On Friday 20th we had a Globalisation and Citizenship lesson with a new teacher – Henrik.
He started the lesson with giving everybody a very cold stone to hold as tough as possible during next couple of minutes…Oh! It was freezing so much (he had cooled it in a box of ice before). And the explanation which was coming later?
The stone was as a person in troubles (cold) – and it should show us that sometimes it HURTS to help, to keep somebody warm.
The question from Henrik was: Are you ready to give, to help, to pay costs – not only receive? --- It was a pretty good, touching and therefore unforgettable example of the basis of citizenship – not only to GET, but also to GIVE. I liked that “practical” example very much!
Then we started to work in groups with Obama´s inauguration speech – finding key words of citizenship. We were going to work with them more in a following lesson too. Unfortunately I had to leave this lesson earlier, because I was having an appointment at a chiropractor with my back…
For Monday 23rd we should prepare presentations about “How is citizenship taught in our country”. Then we were watching and discussing some stories and songs connected to citizenship – for example: Earthsong by Michael Jackson, Where is the Love by Black Eyed Peas and Shawshank. Some interesting ideas from this lesson:
“Sitting in front of TV is better than playing computer games”. (Computer games are often based on killing, hurting other people... On the other hand, you can find quite a lot of social messages in TV series and films such as Baywatch, Superman and Armageddon…)
We also spoke about balance between
-globalization vs. nationalism
-rights and duties
“You have no rights without duties, and no duties without rights”.
And a notice from Shawshank film: “Freedom can be also between walls, freedom is in your mind”.
I think it can be good idea to speak during a language lesson with pupils more about the meaning, deeds and consequences of behaviour in some TV and music scenes; to discuss the social message in them. In my opinion the topic of citizenship and democracy can be used in language lessons quite a lot…
To speak more about freedom hand in hand with responsibility;, about duties and rights; about giving, not only greed to get… to help the pupils to grow up into good citizens and help them to understand the world…
We also get homework – to make a POCKET VIDEO about democracy and citizenship.
Why a “pocket” video? It should be made with a mobile-phone (or a digital camera) – the thing you usually have in your pocket with you…
I found the idea of pocket videos quite interesting – because it is the way how to USE A MOBILE-PHONE in the lesson. Pupils usually love their phones and can be creative, using the newest technology at school. So – why not? :)
In the last lesson with Henrik – on Friday 27rd (in fact it was our last lesson of the whole programme, unfortunately) we watched a scene from The Lord of the Rings (a part with a quarrel and then making a fellowship). Then we were discussing it and working in groups – finding the key-words from Obama’s speech which can be connected with this scene. I liked it very much. A few ideas got from that:
“Everybody can be tempted by power.”
“Arguing is good, but not fighting.” (arguing is a part of democracy – that’s right)
Then we were working in groups on the second task – to find the biggest challenges about citizenship nowadays – on personal, national and global level and how can they be solved and taught.
I confess that I liked these lessons so much. I liked the Henrik´s way of thinking, the way of working with us, the way he gave us ideas and made us thinking…
AND I WAS VERY SAD THAT ALL THE LESSONS AT UCSyd HAD FINISHED THAT FRIDAY. Since then we have been having practice at Danish schools.
I liked the whole programme very much, it really fulfilled my expectations. Moreover – it was even better then I expected. I think it helped me to "extend my horizons", to discover not only Danish school system and Danish culture, but also the wideness and beauty of European cultures, helping me to understand more to each other, to see my own country, culture and school-system from outside …And what is more it supported me to learn more about myself, helping me to be more open-minded, tolerant and respectful, self-sufficient, responsible, co-operative, understandable… I hope this will help me – and I will be really trying – to be a good European citizen. I think this was the most important thing which is this programme about and I am really happy about that. I think it helped me to thing more about my values and about things what I would like to do and not to do in my life… And it learnt me to ASK QUESTIONS, AND BE CRITICAL AND TOLERANT AT THE SAME TIME. I know it is only the BEGINNING and there is much more to learn, but I am very glad for that.
And of course – I am really looking forward to my practice at a Danish school!
I consider it a next step in the study programme.
I would love to say something right now:
Thank you to everyone – the teachers, my schoolmates and house-mates and all the people who contribute to this programme. “Living and Learning Together”. TUSIND TAK!
Showing posts with label M3 - Globalisation and Citizenship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label M3 - Globalisation and Citizenship. Show all posts
Monday, April 13, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
M3 – Globalisation and Citizenship – Torbjorn´s lessons
In week 12 and 13 (+week 8) we had mostly lessons of Module 3 - GLOBALISATION AND CITIZENSHIP.
On Tuesday 17th we discussed what democracy is. We also spoke lot about tolerance and freedom and where the boarder, the limit of freedom is. We come into the topic of the controversial cartoons (depicting Muslim prorogues etc. - see e.g. http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/bloggraphics/JP-011005-Muhammed-Westerga.jpg) and spoke about Durban II…Really interesting! And for sure those cartoons became a part of Danish culture and history and it was good to speak and learn more about it…
On Thursday 19th we dealt with how to LEARN DEMOCRACY. We worked in groups and we were made “theories” and “signs”. Then we introduced all of our ideas (we filled all the blackboards in the classroom - so many thought we had had :)).
And then we tried to use constructive critics to find and discuss weak points of these ideas and find a way how to deal with these weak sides or in which situations is better to use another approach. I found that making a really good and useful “constructive critics” without any pressure is very difficult.
Some good ideas from the lesson – how to teach and learn democracy:
- to make common decisions (e.g. eat and drink in the lesson?, using the mobile phone? – either no one or the teacher too)
- don’t compare students too much
- not too hard punishments
- integration
- evaluation by both teacher and students
- feedback
I found the lesson very interesting and practical.
On Wednesday 25th we watched some parts of films on YouTube connected with learning democracy which we prepared (e.g. Take the Lead, Dead Poets Society, Freedom Writers or Dangerous Minds…). I am sure I will watch some of them. Then Torbjorn introduced us to a non-violent communication theory by Marshall Rosenberg – the language of giraffe and jackal (NEEDS x judgements, analysis and diagnosing). That was very interesting and in my opinion really useful in everyone’s life. It made me thinking about many situations in my life and many mistakes of people’s communication. A lot more to learn!
What I really liked about Torbjorn´s lessons was that they “opened me another door”, they brought me some questions, they made me thinking…
On Tuesday 17th we discussed what democracy is. We also spoke lot about tolerance and freedom and where the boarder, the limit of freedom is. We come into the topic of the controversial cartoons (depicting Muslim prorogues etc. - see e.g. http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/bloggraphics/JP-011005-Muhammed-Westerga.jpg) and spoke about Durban II…Really interesting! And for sure those cartoons became a part of Danish culture and history and it was good to speak and learn more about it…
On Thursday 19th we dealt with how to LEARN DEMOCRACY. We worked in groups and we were made “theories” and “signs”. Then we introduced all of our ideas (we filled all the blackboards in the classroom - so many thought we had had :)).
And then we tried to use constructive critics to find and discuss weak points of these ideas and find a way how to deal with these weak sides or in which situations is better to use another approach. I found that making a really good and useful “constructive critics” without any pressure is very difficult.
Some good ideas from the lesson – how to teach and learn democracy:
- to make common decisions (e.g. eat and drink in the lesson?, using the mobile phone? – either no one or the teacher too)
- don’t compare students too much
- not too hard punishments
- integration
- evaluation by both teacher and students
- feedback
I found the lesson very interesting and practical.
On Wednesday 25th we watched some parts of films on YouTube connected with learning democracy which we prepared (e.g. Take the Lead, Dead Poets Society, Freedom Writers or Dangerous Minds…). I am sure I will watch some of them. Then Torbjorn introduced us to a non-violent communication theory by Marshall Rosenberg – the language of giraffe and jackal (NEEDS x judgements, analysis and diagnosing). That was very interesting and in my opinion really useful in everyone’s life. It made me thinking about many situations in my life and many mistakes of people’s communication. A lot more to learn!
What I really liked about Torbjorn´s lessons was that they “opened me another door”, they brought me some questions, they made me thinking…
Friday, March 06, 2009
18th - 20th Feb - The Other Lessons of the Third week
We were pretty lucky, because our school started at 12.30 on Wednesday - therefore we could sleep enough after Kafka café. We had a very interesting lesson with Torbjorn. At first he explained us the old and new Danish evaluation systems. I was really surprised - it´s completely different from ours!Why?
I will explain the old one first:
There were grades (from the bottom): 0,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 13.
0,3 and 5 meant that the pupil hadn´t passed.
8 was the average that teachers could expect.
And grades 11 and 13 were special grades - to appreciate really good students. 13 meant very excellent, above expectations, the very special grade.
I think it was very nice to be able to give an extraordinary grade to an extraordinary pupil - to appreciate him. Unfortunately, this grade disappeared. The Danish system was changed - we were told that the old system was to confusing to the rest of Europe.
And the new system?
There are grades (from the top) :
12 -expectations
10
7
4
2
------------ passed
and 0
- 3 (which is rather exceptional - for example for students who were cheating during the final written exam and failed the oral exam)
Torbjorn said us that he thinks the new system was a step BACKWARD. The previous could appreciate extraordinary students, however the new one measures, how much you don´t fullfil the expectations (from 12 DOWN). I could agree with him, I found the previous system very interesting.
One more note considering evaluation.
This system is from LOWER SECONDARY schools.
At PRIMARY SCHOOLS pupils get "only" written sentences to parents (to avoid too much competition amongst kids).
Then we had a lecture about Learning theories - e.g. three types of curricula:
A) content driven
B) objective driven
and C) process driven
It was very interesting to GO MORE BEHIND the differences at school systems and school approaches. Since it´s nice to observe differences of my country and Danish school system, but then it´s very useful to think -WHY? And this lecture helped me to start thinking about "what I intend to expect from my future pupils. And why? What is more important for me - the content, abilities of pupils or the process of learning itself...?"
All the subects and projects of "Living and Learning Together - not only about school systems, but also cultures - makes me thinking more deeply, to go more behind, to ask questions...not only observe and compare. And that is what I really like about this study programme.
On Thursday we had pretty exciting lesson of History. I had never thought before that history could be interesting. However, it can! Jorn Buch persuaded me :-)! I thought we were going to have a boring lesson about Danish history - dates, people, events...How wrong I was!
Jorn involved all our own countries´ histories - and helped us to see that almost all European countries had very similar history. Christianity, Reformation, Romanticism, Nationalism... Do you see? He surprised us, because he had pretty good knowledge about our countries´history, dates (even better that we had!) - and showed us a plenty of connections.
Astonishing! :-)
And I have to appreciate that eventhough he had had an accident during tennis-playing and has his arm hurt the evening before, he came - because he really wanted to teach us. Thank you very much!
We had also Danish lesson on Thursday - trying to develop our Danish language skills in basic conversations. I learnt a very useful sentence: "Jeg taler ikke godt dansk".
(For understanding use: http://translate.google.com :-) )
On Friday we had a lesson with Torbjorn about Globalisation.
Globalisation and its pros and (mostly) cons has been a pretty discussed topic recently - however almost nobody has been able to explain well WHAT globalisation really is. Therefore I was very glad that we started to think and discuss globalisation from different sides. What is it connected with, what does it cause, mean and what are its both possitive and negative effects...we took it very complexely (or "globally", if you want to :-) ).
The interesting and surprising idea for me was - that this is not the first globalisation in history. Because there was one before - throughout "Christianisation" (- spreading christianity, latin language and ideas).
And then we started to speak about different parts of globalisation
- sociology and antropology
- international politics and economy
- citizenship and democracy
- trade
- and pedagogy
I am really looking forwart to continuation of this lesson...
I will explain the old one first:
There were grades (from the bottom): 0,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 13.
0,3 and 5 meant that the pupil hadn´t passed.
8 was the average that teachers could expect.
And grades 11 and 13 were special grades - to appreciate really good students. 13 meant very excellent, above expectations, the very special grade.
I think it was very nice to be able to give an extraordinary grade to an extraordinary pupil - to appreciate him. Unfortunately, this grade disappeared. The Danish system was changed - we were told that the old system was to confusing to the rest of Europe.
And the new system?
There are grades (from the top) :
12 -expectations
10
7
4
2
------------ passed
and 0
- 3 (which is rather exceptional - for example for students who were cheating during the final written exam and failed the oral exam)
Torbjorn said us that he thinks the new system was a step BACKWARD. The previous could appreciate extraordinary students, however the new one measures, how much you don´t fullfil the expectations (from 12 DOWN). I could agree with him, I found the previous system very interesting.
One more note considering evaluation.
This system is from LOWER SECONDARY schools.
At PRIMARY SCHOOLS pupils get "only" written sentences to parents (to avoid too much competition amongst kids).
Then we had a lecture about Learning theories - e.g. three types of curricula:
A) content driven
B) objective driven
and C) process driven
It was very interesting to GO MORE BEHIND the differences at school systems and school approaches. Since it´s nice to observe differences of my country and Danish school system, but then it´s very useful to think -WHY? And this lecture helped me to start thinking about "what I intend to expect from my future pupils. And why? What is more important for me - the content, abilities of pupils or the process of learning itself...?"
All the subects and projects of "Living and Learning Together - not only about school systems, but also cultures - makes me thinking more deeply, to go more behind, to ask questions...not only observe and compare. And that is what I really like about this study programme.
On Thursday we had pretty exciting lesson of History. I had never thought before that history could be interesting. However, it can! Jorn Buch persuaded me :-)! I thought we were going to have a boring lesson about Danish history - dates, people, events...How wrong I was!
Jorn involved all our own countries´ histories - and helped us to see that almost all European countries had very similar history. Christianity, Reformation, Romanticism, Nationalism... Do you see? He surprised us, because he had pretty good knowledge about our countries´history, dates (even better that we had!) - and showed us a plenty of connections.Astonishing! :-)
And I have to appreciate that eventhough he had had an accident during tennis-playing and has his arm hurt the evening before, he came - because he really wanted to teach us. Thank you very much!
We had also Danish lesson on Thursday - trying to develop our Danish language skills in basic conversations. I learnt a very useful sentence: "Jeg taler ikke godt dansk".
(For understanding use: http://translate.google.com :-) )
On Friday we had a lesson with Torbjorn about Globalisation.
Globalisation and its pros and (mostly) cons has been a pretty discussed topic recently - however almost nobody has been able to explain well WHAT globalisation really is. Therefore I was very glad that we started to think and discuss globalisation from different sides. What is it connected with, what does it cause, mean and what are its both possitive and negative effects...we took it very complexely (or "globally", if you want to :-) ).
The interesting and surprising idea for me was - that this is not the first globalisation in history. Because there was one before - throughout "Christianisation" (- spreading christianity, latin language and ideas).
And then we started to speak about different parts of globalisation
- sociology and antropology
- international politics and economy
- citizenship and democracy
- trade
- and pedagogy
I am really looking forwart to continuation of this lesson...
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