Week 7- Professional Development

Week 7- 8^th-15^th March 2012

First Danish hotdog!

Week 7 and many things have happened for the first time since I arrived here in Copenhagen; the sun has come out, I have finally tried the famous Danish hotdogs and most importantly I have had my first visit to my school for teaching practice!

Ali and I at the top of the Round Tower, Copenhagen.

Before our two week block of placement we have the chance to visit the school for observation on three separate occasions to let us get to know the teacher, the pupils and how the school works.  On the train on the way to my school for the first time I was so nervous, my mind was going through all the different possibilities of what all could go wrong, my main worry being the language barrier as children here don’t begin to learn English until they are 8 or 9.  However, upon arriving at school, we were all pleasantly surprised as all the staff seemed very friendly and immediately made us all feel very welcome.  I am doing my placement with three other students from other countries and for the most part we will all be in the same classroom. At first this seemed strange to me as I am used to being on my own, but I feel that I will actually be able to learn a lot from each of them and their different teaching methods.

Schools here are totally different to at home which was something I quickly noticed after entering the classroom.  Not only do the pupils begin school aged 6 and remain in this school until they are 16, but they atmosphere and teaching styles are totally different than in Northern Ireland.  Although each class has its own classroom like at home, they do not stay with the same teacher throughout the day, but they have a new teacher who comes to their classroom for each different lesson.  Lessons last for 45 minutes, and seem to have a totally different structure than I am used too.  The teacher I am with mainly teaches maths, science and music in the 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th classes, so this meant I got the opportunity to not only see a variety of classes but a variety of subjects.  Although with the younger two classes the language barrier was an issue, I noticed that in the maths classes we were still able to aid the pupils with their work as we could demonstrate and point at the different questions.  The music class with 1^st class was a totally different experience in which the teacher played the guitar and the pupils all sang and danced along! It had such a relaxed feel, with the pupils moving all around the classroom whatever way they wanted! This was totally new to me, and I was shocked at how relaxed the pupils were in every lesson I saw, as they were moving about, talking, shouting and often seemed to be doing whatever they wanted.  The teacher explained to me later, that the pupils call the teachers by their first names and there is this relaxed atmosphere because they want the pupils to enjoy their learning, and want to be at school instead of resenting it.

Rosenborg castle, Copenhagen.

I found this whole day a really interesting and enlightening experience as it was something totally different not only to what I am used to, but what I expected. I am looking forward to getting out again next week, and hopefully visit a few more classes before our block placement begins. Although I am unsure how much I will get to teach the class myself due to the language issue, I feel the amount I will learn from this practice will be invaluable to me in my own teaching career as I discover new ideas, teaching methods and ways of communicating with children even if I cannot talk to them in English!

In Aarhus, another city in Denmark which we visited this week.