak do 5. trid na hodinu anglictiny- docela klasicky vyucovani, uci se novou pisnicku, jedina docela prekvapujici je chvile, kdy ucitelka rozdeli deti do dvou skupin, aby si nacvicily pisnicku, a tu jednu skupinu vysle ven ze tridy...u nas si neco takovyho nedovedu moc dobre predstavit...osobne bych umrela hruzou, co ty nase pubertaky napadne a kde co vyvedou...ale tady jsou ocividne zvykli na praci "bez dozoru"..takze vse probehne hladce...jinak zadny velky prekvapko se nekona, byli jsme tam jen asi 2 hodky, takze clovek nemel zas tak moc casu poznat tu skolu vic, ale jinak se mi libi ta myslenka dvojjazycnosti- zazili jsme i situaci, kdy se ve tride pri tom nacviku pisnicky, bavily mezi sebou dve holciny, jedna mluvila dansky a ta druha ji uplne prirozene odpovidala nemecky...ty dva jazyky jsou pro ne proste prirozeny...zavidim...:-) Jeste nez jsme skolu opustili, zahrala jsem si na "prekladatelku"- reditel me poprosil, jestli bych mu neprelozila do cestiny takovej mensi pozdrav nejaky ucitelce z te partnerske skoly v Liberci....:-)

V poledne jsme se sesli s ostatnima u nas ve skole v aule...poradal se koncert, ale ne tak ledajakej...hraly se skladby, ktery slozily deti! bylo to docela netradicni, zezacatku kazdej prekvapenej, protoze hudebnici nehrali jen na "obycejny" nastroje, ale pouzivali k vyprodukovani zvuku treba i kostata a dokonce i vlastni telo...:-) zajimavej zazitek..
Pak hodina anglictiny- na zacatek motivacni hra na slovicka, pak interpretace pisnicky od Willa Smithe (kritika Ameriky, terorismus, rasismus atd.), vymysleni ukolu pro deti na zaklade jednotlivych songu...tyhle hodky me bavi, jsou uzitecny a vzdycky rychle utecou...

Vecer razime do Tribunen na Kviz...mlady Danove sedi u stolu, rozdeleny do tymu a naka holcina cte jednotlivy otazky a oni odpovidaji na papir..otazky typu : kdo je soucasnym ministrem dopravy? Na jaky hudebni nastroj umi hrat Madonna?.-)..docela dobrej napad, jak spojit prijemny s uzitecnym.dozvis se zajimavy info:-)) a nakonec tym s nejvetsim poctem spravne zodpovezenejch otazek vyhraje deset piv...dobra motivace...:-)

Create your own dance/Vytvor si vlastni tanec

Wednesday and another chance to develop our creativity, this time through DANCE!!!:-) I´m really looking forward to it....dancing is my favourite "kind of creative expression"...:-) We spend the first part of the lesson in the gym together with Danish students of PE training some dancing steps (more or less we know all of them from the very first day when we were given a dance lesson as a kind of welcome to us:-))...the second part, in the afternoon, demands bigger effort from us since we are supposed to create own "line dance"! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_dance We are divided into two groups and have approximately 45 minutes to train some steps and be ready to teach the other group...we choose a song from Shania Twain and it´s a real fun...well, the final "result" is nothing special but still we´re quite proud of it- it´s been made up by us!;-) Have a look below...;-) We can´t forget the steps because we´ll be teaching it also the international students who´ll come next week and dancing will be one of many activities prepared for them....;-) I really enjoyed this lesson..and realized how much I missed dancing (what about going to Crazy Daisy in the next couple of days?;-))

Je tady streda a dalsi z moznosti procvicit nasi kreativitu...tentokrat se ale tesim vic nez kdy jindy, protoze dneska to bude o TANCI!!!:-) prvni cast hodky stravime spolecne s danskejma studentama telesny vychovy v telocvicne...trenujeme nejaky jednoduchy kroky, ktery my Erasmaci uz vesmes zname z uplne prvniho dne tady ve skole, kdy jsme taky tancovali (jakasi privitaci akce...), takze to je pro nas trochu nudnejsi, ale druha odpoledni cast uz je zajimavejsi...rozdelime se do dvou skupin (ja s Charlotte a Manu) a kazda skupina ma za ukol vymyslet vlastni tanec- tzv. "line dance"- neboli jednoduchy tanec, ktery se tancuje v rade, kazdy sam... Ne tak horky to zase neni, jde jen o to vyzkouset si tak nejak pracovat s music...nase skupinka tancuje na Shaniu Twain, mame na to 45 minut...vysledek neni nic svetobornyho, ale i tak jsme na to docela "pysny"...prece jen jsme to vymysleli sami..:-) pak to ucime i druhou skupinu a oni zase ten jejich tanec nas...je to sranda a fakt me to bavilo...i kdyz to byla docela makacka, jeste ze jsme dneska nebyly domluveny zajit do posilky, tenhle trenink byl totiz podobnej zaprah...ale fajn, jen jsem si uvedomila, jak moc mi chybi nejakej ten tanec a vyprava na disco (ze by zase nekdy Crazy Daisy...;-))...

see: http://www.centrumtance.cz/country

Practical stuff/Uzitecny veci

Tuesday and English lesson- today´s topic is Teaching Vocabulary. Our HW was to read some texts about memorizing new voc and the factors that help strengthen our learning of voc. (frequency, depth od cognitive processing, webs of associations, various forms of presentation, salient features in the word)..- very useful to know it since we´re also learners of foreign languages...;-)at the beginning of the lesson we play a short game- everybody standing and clasping with an utterance of one appropriate word (the teachers says a topic, children have to make up a word that is connected with this topic- associations)...then we summarize our HW and are given sheets of paper with various tasks and we have to decide which of the above mentioned factors is trained in each exercise...work with "Picture Detective Manual" makes us busy for the rest of the lesson...we talk in pairs about a given picture from various aspects (describe atmosphere of the picture, people, objects, setting, colors, etc.) ...
In the afternoon there is the last Danish lesson... it´s up to us what we want to learn this time and we decide to use this opportunity and try to learn some Danish vocabulary concerning food- quite a clever and useful idea when we spend considerable amount of our time here in shops often desperately looking at the Danish descriptions of various products...:-) After we admit we know the basic "food words" Sheila and Lejf bring tea pots and some biscuits to the classroom as a kind of saying goodbye to us....that was really nice of them...we´ll see whether there will be any opportunity to practise our Danish some time in the future after we leave Denmark!;-)
In the evening we girls get our potion of emotions when watching a romantic film "Pride and Prejudice"...

Uterni hodka anglictiny...zacneme mensi hrou na rozehrati..ucitelka rekne tema napr. skola (americky hodnoty, atd.), my stojime a kazdej s tlesknutim rekne slovo, kteryho k tomu napadne...je to takova motivacni hra, protoze za dcv, jsme meli precist nejaky clanky o uceni se slovicek, jaky faktory jsou dulezity pro jejich lepsi zapamatovani atd. - docela poucny, vzdyt my se taky ucime cizi jazyky, takze je to vlastne i navod pro nas...;-) Tak nejak rozebereme to, co jsme se z textu dozvedeli a prakticky si to zkousime na ruznejch typech cviceni, urcujeme, jaky z uvedenych faktoru se v danym ukolu trenuje...nakonec menime cinnost a po zbytek hodiny se venujeme "Manual obrazkoveho detektiva"(krkolomny preklad, ale v podstate jde o to, ze dostaneme jakysi navod, ceho si vsimat pri popisu ruznych obrazku -atmosfera obrazu, lide, predmety, barvy atd.)...
Pak nas ceka posledni hodka danstiny..toto ale rychle uteklo...je tentokrat vicemene na nas, co chcem dneska brat...jsme pragmaticti a rozhodneme se, myslim, velmi chytre:-)- co takhle naucit se nejake danske vyrazy pro jidlo...(kdyz uvazime, ze znacnou cast casu stravime v kramech, casto docela zoufaly, coze to jako je napsany na tech ruznych popiscich:-))...Na konci Sheila a Lajf prinesou cajdu a naky susenky na rozloucenou..to je od nich mily...:-) kdovi, jestli se nam nekdy v budoucnu postesti oprastit tech par frazi, co jsme se tu stihli behem tech par hodin danstiny naucit...;-)
Vecer si zas uzivame poradnou romantiku u "Pychy a predsudku" (Jane Austen)...

Jante Law and "All life is problem solving"/Zakon Jante a "Cely zivot je resenim problemu"

The aim of Monday´s module Comparative studies is to make us familiar with various types of learning approaches throughout Europe...according to the teacher there are three such approaches: 1)the Encyclopedic A. (typical of France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Belgium)- claims uniformity (the same opportunities for all children), rationality (logical way of thinking), elitism (competition instead of cooperation, special type of schools- grand ecoles- parallel with universities, access through competition); 2) the Humanistic A. (GB)- the ideal: gentleman, individualism (close realtionship between a student and his teacher), specialisation (at the age of 16 students choose only few subjects they´re most interested in); 3) the Naturalistic A. (Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia)- structure in the educational system (everybody ha s a function in the system), shared values: Work hard, do not waste money, and fear God; learning by imitating; skills oriented. Quite interesting, but this division seems to me already a bit out of date...In my opinion nowadays there aren´t such big differences in various educational systems all over Europe anymore, since it is more or less directed by EU...( a common trend in EU school systems is the development of important competences =combinations of knowledge, skills and experience- and students should be led to be able to use these learned competences in practise.)...but it doesn´t mean that I think one finds completely same school systems all over Europe just because of EU... I believe that above mentioned division has its historical roots from which a certain school system comes out and as history is a part of each nation and is then reflected somehow in its presence, I do believe that this is also the case of these learning approaches...the own history of the country makes also its educational system more or less specific...
What was a kind of shocking information for me during this lesson was the fact that Danish school system doesn´t pay so much attention to education of special talented children since the Danish society goes out of the idea of the "Jante law":
The ten rules of this Jante law are:
Don't think that you are special.
Don't think that you are of the same standing as us.
Don't think that you are smarter than us.
Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.
Don't think that you know more than us.
Don't think that you are more important than us.
Don't think that you are good at anything.
Don't laugh at us.
Don't think that anyone cares about you.
Don't think that you can teach us anything.
see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janteloven
After reading these rules one can see that Danes appreciate uniformity, all the members of the society should be in the same level and this is also applied at schools...that´s why potentiality of talented children aren´t fully supported....what a pity, don´t you think?!
The next lesson of Citizenship with Torbjörn concerns with the philosophy of Karl Popper ("All life is problem solving") - an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. He is counted among the most influential philosophers of science of the 20th century. Popper is known for repudiating the classical observationalist / inductivist account of scientific method by advancing empirical falsification instead; for his opposition to the classical justificationist account of knowledge which he replaced with critical rationalism, "the first non justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy" and for his vigorous defense of liberal democracy and the principles of social criticism. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper). We start talking about ancient philosophers (Plato, Aristotle)- ideas of ideal society, we draw a diagram of a "democratic circle" (Egoism+Individualism= Free Market; Altruism+Individualism= Conservatives; Egoism+Collectivism= Nationalists; Altruism+Collectivism=Socialism) and after we´re a bit confused what this stuff has to do with "citizenship" we are told that citizenship should train people to try to stay in this "democratic circle".. Wow, it was much philosophy for today (it reminds me of my school days at grammar school:-))...

Tak tu mame dalsi tejden, leti nam to, leti.... dneska nas ceka modul "Srovnavaci studia"- s novou ucitelkou, stredni vek, ma tu na starosti nejaky zahranicni zalezitosti, uz neuci, ale jak nas ujisti na zacatku, je strasne rada, ze ma dneska tu moznost...na zacatku se bavime vicemene o historickym rozdeleni sveta podle Limes Romanus (staroveke hranicni linie)- a odvozujeme odtud rozdily v kulture narodu zijicich na sever od teto hranice a tech jiznich kultur...pro kazdou je typicky neco jinyho (napr.vira- S: protestanti- J:katolici; S: prirodni, J: kulturni, S: pivo, J: vino atd.), pak se tema stoci konkretne na skolstvi- vyklada nam o trech ruznych pristupech k uceni podle jednotlivych zemi: 1) encyklopedicky pristup (typickej pro Francii, Italii, Portugalsko, Spanelsko, Belgii)- zalozenej na jednotnosti (vsechny deti maji mit stejne prilezitosti), rozumovost (logicek mysleni), elitarstvi (nejlepsi vyhrava); 2) humanisticky p. (Velka Britanie)- zakladem je vychova "dzentlmena"; individualni pristup k zakum; specializace (co se tyka predmetu, v 16 letech si deti vybiraji jen par predmetu, na ktery se soustredi v dlasim studiu); 3) naturalisticky p. (Nemecko, Holandsko, Skandinavie)- struktura ve skolstvi (kazdej ma ve spolecnosti svou ulohu, kazda prace ma svou dustojnost), vyznavane hodnoty: Pilne pracuj, neutracej a boj se boha; duraz na imitaci v ucebnim procesu a na dovednosti. Tak nejak mi prijde, ze tohle rozdeleni uz je trochu zastaraly, nerekla bych, ze by se to v dnesni dobe jeste dalo takhle striktne definovat...prece jen EU udava trend skoro ve vsem, nevyjimaje skolstvi, takze dneska uz ty tendence ve skolstvi budou vicemene podobny po cely Evrope- rozvoj zakladnich kompetenci (viz. nase hodiny pedagogiky a psychologie na UHK, ze:-)), cilem je, aby student byl schopen pouzit naucene v praxi atd. Na jedny strane vliv EU, kterej to cely jaksi sjednocuje, ale na druhou stranu je jasny, ze nelze rict, vsechny skolsky systemy jsou stejny po cely Evrope...tady bych dala prostor vyse zminenymu rozdeleni:-), ale spis z historickyho hlediska..vsechny ty popsany rysy v jednotlivejch pristupech se asi urcite odrazi i do soucasnyho skolstvi, coz je dela specifickym pro kazdou zemi...dikybohu za ruznorodost, ze..:-) Docela sokuici ale byla informace, ze dansky skolstvi se nijak nezameruje na zvlast nadane deti, neexistuje moc specialnich skol, kde by se rozvijel jejich talent...vychazi to z danske myslenky "Jante zakona", kterej tvori deset pravidel:
1. Nemysli si, ze jsi neco vyjimecneho.
2. Nemysli si, ze mas stejne postaveni jako my.
3. Nemysli si, ze jsi chytrejsi nez my.
4. Nemysli si, ze jsi lepsi nez my.
5. Nemysli si, ze vis vic nez my.
6. Nemysli si, ze jsi dulezitejsi nez my.
7. Nemysli si, ze jsi v cemkoli dobry.
8. Nesmej se nam.
9. Nemysli si, ze kohokoli zajimas.
10. Nemysli si, ze nas muzes neco naucit.
Docela drsny, ze...pak neni divu, ze se danska spolecnost nesnazi podporovat talenty a vyjimecny lidi..na jedny strane mozna dobra myslenka toho celyho s tim, ze nikdo se nema povysovat nad druhy, jsme si jakoby vsichni rovni, ale na druhy strane, kdyz se to dodrzuje dogmaticky, tak mi to naopak prijde nefer, treba zrovna vuci tem nadanejsim, ktery tak diky tomuhle nahledu spolecnosti musi zustat mezi masou a neodlisovat se...ale to je prece proti prirozenosti, kde bysme pak byli s timhle postojem, nekde zamrzly kdesi v historii...?! Pokrok prece delaji ti, co maji schopnosti a jsou v necem skutecne dobry, ne...v tomhle me dansky skolstvi docela zklamalo...
Dalsi hodku zase filozofujeme s Torbjörnem...meli jsme si na dnesek precist silene dlouhej text od Karla Poppera (rakousko-britskej filozof a nejvlivnejsi filozof vedy 20.st., jeho filozofie zpochybneni namisto obrany za pouziti kritickeho racionalismu, obhajce liberalni demokracie a sociailniho kriticismu), mimojine autorem vyroku, kterej se mi libi: "Cely zivot je resenim problemu" (je snad nekdo, kdo nesouhlasi?;-))....dostaneme se i k Platonovi a dalsim (dost mi to pripomene moje gymplacky leta:-))...tak pro dnesek uz te filozofie bylo dost...hura dom a cist "Dabel nosi Pradu"...

America in the centre of attention/V hlavni roli Amerika

Reflections on our school visit in Hoptrup on Monday with Torbjörn start off Thursday lessons. We also get to know sth from theory, namely three ways of planning the curriculum (1. concerns mainly with subject and content within the lesson, 2. called "objectives and utilitarian way" stresses usage/utility of the learned in practise, 3. "process and progressive" concentrating on the personality of the student himself who learns not only to gain knowledge necessary for his future job but also for himself, his own development)- and all these three approaches overlap and are more or less involved in the teaching process..that´s in short what the lesson was about today...In the English lesson we work in pairs and go on in the topic America doing various activities (gap info, "check questions about a text", play-roles) and we try to name the most important values of the American society and put them in the context of today´s perceptions of America from the European point of view...here are some of these values: freedom, individualism (in contrast to Danish "Jante law"- no one is better than others, humbleness), patriotism, volunteerism, democracy, American dream etc. And also thanks to our homework I know now some other interesting info about America, e.g. that the national bird is a bald eagle, the American national anthem is called The Star-Spangled Banner or that American motto is: "In God We Trust"...
Another lesson of citizenship with Birgitte...At the beginning we do presentations which we started working on in groups the last lesson...Our "Czech three" informs the others about the way how our national education system tries to include the subject of citizenship in lessons (we state that this "subject" is quite usual in our schools and pupils learn about it already from their first school year (at first at primary schools there is a subject called "homeland study" that includes info both from national history and geography, at lower secondary school pupils have a special subject called "civics" that covers various themes- from nation and state symbols to religion, family, environment etc., at secondary school there is the subject " social studies" that talks about previous themes more in details and finally one can choose "social studies" as his/her major at university.. ) We also get to the topic of immigrants and national minorities (we mention the problems with "gipsies" in our country)- Birgitte describes the situation in Denmark like that: actually Danish people act like one big family using the same language, having the same culture.. and from this point of view it´s then quite difficult for them to integrate all those minorities (who speak different languages, were brought up in different cultural environment etc.) coming to Denmark in search for better life (it´s said that there are 10% pupils who are immigrants in Denmark). The problem might be connected with the fact that Denmark is a small country and therefore Danes might be afraid of foreigners due to them they could lose their own national culture. I suppose these are quite usual worries of many nations in these days when migration becomes a natural part of our lives. And to find the right balance how to keep own national identity and in the same time not to oppress culture of other people seems to be a big challange for the future...Multi-cultural education that starts running in Danish schools is definitely a very good way how to learn people to be more tolerant towards other cultures. The topic of migration shifts suddenly to discussions about Mohammed cartoons and a sort of philosophical thinking about a question into which extent it is possible to fight for democracy, for which price,...The lesson of Danish lightens our minds after this and at 2p.m. we´re heading for a gym...in the evening we appear for a while in Friday Café to enjoy a bottle of beer and also to lose in "table football" against the Belgian "team":-)))
Saturday morning is devoted to shopping in Germany..Thora, our buddy, takes us right behind borders to buy some cheap food in German supermarkets (and I confirm the prices are notably lower than in Denmark!)...then I spent my afternoon doing somehow nothing but watching one of the greatest movies in recent days : "The Holiday" with Cameron Diaz and Jude Law...amazing...That movie got me into the right mood...which I don´t lose even in the evening when other "Erasmuses" come to watch another movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" with Will Smith...- moving but happy ended..:-)and a sort of "afterparty" with Lasse(a Danish student) playing guitar and singing Danish folk songs when we eat fresh made wafles with melted chocolate can´t end the day better...:-)
The Sunday "running" to the gym to atone for my "wafles sins" from yesterday calms my remorses..:-)

Tak jsem se konecne donutila a zasedla k zapsani zazitku z uplynulejch ctyr dnu, nez se mi vykouri z hlavy... bude to takova rychlejsi jizda, ale snad se udrzite:-)
Ve ctvrtek jsme zase meli hodinu s Torbjörnem a rozebirali nase postrehy z pondelni navstevy zakladky, jak jsem tady uz o ni psala...pak neco malo z teorie a odpoledne hodina anglictiny...pokracovali jsme v tematu Amerika, pracovali tentokrat ve dvojicich, jednak s mapou, pak s textem, hrali "role-play"(jeden zastava jednu roli, druhej jinou, neco resi)... a diskutovali o tom, jaky hodnoty vyznava americka spolecnost...dosli jsme k nasledujicimu zaveru: svoboda, individualismus (narozdil od danskeho "Jante law", ktery spociva v tom, ze danska spolecnost je zalozena spise na tom, ze jedinec se nepovysuje nad ostatni, je pro nej nepripustitelny rikat, ze on je lepsi nez druzi, proste ne takova dravost a ambice, kterejma "vynika" Amerika:-))..i z dcv. jsem se dozvedeal docela zajimavy info..viz. treba jak se jmenuje americka hymna, jaky je narodni ptak(holohlavy orel:-)) nebo jaky maji Americani heslo ("Verime v boha")...
Patek je pak trochu narocnejsi na nasi mozkovou kapacitu- je totiz hodina obcanstvi s Briggite a po uvodnich prezentacich toho, jak se nas skolsky system podili na vychove zaku, aby byli pravymi obcany sve zeme, se tema stoci na diskuzi o karikaturach Mohameda, ktery se v techto dnech zase dostaly do zajmu medii...filozofovani nad tim, do jaky miry bysme meli bojovat za demokraticky idealy, jestli je vic cirkev/vira (viz. islam) nez statni ideologie a tak dale...pred polednem uz se nam z toho vari mozek..:-) jeste ze nasleduje oddechova hodka danstiny, tentokrat jen s Lajfem, vystrihavame slova, ze kterejch pak sestavujeme jednoduchy vety (v danstine maji slovesa stejny tvar pro vsechny osoby, aspon teda v pritomnym case, k jinymu jsme zatim nedosli..:-))...nakonec jsme rychlosti blesku prelouskali jeden danskej textik a hura...konec skoly...na chvili do posilky, vecer do Friday Café- leje jak z konve...dame pivko, stolni fotbalek (Belgicani nas porazej, sakra:-)) a supem dom...
V sobotu vyraziem s Thorou, nasi buddy/opatrovnici:-) do Nemecka na nakupy...je to jen kousek za hranice, asi hodka cesty autem smer Flennsburg...Danove sem jezdi nakupovat v kvantech hlavne alkohol (pivo, vino), sladkosti...je to tu fakt o hodne levnejsi..tak si naky zasoby taky udelame(ja teda spis toho sladkyho, abych byla uprimna:-))...odpolko mam pro sebe...koukame na romantiku nejvetsiho kalibru- film "Prazdniny" s Cameron Diaz a Judem Law.....tak skvelej film uz jsem dlouho nevidela...no proste americka sladarna, ale moc hezka...:-) vecer je taky zasvecen filmu, tentokrat s ostatnima koukam na film "Hledani stesti" s Willem Smithem...dojemny, o americkym snu (jaka to symbolika- viz. hodiny anglictiny tento tejden:-))...prijde i Lasse(danskej student), tak hraje na kytaru, zpiva dansky folkovy songy, popijime a pri tom uzdibujeme cerstve udelany wafle, ktery borime do rozpusteny cokolady...juuu...
Druhej den zenu do posilky, abych aspon trochu uklidnila svy spatny svedomi....:-)