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....:-)

Breath of originality and creativity/ Zavan originality a tvorivosti

The morning lessons with Jette, when we are talking about intercultural competences ( such an up-to-dated topic in the days of globalization...;-)), run fast and it´s noon and our planned departure to Hoptrup boarding school is here... It´s actually a small "Efterskole", i.e. there are only two classes for children of the age of 15 and 16, who don´t only learn there but also stay at school all weeks long instead of going home...The school is then special in the way that it puts stress on teaching dance, music and drama...and this "specialization" is recognizable in many different aspects... ;-)
At first we´re taken for a small "tour" around the school to have a look what the school looks like...Our guides are two students from there (the boy´s appearance already indicates a certain "smell of originality":-)), who show us almost every single room from the place where pupils eat together with their teachers (at the same table:-)), up to "ordinary" classrooms, then specially furnished classrooms (we were astonished by the recording studio!) and finally to the part of the building where pupils live during their stay at school...one can feel the "bohemian" spirit on almost every step there ( especially during breaks pupils sitting on couches in corridors watching Tv, playing table football or just hanging around and singing and playing guitar...)..and what even teachers themselves! All of them we meet are young people and some of them, let´s say, a bit strange:-) (one wouldn´t recognize the vice-principal from students, what´s more from a kind of a free artist you can meet e.g. on Charles Bridge in Prague:-))..one can also quite easily notice really friendly relationships between the pupils and their teachers (given probably by the young age of teachers as well as by the type of school), which still doesn´t miss the necessary respect for "educators"... then we´re invited to take part in an English lesson...The pupils are asked to play pantomime based on situations that pupils made up themselves before (e.g.two boys riding motorbikes in the mountains, two teenagers arguing about their favourite kind of music etc.)...majority of children aren´t ashamed doing this at all (well, we have to still be aware of the type of school we are in, which means that these pupils are actually here because of their interest in performing etc., but to be honest personally I feet a bit hopeless in this time:-))..and their unshy characters show also in the following interviews that they are supposed to do with us, Erasmus students (we answer their questions such as e.g. why did you go for Erasmus, why to Denmark, what do you like about our country,... and we are really surprised about their level of English that was really great- they can speak quite easily without any hesitation almost as if they express themselves in their native language...!)...and finally the lesson ends with short presentations on the topic: South Africa( first pupils divided into three groups are supposed to make a mindmap on the blackboard on this theme and then to present it for the rest of the class)... one of the three presentations was highly originally when one of the pupils started singing a self-written song connected with this topic and another accompanied him playing the guitar...these pupils are just born to perform and are such exhibitionists that they use every opportunity to show themselves and that´s fine...:-)
And now sth for me...dancing lessons...:-)the first one is kind of a drill exercising (can´t say boring at all!) but the other is more exciting...the girls are instructed to make up and subsequently train their own choreographies to a given piece of music and afterwards they present it...and must say some of the "results" were quite unusual and very funny...
We spent the whole afternoon at this place and came back home not earlier than at 6p.m.

V pondeli dopol si s Jette rekneme neco malo o mezikulturnich kompetencich, jako ze ve smyslu nutnosti ucit zaky respektovat ostatni narody, coz je ted v dobe globalizace docela aktualni a ze vsech stran probirane tema, ze...:-) a v poledne uz jsme na nadrazi, abysme mohli vyrazit navstivit nedalekou internatni skolu v Hoptrup....nejdriv si jdeme prohlidnout celej areal, pruvodce nam delaji dva zdejsi zaci- ten klucina fakt stal za videni- kostkovany kalhoty strih ala mrkve, v uchu nausnice ve tvaru papouska, nebo co to bylo, a na hlave piratskou pasku...podotykam, ten den nehrali zadny predstaveni, proste bezny ohoz do skoly...:-)no, abyste byli v obraze, tohle byla skola tak trochu zvlastni nejen tim, ze deti tady i nocuji (neco jako intr, ale pokoje maji ve stejne budove jako tridy, vlastne z chodby s pokoji vchazi rovnou do vyuky..:-)), ale hlavne co se tyka zamereni- se specializaci na hudbu, tanec a drama...umeleckej duch byl cejtit na kazdym rohu..od ucitelu (dost mlady, a perlicka zastupce reditele by clovek nerozpoznal od zaka, natoz pak od nakyho mladyho "free" umelce nekde z Karlova mostu:-), po zaky (jak uz jsme zminila jista individua, viz.nas pruvodce:-)), tak i celkovy vybaveni skoly- deti o prestavkach na chodbach, rozvalujou se v gaucich, koukaji na TV, hrajou si na kytaru, jen tak zpivaji, hrajou stolni fotbalek...na chodbach zadny dozor, kterej by je hlidal a peskoval ( a kupodivu ty teenageri toho nezneuzivaji! )...celkove ta skola pusobila jako takovej vetsi rodinnej barak- vlastne dany i tim, ze tam jsou jen 2 rocniky- pro 15 a 16-lety(takze fakt mala to skola),ale taky tou celkovou atmosferou- deti jedi v jidelnach s uciteli u jednoho stolu, vztah ucitel zak je docela volnej, kamaradskej a zaci toho zase kupodivu nezneuzivaji (aspon ceho jsme byli svedky my...), oslovuji ucitele krestnimi jmeny (coz je ostatne zvykem na vsech danskych skolach!)..

prohlidneme si nejen tridy ( docela nas prekvapi normalni nahravaci studio, ktery maji zaci k dispozici), i tu ubytovaci cast (kluci, holky zvlast, v tomhle se Dansko do CR nelisi:-)..a pak jdeme primo do vyucovaciho procesu -na hodinu anglictiny...nejdriv maji zaci sehravat ve dvojicich pantomimu na zadany tema (predem kazdej musel vymyslet nakou situaci, ktera se bude predvadet, ucitelka pak vybirala a cetla a deti podle toho predvadely, pak rekla "freeze"/zmrznete a vystridala je dalsi dvojice, ktera musela zaujmout uplne stejnou pozici jako ti pred nima a pokracovat v pantomime)....vetsina se nestydi a je u toho sranda...(ostatne jsme na umelecky skole, tak se predpoklada, ze tady budou sami exibicionisti, ze...ale me to docela vyvede z miry, priznavam....-))...nestydlivost se pak projevi i u dalsi aktivity, kdy nas maji deti "zpovidat", delat s nama Erasmakama interview na bezny otazky...docela zirame, jak deti vali anglictinu, na to kolik jim je, tak pusobi suverenne a nemaji vetsi problem vyjadrit se v cizim jazyce....klobouk dolu...:-) posledni aktivitou je "mindmap"( neco jako brainstorming/co te napadne, kdyz se rekne...)- tematem je Jizni Afrika...jsou rozdeleny do 3 skupin a pak svoje napady prezentuji...vystup jedny skupiny nas docela dostane..."opepri" totiz svoji prezentaci umeleckym vystoupenim- jeden klucina zacne hrat na kytaru, druhej k tomu zacne zpivat svuj vlastni song (tematickej.-)) a vsichni se bavi...

konec anglictiny a ted neco pro me...hodiny tance...:-)ta prvni je spis o drilu ruznejch tanecnich prvku/kroku, i tak me to bavi (hlavne ta music, bych se k nim hned pridala.-))...ta druha hodka je o necem jinym...tady maji holky prostor pro svou vlastni fantazii a kreativitu- ucitelka jim vzdycky pusti nakou hudbu a oni na to maji podle zadanych instrukci vymyslet choreografii (jeden z ukolu je napr. aby ta choreografie obsahovala "slide"/sklouznuti, "spinning"/tocku, "lift"/zvedacku)..maji na to 20 min a pak pred ostatnimi predvadi, co vymyslely... a nektery veci jsou docela originalni...bezva...

ve skole stravime cely odpolko, domu se dopotacime kolem 18h.

Beginning of the 3rd week in Denmark!/Zacatek tretiho tydne v Dansku!

Usual time- 8:15 and the beginnig of the first Monday lesson- "School and Education in Denmark" with Torbjörn Ydegard...He asked us about our observation experinces from our last school visits fourteen days ago- we agreed on some features typical of Danish school such as e.g. apparent freedom of pupils at school, cozy atmosphere of the school environment, usage of various teaching methods and seemingly no structure in lessons...we talked about pupils´discipline in the classes and we were "assured" there is almost no such thing in Danish schools anymore:-), so subsequently we came to the topic of possible punishments for children in case of their misbehaviour and in this time we were "corrected" there is no such word "punishment" in the Danish school system, but only a word- "consequences"- that made us laugh a bit...:-) then Torbjörn told us about the basis of the Danish school system- probably the most striking fact for us was the strong tradition of private education in Denmark in that way that Danish constitution allows establishment of private schools even by parents themselves (in practise it means that when you as a parent are not satisfied with the education of your child at the public school, you can take your child away and you can educate him/her on your own at home, but what´s more you can quite easily set up your own school...the only rules you have to follow are a certain number of pupils, solution of economical questions and fulfillment of teaching goals that must be compatible with those at public schools)- the state financially supports this kind of schools pretty much (parents pay only 15% of loads/e.g. 1,000DK/month, the rest is paid by government)... in general the state financial contribution to education system is efficient, also as far as public schools are concerned (we were told that almost everything at these schools is free, including e.g.all textbooks, trips with the exception of some week long excursions and stuff like this)...even there is special education of future teachers at private schools ( it lasts 5 years instead of usual 4 years for teachers at public schools and these private teachers also have a longer practise at schools during their studies). Wow, all this is quite different from our country, isn´t it?
Acquisition of interesting infos goes on when an energetic man Jörn Buch enters the room...We´re flooded with important events of the Danish history and we´re really impressed by Jörn´s historic knowledge (his very first question: where are from- and our reply: Hradec Kralove- and his prompt reaction: ooh, there was the battle of Austro-Prussian war!- this persuades us that this man "probably" knows his field pretty well...:-)) as well as by his amazing enthusiasm which make his lessons even more unforgetable... (and it does not matter that we talked the whole time mostly only about the 19th century in the Danish history:-))

Obvykly cas- 8:15 a prvni pondelni hodina: "Danske skolstvi a vzdelavani" s Torbjörnem Ydegardem (clovek by si na tech jmenech pomalu zlamal jazyk, co... a to po nas chteji, abysme je oslovovali krestnimi jmeny!:-)) Ptal se nas na nase postrehy z nasi navstevy skol pred ctrnacti dny a spolecne jsme pak vybrali par znaku typickych pro danske skolstvi, jako napr. znacna svoboda zaku ve skole, prijemne skolni prostredi, uzivani ruznych metod pri vyucovani, ale taky zdanlive zadna struktura pri vyuce...Mluvili jsme i o chovani a poslusnosti zaku a byli jsme "ujisteni", ze neco jako disciplina uz v danskem skolstvi u zaku nenajdeme:-) pak jsme presli k tematu pripadnych trestu, kdyz se zaci neumi chovat a zase celkem prekvapiva odpoved, ktera nas docela rozesmala, protoze Danove slovo "trest" jako takove ve skolach nepouzivaji a asi z jakychsi "humanitnich duvodu" ho nahradili slovem "nasledky":-)) potom nam Torbjörn vypravel o zakladnich rysech danskeho vzdelavani, tady nas docela zarazil fakt, ze Dansko ma dost silnou tradici soukromych skol a danska ustava povoluje zakladani takovych skol dokonce i samotnymi rodici! (v praxi to znamena, ze pokud je rodic nespokojenej s tim, jak jeho dite vzdelavaji ve skole, muze ho odtamtud vzit a ucit ho sam, ale co vic, muze si sam, kdyz chce, zalozit vlastni soukromou skolu...jedina omezeni, kterych se musi drzet je jednak dostatecnej pocet zaku, vyreseni nejakejch ekonomickejch otazek a taky splneni jistejch vzdelavacich cilu, ktere musi odpovidat tem, ktere jsou na verejnych skolach)- stat tyhle skoly financne dost podporuje (rodice plati pouze 15% nakladu/ asi 1000DK za mesic, zbytek stat)...dokonce v Dansku existuje i zvlastni system vzdelavani budoucich ucitelu na soukromych skolach (jejich studia trvaji 5 let, misto 4 let obvyklych pro ucitele verejnych skol a odlisne je to i s praxi- budouci ucitele na soukr. skolach maji rocni praxi, namisto asi jen 6 tydnu) ....obecne stat tady do skolstvi znacne investuje, a to i co se tyce verejnych skol ( rodice nemusi hradit skoro nic, napr. deti maji ucebnice zdarma, stejne tak i vylety, snad az na nejake tydenni exkurze, ktere uz stat nefinancuje)..docela rozdil oproti nam, ze..
Pak vpadne do tridy energii nabitej chlapek, asi petasedesatiletej, Jörn Buch a my jsme razem zahlceny informacema tykajici se historie Danska...postupne zjistujeme, ze tenhle Dan bude asi hodne sectelej a ve svym oboru se fakt vyzna (hned na zacatku se nas kazdyho pta, odkud ze jako jsme, tak my reknem CR, HK- a on hned briskne zareaguje, joo, tam se odehrala ta bitva prusko-rakousky valky 1866...jak nase srdicko zaplesa, ze nekdo zna taky nejaky jiny mesto nez Prahu..:-)...cely dve hodky vydrzi zaujate povidat o nejruznejsich historickejch udalostech (popravde misty je docela tezky se v tom neztracet:-))..je do toho neskutecne zapalenej, az se mi zda, ze i ten nejvetsi odpurce dejepisu musi behem tehle hodin uznat, ze "ucitelka zivota" nemusi bejt jen nudnym odrikanim letopoctu!;)..takze vubec nevadi, ze jsme se celou tu dobu bavili hlavne o 19.st. v danskejch dejinach a o zbytku se nedozvedeli prakticky nic..:-)...tahle hodka s nim byla fakt inspirujici, zvlast pro nas budouci ucitele dejepisu;-)