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)...

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....:-)

American Dream/ "ble":-)

The first lesson of English together with Danish students...what strikes me for the first time when we enter the classroom...quite a lot of "older" students who seem to have already their own families...( we have been already told before that it´s quite usual in Denmark that many people "behind their study years" take advantage of the national free school system and study (who wouldn´t when the state pays the education for you regardless of your age!)...it´s a class of 2nd year students (now they study two subjects- English and another one, next year they´ll start studying other two subjects, so they´ll have 4 in total)...and this kind of English lesson is actually the only English they have ( it includes grammar, realia, literature, history etc. -everything in 1, then, which difffers from our system when we´ve got special lessons for each of those "fields" of the language)...at the beginning there is a short discussion about the plan for the whole term when students also have a say in what they are interested in (in terms of didactics and methodology mostly- e.g.teaching grammar, how to create aims in a teaching process etc.), then we open the topic "America" which will make us busy for a few lessons... We´re working in groups discussing the picture picking up some of the images connected with America... and finally we´re also given some homework( to brush up our geographical knowledge of America, to read a multi-pate text about American history and values)...wow, doing homework...we have almost forgotten what it is...;-)
Danish with Sheila and Lejf is quite funny this time...we´re learning new words through "games"( guessing the meanings of the words from their written form- Germans can do it quite easily because many Danish words have similar spelling as the German ones).. what about the word e.g. "ble"- try to guess the meaning!;-) Well, I´ll tell you- it´s a nappy/diaper:-))

Afterwards we stay at school for a while to finish our homework for tomorrow (we record our dialogue, what a great fun we have doing this!:-)
Evening and another movie watched together- "Black Diamond" this time...I can´count how many times I covered my eyes when Leonardo diCaprio got into trouble in his "diamond-hunt"...fortunately it didn´t reflect in my dreams....

Dneska mame poprve hodiny anglictiny s ostatnima danskyma studentama...jsou ve 2. rocniku, ale kdo by si predstavoval vekovy prumer kolem 20 let, jak je to u nas, tak by se hodne spletl...tady totiz studuji i "starsi" rocniky, vetsina jich uz ma vlastni rodiny...duvodem je fakt, ze vzdelani je i pro ne zdarma, nezalezi na veku, jako je tomu u nas ( v CR nad 26 let uz stat studentum skolu nefinanfuje...)..takze kdo by toho nevyuzil, ze...;-) tohle je vlastne jedina hodina AJ, kterou ty studenti tady na skole maji- gramatika, realie, literatura, historie atd.- vse v jednom, jak se tak rika..:-)(ne jako u nas na UHK, kdy mame na kazdou z tehle "slozek" jazyka zvlastni hodiny)...zacatek je vesmes organizacni- co se bude probirat behem semestru, s tim ze studenti pred hodinou naspali na tabuli temata, ktery je osobne zajimaji - hlavne veci tykajici se praxe na skolach atd. Pak otvirame tema "Amerika"...diskutujeme nad obrazkama, co je typicky pro tenhle zamorskej kontinent a dokonce dostaneme i domaci ukol! uz jsme skoro zapomneli, jaky to je...:-) do priste precist nekolikastrankovej text o americky historii a hodnotach, oprasit nase zemepisny znalosti...
Nasledujici hodiny danstiny jsou tentokrat docela zabavny...ucime se novy slovicka formou jakychsi "her" (silny slovo, ale i tak posun oproti minulejm hodinam..:-)...hadame vyznamy slov z jejich psany formy, Nemci by tady meli vyhodu, pze dost slov ma podobnej slovni zaklad jako ty nemecky)...ale napr. u nasledujiciho slova nemusite bejt zrovna Nemec ci jinej "German", abyste neuhodli jeho vyznam...:-))- copak znamena danske "ble"?! (spravne reseni: plina pro dite:-))
Vecer trochu potrapime nase citlivy dusicky(zvlaste my s Katou a prekvapive i s Borisem:-)) pri filmu "Blood Diamond" s Leo DiCapriem...pusobivy...a poucny...

Presentation of our countries/ Prezentace nasich zemi

Tuesday, 19th February, and the Module 1(=Comparative studies) with Jette Laursen...our homework for today was to prepare presentations about our countries and tell the others what we suppose to be special and typical of the place we come from... At first we set off the journey to Belgium and find out that it is not only the country of chocolate, waffles and beer, but that the country is nowadays going through a serious crisis that is concerned with the existence of the state itself ( there are two parts in Belgium- the Flemish part in the North and the French-speaking part in the South and politicians are discussing the possible division of these two parts which would lead in fact to the disappearance of Belgium from the map of Europe!)..sth not so serious...did you know that Belgium is the "cradle" of fries that are wrongly called French fries:-) and that Belgium is the country of birth of Jean Claude van Damme?!;-) Then it´s up to us, "or Czech Three" to familiarize our mates with our small republic...we made a nice Power-point presentation ( self-praise is not good, I know, but still it´s pity, you can´t see it:-)) presenting some basic facts, but also the less known infos about our country ( rich history, traditions, nature, culture and in the end we couldn´t forget mention about famous Czechs and what is typical of CR that is known all over the world- e.g. the beauty of our girls- Miss World 2007 etc.:-) And then Daniel and a quick tour through Germany (the system of traffic signs was really funny;-))...
Danish lesson follows and new phrases are attacking our brains (Hvordan gar det?-How are you?:-))..It´s also Tim´s birthday today so birthday songs can´t be missing...even one in Czech!;-)
Evening and film "Goya´s Ghosts" that we watch at girls´ place along with two German students that came here for 14 days for a school practice...and falling asleep with a bit worried mind about tomorrow...;-)

Utery 19. unora a hodina s Jette- modul 1(srovnavaci studia)...na dnesek jsme si meli pripravit prezentaci o nasi zemi a predstavit ji ostatnim....nejdriv napochodujou pred tabuli belgicti reprezentanti:-), dovidame se neco malo z historie, pikantnosti z zivota kralovske rodiny:-), ale prejdeme taky na vaznejsi tema- aktualni problemy v zemi, resi se tam ted mozne rozdeleni obou casti Belgie (Flandry a francouzsky mluvici cast), coz by vedlo v praxi k uplnemu zaniku Belgie, protoze Flandry by se staly soucati Holandska a ta druha cast by byla pripojena k Francii...zni to doclea nemozne, co...dalsi zajimave info- viz.napr. jsme netusila, ze hranolky pochazi z Belgie, stejne tak i Jean Claude van Damme!:-)))) potom jsme na rade my, nase "ceska trojka", abysme seznamily ostatni s nasi mealou zemickou...krome zakladnich info se jim snazime samozrejme ukazat, ze mame bejt na co pysni, takze se rozpovidame o nasi bohate historii, tradicich, ceskem sklu, Skodovce, ceske kuchyni, filmech a nesmi chybet ani slavni Cesi vcetne Miss World!:-)myslim, ze jsme to zvladly hezky...:-)nakonec jsme se s Danielem vydali na exkurzi do Nemecka...zminka o hledani narodni identity a s tim souvisejici Tv spot, kterej ma v mladejch Nemcich probudit pocit narodni hrdosti (docela posramocena vzhledem k pomerne nedavne nemecke historii) - byly pro nas novinkami stejne tak nas zaujal opravdu "dumyslny" system dopravnich znacek:-))...shrnuto, dozvedeli jsme se zas o neco vic, nez jsme si do ty doby pamatovali z hodin zemepisu:-)
Pak Sheila a Lejf a dalsi dansky fraze bombardujou nas mozek...co treba :"Hvordan ga det?"- "Jak se mas?":-) dneska ma taky Tim narozky, tak mu zpivame..nejen dansky, ale i cesky!:-)
Vecer se sejdeme zas na filmiku, tentokrat "Goyovy prizraky", prijdou jeste dva nemecky studenti, kteri tady jsou na praxi na 14 dni, tak to je docela zpestreni s nima...no a domu spat, trochu s obavama, jak dopadne zejtrek:-)

Let´s use our body and voice!;-)

In the previous three days there was lot to do, and everything was a bit unusual for us but better to say very interesting and what´s more enjoyable....! We tried to play the role of story-tellers re-telling some of H.Ch.Andersen´s fairy-tales (ours was "The Story Of A Mother", hey girls, can you remember the new vocabulary "blackthorn bush"?;-)) Learning Danish turned out to be a great fun when trying to repeat after Lejf and Sheila( our student teachers) some "strange" sounds and even worse was reading some Danish words because pronunciation differs from the written form a lot in this language (Just try: "Dav jeg hedder Iva" is pronounced as [dau jaj hile...]. now you can already say in Danish" Hello, my name is....":-)). We ended Tuesday with other European students drawing our "language portrait" and talking about different languages all over the world...
Wednesday lessons were pure enjoyment! Else Marie (a music teacher) instructed us not to be afraid of using our body and voice in different ways...singing songs, dancing ( like Africans do- I won´t forget "Makulela":-)), presentation of a machine just with sounds, later on with instruments, and using music as a source of our imagination- mime-play (Sylvi, our sitting on the bar chairs smoking a cigar pretending to be women of doubtful reputation;-)) and in the end painting the atmosphere of music in abstract pictures...how unusual and useful for developing children´s imagination and creativity, I think... Evening in-service lecture on the theme of using ICT in English lessons showed us that not only the Czech teachers are not used to involving ICT in their lessons yet but also their Danish colleagues cope with the same problem.

V uplynulych trech dnech jsme se nezastavili, porad bylo co delat. V utery jsme si zahrali na vypravece, nebot byla hodina o danske literature a filmu. Cele to ve finale bylo vlastne jen o H.Ch.Andersenovi a jeho pohadkach. Ve skupinkach jsme si meli "nastudovat" jeden z jeho pribehu a pak ho pred ostatnimi prevypravet...nase pohadka se jmenovala "Pribeh matky" a opravdu bych ji nedoporucovala cist detem jako krasny vypraveni s happy endem na dobrou noc:-) Zabavna pak byla vyuka danstiny...do tridy vpochodovala peroxidova blondyna a ponekud nesmely hosik:-) Neco jako Black and White, i co se tyce charakteru, mozna podle fotek posoudite sami, kdo mel jakou roli:-) Jsou to taky zatim jen studenti, kteri prej jinak uci imigranty, ale podle systemu, jinymi slovy nesystemu ve vyuce bysme ani nerekli, ze uz maji nejake ty hodiny za sebou...(prominte, Sheilo a Lejfe...). nakonec jsme je sami navedli, ze by bylo mozna dobry si nejdriv rict danskou abecedu a pak postupovat k tezsimu...celkove me to bavilo, i kdyz sranda to nebyla...danstina se jinak cte a jinak pise..tak si treba zkuste: "Jeg hegger Iva"(vyslovuje se [jaj hilla ...]. kdo by to byl rekl, ze:-)) Odpoledne bylo hodne zajimavy, i kdyz chvili trvalo, nez jsem pochopili, co se po nas vubec chce...ve finale z toho vzesel "language portrait"(portret jazyku)- do obrazku jsme meli zakreslit ruznymi barvami vsechny jazyky, se kterymi jsme nejakym zpusobem v kontaktu a pak jsem se o tom ve skupinkach bavili...vubec cela ta hodina s nazvem "Jazyk a identita" byla o uvedomeni si podobnosti/odlisnosti v jednotlivych jazycich...zajimavy...
Stredu jsem si pak uzili snad nejvic. Else Marie (ucitelka hudby) nam na zacatku sdelila, ze ve vyucovani je treba zapojovat nejen mozek a takovou tu rozumovou stranku, ale taky nase telo, hlas a vubec smysly...zacli jsme zpevem u klaviru, takovy pekny melodicky pisnicky( mne to uz docela chybelo jen si tak zazpivat, vzpominam na nase hrani u klaviru, Kamsko, lisko;-)), pak jsme pridali i pohyby- uzasna byla "makulela", jako kdybysme byli nekde mezi africkejma kmenama a nacvicovali jejich narodni tanec:-), jsme se narachali...neco z pantomimy- predvest jen za pomoci zvuku nejaky stroj, pak podle hudby sehrat pantomimu (to by se ti, Marti, libilo;-))- jj, Sylvi, nezapomenu, jak jsme si hraly na barovy lehky devy:-) a nakonec malovani podle hudby, obrazy pak mely vyjadrovat dve ruzne nalady, ktere v nas ta hudba probouzela...hodne zajimavy, i kdyz se toho clk nejdriv trochu bal...
Vecer jsem jeste padili na prednasku pro ucitele AJ- " Jak uzivat ICT/pocitace ve vyuce AJ"...nas docela presvedcilo, ze ani dansky ucitele nejsou jeste skamaradeni s technologii stejne jako ti nasi...