Week 11 in Copenhagen

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1 Week 11 in Copenhagen Personal Development This week, routine was well established again and early mornings (6.30am) greeted me each day in order to make it to my first lesson at school for 8am. It was great to feel a little more familiar with the routine in school and how things worked. The staff and the pupils have been so welcoming to us and I am really enjoying my placement school so far. The weather has been so amazing this week and you could almost say that Summer has arrived. On Friday afternoon, I went to the Botanical Gardens with Katie and we sat in the sun for a couple of hours, chilling out after a busy week, the gardens were so quiet and you would not have known that you were right in the centre of town. One of the evenings, I went for a swim and the pool where I swim has a glass roof, the sun was shinning through and it honestly felt like I was in Spain- long may the good weather last! It is quite a change from the snowy Denmark I was faced with on my arrival.

2 Cultural Development This week I was really looking forward to Monday night as my friend Matt was in Copenhagen with his band Two Door Cinema Club, it was great to get the opportunity to see a Northern Irish band playing in Copenhagen and also to hear a few familiar accents! On Wednesday evening, I went to the theatre in Kongens Nytorv to see Shakespeare s A Midsummer Nights Dream. It was very interesting to go and see as this is often a text, which is studied for GCSE English Lit. The theatre was a very grand building, I even got to stand out on the balcony and took in amazing view of the New Harbour area of Copenhagen. The next night the Queen of Denmark was expected to go and see the play as part of her birthday celebrations so the theatre was already being prepared for her visit.

3 It was the Queens 70th birthday on Friday so many people flocked to the city to see her drive past in her carriage, unfortunately I did not make it to see the parade, however I made it down to the city later in the afternoon to soak up on some of the atmosphere. Many Danes also had the Danish flag on display in their homes as a sign of nationality and respect for the Queens birthday celebrations. Professional Development. On Monday, I spent the majority of the day with Grade 8- we spent most of the day preparing and discussing what they will be doing for their project exam. In Denmark, pupils get a two week period to complete a project and are taken off timetable to be given time in

4 school to complete the project work. Most of the pupils in my class have decided to research the theme of oprar and frihed,which translates roughly to the concept of war and freedom. The pupils have come up with so many great ideas for their projects and I am already excited to see the end outcome of all their hard work. One group has decided to look at the troubles in Northern Ireland, so we have been helping them with ideas for the project. On Monday, the Grade 8 class we allocated time to work in the Eat Me café in their school. They are given the responsibility of preparing the sandwiches, salads and other healthy snacks for the pupils in the school who order food from the centre. It is a great concept and the pupils learn so many skills whilst working under the supervision of the café manager. The café is very modern, each pupil is given a t-shirt while working in the café which makes them feel part of the staff- it is a very clever and worth while initiative in my opinion. I think schools in Northern Ireland should look into the possibility of such an initiative in our schools. On Tuesday, I had an evening class at UCC which gave us time to catch up with our Erasmus class and also to feedback on our experience in schools so far. As well as working on the projects this week, the Grade 8 class were given another task of lifting rubbish from the local community. They were given the morning to collect rubbish from a local park, in return the council gave the class a certain amount of money which they could use for a school trip. I thought this was an excellent idea and gave pupils an element of social responsibility whilst being rewarded for their efforts. This also gave us the opportunity to chat with the pupils and hear more about what it is like to go to school and grow up in Copenhagen. I have also been working on my Comparative Education group project, we spent time this week asking teachers questions about the Danish School system in regard to the title of our project. We then have to write up our findings and also a response in relation to our home countries and give a presentation next Wednesday evening to our class. So as you can see, it has been a very busy week. Hope everyone is well! Speak soon. G. Posted by Greg Quee at 09:16 0 comments Sunday, 11 April 2010

5 Week 12 in Copenhagen Week 12 in Copenhagen This week has been another extremely busy, but interesting week. The majority of my week has involved school placement, however I did spend a lovely day at Tivoli gardens in the centre of Copenhagen and that evening enjoyed a meal at the Hard Rock Café, as well as enjoying a concert from a Danish Rock band. Every Friday, there is a concert on in Tivoli gardens during the season, called Friday Rock, which includes a wide variety of famous bands and musicians. You are only required to pay the entry fee into the gardens to hear the concert, which is a bargain in relation to Copenhagen prices and the bright lights of Tivoli in the evening are not to be missed. I have had yet another week of six o clock starts, so lots of earlier nights too. I can t believe that I only have another week of teaching practice left. I feel like I have only got into the way of doing things and got to know the staff and the pupils and the experience is nearly over. I have also realized that this is the last full week for some of my Erasmus class, many of them are leaving at the end of next week and not staying on for the extra month to complete the individual assignment, so hoping that this coming week there will be a lot of time to socialise with them before they leave. The most amazing things about this experience is the contacts that you make across Europe, it is great knowing that you can perhaps visit them in the future. Already, I have made plans to meet up with some of the friends I have made here in the future and it is very exciting. Many of them are extremely keen to come to Northern Ireland, we must have done a good job selling the place. I have really enjoyed the weather this week, the sun has been shining almost everyday and it even makes it easier to get up in the morning! I have loved seeing the change from severe winter conditions to the freshness of Spring- I don t know why this has really impacted me, but I think because I have never seen a winter like that before and it has made me appreciate the seasons even more. Also I think that people in Denmark are generally healthier than people at home and they spend much more time out walking, cycling and sitting in the parks. I intend to spend a lot more time in Frederiksberg Park ( my favourite place in Copenhagen) now that the weather has improved. On Tuesday, we finished school early and myself, along with Katie and our two Austrian friends went to an Italian restaurant in the DybbØlsbro area of central Copenhagen. I really enjoyed this afternoon, we were able to sit all afternoon enjoy delicious food and it was a buffet too, so there was no need for dinner that evening!

6 Cultural Development. This week, Tivoli gardens was the biggest cultural event. Everyone had told me that Tivoli is a must when you go to Copenhagen. It is only open half the year, apart from a couple of weeks in the winter for the Christmas market season. The gardens hold one of the oldest theme parks in Denmark, as well as a vast number of restaurants, cafes and even an aquarium. The park is very attractive and there are many different types of flowers, as well as a lake with its own pirate ship. I would definitely recommend that you buy the day ticket for the rollercoasters, as it is very expensive to just go on one or two rides, paying individually for them. Next time, I will definitely invest in the day pass. The town centre has also been very busy recently due to the great weather, I have noticed that there has been a lot more tourists in the centre of town. I went to the New Harbour area on Saturday, which was packed full of tourists and locals. One of the most enjoyable places to spend an afternoon, it is a real cultural activity to prepare some food and sit on the harbour wall enjoying the view of the canal along with the vast majority of vintage ships. Often at the harbour there will be a few different musicians scattered along the harbour. Near to where I was sitting there was a great string band playing- I don t think there is anywhere else in the world like the New Harbour in Copenhagen, it is definitely a one off. One of the things I have noticed in Copenhagen, especially this week which has troubled and even upset me was that fact that in a country where there is so much wealth and the cost of living is so very high, there is still extreme poverty. It is very much a common practice to see men and woman looking through the bins to try and find plastic bottles. In Denmark you can take you bottles to any supermarket and exchange them for cash, or credit. Many people still throw their bottles away, in this case it provides a living for people in poverty within Copenhagen. On Saturday I saw a Mother and Son collecting the bottles at the end of the evening in New Harbour after everyone had enjoyed their day, it really made me think how lucky I am. Professional Development. This week in school was extremely busy, the pupils were finishing off their projects for their presentations towards the end of the week. I was really encouraged at how hard the pupils

7 worked on their projects and how much they had researched into their chosen topic. The start of the week was very intense as we were helping each of the pupils put their projects together and sometimes because of the language barrier this was extremely difficult. On one of the afternoons, we were asked to come and watch one of the younger Grades present their chosen topics for presentations. They were obviously not required to research in as much detail. They were asked to chose a destination and pretend that they were trying to advertise it, they had to include cultural facts, activities and history. The level of presentations was so high and they even presented in English as we were visiting their class, I was so impressed. On Wednesday evening, we had to go straight to uni from school, so I was up at six that morning and was not back in the flat till after nine so I was very tired as you can imagine. The reason we were in uni was because some groups were presenting their Comparative Education research, my group were not expected to present until Monday evening, however it was very interesting listening to all of presentation which involved a variety of chosen topics ranging from bullying, classroom management and stereotypes. The last part of the week, we spent listening to the presentations. I was very interested in how the teacher was going to assess each of the projects as I will be focusing on this element for my individual assignment which I will complete in May. Although Grade 7 were not expected to complete the project as an official assessment until Grade 9, they were still given feedback on their presentation. The feedback was based on a number of areas for example, how the group worked together, the research they carried out and how they presented their findings. This class presented in Danish, so at times it was difficult to understand, however I was able to get the basic outline of their presentations and I thought that on the whole the level of maturity in regards to their product was very high, if they can built upon this over the next two years before the official presentation, they will do extremely well. Hope that you are all well! G. Posted by Greg Quee at 07:18 0 comments

8 Week 13 in Copenhagen Week 13 in Copenhagen Personal Development This week has been a week of savouring every moment as for many of the Erasmus students this was the last week we would all spend together. It was also my last week in school, which I honestly can t believe how quickly the time passed. Last weekend, was very busy trying to prepare the last bits for our group presentation for Comparative Education. I also had a lot of lessons to prepare for school, so this weekend was pretty much occupied by work! This week we were really keen to try and get together one evening, even though many of us still had school early the next morning. Claire (from France) very kindly invited us around to her flat and had cooked honestly the best crepes I have ever tasted in my life, everyone had brought both savoury and sweet treats and it was a great night, although in some ways very sad as we only had a few days left altogether. The night was spent laughing and reflecting on our time here. In many ways the three or four months is not enough time, as we have found that you only get to know each other by the start of the third month and then people are starting to think about heading home, it is very difficult to imagine Copenhagen over the next month without many of these people here. I am however, very excited about the possibility about meeting up with some of the friends I have made here in their home destinations and many of them have even said that they would like to come and visit Northern Ireland, so I very much look forward to that- Erasmus truly is the most unbelievable experience. On Thursday, we spent the whole day together in the university as it was a day to conclude this part of the Erasmus experience, we spent the morning reflecting on all the things that we had learnt personally, academically and culturally. It was amazing to think back on all the lessons and workshops we had together and how much we have actually gained from this experience. The lecturers were also really interested in hearing about the positives and negatives of this experience and to gain our feedback for future years. Once the conclusion of the course had finished we had a presentation of certificates and a goodbye reception for the others who were not staying, it was kind of a surreal experience

9 as it felt like the end, however I still have another chapter of this journey to complete during the next month, and to be honest although it will be strange that the others will not be here and am not fully ready to leave this place just yet. That night we all met at a Turkish restaurant in the centre of town, it was a great night of laughing and chatting and I can honestly say I have made really great friends here, I just want to take the opportunity to say thank you to them all for making this experience really special, I hope that you all have a safe journey home and that we all make the effort to keep in touch- I could not have thought of a better group of people to share this experience with! For those who are staying I hope to see you all next week! Cultural Development This week in the conclusion to our course we started to talk about the issue of culture in terms of accommodation and assimilation. I found it really interesting to note how much it has been the case that I have had to accommodate my way of thinking to some of the culture within Denmark. Simple things, which have changed my way of thinking have included recycling, public transport and even the type of food that one eats here. In relation to cultural development I have also been reflecting on the fact that while on Erasmus I have not only experienced Danish culture but also the wide range of cultures that have been represented within my class. Professional Development In terms of school this week, I was really busy preparing a number of English as a second language lessons, specifically focused on tenses. It gave me a great insight and made me reflect on the challenges and rewards of teaching a second language. I really enjoyed preparing these lessons and was so impressed at how the pupils got involved in many of the active learning strategies that I tried to put into the lessons. On particular activity that I thought worked well was with a Grade 6 class, I asked them to form a circle and I placed a number of verbs in the infinitive form in the centre of the circle. Each pupil was then required to change the tense and then tell a story or sentence in relation to their chosen verb. They also had to state whether the verb was regular or irregular in the past tense. The level of imagination and correct use of verb tenses was again extremely high.

10 This week I also had the opportunity to take part in Christianity lessons, as they had been cancelled the last weeks for the project exams. It was really interesting to note how these lessons were very much discussion based classes, and the level of input from the class was extremely encouraging. One of the classes I was with, was considering the issue of Human Rights and Freedom, I tried to encourage the pupils to expand their answers and develop their viewpoints on the issues while in their smaller groups. After they had a chance to discuss in groups they were asked to feedback their findings to the rest of the class. It reflected the idea that each group became an expert in a certain example of Human Rights and Freedom. I was extremely sad that this week was the end of my Danish teaching experience, I really enjoyed the chance to get a first hand look at how these schools are set up and want to thank the staff and pupils for making it such a memorable experience. Also in regard to Professional Development we had our group presentations for Comparative Education, our group considered the issue of How to teach more than words with an emphasis on social education. I felt that our group worked really well together and our piece of assignment work was also handed in with a more detailed analysis of our findings. Hope everyone is well. G. Posted by Greg Quee at 07:20 0 comments