Week 12- Professional Development

Week 12-   13^th-19^th April 2012

This past week has been one of my busiest and most tiring since I arrived in Denmark. We had our final few days of our school practice, and I had the opportunity to experience “project week” something that features a lot in the Danish school system. I automatically assumed that the week would take place around a specific theme as this was the sort of thing I am used to at home, but we were told that the during the week each day would focus on a particular subject and all the activities would not be linked to any overlying theme.

The days we observed and took part in were art, maths and physical education orientated, and each one was organised by a different teacher for the entire second grade year group. Normally in this grade the pupils do not have one teacher for the full day, but different teachers for each subject, which I think is one of the reasons for the relaxed and often disorganised and chaotic atmosphere within the classroom, as each teacher has different rules and ways of teaching. However the stability that this day provided as they stayed with one teacher allowed the class to understand what was expected and how they were required to act. At first I had thought that I could never deal with being in the classroom here, because of the totally different atmosphere but I have begun to realise that it entirely depends on the teacher, and if or when we are involved the children have respect and will be keen to listen and try to understand what it is we are going to say. Due to normal classes being taken by different teachers this limits the amount of cross-curricular work the children have the opportunity to take part in as everything is kept so separate. This was something else I found strange as at home the curriculum provides so much emphasis on cross curricular skills and themes.

However this first art day quickly changed this as the children were introduced to basic geometric shapes and were to create collage pictures using these shapes which they were to draw themselves using a variety of methods, such as compasses, tracing, drawing round other objects. The maths day was totally different again as it allowed the children to come out of the classroom and work in teams to find and solve various maths problems which were hidden around the school. This was something the pupils really enjoyed and the children were mixed into random teams to develop their social skills and interaction with people they didn’t know previously. The final day was the sports day and again the children had different tasks to complete in teams as they competed against each other. Overall I found that although this week was totally not what I expected it to be, it was enjoyable and allowed the pupils to move outside their normal classroom environment.

I have noticed so many similarities and differences between the Danish and Northern Irish school system over these last weeks, and I really enjoyed and found it beneficial to have this opportunity to learn and find out more about their ways of teaching. Although there were times when it was difficult and frustrating as we couldn’t make the pupils understand what we were saying, I am going to miss my practice school here in Denmark. (Although, I can’t say I’m going to miss those 6.30am starts!)