Me, Sylvie and Charlotte are going to spend the following three weeks together- in the Kristne Friskole, just opposite our college( We already know this school from our last visit a few weeks ago)- the reason?- our teaching practice. We start on Monday at 10a.m. when we meet a very nice English teacher Else Wiwe, who´s going to "lead" us through the coming weeks in this school. We´re following her to the class of 3rd graders (that´s the first year for pupils when they learn English in Danish schools)..The classroom is comfortably furnished, children´s desks are set in "U" layout, pictures on the walls, cushions to sit on..There are only 12 children in the classroom...At the beginning they sing a song "Red bear, what do you see?"( saying different colours and animals), then the teacher plays with a small puppet Sophie and asks the children their names and we are also involved! Today the pupils should practice the vocabulary about a house (roof, chimney, window, door) through pictures (on the blackboard there´s a picture with a number of various houses of different size and with different numbers of windows etc.- the teacher is describing one of them and children are guessing which is the right one)..afterwards their task is to create their own house- they are given sheet of cardboard paper and are supposed to colour it, draw parts of the house on it, then to fold it, cut, stick and finally build a house...each of us is helping the small ones..I like the way Else is explaining to them what they should do..she tries to speak in English when giving the instructions and that´s nothing easy at all to be able to choose the really basic and simple words so that the English beginners could understand..she uses also drawings on the blackboard and the children seem to catch the point..perfect..It´s so enjoyable to observe these small kids so "dived in their work"..I can´t see any bigger difference from the Czech schools in that moment until one of the children is addressing the teacher with her first name.. That´s something we´re not used to in our schools, because teachers are always addressed as "Mr/Mrs. teacher"...and I find this "Danish way" better (I think it helps to create more relaxed atmosphere in the classroom and to develop friendly relationship with the teacher)..English lesson in the 7th grade is next. We´re told by Else that today she begins with the pupils the "reading project" (also in the 4th grade) that will last two weeks..she´s brought some books into the class (e.g. Robinson Crusoe, Mr. Jealous, Smile Please etc.) and pupils are suppoosed to choose one book, read it and in the end write a book report about it..afterwards they are allowed to pick up another book and go on reading with the same "outcome"..Else is speaking all the time in English, that´s fine, and when children don´t understand she tries to say it a bit differently in English and the final possibility is of course Danish..The chidren are left to read silently on their chairs and I´m quite positively surprised that they respect their task and don´t disturb at all and really follow Else´s instructions..In the end of the lesson the teacher suggest pupils to read their books for a half an hour every day and asks them if it´s OK with them.. (the child´s agreement is important too as we can see)..
Next days we also participate in the Danish and Music lessons in the 3rd grade led by a very friendly and energetic teacher Ann-Mari Nielsen..Even if we don´t understand Danish we´re enjoying it..actually especially in the Music lesson one doesn´t necessarily need to speak the native language to be able to take part in it, does he?!;-) I appreciate the large music room with a lot of space...and we have the chance to use it (after singing some Danish joyful songs) because we´re gonna dance together with children! They don´t seem to be distracted with our presence at all, on the contrary they take it quite naturally and are very helpful to us bringing the chairs for us etc..:-) By the way I find these children quite self-dependent being precisely aware what their tasks are/what is needed without having been told by the teacher..And I really love Ann-Mari´s attitude towards the small ones...It´s quite obvious this woman simply enjoys her job! E.g. As we can see later on she has no problems skipping over the skipping rope along with children during the breaks and she acts with "her children" as a friend and educator in one person the whole
time...That´s very important especially when teaching such small ones..The Danish lessons with her..there we´ve got the opportunity to see how familiar these small children already are with computers! We can´t believe our eyes to see the 9-year-olds carrying laptops into their classrooms and quite confidentally working on them! Amazing! Well, we live in the world of technology, never mind if we want it or not...The school has about 20 laptops and the teacher always has to book them beforehand to be able to use them with her/his pupils...What the small ones actually do with those PCs? Try to write about their hobby and that´s seems to be a difficult task for them but they try really hard..;-)In the breaks we meet other teachers in the teachers´ room to have a chat and eat our snacks there..I wonder that the teachers don´t have their own rooms where they could keep their stuff for their lessons and do thier preparations...As we get to know from Else not having these own rooms is one of the things teachers miss here..Well, another difference from my country where teachers have this "luxury" to occupy their own "space" (besides the common teachers´ room)...
The rest of the week we observe and partly participate in other lessons, esp. English in the 3rd grade (they´ve got 2 lessons a week)- Else keeps speaking only English during these lessons...in the 4th (2 lessons a week) and the 7th grade ( 3 lessons a week)we just observe because children work on their reading project..I find it quite smart to read the books in the lessons, fine that the teacher really finds the time for this project and lets the children work on it...(I suppose in my country the teacher would rather follow his/her lesson plan teaching pupils grammar or working with the textbook than "wasting time" reading books when pupils can do that at home..I might be wrong but these are my memories of my English teachers from the time I attended the basic school, the time might have already changed in this way...)..I would be really happy to be in the position of these children to be able to say already in the age of 10 that I´ve already been able to read an English book..that´s fantastic..and how helpful for the children to perceive the foreign language through reading...
Forcing the children to read books is apparently a big deal in these days and teachers try to find the right ways to make the books attractive for children...We witness this also in the Danish lessons...every Friday Ann-Mari goes with her 3rd grades to the school library where they pick up books to read during the weekends..Denmark is participating in the "reading programme" IBIS that is said to run all over the world as support of development of children´s reading skills..
We´ll see what other interesting news the following week will bring!
Od pondelka nam zacala praxe na mistnich zakladnich skolach. Cekaji nas celkem 3 tydny naslechu a taky naseho vlastniho uceni! Jsem spolu se Sylvou a Charlotte na zdejsi soukromy krestansky skole, hned naproti nasemu seminariu..my s Charlotte uz skolu trochu zname z drivejska (byly jsme tu asi pred mesicem a pul jen to tak jit omrknout, viz. muj weblog)..na rozvrhu, kterej dostaneme predem, mame napsany hodiny anglictiny ve 3., 4. a 7. tride a taky hodiny danstiny a hudby ve 3. tride..celkem 14 hodin, z toho 7 hodin anglictiny...seznamime se s Else Wive- ucitelka AJ, moc mila zenska, kolem padesatky..hned s ni jdeme do 4. trid, ale hned nam oznami, ze nasledujici dva tydny pro nas budou asi nudny, protoze prave s detma ve 4. a 7. tridach rozjizdi "cteci projekt", kdy deti budou v hodinach jen cist anglicke knizky, ktere si v hodine vyberou a pak na ne musi napsat "recenzi"- jak se jim kniha libila atd..to se mi libi, ze deti maji na cteni cas primo ve vyucovani a ucitel je tak donuti cist, protoze, ruku na srdce, tezko by se tak donutily cist doma..takze taktika dobra..u nas na skolach si ale myslim ze by neprosla..jen tak nechat decka cely hodiny cist a nic jim nevykladat (to by nektere nase ucitelky AJ zamereny hlavne na gramatiku asi tezko prezily..:-)ale tahle "zdanliva ztrata casu" si myslim na konci vyplati...prece jen neni nad to dostavat do sebe cizi jazyk skrz cteni, coz se dost casto podcenuje...neni to super moct rict uz v 10 letech, ze jsme precetla anglickou knizku...:-)..trochu vic se zamestname ve 3. tridach, kde deti umi rict jen par anglickejch slovicek..ted je aktualni tema "dum", vytvari si vlastni domecek, vystrihuji, lepi, kresli a my jim asistujeme...je to sranda, jak se nam snazi neco rict, ale my na ne bezmocne koukame, pze jaksi nase danstina neni zas tak dobra, ze...:-)ale jo, rukama nohama se to nejak zvladne..Else na ne celou dobu mluvi anglicky, pouziva zakladni slova, kresli na tabuli, deti to berou...
Jinak hodiny danstiny jsou pro nas trochu k nicemu, nerozumime skoro nic, vzdycky tak nejak hadame, o cem tak muze byt rec, ale energicka Ann-Mari nam obcas neco prelozi, takze jsme zas na chvili v obraze...tahle pani kolem sedesatky je naprosto neuveritelna, vitalni jak dvacitka, ale s tim svym zapalenim by kdejakou takovou mladici predbehla...je na ni videt, ze zije pro svou praci, pusobi na me jak hodna babicka, ktera vzdycky pomuze a deti se s ni musi citi naprosto uzasne...fakt k nim ma moc hezkej vztah, jak kdyby byly jeji vlastni...porad usmevava... a vubec na tyhle skole jsou ti ucitele takovi prijemni, mozna to bude tou pokorou k bohu, kterou kazdodenne vyjadruji pri rannich "bohusluzbach", kdy se sejde cela skola a zpivaji se pisne z Bible...ale jako jinak zadny naznaky nejakyho sektarstvi ci dogmaticnosti, je to jinak uplne normalni soukroma skola...
Zpatky k danstine..jsou to hodky ve 3. tride...bavi se o svych konickach, a jednu hodku nas dostanou...na chvili nekam zmizi a pak je vidime, jak si nesou v podpazi kazdej jeden malej notebook! sebejiste s nim zasednou do svych lavic a uz jedou...neverime vlastnim ocim! suverenne si ho spusti a zacnou cvakat ve Wordu..9-lety spunti!Ann-Mari nam rekne, ze na skole maji asi 20 takovejch prenosnejch pc a kdyz je chce nejaky ucitel pouzit v hodine, musi si je predem zamluvit...vedel toho maji jeste celou pocitacovou ucebnu...chapu, ze zijeme ve svete technologii, ale uz ve 3 tride pracovat s notebookem me fakt dostalo..:-)Vubec ty deti tady se mi zdaji takovi pohodovejsi, samostatnejsi, praktictejsi, nestydlivi...ale to asi taky zalezi na konkretnich detech...kazdopadne zatim dojmy jen pozitivni...uvidime co prinese dalsi tyden!;-)
jo jeste jedna zvlastnost, takova mala poznamka...o prestavkach se tu ucitele schazi v jedny mistnosti- sborovne, nemaji zadne sve vlastni kabinety..to mi prijde zvlastni a neprakticky..Else rikala, ze jim to opravdu chybi, aby si meli kam dat materialy na hodiny a taky kde by mohli delat pripravy atd. no ale zase kdyz se takhle po kazdy hodine schazi, utuzuje se tim pracovni kolektiv, ne..vsechno ma svy vyhody..;-)
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