Week 8 ( Mon 5th March - Sun 11th March)

Professional Blog

This week in Teaching English as a Foreign Language classes we engaged in a lot of group work and we had another teacher called Finn taking the classes.  He immediately put us at ease and was very friendly and interested to get to know us and hear about our education system.  He also directed a lot of questions to Fionnuala, Trisha and I as we are the only native English speakers in the class and he didn’t hesitate to ask us to define words and provide appropriate words to help him to describe things in English.

The lessons were based on discussions through group work; where we discussed approaches to teaching English and whether speaking, listening, reading and writing should be taught exclusively and how we were taught. The Turkish students said they are taught how to write in English, but their teachers don’t speak to them in English and so they are not fluent speakers of English.  In our groups we came to conclusions that there needs to be a balance of learning English through speaking, listening, reading and writing activities and they shouldn’t always be taught exclusively. 

Furthermore, we learned that the Danish have introduced a new skill for English language learners – communication, which encourages students to apply their English learning with a partner or in groups by having a conversation with each other or writing letters.  I think back home we do engage in this, although we have not identified ‘communication’ as one of the language and literacy skills.  Also I think after discussing about this in groups it has placed more of an emphasis on how important it is to allow children to apply there learning through real-life contexts e.g. ordering something in a restaurant or having a telephone conversation.  This is because members of the group highlighted that they often were given contrived dialogues to practise and they seemed far removed from natural language use.

In our second class this week we were split into groups and each group had to focus on an element of teaching e.g. classroom discipline.  My group focused on lesson planning and each of us shared our experiences and what we thought should be considered when lesson planning.  The Dutch girl showed me and the Turkish girl a lesson plan template she uses and I found it interesting that there was a space for the teacher’s personal skills; skills they will work on during a lesson e.g. classroom discipline and using your voice appropriately.  I also learned that the Dutch trainee teachers engage in teaching experience every week, at least once a week and have seven weeks teaching practice every 2nd semester.  I think this is really beneficial as they are regularly engaging in a classroom setting, seeing a qualified teacher and the strategies and resources he/she uses as well as learning more about how children behave and learn. I think I could also benefit from this amount of experience as it would develop my confidence in teaching and the hands-on experience would perhaps help me to retain more knowledge about teaching and learning.

After our group discussion on lesson planning we prepared a PowerPoint and presented it to the rest of our class and Finn was impressed with the included Stranmillis lesson plan template as it considered everything i.e. differentiation, assessment, thinking skills and personal capabilities etc.  He asked me to upload a copy onto Sjaelland University’s version of Queen’s Online so that all the students could access it.  I feel my confidence in presenting has increased since I have joined these classes as we are encouraged to give presentations quite a lot.  I like that they are not assessed because they don’t feel as daunting or stressful, but rather an opportunity to share ideas with people in your class in a non-threatening, positive way.  It’s also giving me plenty of practice for future oral presentations.

Week 7 (Mon 27th Feb - Sun 4th March)

Personal Blog

I cannot believe I have been living in Denmark for nearly two months now! The time truly flies here and has made me realise that my decision to do ERASMUS was a wise one.  I was slightly apprehensive at first as my Mum and some of my family were wary of me going and thought that 5-6 months away from home was too long, as well as risky, as I would be missing out on teaching practice in a Northern Ireland school, a year before I expect to graduate.  However I feel that I am coping quite well being away from home; surprisingly, as I have never been away from home and without family for more than a week. I also feel this experience will add more value to my professional and personal development as a teacher, as I am engaging in a different education system and will hopefully take away new ideas that will improve my teaching style and my confidence  in teaching children.  Furthermore, I hope to introduce new activities and teaching strategies I learn about when I go on placement again.

Austrian Dinner

The Austrian girls invited us and the Dutch girls for a kaiserschmarrn dinner; a meal they like to enjoy after they go skiing.  It was very nice and similar to pancakes, although could be described as broken pieces of pancake with optional toppings of sugar and jam.   The conversation was interesting and we enjoyed each others company and exchanging similarities and differences from our cultures.  I think our cultures are very similar in terms of our sense of humour and society norms, for example, table manners.  However, one of the Dutch girls did remark on how thankful we are when we receive things like dinner and said that we don’t seem to be content with saying “thank you” just once.  This surprised me and made me question whether it was because of my family background or Northern Irish culture.  She did say that it’s nice that we are so polite. 

Movie Night

Fionnuala’s boyfriend Ruaidhri arrived on Friday and the both of them stayed in Copenhagen for the weekend, so Trisha and I decided to invite the Austrian, Dutch and Norwegian girls over for a movie night.  We all seem to share the same interests and I feel like we are building friendships with them, which will hopefully grow throughout our time here. It’s refreshing to have different company every so often, as with little class time we don’t really see much of the other students unless we arrange to meet up and sometimes we can feel quite isolated in our room.  Trisha, Fionnuala and I all agree that our experience here is getting better with the arrival of the other students and as we socialise more.

Week 6 ( Mon 20th Feb - Sun 26th Feb )

Personal and Cultural blog

This has been an eventful week! We came back from Copenhagen after a weekend away; staying in a nice hotel with Fionnuala’s parents and brother, and as the expression goes ‘back to porridge’.  We had a brief taste of luxury-living once again i.e. watching English TV channels in the hotel room, sleeping in comfortable beds, having a big ensuite with a bath and being treated to dinner in restaurants.  It heightened my appreciation for my lifestyle back at home and made me realise just how apathetic I have become about material things and luxuries over here in Vordingborg. 

Trisha was surprised to find her Turkish roommate had arrived when she entered and was greeted by her and a crowd of other Turkish students.  There was an instant introduction to Turkish culture when we exchanged a hug and a kiss on each cheek with them.  Unfortunately we also discovered that Trisha’s personal belongings and furniture had been moved and someone had been smoking in the room; which led to Trisha’s move to our confined room.  Fortunately, we met with our tutor the next day and were given the option for the three of us to move to a bigger room; where the majority of ERASMUS students live.

Pancake Tuesday with the ERASMUS students.

This week we also hosted Pancake Day for all of the ERASMUS students and we also celebrated ‘Austrian Carnival Day’ by wearing brightly coloured clothes and vibrant eye make-up.  It was nice to get everybody together to mix and engage in conversation with each other as we didn’t have this opportunity in the previous semester, when all the other students had international dinners.  This taught me that if you want something to happen you need to take responsibility to organise it over here as so far, nothing social has been organised for the ERASMUS students.  The event was successful and everyone from all the different cultures and countries enjoyed the pancakes, so much so, that we got invited to Turkish tea and cake by two Turkish students two days later.

Turkish Tea

At the end of this week we also were invited to dinner by the three Dutch girls; three Austrian girls and a Norwegian girl also came. We instantly bonded with each other and shared the same sense of humour; a bonus when we all come from different backgrounds and cultures.  I also was impressed at how fluent all the girls were in speaking English and it made me question our education system back home and our apparent ignorance to learning foreign languages.  Obviously we are at an advantage with being native English speakers, however I’m beginning to think that if children in Northern Ireland were to engage in foreign language learning at a young age, communication barriers would be minimised and cultural awareness, increased.  I love that ERASMUS is giving me the opportunity to engage with a variety of cultures and communicate with people from different countries.  We certainly are learning a lot from each other and about our cultures!  I’m looking forward to organising more socialising opportunities with the ERASMUS students and widening my knowledge of their cultures as well as entertaining them with examples of typical Northern Irish culture!

Dutch girls' dinner

Week 5 (Mon 13th Feb - Sunday 19th Feb)

Cultural blog

This week we went to Hamburg as the university was on ‘winter break’ for the week.  We stayed in a Generator hostel for three nights.  This was a new experience for Fionnuala and I as we had never stayed in a hostel before and we had a variety of concerns about how clean the rooms and bed linen were and who else would be staying there.  To our pleasant surprise, the hostel challenged our preconceptions; our room was modern, immaculate and very comfortable and we seen a few families and young couples staying.  Furthermore, it only cost us £30 to stay for the three nights! This positive experience has encouraged me to consider booking hostels in my future travels.

The first sight we seen was the busiest and biggest train station I have ever seen (Hamburg Central Station).  This is no ordinary train station; the atmosphere is electric as crowds of people shift through platforms - we almost lost each other in the crowds!  The place is also surrounded with fast-food restaurants and shops, as well as a police station.  Unfortunately it was also surrounded by homeless people which was very humbling and shocking as they peered through every bin they came across, regardless of who was watching.  I have never seen this extent of homelessness back in Northern Ireland.

We took a bus tour around Hamburg and the top attractions and sights were pointed out to us, including; the river Elbe (the second largest port in Europe), the Town Hall (Rathaus), St. Michaelis Church and Miniatur Wunderland.  We visited all of these places and each was fascinating. The river Elbe had a 20cm ice-cap (the last ice-cap was 15 years ago) which gave us the opportunity to walk on water. However, we weren’t adventurous enough to run, ice-skate or sledge along it; like a majority of the German people! 

Minatur Wunderland (43 000 square feet) is a must-see for everyone! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the different mini-worlds; including the USA, Scandanavia, the Netherlands and Hamburg.  The detail of every piece was incredible, there was even mini people doing a variety of worldly things in the day and night e.g. jobs, swimming, driving, running in fields, sunbathing etc.  The trains that travelled through the worlds made the experience even more special. 

Mini Hamburg

Rathaus, Hamburg’s town hall was more like a palace and the inside tour allowed us to see how luxurious and valuable it was e.g. leather wallpaper, gold doors, renaissance paintings covering the ceilings and wall borders.  Astonishingly, it was one of the only buildings in Hamburg not destroyed by the Second World War.

Me standing alongside Rathaus

I feel that visiting Hamburg has been one of my biggest highlights to date and it has instilled in me a desire to travel and see more of Europe and experience more cultures.  I am particularly excited at the opportunity of us being able to travel to Berlin as I have just finished reading ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ by John Boyne and am keen to see the sights that are rich with World War history.   I have also learned how easy it is to travel around Europe by train and see no excuse not to, while I have free time during the ERASMUS experience.

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