Weekend !

On Saturday evening we went out, to a casino ! In Belgium, you're not allowed to go to a casino, unless you're 21 years old. In Denmark, you are probably allowed in a casino if you're 18 years old.
It was quite funny but I didn't know it was all so serious.
You had to hand in your mobile phones before you could enter. You had to show ID with picture. They also needed my adress and I had to look into a cameras, so that they could take a photo.

At the tables of BlackJack, Roulette, Poker was also a lot of security. There were a lot of camera. The tables stood in a circle and in the middle of it, people were walking and keeping an eye on everything. People also played for a lot of money. Like if it was normal to just throw 1000 DKK (or more) (~133 € ) on the table to play poker.
The only game I knew was poker but I think I wasn't good enough to really play with those people. So I just watched them play and learnt some tricks :).

On Sunday, the family had a Fastelavn party. Normally Fastelavn is on 06/03/2011 this year ,but at some places they celebrate it earlier. We went to the workplace of the children's grandmother. There was a Fastelavn party for all the children. All the children were dressed up and there was a price for the best-dressed child. You can compare Fastelavn a bit with our carnival. But they don't have any parades or anything like that. Children dress up and they have to hit a barrel with a wooden stick. On the barrel is a picture of a cat. The reason for this can be found if we go back in time. They used to put a cat in the barrel and the children had to hit the barrel with the wooden stick until the barrel was broken. Nowadays they don't put a cat in the barrel ( Thank God ! ) but sweets ! The one who can break the barrel so that all the candy spills out gets a gift. a little crown and extra sweets and "fastelavnsris', looks like a bunches of twigs.
Here you can see a film of this afternoon. It took the children 15' because they had a hard time trying to break the barrel.
After all the candy was handed out, it was time for some typical Fastelavn food.  They have typical Fastelavn "cake" called Fastelavnsboller. You can see it on the picture. It is really delicious ! Then it was time to choose the child who was best -dressed. It was really funny because one of the 2 children I live with, won ! You can see pictures of both children and the giraffe was the winner !

Fastelavnsboller



Fastelavnsboller



A. ==> the winner


   

O. ==> the little cow

Fastelavn

==> click on Fastelavn if you want to watch the film of the Fastelavn party !

School...

Almost another week over.

On Monday I was off so I just went downtown to buy a present for my mentor (and English teacher) Lasse. Thanks to facebook ;); I knew it was his birthday on Tuesday. But what do you buy for someone you don't know so well yet...
Eventually I found something.

It is tradition in Denmark that when it's someone's birthday, the Danish flag appears. In classroom,the birthdaygirl/boy gets a small Danish flag on her/his desk. In the teacher's lounge there's a small blackboard which says : Der (picture of the Danish flag) i dag for : and then someone writes the initials of the teacher on it. They also put a large Danish flag next to it. It also appears on the school website. So both birthdays of pupils and teachers are known by everyone. Again,you see the open sphere of the Danish people.

Tuesday morning I gave him his present and he was really happy with it. It was a book about different kinds of beer around the world. There was also a special chapter about Belgian beers so I thought it was quite fun. Then I had an English lesson with him. The pupils had to read a text, learn a glossary and so on.
Normally I had English with Karin 2 hours later but I saw on the school website that my class( 5A) would go to the theatre. I asked Lasse what to do and he said I had to ask Karin if I could join them because they wouldn't be back on time for the lesson I had with them. I went looking for Karin but she wasn't in school today. I asked the other teachers (who were also going to the theatre) if I could join them. That was no problem.So all the pupils gathered on the playground. I had to look after 5A because their teacher wasn't there and so they had 1 teacher short. Sonja to the rescue ! :) It was quite a big responsibility. I had to make sure that my class followed the group and that they crossed the street safely. We got to the theatre without problems. It was a nice theatre. It was about animals ( I think,because it was in Danish :p )
My last lesson that day was in the 7th grade with Carsten. He asked me if I was ready to teach them something myself next week. I was really excited and I immediately said "yes". He also asked me if I had an idea. I thought that it might be interesting to teach the pupils something about Belgian Carnival. In Denmark, they celebrate 'Fastelavn' but it is different than in Belgium. Carsten was really excited about it and I just had to write some things down, thing that I wanted to do. So I knew what I had to do.
 The pupils had to make a powerpoint presentation about Australia. They get all the English lessons ( a total of 3) to do this assignment. I walked around and helped them, correcting mistakes, making sure they wrote everything in English,...

On  Wednesday morning the pupils in the 7th grade worked on their powerpoint.
Then I had cooking classes. But guess what, the teacher wasn't in. This really isn't my week, I guess.There was a substitute but it went a bit chaotic in the beginning but it ended up fine. The previous cooking class, I just observed the pupils. The teacher told me that, the next lesson I had to try to talk to the pupils. I tried but without any success actually. I asked pupils what they were making, but they didn't really respond.They called the teacher and explained to him in Danish, what they were doing and told him they don't speak English. I was a bit disappointed at that point. I told Lasse about it and he said he would see what he could do. Next week, the timetables are changing so maybe he can put me in a cooking class where they really can and want to speak English. We'll see. Then another English class where I observed because pupils had to do a presentation.

On  Thursday I felt quite useful in the 6th grade. They had to write an English ghost story. So I helped them with spelling, grammar, .... One boy had to read his story to me but he was too shy. So I just read the story myself and underlined every mistake. There were quite a lot and he looked a bit sad when I gave him his sheet back. I told him that it was really a good story and that we could look at the mistakes together. So I asked him what he meant by every word and he corrected almost every mistake by himself. So he knew what he did wrong but I think he just wanted to be finished. He looked happier when we were finished and I felt really good that I was able to help him.

In the 9th grade we watched a movie about the Amish.  Then they had to make a presentation but they didn't have much time left but I was able to talk to some of them.

On Friday I had the 9th grade again. They had to read a text about the Amish out loud. This way I could hear their English again. Some of them are really good at it, some are a bit shy.
Then I helped the 7th grade again with their presentation. In the 5th grade they had to read a text out loud and I listened to them speaking English. Again, some of them are quite good at it and others do make a lot of mistakes but they try ! ( Most of them)

I noticed that a lot of English teachers here still speak Danish with the pupils. That makes it a bit difficult for me because I don't understand it. It's also difficult for the pupils. Because when they have to do an assignment they use google translater or they write some parts in Danish and other parts in English. It's quite funny when they want to ask me something because then they really have to speak English. So I think this is a good way for them to really speak English all the time.

Next week,the timetables are changing. I'll keep you up to date ;)

The end of vinterferie...

Today is the last day of Vinterferie so time to update my blog and tell you what I did this past week.

On Monday we went to Scandinavian Park. It's actually a big supermarket right across the border. So it's in Germany. We did some shopping there because some of the things are cheaper in Germany than they are in Denmark.
Then we went to Funpark. This is a big hall where children can play and have a lot of fun. For those who know "Pretland" in Hasselt, you can compare it with this.  There are trampolines, you can play football,... There are a lot of things young children can do ! Here is also the link of the funpark so you can see it :
http://www.mrscandisfunpark.com/

On Tuesday I stayed at home because I wasn't feeling very well. So I slept a lot and watched some television.
On Wednesday, I felt a bit better but then someone else here wasn't feeling so well. It has been snowing all night so there was a lot of snow in the morning.
So we put on our warm clothes, ski pants, ski jackets and we took the sledge. We went to a 'hill' and we sledged for about 45 minutes. It was really fun. I never really sledged before so for me it was scary and fun at the same time!

On Thursday we went to Kolding. There's a big mall with about 180 shops. I think you can already guess what we did there ?! Yes, shopping !!
The boys/men didn't really liked it but Rikke and me did !

On Friday, I was home alone. The family left for 2 days ( they would return on Sunday) to go and see the children's grandparents who live in a town, a 2 hours drive from here.
I was all by myself. I went to the city centre but the weather wasn't that great so I returned to the house and watched some television. Just relaxing a bit. Then it was dinner time. As most of you know I'm not really a kitchen princess, so it was just pizza. Pizza in the oven, wait for 20' and voilà ! Dinner was served.
On Saturday I went back to the city centre to buy some fruit and I went for a walk in the Dampark again. Last Saturday I found it a nice place for a walk and with all the snow now I wanted to see it again.
Here you can see some pictures of it:
    

It was really cold outside so I went back home again and relaxed some more.
Then it was time for dinner again. My dinner: french fries and meatballs. And guess what, my food didn't burn. The french fries in the oven ( most families don't have a fryer) and the meatballs in a pan. Then I watched "The Truman Show". It was in English with Danish subtitles, so I could understand it perfectly.

On Sunday, the family came back. In the afternoon, we watched some television, cleaned the house,...

It was a fun week but tomorrow it's back to work, although not for me.  I have Mondays off ;)

Saturday - Sunday

On Saturday I went to the Dampark. It's a public garden where you can feed the ducks and the small children can play on the playground. It's a very nice place for a walk. I went there with Rikke and the 2 children. We had a lot of fun ! We fed the ducks and the children played a lot.
Here you can see some pictures of it. You can see it was a beautiful day although it was really cold outside. The temperature was around 0°C / -1°C.

So yesterday it was cold and when I woke up this morning and I looked outside, everything was white. Yes, it's snowing here. In Belgium it's around 14°C and here it is still around 0°C =D
Here you can see what I saw this morning:



First look outside : Snow ! :o

Snow !

    

Vinterferie !

Yesterday it was just Sonja and the pupils.
The vice-principal picked me up in the teachers-lounge and we went to the 9th grade. The teacher wasn't in but he had given me the assisgnments.
The 9th grade had to watch a film about the Amish. While they were watching, the vice-principal left. The film ended after 30 minutes.
So I started a conversation with the pupils, asking if they had learnt anything from the film. I couldn't understand everything because a part was in Danish. They found that very funny.
Then we did some oral exercises on the irregular verbs. In the beginning that didn't quite work but they saw that I wouldn't give up so they worked with me.
We had 7 minutes left so I told them they could start working on their homework or just ask me some questions about me or about Belgium. They chose the last one. They asked me where Belgium was on the map and  if I could say something in Dutch (which they found a language that looked like a combination of English-German-Danish.)
Then class was over and I survived it on my own ;).

Time for the next one, the 7th grade. The vice-principal came and walked me to the class and he left immediately. The pupils could choose what they wanted to do : do their homework about the irregular verbs or do their English-extras. They worked really hard. I just walked around and helped where necessary.

So, both classes where I was on my own went so well. I was really happy and it felt so good, standing alone in front of a class.

The next hour I would follow 5A and normally my teacher was in. Well, she wasn't. There was a substitute and I didn't know. The pupils had to work on their project ( audacity) but when they were finished, they could do some English exercises. One of the exercises was a wordsearch. The pupils had to find 15 verbs in the simple past. One small problem: they didn't know what the simple past was. So I explained it to them, using the smartboard and they were very happy when they could do their exercise afterwards.

At 12.00 I went home and for me it was the official start of the Vinterferie = Winter Holidays. Actually, you can compare it with our "krokusvakantie" but here in Denmark it's just a bit earlier. =D

Start of the lessons

This week, the real lessons started again.
I follow 4 different English classes and 1 cooking class.

Tuesday was my first English lesson with 6C. These pupils are approximately 12 years old.
My mentor, Lasse, who's also the English teacher in this class, said that I could just watch this lesson. This way, I got to see how he does it and so on.
But 5 minutes before class started he told me he would divide the class in 2 and I had to take 1 part of the class to another room and do the exercise with them.
First I had to introduce myself. The pupils were quite curious. They wanted to know how old I was, the name of my city, .... So I showed them on google maps.
Then it was time for the exercise. I wasn't really prepared for it but the pupils did their best and so did I. The pupils had to read 4 small texts and come up with a headline. Then they had to interview each other to find out what the others had as a headline.
Their English is quite good actually but they have the habit of speaking Danish. You can see the problem : I don't speak Danish (yet) !
But it went quite okay.

My next lesson was again an English lesson, this time with 5A. The teacher here is Karin. I just observed this lesson and it was interesting, because now I could see how they really teach. The teacher tries to speak English all the time but sometimes the pupils ask something in Danish and then she (sometimes) also answers in Danish.

My last lesson for that day was English in the 7th grade with Carsten. I had to introduce myself again and then we played a little game so that I could get to know the pupils. Every pupil got a sheet of paper and they had to write their own name on top of the paper. Then the teacher collected the papers again and he distributed them among the pupils. Normally every pupil had a paper with another name on. Their next task was to write something about the person on the paper. More precisely how that pupil looked like. After 10 minutes, they read the description out loud and I had to guess which pupil it was ! It was a very interactive and fun way to get to know the pupils ! I really enjoyed it.

Wednesday I had the 7th grade again and we talked about their winter holiday plans. Yes, next week, it's winter holiday here in Denmark =). They also wanted to know what I was going to do. I don't really have an idea yet, maybe start learning some more Danish ?!
I was quite excited for my next class on Wednesday: cooking class.
The pupils had to make pasta bolognese. The recipe was in Danish so I couldn't understand a lot. I just watched them working. They were very shy and didn't say anything. The teacher, Hanne, told me at the end of the lesson that I just have to start talking to them the next lesson. Well, let's see how that works out then!

On Thursday I had the 9th grade, also with Carsten. They are 15-16 years old. We played the same game as we did in the 7th grade.  I've noticed that they still make a lot of grammar mistakes. Especially against to do/to have.

Tomorrow I will have the 7th and 9th grade again. But, the teacher isn't in tomorrow. So the vice-principal will come and start the lesson and then it's up to me. I'm a bit nervous about that, because I only met the classes this week and I hope they will work with me. But the teacher trusts it, so why wouldn't I do the same then ? !
I'll keep you up to date ;)

Skolefest

Last night I went to the concert of the primary school. It was really nice to see. The pupils performed really well.They danced and sung their songs about Africa. Also the hakuna matata song !  The principal stood by the door and shaked hands with everyone who came in. He's very friendly.

The stage

After the schoolparty we went back to school. We = Rikke and me. Rikke is also a teacher at Sct. Severin Skole and I live in her house these 3 months.
In the school there were a lot of activities for the pupils, organised by the parents ! There was karaoke, hitting the cans of the table, disco, .... In the "cafeteria" was a small contest between the parents. A lot of the parents baked a cake. But if you read the word 'cake' don't just think about an ordinary cake. No! Think about cakes in all different shapes and colours ! There was a cake in the shape and colours of a zebra (This one also won !) and there was one in the shape and colours of a parrot. They looked really nice and I can tell you: they were delicious !!!

The principal walked around and talked to the parents, talked to the teachers, took pictures,.... He didn't act like he's more than someone else and that's really nice to see.
When the party came to an end, we cleaned up. The teachers and the principal went to the teacher's lounge afterwards and there was chips, wine, beer, soda, .... they just talked and laughed. I just sat there because I couldn't understand anything they were saying but you could see it was a very relaxed sphere. I don't think I've ever seen a principal so relaxed with the teachers, parents, pupils, .... He also goes by every class ( or almost every class) in the morning to say "goodmorning ! "

I really enjoyed this school party. It was very relaxing and still nice to see all the people enjoying it !

Copenhagen

Time to get a little bit updated.

Last week I spend 3 days in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen !
I had to be there for an induction meeting with other Comenius assistants on Friday,  so I thought why not visit Copenhagen at the same time?! So I stayed there from Thursday until Saturday.

I left Haderslev around 8.55. I took a bus to Vojens where I had my train to Copenhagen at 9.46.


I arrived in Copenhagen around 13h. I couldn't go to my hotel until 15h so I went to the tourist office to get a map and I started to walk to the shopping street, Strøget. It was really a long shopping street with a loth of souvenir shops, fastfoodrestaraurants like McDonalds and BurgerKing. There were also shops like Ben & Jerry, Gucci, Louis Vitton,...





Tivoli



Across the Central Station you could see Tivoli, the large amusement parc . Unfortunately it is closed until the 14th of April.

But you can see some pictures of it.



Tivoli



Then it was time to go to my hotel. I had a really nice room. After I'd put all of my stuff there, I went to the Royal Library. It's a huge library where students can study and read. There was also a bookshop attached and I bought the first Harry Potter book there, in Danish ! Harry Potter og De Vises Sten.

I also met Aline. She's also a Belgian Comenius assistant. She's from Brussels.



The next day we had to go to the Induction meeting. Aline and I went there together. In total there were 8 comenius assistants. There already had been a meeting in October and there were around 30 students. We had a great time. First we had to introduce ourselves and then we got some information about Denmark and the school system ( which I found very difficult especially because it's totally different than in Belgium.)

We also got coffee, tea, water and a lot of the typical Danish pasteries. A lot of sugar but so delicious ! After lunch we had a brainstorm about Denmark and a workshop around values and culture shock.

After that we went to Christiania. It's a city in Copenhagen, but they have their own rules. It was a pity that it was already dark outside because it was hard to take pictures. Very special about Christiania is that it's a place where drugs is sold. We also had lunch in Christiania and that was actually the end of the meeting.  

Christiania


But we wanted to get to know each other a bit better so we went back to the centre of Copenhagen and we went out in the Scottish pub. That was really fun. There was loud music and the singer was singing the song: Another brick in the wall( Pink Floyd) and he knew we were teachers from different countries and he said : there are 8 teachers in the back from different countries.Let us hear you ! It was quite funny.
(you can listen to the song on youtube)


Comenius assistants



Then there was already my last day in Copenhagen :(.

I checked out of my hotel, dropped my things in a locker in Central Station and I went to the Little Mermaid. You all know her. The little mermaid is a fairytale written by the Danish writer, Hans Christian Andersen. It was quite a long walk. More than an hour actually but that was because, although I had a map, I got lost at a certain point. But I made it !! Here you can see a picture of me standing next to the little mermaid. She was smaller than I expected her to be, but it was definitely worth the walk !

Me & the little mermaid

Then I went to the Danish National Museum. There you can see the history of Denmark through prehistorical times - medieval times and then from 1600 until 2000. It was very interesting.

Time goes very fast when you're having fun. So I had some time to buy some souvenirs, a quick lunch and then back on the train to Vojens and there the bus to Haderslev.

I was quite exhausted after these 3 days Copenhagen but I had so much fun !





Hakuna Matata

Last Wednesday I followed the 1st grade in Sct. Severin Skole. They are around 7 years. They were rehearsing for their school play. The theme is Africa.

The children learnt a lot of nice songs and dances.

Even I learnt a song : Hakuna Matata. Ofcourse I already knew the song but now I learnt the Danish version of it. :)

Here you can listen to it (with lyrics !) on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCTMpfcYuOo

4 trains in a row and the first days.

Sunday morning I left around 9.56 in Hasselt. Destination: Vojens station.
Hasselt - Luik
Luik - Keulen
Keulen- Hamburg
Hamburg - Flensburg
Flensburg - Vojens
...
All went well untill I was in the train to Flensburg. They announced the train was already 30 minutes late. That was no good news because I only had 10 minutes in Flensburg to catch the train to Vojens.
Too bad that wasn't all the bad news. My mobile phone just didn't work anymore. Only my mother could call me but for the rest I couldn't do anything. I texted my contact person but he didn't respond. So my mother made sure everything got arranged and my contactperson, Lasse, came to get me in Flensburg. He was very friendly.
It's very funny. The roads on the countryside have no lights, so complete darkness.
Also the family were I'm staying is very nice. They have 3 kids and they were very curious about the visitor. But they were already in bed. So I saw the children the next morning. They are very cute :)

Then it was of to school.
Lasse was already waiting for me. He introduced me to a lot of people and also the teachers I'm going to assist. He also gave me a tour around the school.
I was really surprised. It's a very big school. Around 750 pupils study there and every classroom has a smartboard and then I really mean every room ! Belgium can learn something from that ! Also the music rooms are stuffed with a lot of different instruments.
But something really funny : the children don't wear shoes inside the school building. They walk around on their socks. I was really amazed by that, but it's because they had to cut down on the cleaning.

This week I don't start teaching yet, also because I'm going to Copenhagen.
Also they don't follow their normal schedule this week. They have sort of a A- week ( alternative week, so every year works around a different team. Year 6 (pupils of about 12 years) are working around the team "flying". So pupils are searching information about hot air balloons, rockets ,... and at the end of the week they have to present it to the rest of the year with something practical. so that have to build their own hot air balloon for example. It's all very fun to see.
Too bad I can't really help them at this point because it's all in Danish.

Something else I really wanted to share now is the relationship between teachers and pupils in Denmark. Pupils don't say miss or mister. No, they call their teachers by their first name so it's all very unformal, which is very nice to see.

Well, I'm off again.
See you soon ...