Cultural meeting

I had such a funny experience last Thursday when going to school.
Everything went wrong that morning. Trains were delayed, didn't stop at the usual station and I had to go forth and back and went too far.....I was in such a bad mood when I sat down in the Oeresunds train.
A good looking and "younger-than-me" man came and sat just opposite me. At first he asked a simple question and after half a minute of silence he started talking, telling and chatting - TO ME - who never really liked talking to strangers. He was so friendly, so talkative and so nice that I found myself answering, asking and chatting along. He was a Norwegian paedagog, age 37, half Norwegian and half Brasillian, had his own judo club in Oslo and was on his way to see his girlfriend in Växjö.
This was really a cultural clash between this "ice cold" Danish woman and this openhearted half Brasillian warm hearted male. An experience to remember..... ;o))

Change of plans....

The first real day at Malmö Högskola and Humfryskolan turned out to be too short of time....
Everything went smooth at Högskolan but when transferring to our practice placement school we were indeed short of time. So changes had to be made - and what we found out was much better. Three whole days of English teaching from 8 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon. It'll be great to have enough time to go in depth with the subjects.
We're teaching film in a 9th grade and the Fanatsy genre in a 7th grade.
I'm looking especially forward to teaching the Fantasy genre again. We'll re-use my material from Engelsborgskolen slightly adapted to the Swedish pupils. It'll be fun to compare how they work with it.
Today we had some good discussions at Högskolan, about semiotics, culture and discourse. I have been put into a small group of two Swedish guys (Martin and Fredrik) who seem very much into doing a good job at the course. We're meeting up for group work on Monday when we have to be at school to watch "Killing us softly", a movie about advertising. Especially about the gender roles in advertising (read female roles).
At Humfryskolan we followed Erica for two hours teaching English in the 9th grade and in the 7th grade. The pupils work a lot with computers and I will adapt my material to the use of computers. In Denmark the children produced a poster to present, but in Malmö I want the children to make a Power Point or an article to present, about one specific fantasy story they have chosen.
Day off tomorrow and I have around 50 pages to read....but it's about genre so it's not that hard :o))

Looks like....

everything is going to turn out fine....I got my first meeting with Salaam on 7th February. Hope they can make use of my assistance.

Teaching materials for the 7th grade now ready - Fantasy theme

I am looking forward to teaching the Fantasy genre to the 7th grade at Humfryskolan. I have adapted my material from Engelsborgskolen to the Swedish pupils and am looking forward to see how they work with the almost identical material.

Working hard.....

.....to arrange my (that is our) placement with Humfryskolan. Hopefully everything is in place tomorrow.
And.....I'm trying equally hard to arrange some work for Salaam in April. Hope they can find room and activity for me....hope - hope - hope!!! Cross your fingers....please :o)

My first assignment in Malmö

 

The task was to take some photos of signs in my ares and upload on the group profile in It's learning (group homepage at mah.se)

1st day in Sweden

Just came back from Sweden and I'm sooooo tired. All the impressions have filled up my poor head.
I was at the Humfry Skolan to talk about my placement.
It seems a very interesting school. There's a creative angle to everything they do. They put emphasis on film, music and media and ITC is incorporated in all subjects. Very interesting.
I am to teach English in a 6th grade and this will be interesting. There are 28 pupils in that class and they don't like eachother. Their teacher is currently working with the social atmosphere and I will support her on that. I think I'll do some exercises to strenghten the relations between the pupils. Eg I'll do the hot chair, one pupil sits in front of the class and everyone says something nice about that boy / girl.
I have just written my psychology assignment about social relations in class and about classroom management and if at all possible I'll use elements from that report in my teaching.

After the visit to my practice placement school I went to Malmö Högskola for the Language, Culture & Identity course for the course introduction. There will be a lot of work for this class, but it will be awfully interesting. A primary focus on culture, semiotics and media influence. There will be interviews with teenagers incorporated in the programme, we'll take pictures of signs/text in our environment and we'll do an assignment with an excoursion in Malmö City. Tomorrow I'll have a walk in my surroundings and take some "semiotic pictures" - and upload them to the course homepage.

I'm so excited - this course seems to be very interesting and extremely relevant for me as an international teachers student.....looking forward to Tuesday next week.

Starting Wednesday

Finally starting in Sweden. Visiting Humfrey Skolan Wednesday at 10 am. Afterwards going to Malmö University for introduction. Looking so much forward to it.