Week 4 (Mon 6th Feb - Sun 12th Feb)

Professional blog

This week our ‘Teaching English as a Foreign Language’ classes started.  We had them on Tuesday and Friday and they started early at 8.15am and finished at 2.15pm. This may sound rather lengthy, compared to covering a range of subjects throughout the day, as Stranmillis classes usually last an hour at a time.  However, our teacher Anne Kristine allows for the perfect balance of lesson time and regular breaks.

The classes this week were highly engaging and involved a lot of group work and culture discussion.  I was placed in a group with a Turkish girl and an Austrian girl and we had to share the ‘dos and don’ts’ of our cultures.  I was fascinated with some of the differences in our cultures, for example, I learned that to refuse tea from someone in Turkey is almost unacceptable and considered very rude, also it is very inappropriate to cross your legs in front of your elders and it is vital that you greet people in Turkey by kissing their hand and placing it on your head.  Ideas including these were displayed for the whole class to see on an internet programme called ‘wallwisher.com’; a useful site that uploaded every group’s ideas on animated post-it notes in the same window.  I would definitely use this programme with children when they do group work and want to share ideas, as it allows you as a teacher to get a quick overview of the children’s learning and opinions and it also lets them see ideas that their peers thought of, through an easy-operating, more modern type of media.

Anne Kristine also introduced us to the internet programme ‘screenr.com’; a website that allows you to create a voice-over your own uploaded pictures or work.  She also highlighted that this is a useful programme to use for giving children constructive feedback on their work, as you can upload the children’s work and ‘zoom’ into areas of the work to make comments , so that children can see where they did well and where they can improve.  This is a refreshing approach to the familiar and perhaps dooming red pen marking exercise, which children and teachers often dread.  Anne Kristine also used a programme called ‘Prezi’ to display the lesson content each day.  The programme displayed the content of the lesson in a more attractive and appealing way than the familiar Microsoft PowerPoint programme that we use back home.  This is because you can see an overview of the day’s activities spread in a circle and the teacher can zoom in and out of different areas of the lesson in whatever order he/she desires at any time.  This presentation kept me more engaged throughout the lesson than what PowerPoint slides usually do. Therefore, I am eager to learn how to use ‘Prezi’, so that I can encourage the same enthusiasm and maintain the interest of children when I present organised information to them.

I thoroughly enjoyed these lessons as I was learning in a relaxed, informal atmosphere that encouraged me to speak up and share my ideas and opinions in a non-threatening way.  Anne Kristine put everyone at ease and encouraged us to engage in open-ended discussion and to not feel shy.  Perhaps working in groups and pairs also helped to promote a positive and open atmosphere in the classroom.  I am looking forward to having more meaningful and informative lessons in the coming weeks that add value to my personal, cultural and professional development.

Week 3 (Mon 30th Jan - Sun 5th Feb)

Personal Blog

This has been the coldest week to date! We have had mountains of snow and freezing wind chills (-15 degrees) in Vordingborg, so my Hunter wellies and earmuffs (Christmas presents) have been greatly appreciated!  Our classes for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and Education studies have not started yet, so we decided to take a bus trip to Naestved; a town  30 minutes away.  We engaged in a brief conversation with the bus driver and tried our luck by showing him our new University of Sjaelland student ID cards.  He examined the cards and then waved us onto the bus without charging us.  Perhaps with the language being a barrier, he decided he would minimise the hassle and effort of asking us what type of ticket we required.  As it was so cold, we ended up treating ourselves and settled for some Earl Grey tea and dessert pancakes in a nice café.  Hopefully the next time we visit we will become more familiar with the town and surroundings.

Check out how the danes are into their presentation of food!

We also explored Vordingborg town this week and visited the goose tower in the snow; which was striking and beautiful, as well as the frozen harbour where the goose tower overlooks.  There is a shop called ‘Rapunzel’ which appealed to us as the window display had handmade, quirky jewellery and as we entered we were greeted by the very friendly and eccentric Guru (a Danish lady).  She seemed eager to get to know us as we were from Ireland and she took our phone number to exchange with her Irish friends that live here. We may be able to meet up with these Irish friends of Guru’s at some stage of our trip.  Her English was very good and she was able to advise us on where the cheaper grocery stores ‘Netto’ and ‘Aldi’ where.  As we have started to notice the significant higher prices of food here, we were thankful to find these shops and buy the same foods for a much cheaper price.

The Goose Tower in the snow

I am really looking forward to starting TEFL classes to get an idea of what content we will be covering and to see how classes are delivered by the teacher.  I’m also keen to know what will be expected of us in terms of assessment in comparison with Stranmillis assessment.  I hope to see a variation in teaching styles, presentations and activities while I’m here, that will add value to my professional development.  I am also looking forward to engaging with the other international students more through these classes; as they give the perfect opportunity to do so in group work.  Furthermore, I want to learn more about the different cultures that exist within this group of international students; the similarities and differences and how people cope with these.

Vi ses!

Week 2 (Mon 23rd Jan - Sun 29th Jan)

This week we had Danish classes; which are not compulsory, but we have chosen to do them to help us to develop our awareness of Danish vocabulary and grammar and to equip us with some useful phrases.  I enjoy these classes and practising the language with the Danish people we meet on our travels. The accent and pronunciation can be easily misinterpreted, for example ‘jeg’ means ‘I’, but is pronounced ‘yigh’, which is completely different to the spelling of the word ‘jeg’.  Therefore we are quickly learning that we shouldn’t read Danish with our English interpretations!   Ironically, this week our electric went out and I ended up applying and attempting some of my Danish in a phone call to our maintenance man’s wife! This was quite the experience as his wife didn’t speak any English and his English isn’t great either.  However I managed to say “Hej, jeg hedder Kerri og jeg taler engelsk og jeg bor i Vordingborg Domea , Kuskevej. Vi har ingen elektrisk, kan du hjælpe?” ( Hello, I am Kerri and I speak english and I live in Vordingborg dorms Kuskevej.  We have no electric, can you help?)  and his wife was instructed to reply, “Try again in 5 minutes.” So perhaps I didn’t do too badly.  Although our electric still didn’t work,  so Fionnuala and I resorted to asking a builder on site if he could help and luckily he spoke English and he tripped the switch, which gave us instant electric once again!

This weekend we took the train to Copenhagen and Soren (our Danish friend) picked us up and brought us to his parent’s house; where we were invited to stay for the weekend.  They were such friendly and accommodating people and were eager to entertain and feed us!  That Friday night we had a delicious pork roast dinner with red cabbage, boiled potatoes, peppered sauce and crackling (something I had never tried before!). The food they made for us this weekend reflected Danish culture and was sometimes similar to the food at home.  Soren’s dad educated us on and introduced us to traditional Danish delicacies, including; minced pork, egg and breadcrumb burgers, lemon half cake, dream cake, bakery bread with cheese and jam combined, brown malt-type bread and remoulade and béarnaise sauces. Trisha and I shared our love of the Frankfurt sausages and hot dogs that we have been getting since we arrived and Soren’s parents have promised to take us to their favourite hot dog place the next time we visit! We also learned that the Danish people get up every morning very early in comparison to home.  They like to have their coffee by 8.30am at the latest and schools and classes start at 8.30am (our Danish classes start at this time and classes in the next few weeks will begin at this time too). We also learned that ‘handball’ is a popular televised sport in Denmark and Soren’s family as well as the Danish tutors we have met are very passionate about it and the Danish team. 

The Anderson Family!

Soren, his sister Maria and girlfriend Christina took us on a tour through Copenhagen while we were there and we seen the city hall, royal palace grounds and the changing of the guards, we also walked through Stroget street (the world’s longest shopping street).  However as we were all freezing walking around, we cut sight-seeing short.  Other sights to see will give us something to look forward to in the coming weeks; hopefully when the weather gets warmer!  We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend experiencing a typical Danish family culture and enjoyed the relaxed, laid-back atmosphere and way of life.  The family were very open with us and eager to engage in English with us as well as help us with our progressing Danish.  We look forward to seeing them again and learning more from them.  We were also so appreciative of the T.V. they gave us for our Vordingborg room! 

Us outside the royal palace gounds