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...;-)

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....:-)

Carneval/Staying at home:-)

Friday... and the first lesson of citizenship...I´m quite curious what this modul will be about..At first we´re talking about what it means to be an "active citizen" (feeling of belonging somewhere, awareness of duties and rights) and we get to know that the issue citizenship was discussed a lot in Denmark in previous years..we´re also discussing what it means to become a citizen of Denmark (demands and restrictions put on immigrants who want to settle in a new country- we compare the situation in Denmark with our countries)- I´m quite surprised to hear that the "waiting time" after one can ask for citizenship in DK is 7 years..(quite a long time)..plus there is a certain kind of test one has to pass...Quite an interesting information for me in this lesson is the fact that Danish people are very keen on membership of various kinds (members in different clubs and organisations), which is a part of their perception of citizenship (sense of belonging somewhere)..However, talking about this issue for three hours (on Friday!) is quite tiring and we all look quite exhausted when the lesson is over... But the image of evening carneval cheers us up..:-)
the evening is already here...but what/who will we disguise for? At last we agree on the Czech flag:-) Sylvi is red, Kate blue and me "innocent white":-)...we just put on the jumpers in these colours and are ready to go...but what a surprise when we find out that the entrance costs 50DK (originally we supposed it would be free:-))...well a bit disappointed we leave for girls´ place (still it´s too much money for us, you know:-)) and have a nice "Erasmus evening" chatting at some bottles of wine, whiskey and Jelzin:-)

Je patek a ceka nas hodina, kdy si mame povidat o obcanstvi...jsme pred tim dostali asi 20strankovej text k precteni, ale jen ti odvazni ho precetli celej (podotykam, ze ja byla ta zbabela:-))...nejak nas tohle tema asi nechytlo, asi moc abstraktni, tezko se o nem dalo hloubejc mluvit, ale fajn, s vidinou vecerniho karnevalu jsme ty tri hodky ustali..:-) za co se ale prevlict? s holkama usilovne premejslime, nakonec volba padne na nasi ceskou vlajku...oooo, jak jsme patrioticky, ze..:-) hlavu si s tim zrovna nelameme, proste na sebe vezmeme kazda svetr v jedne barve a jde se...jenze ouha, nase mila buddy nam jaksi zapomnela rict, ze se plati vstup (50DK), s cimz my jsme samozrejme nepocitali...:-) trochu nastvany jsme nakonec usoudili, ze bude lepsi pro zacatek takovy penize setrit(clovek nikdy nevi, ze) a zakotvili jsme u holek na byte...nakonec jsme nelitovali a stravili prijemnej vecer u lahvi vinka, whiskey a Jelzina:-)