Travelling to Stockholm and Helsinki

In May we decided to visit Sweden and Finland. Early in the morning we went to Stockholm by plane and spent there some time watching the city. In the afternoon we took the ferry to Helsinki. We slept on the ferry and arrived in Helsinki in the morning.
In Helsinki there was perfect weather and we did a lot of sightseeing. In the afternoon we took again the ferry back to Stockholm.
The last day we spent in Stockholm again. The weather was not the best, but we made this trip an unforgettable one.

Surprise Barbecue

In May I turned 22. It was the first birthday that I spent abroad. My great friends organized a surpise barbecue for me. I was soooooo happy...

Student's life

The life as a student is very nice in Vordingborg. Besides studying we have enough time to enjoy our free time and make some activities.

 

 

We had the opportunity to watch "The wiz of Oz" at our university. Although in Danish, it was a lot of fun watching. Even some of our Erasmus colleagues participated in the play.

  

On a Friday evening there was a Casino Party at the cafeteria of our university. We all dressed nicely and spent a great time there.

 

 

Thursday is Bingo Day at Cheers. Therefore we learned the Danish numbers from 1-90 :)

 

 

 

At the end of May we had time to watch Hangover 3 at the cinema in Vordingborg. It was in English with Danish subtitles.

 

 

 As often as possible we drive to the sea to enjoy the great weather.

 

Visits from friends & familiy

In April and May my friends and family came to visit me.

We spent a great time visiting Kopenhagen and Mon's Klint.

 

 

Mon's Klint was very impressing. White cliffs and turquoise water...

 

 

A week later my best friends came and we spent a weekend at Copenhagen. We made a boat tour and...

 

...went to the Blue Planet, Nothern Europe's largest aquarium.

 

 

Eli and I drove to the sea to enjoy the lovely weather.

 

 

 

The class

This week we watched the movie "The Class" from Laurent Cantent. It was a very interesting movie about a multicultural class in a Paris school.

During the film I took notes about things I recognized. In the following text I will take a look at the teacher and the class as a whole in particular.

In the teachers meeting at the beginning of the school year the teacher have prejudices against their pupils. Mr Marin tries to ignore these prejudices and concentrates on improving the skills of his pupils. Within the teacher’s community Mr Marin is a loner. He never talks about private things with his colleagues. Often he has different views than his colleagues, which are made clear in the several meeting they have.

Mr Marin tries to be a good teacher and to equip knowledge to his students, but the class often interrupts the teacher while talking.
He tries to gain acceptance, but this is a hard proposition because the class isn’t listening to him or contradicts everything he is saying. Mr Marin tries to motivate his class as good as possible, but the pupils often try to provoke him by refusing to work. By writing self portraits he succeeds in encouraging the students. When the students make good things, Mr Marin praises them and they get proud of their work. (e.g. Souleymane’s self-portrait)

One day the situation in class escalates and Mr Marin and Souleymane lose their composure. Mr Marin insults to girls in class and Souleymane acts disrespectful.  

The teacher tries to see only the good in his pupils. He defends them in every conference and wants to prevent Souleymane’s exclusion from school. He knows that Souleymane didn’t behave the right way, but he also sees the good things.

At the end of the school year the atmosphere in class has changed. Everybody tells what he or she has learned in the school year. During this situation nobody interrupts or is laughing at each other.  

During the school year there are always some fights within the classroom. You don’t recognize a team spirit in this class. Often the pupils insult or ridicule each other. But if worst comes to worst they stick together. They come to Souleymane’s defence when the teachers want to expel him. Also when Mr Marin insults Esmeralda and Louise, the class “fights” for the girl’s rights.

In these situations you can see the company in class. Every pupils can count on his class members if problems occur.

This film clearly shows the difficulties in teaching a multicultural class. “The Class” showed me conflicts, which I was never aware of. I noticed the importance of respecting every culture in class and not characterizing people without knowing.

 

 

How can I improve as a groupmember?

Working in groups is very good to improve social skills. You have to listen to your groupmembers, accept their opinions and discuss with them in a respectful way.

At a group work you can see different viewes on a topic. Maybe one of the groupmembers has a totally different idea to solve a problem than you have. You can see that your idea is not always the best.

I think the best thing at group work is, that you can support each other. You can explain a topic to someone or someone can help you, if you don't understand anything.

The creativity can also develop better in a group work. Maybe five little ideas from 5 different people become one big creative idea.

Educational studies - create a group task

Subject: English

 

Age: 13/14

 

Aims/goals: The goal is to make pupils gaining knowledge about the cultures in there class. This knowledge would help the pupils to be more open minded and to respect other cultures within and outside the classroom.

 

Activity/ description:  Pupils with the same culture form a group and maybe minor cultures form a mixed group.

This activity investigates a different culture than your own. Every group gets a country, they have to choose a subtopic (food, religion, etc.) and gain information about it. Once they have their information, they will prepare a presentation, which will be evaluated by the student of the investigated country.

 

Approach: group investigation

 

Why: We settled this approach for several reasons. One is that they have to do research in English – they have to read, to write and to speak. Also it is very important that the children learn about the other cultures that appear in class. If the know more about the different cultures, they can understand their classmates‘ customs and respect each other.

Another good part of the group investigation is the feedback. It is good that the children evaluate each other, so they can learn how to give constructive feedback.