M3 - Globalisation and Citizenship – Henrik’s lessons

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!

18th&24th March - Aabenraa – Drama, Music and Movement

On Wednesday 18th we travelled to Aabenraa to have lessons at that department of UCSyd. They were focused on Drama – with Flemming and on Music with Linda. First of all we played some “icebreaking” games as a “Shark” – Flemming explained us that it is much easier for some pupils to “break the barriers, to get over shyness” while they are having some role. Because if you are “shark”, you think for the shark and much less how you are looking etc…
We also made rhythms with drums and cups, I enjoyed that pretty much.
And we learnt a Danish song – Godmorgen sol :)


We made “monuments” with Flemming then. That group had to make “Zooropa”.
1) stable position and concentration
2) “Zooropa”
Isn´t it great?





And after the lunch break (spent outside in a sunny weather), we learnt to play SAMBA with Linda. I had to leave a bit earlier and go back to Haderslev for physiotherapy…












On Tuesday 24th we started with simple dances as polka and some traditional Danish group dances. I very enjoyed Linda playing accordion, it made me involved in the atmosphere.:)


We sang some more morning songs – as I realized, morning songs are very important for Danish people, maybe because they miss sun…:)

Then we did very interesting activities with Flemming – such as “Embryo” – waking up with the music and exploring things and people around…It was really deep feeling for me…

And then we made performances in 2 groups on music. We had masks and white overalls… I was surprised how much can be expressed without mimics and voice, just through body language… (*60-70% of our communication is via body language, you don´t even have to know about that. Your body reveals much more than you intend…)
The masks also helped us to be more involved, relaxed, focused on playing without being shy…
And group photo in the end :)





Then I stayed the whole afternoon in Aabenraa, exploring the nice old streets, harbour, just enjoying the atmosphere of that sunny day …

13th March - IW - The Last Day with The International Students

On Friday we made presentations and porfolios about the International week. We were pretty free in a way how to make that and each group took it different way - which was great!
We had a crossword, a performance with pictures, presentations, drawings, a bow with stuff, an internet-magazine...

At noon a very special occasion was happening in the college yard. The headmaster had 50th birthday and you know what? He decided to open a hot-dog- and a beer-stand for all students and teachers of the college...Unbelievable :-)
Danish flags couldn´t be missing on the birthday-day, of course. :-)
And I managed to get a picture of me, hot-dog and the headmaster :-)

After these hot-dogs we had a "farewell international lunch" together. Everyone should prepare or bring something typical from their countries - chocolate, cheese, drink, cake...whatever. :-) We filled our stomaches pretty much and we enjoyed it even more :-)



















Later on we went with some schoolmates to the Haderslev windmill and museum, it was beautiful sunny afternoon and we enjoyed taking pictures altogether there very much. :-)


We wanted to spend toghether as much time as possible, therefore we had also the last party at Christina´s flat. We enjoyed it very much (Mange tak, Christina!). And on the way home, I must confess, I felt so sad that I am not going to see most of the people any more... We just get used to all of the international students so quickly and now they are going to leave... So, saying Goodbye and "See you" was pretty difficult...

12th March - IW - Eurovision Song Contest

On Thursday evening we had a special funny competition called very suitably: Eurovision Song Contest.
First of all we started the eve with pizza - eating and chatting together :)
At 7 o´clock the competition started. We had 10 teams from the whole Europe and each country (or a same-language-country team) should introduce one song in their own language.
Honestly, we had really good performances!!! :)

First of all Jesper and Anders from Denmark started with a quitar-singing performance. It was very nice, although they were trying not to be too excellent at the beginning.

The second performance was a Norwegian pirate-song, very impressive and lively!

Our Czech team performed as the third. We had practiced it with piano before, but unfortunately the keyboard/synthetizer was not working... We were trying to set it, to make it working for quite a long time, but no chance... Suddenly, I saw a quitar in the corner. I made a quick decision - play the quitar instead the piano. I hadn´t played quitar for pretty long time, but that was the only way for our performance. I was rather nervous, but...I managed :) We sang "Hlídač krav" (Cow-keeper) by popular Czech song-writer Jarek Nohavica - with a lively performance of Míša and Vašek. :-) Pam pam pa dam pam pa dá da... :)

The four turn for was the Belgium-Dutch team and they showed us a funny Dutch song with jaunty hats :) You can see, how happy Anja is with her Dutch-speaking friends ;)

Then very brave and sanguine Rikke heated up the publicum even more. The atmosphere during the whole contest was really great!

Sixth performance was very hot and spicy Hungarian show. WOW!

...The judges...and essential "hygge", of course ;)

Polish girls sang us more Polish peaces - very vital ;). Gosia even sat to the drums and showed us her skill. Thumbs up!

Duarte and Joana from Portugal made a lot of fun. When they forgot the lyrics of the song, they promptly invited our judge Jette and Aleix from Spain for a dance :)))

The Spanish team was unforgetable - these three guys had always a lot of pleasantry and frisks in stock :)

The German-Austrian team performed us a fairy-tale - could you guess which one? :)

And the last-performing team was Turkey - with a traditional short-skirt dance ;)

"Tak" to everyone!

The judges had very hard job to decide which team is the winner. They made 14 categories - therefore in the end each team was appreciated for a way of their uniqueness. ;)
And the total winner was....?
HUNGARY! :)
In my opinion it was a deserved victory, what do you thing? (see below) :)
It was very great evening and then free singing, playing and enterteinment followed until late hours... MANGE TAK

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...

16th to 20th Feb - Our presentations

On Monday we had an "Education" lesson with Torbjorn - presentations of our own countries´ school systems. It was very interesting for me. I found Belgium system very similar to Danish one, however, they have differencies in primary school system. In Belgium one teacher theaches all the subjects - he or she has the only class throught the whole year. On the other hand, in Denmark they have different teachers for each subject - though at primary schools. (The Czech Republic is more similar to Belgium system in case of primary schools. One teacher for one class, usually. However, I was shocked that pupils on primary schools in Belgium have 8 hours per day (from 8 a.m. to 16 p.m.)! It means 8 hours a day for their teachers (and preparations for next day afterwards!!!) "A min Gud!" (Oh, my God!)

I was also surprised that Turkish school system is very progressive, they are not affraid of new approaches and methods. Unfortunately in Hungary there is completely the opposite situation - the society and state are not open for inovations too much, changes go pretty slowly. And for instance if you say "alternative school" in Hungary - people still think pejoratively about that.

Anyway, it was very useful to hear about another countries´systems - the more you can compare, the more you can think about your own country system - what is good, what is wrong, is it easy to change this, why? ...etc.

In the afternoon we had a second music lesson - we listened to a Danish piece of music, sing some other songs and play different rythms...

On Tuesday the 17th in the morning we had a computer lesson - we improved our weblogs and learned about sharing photos via Flickr (www.flickr.com). I found the lessons with Hanna very helful - she initiates us into various useful internet possibilities for communication and sharing pictures from abroad. I can use it not only for school (as the weblog, you know ;), but also for my personal life. And maybe in some language lessons too?

And in the Tuesday and Friday afternoon we presented our countries! Hurray:)
I enjoyed presenting my own country to the others and also learning new things about my schoolmates´countries very much. Did you know that Hungarians are related to Mongolians some way and therefore they used to be connected with horse-riding and using a bow?
And that the average elevation of Turkey is more than 1100 metres above the sea level? Wow! :)
Some people even prepared tasting, therefore we could enjoy getting to know the countries via (almost) all the senses ;)






What´s more, Zep and Caynan prepared a puppet show, tiptop! :) I have to say that my classmates are very imaginative and interesting people, I like "living and learning" with them very much!

9th Feb Danish culture and our cultures

On Monday the 9th we had a Culture lesson with Jette. Each of us had prepared some statements: I am Czech/Polish/Spanish etc. because... It was very interesting to think more about our identity and differences and uniguenesses in our cultures. I wrote for example:
I am Czech because:

• I can play a musical instrument. (It is said that "every Czech is a musician.")
• I like beer. (The Czech consume the biggest amount of beer per capita a year - 156,9 litres (including babies :) ), did you know that? )
• I live in the heart of Europe.
  
• I have a "clever pair of hands". (Czech people are said to be very handy, skilfull)
• I like cream sauces and unhealthy, fat food.
• unfortunately I have to keep an eye out for my things in the streets. (There are many pick-pockets and thefts).
• I send a lot of SMS.

I learnt a lot about my classmates´cultures - e.g.:
The Hungarians
love spicy food (I noticed during our common dinners, Mate and Noemi :D)
and kissing in the streets. ;) (I noticed too :D)

The Polish love Vodka ;)

The Turkish
drink Turkish tea in a traditional glass. (red tea, isn´t it, Zep? :))
and coffee (and then they foretell the future from the cup)
they kiss their relatives
the put money in the bra (Save, isn´t it?;) )
clean the bottom with water (Zep misses a water-closet a lot! First of all she thought that the toilet is broken. However, when she saw a couple of "broken toilets, she realised that maybe that´s like that in Europe.;) )

The Belgians eat a Belgium chocolate.

and the Spanish like sleeping (we noticed it right the first day when Carlos overslept :D)
wine and oranges. And parties, of course! :)

Than we spoke more about cultural awareness theory -e.g. Geert Holfsteed "Triangle": Human nature, Culture and Personality (s. the portfolio). And also about an "onion diagram" - what culture consists of: Values, Rituals, Heroes and Symbols. It was very interesting for me to deepen, to think more about culture.
I must confess that the longer I stay abroad and the more I learn about the others - the more I learn about MY CULTURE AND MY IDENTITY.

We also went through a questionare about Denmark and the text called "Xenophobe´s guide to the Danes". We are getting to know the country more and more... And some specialities about Danish culture?
For example:

• the Danes dance around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Did you know it?
• the Danes are always on time (it means even that if they are too early in front of the house in which they are invited for the dinner, they will stay outside in the rain until the right time!)
• A typical Danish conversation opener is: "Bad weather, huh?" :D
• The Danes put the flag on the dinning table when somebody has a birthday
• The national animal is Swan
• Denmark became the first European country to legalise same-sex marriages (in 1989!)
• one of the most important values is the freedom of speech, Denmark is very liberal country
• The Danes queue by a number system (we experienced it the first week - we hadn´t know about the system and we waited in a very small phone-shop (only 3 customers were there). And when we thought it was our turn (after very long 10 minutes), we found out that we didn´t have a number. OK, once again!... Therefore we learnt;) )
• And of course - one of the most important things in Danish culture is "HYGGE"
  

(to cite from the original text: "To have a hyggelig time is social nirvana in Denmark. It is not only cosiness related to physical surrounding...it is connected with people´s behaviour towards each other. It is the art of crating intimacy: A sense of comradeship, convivality and contentment rolled into one. Achieving hygge generally involves being with friends and family, and eating and drinking. Candlelight is used to encourage a hyggelig atmosphere...")

It´s is quite difficult to explain it, but if you experience it (hygge is really everywhere, especially when you walk in the old town in the evening), you love it! And as I said at the beginning - our beautiful house is really hyggelig.
If I should compare hygge to the Czech language, I would say "teplo domova" (the warmth of home).

I think that it is very connected with the geography of Denmark. Very often it is cold and dark weather, you can´t see many people in the streets. Everyone prefers a warmth home or a café together with his family or friends. People also don´t close curtains and light candles on the window-sills as well as switch on some table-lamp...
That is Denmark ;)