Week Seven

Professional

After recovering from a pretty spectacular weekend it was time to get back to work, that work started on Monday when we began teaching children a few songs in English, typical Irish songs that are somewhat easy to follow and play on the guitar. We taught them the Wild Rover and Belle of Belfast city, I tried first of all to teach them the song just orally by getting them to repeat the lines back but it worked far better when they had the words visually to see as well, most of the class seemed to enjoy this although some of the boys did not want to sing but they pretended to join in anyway.

caterpillars

We also had a trip to a learning centre were the children would learn something about different animals, of course I didn’t really have a clue what was being said but the children were nice enough to translate for me and I could look at the pictures and diagrams and know the general idea of what was going on, I enjoyed the look on their faces when they were told a cow had four stomachs and regurgitated grass to chew on after it had been digested by the first two stomachs. The most interesting part of the trip was cycling through Cuijk with the class, I was in the front with a girl named Robyn, I had no idea where I was going and just had to follow the directions Robyn was giving me. The class were so well behaved I was amazed, you can hardly walk somewhere with a class at home never mind cycle, on the way back I was at the end of the queue with a girl named Debby and we had a lovely discussion about our favourite places in the world and where we wanted to travel to.

English workbook

This week we also had caterpillars in the classroom, as the children are working on a WAU project that involves them caring for different animals. They will combine this practical work with some research and then make a slide show about how they cared for their chosen animal, they can look after butterflies, chicks or frogs ( vlinders, kippen or kickers). This is very similar to the study of  the life cycles of some animals, as well as learning to be responsible and take care of another living thing, in doing this the children are developing self awareness, problem solving skills, self management and working with others NI Curriculum (2007). I had the opportunity to observe an English lesson, the video they watch and the words they listen to are all in a very posh English accent, very different from my own, I read out the words along with the computer so that they could hear the differences in accent and pronunciation.  The best thing about the class is that they can use their common sense and own initiative, they know when they are finished work what they should do next instead of the constant stream of hands up asking what their next task is, it’s brilliant to see and something that I will try to progress in my own teaching when I return home as it relates to competence 7  and competence 19 found within the GTCNI teaching competences.

Lastly we had a class talking about our tour to the west for Dutch culture and society, we will visit Delft, The Hague, Ridderzaal and the Dutch parliament. I’m very excited for the trip and I hope I will gain a lot of cultural insight.

General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI) Teaching: the Reflective Profession, Belfast, GTCNI. (Available through www.gtcni.org.uk)

CCEA (2007) Northern Ireland Curriculum, Belfast, CCEA.

Week Six

Cultural

Eimear and me in Eindhoven

On Monday I had the opportunity to teach the children a little about where I come from, I made a PowerPoint and talked through the pictures outlining the different aspects of life in Belfast, it was received well and the children could understand most of what I was saying, they asked really well thought out questions and were genuinely interested in the topic. It was lovely to be able to show them a little of my culture and for them to see the similarities and differences between Northern Ireland and the Netherlands. I find the children in my class are growing more confident in speaking to me and Silvia, they will have longer conversations with us in English and will tell us more about themselves, they have been teaching me the Dutch names for animals and  ‘jeukende’ which means itchy.

St Cathatina's church

On Thursday we had to talk about the political systems of our countries and found that a lot of them are very similar it was interesting but not as interesting as learning about different parts of Dutch culture from the comedian John Fealey, an English comedian who had spent sometime in the Netherlands. We watched a video where he introduced us to the celebration of Koninginnedag (Queen’s day) it is the celebration of the Queen’s birthday, which occurs on the 30^th of April however next year it will be called Koningsdag (King’s day) and will be celebrated on 27^th of April. There will be a type of flea market and everyone will dress in orange, I am very excited to see this and I hope it will be just as fun as carnival was. I think I will teach children about the celebrations of the Netherlands instead of just the usual world celebrations that are outlined in ‘Celebrations and good times’ thematic unit, I knew nothing about the festivals and it is such as shame and they are very rich in culture and children would find them extremely interesting .In this the children will be covering a wide range of thinking skills and personal capabilities and well as cross-curricular skills, Children have opportunities to have experiences with all the senses ,enjoy the unexpected, unusual and surprising and also make connections between their own culture and others. CCEA (2007)

Interesting looking shop

Visitor from home

This weekend my friend from Belfast came to visit me in Nijmegen it was brilliant to see her again and to show her around the city and she also brought me Tayto crisps and tea bags from home which is wonderful because it’s like a little reminder of home.  She arrived in Eindhoven so we decided to take the opportunity to visit another city and to pick her up from the airport. Eindhoven is a lot more modern than Nijmegen, it has more shops and will also be getting a Primark very soon, we also visited St Catharina’s Church which is absolutely stunning, it is interesting to be able to compare the different cities,  I find Eindhoven beautiful in a very different way to Amsterdam and Nijmegen. 

Of course the week rounded off with a celebration of St Patrick’s Day, everyone became Irish for the day we painted our fellow Erasmus student’s faces and decorated ourselves in various shades of green in the flat before heading out into the centre to find the Irish pub, aptly named the Shamrock. In the pub we had Guinness and sang the usual songs to sing on St Patrick’s Day at the top of our lungs, I think we scared a good few of the locals and they probably though we were mad, but it was a great experience to bring a little bit of our culture to the Netherlands. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and we really lived up to the Irish stereotype, so the next few weeks we shall have to focus on work rather than fun.

 St Patrick's day!

 CCEA, (2007) Celebrations and Good Times! Thematic Unit, Northern Ireland Curriculum, CCEA, Belfast.

Week Five

Professional

 This week marked the start of my 4 month placement in a Dutch school. For the rest of my time here I will spend two days a week in a school to the south west of Nijmegen in a village called Cuijk. I think it is going to be such a wonderful and exciting experience, it will definitely be hard  but I know I will learn a great deal and take so much away from it.

Our new friend

Cycling to school

Myself and a girl from Austria named Silvia decided to try on Sunday   to find our school. The journey took us alongside the canal,  to my utter delight it brought us past an orchard with Shetland ponies,and finally  past a beach.  When we finally arrive at our destination an hour later, we were very tired but excited at what the next day would bring.

Monday morning arrived far too early as we set off at 7:00 , at 8:00 we arrived at  Obs 't Startblok (our school),  where we meet our mentor Koen and were then taken to the groep 7 class who are aged 10 to 11, very like our primary sevens back home. There are sixteen children in the class altogether, seven boys and nine girls. 
The first thing I noticed was the children's lack of uniform, for me it was strange to see their various outfits and to know that it wasn't just a non-uniform day. The teachers in the Netherlands are very laid back in the way they dress, I wore jeans to school and didn't feel out of place.

Our classroom

hallway in the school

The classroom itself was quite big, it was an open environment with large windows and had some of the children's work displayed upon the walls.The building has a very similar layout to some of the schools you would find at home, there are trophies displayed in the hallway and the children's work placed upon the walls, it is bright ,colourful and welcoming.

The language barrier is very difficult, I can understand some words and then get a feel of what is going on but most of the time I find myself completely lost, I now know how it feels for a lot of children coming to Northern Ireland without any English. However our mentor very kindly explains to us what is going on and the children will come and ask us questions in English, they can understand a lot of what I say even with an Irish accent and if not they translate to each other.

 A lot of the work the children do is independent, they are responsible for achieving a set amount of work each week, they will plan out on Monday what they will do each day and an hour is set aside each day for them to do this, they work at their own pace and speed. It is an idea which I hope I can use in my future teaching as the NI Curriculum(2007) pushes for self management and exploration of the child's own ideas.

Me and Silvia with our class

The atmosphere in the classroom is very relaxed the children are very settled and interact well with each other. The day is well organised and planned out in topics, although the Netherlands do not have a specific curriculum they have to follow, they have guidelines for what the children have to learn and this varies from school to school.

The children have a great deal of respect for their teacher and he has a wonderful relationship with the children, for example the teacher will cycle with the children to the gym and back, not one of them misbehaves.  He also gave one of the children in the class the opportunity to teach an art lesson, the pupil explained to the class how to make a mask and used his own skills in art to demonstrate. I think this is a wonderful idea as it builds on a child's confidence and self esteem, it's something which I will also try to use in my future teaching as this applies to children's thinking skills a personal capabilities, the children are learning to work with others, use their initiative,apply ideas ,create and design something new and monitor and evaluate their own progress. (CCEA, 2007) I have learnt so much from my mentor this week and know in the weeks to come I will continue to see new ideas and experience a different way of teaching.

Although it is very frustrating not to be able to communicate with the children and help them out with work, like I would when teaching back home, I am going to make more of an effort to ask them to tell me the names of things in Dutch, I am also going to try to find different ways to communicate without speaking as Jim Henderson once said “[Kids] don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.”  With this in mind I hope I can leave a lasting impression on such a brilliant class.

Part of our route to school

CCEA(2007) NI curriculum, CCEA,Belfast.

Week Four

Personal

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. Maya Angelou (1993)

The windmill

I feel this quote really sums up my week as I really got to know the fellow Erasmus students better, I don’t just know their names, I now know more about their homes, families and a bit about what makes them who they are, I also know who will go get burgers with me and who likes to drink hot chocolate, I've made some wonderful friends here and as the quote states we have all laughed, cried, worried and eaten dinner together like one huge family. Vossenveld is starting to feel a lot more like home and I can navigate my way around Nijmegen on a bicycle quite well. The building were we have classes (the Pabo) is no longer a daunting space with a maze of rooms. I cannot properly express the joy and relief every morning seeing the windmill when cycling to class, because I know I am nearly at my destination and my legs will get a welcome break.

I am not cut out for this amount of physical activity which is only going to increase as I have to cycle an hour to my placement school. I know it has been said that the Netherlands are flat but I could swear that we are cycling up an incline to get to University.  I feel a lot more confident on my bike, although I have broken the breaks and the lights on it; I think it will be strange returning to Belfast and not being able to cycle everywhere.

Socializing in one of many pubs in Nijmegen

Over the week we have had dinner cooked for us by fellow Erasmus students, baked a lovely chocolate cake, spent many nights playing different card games and enjoyed a few social drink out in the centre of Nijmegen. They have a lot of clubs which stay open until five o’clock in the morning which is a far cry from Belfast when you have to come home at two. All of the places have interesting people who are very excited to chat to you about where you come from and how you have found yourself in the Netherlands. It is wonderful to get the whole group together and go out and dance all night at spinning bars which play music that we all haven’t heard in years (some of us not at all).  I feel that it is good to interact with so many diverse people, learning different card games and getting used to people talking different languages to each other. We are picking up lots of phrases mainly from French and Dutch, some useful and some not so much or so polite.

The GTNCI competence eight suggests that teachers should have a knowledge and understanding of the need to take account of the significant features of pupils’ cultures, languages and faith and to address the implications for learning arising from these. I feel that my time here on Erasmus will develop my skills in this competence, I will be more perceptive to children’s cultures, especially children with English as an additional language I will be more understanding of the difficulties that arise in not knowing the language of a country in great depth. I find myself thinking more before I speak so that people can understand me better; I use more hand gestures to put across my meaning and am more aware of my  pronunciation of some words, I feel this will aid me when teaching phonic work. I will also make a point from now on of improving how I construct sentences and be more aware of my grammar.

Angelou,M.(1993) Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, Random House, New York.

General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI) Teaching: the Reflective Profession, Belfast, GTCNI. (Available through www.gtcni.org.uk)