Professional Development- Week 4

Week 4 – 16^th- 23^rd February.

The kindergarten welcome sign.

I have been here for 4 weeks today, and time has flown by, and I feel I have now totally settled into life here in Denmark.  This week I had an opportunity to visit a kindergarten in our local area for a social welfare project we are doing in one of our modules.  I was excited by this idea, as it would be our first opportunity to get out to a school and see how different it was to home.  I already knew some basic facts about names of schools, and what age children start at, but I was looking forward to having the opportunity to get out and actually get to see the school setting.

One of the classroom areas.

In Denmark, children don’t begin school until they are six, and therefore the children that we were going to meet in the kindergarten would be aged from 3-6, many of whom would be old enough to be in P2 at home! I had wondered why this was, and knew that I would be able to ask these sorts of questions at the kindergarten! The first major difference I noticed upon arriving was that we weren’t really asked any questions about who we were, we walked up to the door, knocked and asked if we could come in and observe as we were from Northern Ireland studying here for four months on our teacher education course.  They welcomed us in and allowed us to wander through the kindergarten playing with and attempt to talk to the kids! I was shocked as at home, we would have had to fill out all sorts of police check forms before being allowed in!  This relaxed feel continued throughout our couple of hours there, with the teachers willing to tell us all about the school and the different activities the children do!  We learnt that although they stay here until they are ready for school aged six, they do not have any formal lessons, and the day is not overly structured.  The different rooms look like big classrooms but the children are allowed to move around the different rooms in the building and are only taught to write if they themselves show willing.  The emphasis is on play, and developing motor skills and they have a big soft play area which allows the children to experiment with travelling and climbing in different ways.  I found this a really interesting concept, as it was so different to what we are used to, but the teachers couldn’t believe it when we said we had started school at 4, and they almost seemed to feel sorry for us!  The children are taught basic skills which will help them as the transfer into school such as sitting at a table for their food and listening and interacting with others around them! 

Soft play and climbing equipment

Their whole approach to their schooling is different to ours, and it was really interesting to have this opportunity to visit the kindergarten, especially as I hope to focus in FS/KS1 so the age group was similar to where I hope to teach.  There were difficulties with communication between us and the kids, but luckily our basic Danish skills of introducing ourselves paid off, and there was a little girl who could speak both English and Danish who acted as our interpreter for the morning!

This experience has already challenged my professional opinions, and I look forward to getting out on placement in April in a primary school to further my knowledge and understanding of their school systems, and the differences and similarities between here and home.

Finally got to visit the little mermaid!

Danish food event in uni.

Week Three.

Cultural Experiences

 9th-16th February

Roskilde Cathedr

At the end of my third week in Copenhagen I realise how lucky I have been to have the opportunity to get out and explore a lot of the city and the surrounding towns.  This has also provided me with the opportunity to meet Danish people and begin to see similarities and differences between here and at home. 

For the last two weeks we have been following a short module called “Visual Culture” in which we have been given guided tours around various places of cultural importance in the city.  This has served as an introduction not only to the university, but to the city as well. We have had the opportunity to visit Copenhagen National Museum, and see an exhibition called “Europe meets the world.” This was to encourage us each to consider our own countries place in the European Union, something which I at first found difficult but as time has passed and we have been thinking and learning more about this topic, I have deepened and developed my knowledge and understanding of this.  We were also able to go to Roskilde and visit the cathedral there, and the museum for contemporary art.  Although it is cold walking around these areas, it has been really interesting and I feel I have learnt a lot about the Danish culture and the country’s history, I have also this week had the opportunity to walk on a frozen lake and visit H. C. Andersen's grave!  Through this class we have been designing and creating a story that reflects our views of the European problems that occur today.  We have been doing this in our teaching practice groups, and I have found it very interesting and beneficial to hear about other people’s opinions, it has definitely made me realise how little I know about the problems in other places, and has encouraged me to do more research into this and become more aware.  Overall I have found this module challenging and interesting as it has provided me not only with a cultural awareness of the country in which I am now living, but a base for cultural awareness for other countries. 

Creating and designing our story in Visual Culture

I have noticed that there are many similarities between the culture here and at home, and I think this is one of the reasons I have been able to settle into life here so easily.  I have found that any-one you talk to here will be willing to help and assist you with directions, public transport or language difficulties.  At first it amazed me that whoever you ask for help will speak English and be happy to walk you right to where you need to go, or at least give very detailed instructions, but I am starting to get used to it! It is something which I have found to be different from home because most people would not go so out of their way to help you and it is definitely something I will always remember, and that I will hope to be able to do when I return to Northern Ireland.

Overall this has been a great week, where I have had a great opportunity to learn and discover more about where I will be living for the next few months, and it excites me to know there is still so much to discover! Something we haven’t had much opportunity to try yet is Danish food, but we are going to a Danish food course in uni on Monday in which we will have not only the opportunity to try the food, but to make it also!  

Waling on the frozen lake!

H.C. Andersen's grave

Week Two

Personal Experiences

This is the end of my second week living in Denmark, and a lot has happened allowing me to have a better understanding of the culture and the society that I am living in. We started classes on Wednesday, and met thirty-five students from around ten different countries throughout Europe who I will be studying with over the next four months.  We were given information about our modules many of which will allow us to become familiar with each other’s education systems and the similarities and differences between these.

At the weekend we went away to a youth hostel in Ishøj just outside Copenhagen.  This hostel was near the beach, and we were told we would be going to visit the beach at some point during the weekend! As it was snowing and the temperatures were in the minus numbers, none of us were too excited by this prospect! This weekend away was to do with our Comparative Education module and not only provided us with the opportunity to get to know each other better, but to begin to make a start with this class.  We were given many different tasks and activities to do throughout these days away, including an activity where we were paired up with a student from another country, and using drawings of ourselves we had to explain the things that characterized us and were important to us, whether these were values, people, objects or places.  I found it was interesting to do this but then to consider the other persons point of view also.  We were encouraged to consider differences and similarities between these posters in larger groups and it was really interesting that although we all come from many different backgrounds and countries, most groups found it easier to find similarities with each other than differences.  This not only helped me think more about my own cultural identity but also to consider that of others, and to become aware that the diverse nature of our group is a positive thing as it allows for a variety of different opinions.

Task to look at differences in our education systems.

This is something that I feel will tie into my teaching practice here as we have been placed into groups of four for teaching practice, all of which are mixed nationality, in my group I am with people from Austria, Belgium and Spain.  Already in our early discussions of the education systems each of us have been through, and our views of this, I have discovered so many different ways of teaching and learning. I feel that to teach with such a diverse group of people will help me in my future as a teacher, as I have already had my eyes opened to so many different ideas, and am therefore excited to go out on teaching practice with them in April, as I feel all our differences will be of great benefit in this.

All the ERASMUS students at the beach in the snow!

We have also had the opportunity to start Danish lessons this week, and although it is hard, it is enjoyable. I am glad that we have this opportunity, as it will be beneficial when out in schools, as it seems the younger children will have very little English, and this should hopefully help with some of the communication difficulties.

Classes here are different from at home, some lasting for 3 hours, but I am excited to continue these, and to see what other learning challenges arise over the next few months!

The frozen sea!!

(Also, we did go on that walk to the beach, and it was so cold that even the sea was frozen!)

Week One

Personal Experiences

The name of the university I will be studying at.

Exams over, assignments handed in and it was finally time to head off on ERASMUS to Blaagaard, just outside Copenhagen in Denmark.  Having been told very little about where we would be staying or doing, I was nervous upon leaving, unsure what to expect or what it was going to be like.  However, I knew that no matter what happened this experience would have a lasting impact on my personal life as well as professionally.

As we stepped off the plane in Copenhagen the realisation that I had left the comfort of home for four months kicked in, and I began to worry if I would be able to deal with all the different challenges that we would face here.  Seeing a smiling, familiar face at the airport definitely began to ease my worries though, as Soren picked us up showing us the university and brought us to where we would be staying in Ballerup.  This university does not have accommodation on campus, and instead aims to put students up in shared houses, either with families or with students.  This year seemed to bring a lot of confusion for the accommodation office here, and Alison and I were lucky to be placed anywhere, never mind being lucky enough to be placed together! The pictures of where we would be staying totally did not do the rooms justice, as we had imagined we were going to be staying in a cold, dark, small basement of somebody’s house, and in actual fact we were given the entire downstairs of a lovely old lady named Kirsten’s house.  She welcomed us in, giving us breads, cheese and meats which we ate while getting to know her, she told us about the surrounding area, including how to get to university. This helped calm my nerves, as I realised we were going to able to make it our own space and once I got photos up on my walls, it began to feel a bit more homely!

Me outside my home for the next 4 months!

Not only did Soren pick us up from the airport, his parents also welcomed us both, along with Kerri, Fionnuala and Trish to their house for tea twice over our first weekend. Both times they gave us different traditional Danish meals consisting of pork, potatoes and vegetables. This was great as it meant we got two nights off trying to figure out how to cook food for ourselves, especially as all the cooking instructions are in Danish! We had the opportunity to visit Copenhagen, which is a beautiful city, although a lot colder than we had anticipated, to meet the other girls from Stranmillis, along with Soren and his sister.  We managed to figure out the train, with a little help from a local. I have noticed here how well everyone speaks English, and it makes me realise how bad I am at learning other languages, and I am determined now to learn some Danish before coming home!

All of us in Copenhagen visiting Amalienborg Palace

Already this week has encouraged me to step outside my comfort zones, with trying different foods, and moving into a new country.  As we begin class, and meet new people I am excited for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, and wait in anticipation for what these next four months will bring!