Teaching Practice 2nd Week/Praxe- druhy tyden

The second week of our stay at Kristne Friskole is more or less very similar to the first one, we observe the same lessons, meet the same people, but we can´t say it wouldn´t be interesting...there´s still a lot to find out about the Danish school system etc. What I´ve still got in my mind is the English lesson in the 7th grade that was on Monday..We know from Else that Monday is a "presentation" day for this classroom so everytime there are some pupils ready to give a speech about some topic they´ve chosen (pets, hobbies etc.) and they present it in Powerpoint..this time we´re listening to an interesting topic: "Children in Tanzania" presented by two girls, one of whom lived for 6 years in that part of Africa. The presentation is based on plain facts that are more than startling and impressive in a negative way..The girls did a good job looking up different numbers/statistics that compared the life in Denmark with the one in Tanzania (e.g. in DK there are 360 cars for 1000people x in Tanzania there is only 1 car for 1000people!; interesting slide about what you can buy in Tanzania for: e.g. 1DK= 10oranges)..I found this info very useful and practical and hopefuly it made the girls´ classmates think about it a bit also afterwards, even if they were quite shy reacting to Else´s questions that asked them about their opinions about the presented topic. We also get to know some more info about the way Danish pupils are evaluated here...from the 1st up to the 7th grade children get their evaluation in the form of letters, each indicating the frequency of separate skills (A= almost all the time, B= most of the time, C= sometimes, D= hardly ever)-e.g. in English it means that a pupil is given a sheet of paper with following writing: In English I´m good at:
B....understanding
B....reading
B....speaking
From the 8th grade pupils get marks (1-12; 0-5= failed, 6-12= passed).
This is quite different from our country, where pupils get their marks much earlier (the scale is only from 1-5). The parents´ meetings take place only once a year, however there might be also some individual meetings with concrete parents whose children have various difficulties at school..
The 3rd graders are cute as everytime we meet them during their English, Music or Danish lessons..In English they revise vocabulary (house, family members)- through their models of houses, teacher´s puppets, chants and motion (jumping over the skipping rope when saying a rhyme)..In Music they learn the rhythm when playing musical instruments (rather than playing is better to say trying to figure out what´s the right time to clap with their sticks on their instruments:-)) and finally Danish..I really enjoy the idea of going with these small ones to the school library every Friday and then let them read their books in the classrooms..teachers here seem to pay a considerable amount of attention to "practical skills" (e.g.reading) rather than to forcing pupils to memorize some useless facts they can find quite easily on internet..I suppose, we could bring some of this to our Czech school system too.

Druhej tejden praxe neprinesl dvakrat nic novyho, chodime poctive na vsechny hodiny, ktery mame v rozvrhu naplanovany k naslechum a cekame, jestli nas v nasledujicich dnech snad neco prekvapi...:-) Co mi tak utkvelo v pameti z tohoto tejdne byla hodina anglictiny v 7. tride.. bylo pondeli, coz, jak nam rekne Else, je den urceny pro prezentace..deti si vyberou nejake tema, o kterem si maji pripravit Powerpoint prezentaci na 5 minut..dneska je tematem "Deti v Tanzanii" (jedna z holcin, ktere si tohle tema vybraly, zila s rodici 6 let v Tanzanii)..je to docela zajimavy a hlavne zarazejici, protoze holciny si daly tu praci a vyhledaly ruzny statistiky, ktery porovnavaji zivot v Dansku s tim v Tanzanii, takze treba si na "slidu" muzeme precist, ze v Dansku vychazi na 1000lidi 360 aut, zatimco v Tanzanii je to jen jedno jediny auto na tolik lidi...nebo porovnavani cen, co si clovek muze koupit v Tanzanii treba za 1DK (10 pomerancu)..myslim, ze tohle bylo celkove uzitecny tema, takovy ze zivota (ne klasika na jakou jsme zvykli u tehle deti, treba popisovani domaciho zviratka, ze:-)) a zdalo se, ze to na spoluzaky mozna i trochu zapusobilo, pozorne poslouchali, i kdyz na konci, kdyz tu prezentaci meli hodnotit, tak byli zdrzenlivi a k reakcim se moc nemeli...(ze by mi to pripominalo hodiny z nasi domoviny?!;-))..Jinak se dostaneme i do reci s Else, tak se dozvime par faktu o danskem skolstvi, hlavne teda jak tady hodnoti vykony...od 1. do 6. tridy pisou kazdymu zakovi "znamky" z jednotlivych predmetu, "znamky" jsou v podobe pismen (A= temer vzdy, B= vetsinou, C= nekdy, D= malokdy)..na praktickym prikladu tzn.ze na papire je napsano: V anglictine jsme dobry v :
B.....porozumeni
B.....cteni
B.....mluveni
Od 7. tridy dostavaji znamky, v rozmezi 0-12 s tim, ze aby prosli, musi mit 6 a vys..
Jinak rodicaky se tu konaji jednou rocne, ale zase tu maji docela rozjetou tradici individualnich setkani s rodici, kdyz maji jejich deti nejaky zvlastni problemy s necim...
No a co nasi roztomili tretacci?:-) V anglictine opakuji slovicka o dome- pouzivaji svoje modely domu, co si celej tejden vytvareli, uci se cleny rodiny (i kdyz uz je davno znaji)- Else se snazi ozvlastnit to nejakymi rymy, dokonce i pohybem- vyzene je ven a tam skacou pres svihadlo a rikaji pri tom rikanku o rodine..Else ma narozdil od Ann-Mari trochu problemy s udrzenim kazne ve tride, asi to bude tim jejim neprilis raznym pristupem a deti se pak nudi a svadi je to k vyrusovani...jinak v hudebce se tentokrat uci naposlouchat rytmus (zasednou ke xylofonum, nejsem si vubec jista, jestli se ten nastroj tak jemnuje:-).. a snazi se do nej klepnout v pravou dobu, podle not..)..nakonec danstina...jako vzdy vetsinu casu nemame paru o cem je rec, ale co se mi fakt libi je, jak chodi kazdej patek do skolni knihovny a pak si muzou ve zbytku hodiny v klidu sami cist..(u nas by jim to bylo dany asi za dcv., mozna se uz ale casy zmenily, nevim..)..proste se mi zda, ze tady kladou vetsi duraz na tyhle praktictejsi veci (viz. cteni, prace s pocitacema atd.), nez na nejaky vysvetlovani gramatickejch slozitosti nebo vubec na odrikavani faktu, ktery si muzou kdekoli najit...
Jo a mimochodem, uz jsme se zminovala o te hezke tradici, co na tehle skole maji?;-) Pokazde, kdyz slavi nektery z ucitelu narozeniny, nebo naopak odchazi a ostatni se s nim louci, je o velke prestavce pripraveno pro vsechny obcerstveni- housky, syry, ovoce... a tenhle tejden byly hned dve takove prilezitosti!;-)