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.

5th Feb The first school visit

On Thursday we went to our first school visits. Me and Mate went to a 10th grade school in . We were warmly welcome by Annette and all teachers in the teacher´s room. First of all we got a cup of coffee and Annette introduced us more to the Danish school system and 10th grade schools. This kind of schools is very interesting for me, because we don´t have any in my country. Students who finish 9th grade have an opportunity to attend an additional year. It gives them chance to:

• get to know themselves more - and help to find them their way in professional life - the following studies, job suitable for them, if the aren´t decided yet


• gain more knowledge for following studies - they can focus more on field of study they need for their high school (for example grammar school)


• mature more before such an significant life decision about their future career (and enjoy teenage life of course)

There are also quite lot emigrant-pupils, who have an opportunity to catch up with the other pupils during the additional year (they had a disadvantage because of language difficulties in their first years of studies).

These 10th grades schools are therefore optional, Danish teenagers can go there - or continue directly at high school after 9th grade.

As Annette said us Danish pupils can go after finished 9th grade to:

1. A 10th grade school - an additional year


2. Upper secondary schools - Technical

- Grammar

- Business

3. Apprenticeship -technical/business etc. ...

...Then we had a bit more time, so we spoke to other teachers in the teacher´s room and after our first lessons experience was to come. Me and Mate visited together the English lesson with Annette and then Mate observed a math lesson and me another English lesson with a different teacher.

And what about my impressions? What is the same at Danish schools and what is different in comparison with the Czech Republic?

Firstly I would like to tell you THE DIFFERENCIES

(because you notice differencies at first, of course):

• the equipment in classroms is excelent

- in every classroom there was a projector, a computer connected to the internet and a smartboard
-therefore Annette could use Youtube during the lesson
(on the other hand, the classrooms weren´t too decorated - with posters, pictures, useful materials and charts, students´projects, etc. - as Czech language classrooms usually are)

• the pupils were more "free" in the lessons

- the could wear caps, have a lollipop, have their laptops on...
- this is maybe because of that kind of school, I think that 10th grade schools differ a bit from the other schools, but I haven´t had an opportunity to compare yet. I will see...

• the relationship between teacher and pupils is different, I would call it more a "partnership"

- the pupils called the teacher with her first name
- the teachers behave more friendly towards students (especially the second one), they didn´t show any superiority
- I think there was more understanding between teachers and pupils, it was more personal (some pupils spoke to the teacher in the corridor spontaneously, that is VERY rare in the Czech Republic)

• the teaching is less frontal, the pupils worked more in pairs, groups, individually

- this kinds of work are also connected with language teaching in the CR, but I think Danish pupils were more independent and quite self-disciplined during their group work (the teacher could even leave the classroom and most of the students keep working)
- their are simply -used to it. In Czech schools is rather unusual for them, because most subject are taught frontally, I think they feel a bit uncomfortable about group work and responsibility then

• the teaching is less content-driven and more objective- and process-driven

- it is connected with the previous point
- pupils are more involved in the lesson
- the teacher is more guide than "the only source of information" (using the internet in the lesson is also connected with less "information-passing" role of the teacher and more showing the way where to find the information and how to deal with it)

• the school is more connected to real life

- this is difficult to explain, but my feeling was that the school is less separated from the happenings outside the building, that it is more about and for the "real life"
(-the teacher for example discused different topics from the book with pupils, they have to think about reasons and solutions of violence in the streets)

• the teachers co-operate a lot to prepare the plans for the subject they teach

- both the teachers used the same (self-made) materials in the lesson
- they can substitute each other easily then if one of them is ill

• the teachers seemed to be more relaxed and less stressed than Czech teachers, they seemed to have more understanding for students, involve more effort for preparing materials, like their job

(Therefore I would love, during my stay in Denmark, to find out "Why?" :) )

AND WHAT IS SIMILAR?

• organization of the classrooms (desks in lines)
• classroom environment
  
• condition of the building
• pupils´ behaviour (not excellent, not bad, but still depends on a teacher a lot, of course)
  

SOME WORDS IN THE END...
The Danish schools reminds me our Czech new system called "Framework educational programme" (it has been introduced since September 2007 to first classes) - in established practice.
It is really valuable experience for me.

I really liked the second lesson, the teacher has really good relationship with students and the lesson, the teaching process seemed to be joy for both sides.