26th March - History - WWII

On Thursday 26th we had an additional lesson of history with Jorn, because we had asked for having this great teacher again. And Jorn told us a lot about Second World War. It was perfect to hear about WWII – all in 3 hours – the most important facts, connections, context and lot of interesting things too. I had never heard that so complexly before. And it was very interesting to hear about WWII “from outside”, also about happenings in the Czech history from someone from a different country. I was glad to have that lesson, mange tak Jorn!

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 …

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…

16 March - Cooking Danish and Interantional Food

I am sorry, but my back is aching a lot again, therefore I have to write very briefly. Unskyld mig...and thank you for understanding.
On Monday 16th we had a very special lesson - our classroom was a kitchen :-)
We were preparing our own national meals... We enjoyed it pretty much. Unfortunately I had to leave for a chiropractor appointment, therefore I didn´t tasted most of the meals. Anyway - good idea to have such a lesson :-) Mange tak.

PS: Our Czech group made "bramborové placky" ("potato-pancakes") with jam/ garlic / sauerkraut...

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

12th March - IW - Reflection on the School Experience

On Thursday the 12th we had altogheter a lesson for reflections on the school experience. Erasmus students didn´t go to a school-visit that day, but we had the lesson together with the "international students", who had school-visits that morning. We spoke about the differences noticed in Danish schools in comparison with our systems. I would like to mention two more features in Danish schools, about which I haven´t spoken before and which I found very important:

• no marks until the grade 8th (really!)
• knowing answer by understanding, not by heart

Then we spoke together more about WHY are there differences in European school-systems, what is behind. And we found 3 things very important:

• climate
• economy
• religion

Maybe I wouldn´t agree with religion, I would say "history" instead. We were speaking about the Protestant Church (in fact a lot of small churches) - that people had to be much more tolerant and democratic there. However, I would say that people had to have been tolerant and democratic even before the Protestant Church "succeeded", was accepted and adopted in Nordic countries. That this way of thinking was in peoples minds and culture before protestantism. And this way of thinking allowed the reformation to succeed in the North.

The second thing about what we spoke then was - why in the North. And suprising thing for me, that that is not only geography, but also historical impact. Since Danish and other nations in the North never experienced absolutism. Absolutism never reached this area, e.g. Roman empire was almost in the whole Europe, but not here...
Interesting. Sometimes you are surprised how many things can be behind!
And what I really like about this study-programme is that we go behind. That it is not just only about observing the differences, but also thinking why. And it helps you to think more about your own system too; what from another system you can use in your country, what is difficult to change, what can help you to do things different way etc. ...