M5 - School Experience - Music Lessons

As I mentioned, my tutor for Music lessons was MORTEN KANSTRUP. And if somebody asked me - what was the most interesting and valuable thing I experienced while studying in Denmark - I would say: MORTEN´S MUSIC LESSONS. :)
Why?
I really liked the way how the lessons of Music with Mortenwere built up. He begins lessons with warm-up activities - I found it very useful. It is not only fun for the pupils, it helps them to get into the music, to concentrate, to move body in the rhythm...to co-operate, to feel the "common spirit". And to warm-up :) Lots of the things were really funny too. I think this idea of warm-up activities at the beginning of Music lesson is really good, I had never thought about that before. I know it from English lessons - but why not to use warm-ups in Music too? :)

...Two examples: ;)


...Even ordering of a sausage can be fun :D



I also liked the way how the activities were built up in Mortens lessons. He was searching for quality all the time - his lessons were not only about spending time on Music - it was about developing pupils skills. He started the activity in its simple form and gradually bringing more and more slightly difficult steps. In Czech we call it a "spiral teaching". And it worked well, eventhough it needs a lot of patience, enthusiasm, motivating support and effort from the teacher.
He also connected singing with movements and rthytms a lot, in this process of "spiral teaching", pupils were doing more musical activities at the same time, which I found very good. In Czech Music lessons this activities are often separated - e.g. only singing. But Morten was the example that it is not so difficult to make singing more varied, to connect it with more activities gradually, just add a simple rhythm or movement for the refrain for instance...

And I have to say that Morten has really original activating methods. :) Are the pupils too tired ? - let them stand up. Are there not concentrated enough? Send them to stand up on the desks! :D ...And that really worked - they found out - something is happening, something new. OK, we should concentrate more...And then the quality was found, finally ;-)
...But I am not sure if this could a Czech teacher dare... However, if it works, why couldn´t we do that?

As you can see in the videos, Morten is a very positive person, enthusiastic, dedicated for his job, enjoying the job + moreover, pretty good in playing the piano.

And one more thing at the end - to me very important. I really like is that I could really see a social message in his lessons. He was showing that music is a lot about cooperation The aim in music is not to be faster, lauder then the others, finish earlier etc…Music is just about CO-OPERATION.

I should also write a bit about MY TEACHING of Music. I have to say that I really liked this "job", it was pleasure for me to work with the pupils, eventhough you need a lot of energy and enthusiasm for that. The pupils bring me more energy then and that is what I really like about teaching. And communication throught music, rhythms, body-language, self-expressions via tones and co-operation in music is something special for me. And something in what you have a lot of space as a person, as a teacher. It is a valuable world. First week I tought the pupils a Czech traditional dance called Mazurka (the origin is from Poland , but it is still traditional in Czech;) ) and a mazurka-song "Měla babka".

And second week we worked on listening while body-playing activity according to a grafical part - on Slavonic dance no. 8 by Antonín Dvořák. And later on with simple instrument-playing too. The third week I had also chance to do individual teaching of piano melodies with two single students, while the classes were preparing for a band-plaing for the concert for the end of the school year.

What to say? It was really pleasure for me to teach Music in these classes. I could try some activities with pupils, but also find weak points and what to improve in some activities, just to have a valuable practice oportunity. And teaching is always a process in which you have a lot to learn ;-)

And a special big thank to Morten in the end. TUSIND TAK!

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

11th-12th March - IW - Music lessons

During the International week we had quite a lot Music lessons.
On Wednesday we had Music with Else Marie. It was mostly focused on using body and voice in many different ways. Most of all I liked the "COMPOSING parts" - we composed our own music in many different ways. Else Marie showed us that we, and the children, can compose our own music without any special music knowledge. We really liked the composition according to a grafic part:




We also experssed some emotions according pictures of faces - through music composition. Exciting! Sometimes you don´t need so much for making a composition, just some frame, ideas and enthusiasm. Good idea with the faces - to start children to thing, how to express it...and they MAKE THE MUSIC then. :)





We listened to Pictures from Exhibition by Musorgskij and drew two different pictures according to Promenade 2 and 3. And then we made our own "exhibition" :).

I very enjoyed the "music-puzzle" for The Gnome music, I am sure I can use it with my pupils in the Czech Republic.
We got many useful ideas for activites and materials from this lesson and also the CD with music for it. Mange tak, Else Marie.



On Thursday we had Music lesson with Annette, we introduced some our national songs each other. Our Spanish friends, always in good mood, sang for us our favourite song "Tolon, tolon" too :)



We really enjoyed sharing our national songs with the others, it is obvious :)

2nd to 6th March - The Fifth Week

On Monday 2nd we had a Special Needs lesson with three nice teachers. They introduced us a "Trivsel piloter" - a program for feeling comfortable and a prevention of bullying. We tried some "Telling circle" activities, which helps telling feelings and thinking possitive - for example : We have in common..., He is good at...
I think I can use some of them in English lessons with pupils.

I was surprised that some schools have a special "AKT" teachers (A.K.T.=behaving, concentration and wellbeing) who help prevention of bullying, do special lessons for pupils and work with special needs pupils.

Then we tried a "taktil massage", wow it was very plesurable. :) The point of the massage is " the one you touched you don´t bully" - very interesting. In my opinion this taktil masage can be used also to small children by their parents to support the relationship between them.

Then we spoke about special needs pupils at Danish schools. But I don´t think that the situation in Denmark is satisfactory enough. Special need pupils should go to normal schools, but for example the future teachers are not trained in special pedagogy at all. So the idea is good - not to separate the special need pupils, but the programme for them and realisation I didn´t found very complex.

On Tuesday and Thurday we had very interesting lessons with Tove - Comparative Education. We spoke about different types of educational systems in Europe - Encyclopedist(French), Humanistic (British) and Naturalistic (German-Scandinavian) approaches.

It was interesting to speak not only about the differences (aftefacts), but also things which are BEHIND (values), to go deeper. We also run into differences in having lunch at schools - canteens (e.g. in Czech), lunchboxes from home (Denmark) and lunch at home during 2-hour break (in Spain) - and which values are behind that. Therefore we get to question of maternity leave through that. For me it is surprising that in Denmark you have only around one year to stay at home with your child (insted 3 +1 optional in CR). I know - one of the most important values in Denmark is independence and equality - but also a freedom of choice.
However - if you want to stay at home longer than one year with your child (and I think it is important for the child) instead an immediate career, you don´t have a freedom of choice, because your maternity leave is over. And don´t get money from government, so you aren´t independent. One year seems to me too short. Strange. I found this attitude to children a bit similar to England - someone else takes care of your small child. Isn´t it cold?

Tuesday afternoon we had an Intercultural dimension lesson with Jette - we presented our videos - advertisements or dialogs about our countries. It was really good fun, every group did a good job! :) We also compared some customs of European countries - since this lesson I know that in Turkey it is impolite to blow the nose in public!;)

On Wednesday we had a wonderful Art lesson with Dorthe - we were making our own portraits. The interesting thing was that we didn´t start with the real portrait immediately - we did some different quick sketches (e.g. looking on the mirror and draw our faces without looking on the paper. Then the same with only one line...)- to learn how to see the most important things and shapes. Then we think how to make some parts of face more "real" - like nose and mouth and Dorthe taught us how to measure proportions with a pencil. And then we started the main portrait. And - I was shocked that I was able to draw what I had drawn. It was for the first time my face had looked quite like a MY FACE. Thank you Dorthe that you showed me the way of seeing and take down the things.
Then we did some "experimental things" - drawing face on the mirror with watery colours and then copy them on the paper (good "starter" for children before drawing the portrait).
At the end of the lesson we got some papers and crayons from Dorthe - to draw at home too - she wanted to support us in going on drawing. Many thanks.
(By the way - I have already used it once - for Eurovision song contest - to draw cows for our song. And they looked like cows (not horses, not dogs :)) for the first time in my life :)!

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Music lesson for Danish teachers with Zep.
To be honest - I was pretty surprised with the level of music skills of the students at the final year of their university studies. I know, they have much less time then Czech students for developing certain skills at university (we study 2 subjects for 5 years, whereas Danish students are trained to teach 4 subjects - in 4 years. And they have a lot of practice at schools too - therefore they spend by real studies of Music around only half a year altogehter. (We spend 2-2,5 years net time at Music department). I must confes, that their level of music skills is similar to Czech students at ENTRANCE EXAMINATION. That´s a reason why I have to say that am really happy that I study in Czech Republic - I can develop my music skills at Music department at University of Hradec Kralove.

On Friday we had a special "lesson" with Jette - about Danish films. First of all we spoke about "film language" - various ways of expression things in films. Then Jette introduced us most interesting and important Danish films in its history - and showed us many trailers or short passages from some films. Therefore we have a lot of impulses, which films we would like to see. Me for example Out of Africa, Babette´s Feast, Pelle the Conqueror, Dogville, Italian for Beginners and Heritage. Thank you, Jette. It must have taken a long time to prepare this lesson, but it was definitely worth, we got many impulses! :)

25th Feb - School visit II

My second school visit was at Haderslev Kristne Skole - a private Christian school. The day begins there with common singing in the hall every morning and then the headmaster (?) reads a Christian based story to the pupils.
I was there with Míša and Anja and we visited 4 lessons - Enlish in 5th and 6th grade, Music in 4th grade and Enlish in 7th grade with a different teacher.
I didn´t enjoy the first two lessons of English too much. They spoke quite a lot in Danish, read an English text and had some groupwork, but they didn´t check the correct version together at the end. My impression was that the teacher doesn´t enjoy the teaching of young people too much and she is not prepared so well for the lessons. As wherever on the world, teaching depends on teacher and his/her personality very much.

But what was nice in the lesson was that when pupils got a pair work in the second lesson, they started to work and the teacher didn´t sit and wait. The pupils could rise their hands and ask teacher for small helps. They had to work on their own, but still it was a kind of cooperation. And when some pupils had finished, some of them went to help the others.


It was surprising for me that in some lessons (languages, math...) there is also another teacher in the class, not only the "main teacher". She or he helps some "weaker" pupils if they need that during the lessons. Special needs, disabled, dyslectic, hyperactive etc. children usually go to normal schools in Denmark. However, they don´t have their own assistant - they only get some help in some lessons from another teacher.
We could see the same teacher in the morning as a "main teacher" of English and than as a kind of "assistant" in the last lesson.

The school is quite small - one class for one grade. And I felt in the teachers common room very friendly and team atmosphere. What was interesting for me was that the school has also a substitute teacher - the teacher, who teaches all kinds of lessons instead of ill teachers. In CR teachers has to substitute one another, if some of them is ill. If nobody is ill, he/she goes to a class with some "problematic" or special-needs children to help them.

In Music lesson I was impressed by the equipment of the Music-classroom. We could see three keyboards, quitars and drums, jumbos, two pianos, movable chairs and tables, great sound-system...wow! But the lesson itself was based mostly on listening. The pupils could lay themself comfortable and listen (some of them were more climbing and crawling on the floor than listening). However, for my taste the listening was too long without any specific tasks. They listened to 4 parts of Four seasons by Vivaldi, but it took more than 10 minutes together. Than they discussed their impressions and what it could be about and listened it again - they tried to guess which season was what. And then the lesson was OVER. The Czech system is more, I would say, systematic, active with more specific tasks and much shorter listening (I thing children are not able to concentrate 10 or 15 minutes to a piece of classical music) - even listening shoud be somehow "active". Nevertheless, the lesson still depends on a teacher´s approach within the system a lot.




I liked the last lesson of English quite a lot, because the teacher was young and had a good approach to the pupils. The English learning in Denmark is much more focused on speaking and abbility to communicate than in CR. We are more focused on grammar, following the rules and sometimes pupils are very shy to USE the language. Therefore I found the Danish approach to English much better. And the pupils know many things from media too - most of foreign film are not dubbed, they have only subtitles. Therefore pupils know many things instinctively and they also can learn grammar different way - first they hear it and then they think about the rules. Most improtant and primary is the language usage and experience - not giving the rules and speaking according to them afterwards.

3rd and 4th Feb - Lessons and other activities

On Tuesday we learnt how to create a weblog (therefore you can´t read this now ;-) ). In the afternoon we had a lesson with Jette - we spoke about our expectations and discused reasons why we wanted to became Erasmum students. There are a few of mine:
I would like to improve my English and get life experience, I love travelling and meeting new people, I want to gain knowledge about foreign educational system and practice teaching, and above all - I found the project "Living and Learning Together" very interesting.
I can say that so far, all my expectations have been filled very well.

On Wednesday we had a very good Music lesson which we enjoyed very much. We sang a" welcome song" and composed our own from the "greeting words" of our countries, played and composed different rythms with bottles and our body (for an example see the video), listened to a piece of music and drew a four-part pictures according to the music (and played it as a drama then) and sang a lot of songs... Thank you Annette!




After school on Wednesday me, Maté, Noemi and our buddy Carsten went for a walk in Haderslev to fill a "Haderslev quiz", which we got at school. There were questions about places, history and shops, which we had to find. And we also had to ask people in the streets or shops.
I think it is very nice idea, how to get the students acquainted with the town "actively".
Eventhoug it was foggy and chilly weather, we enjoyed it pretty much and found a lot of beautiful and interesting places. I´m sure we will explore them more and we will enjoy our time in this charming town very much.
The pictures speak for themselves...