Conclusion

So I have been home for a couple of days now and have had to sit back and think over my time away in Sweden. I have been away from family and friends a couple of times before being that slight bit older than people in my year I have had other opportunities to travel for longer periods of time. However this is the first time I had been away when it was for a proper reason. I wasn’t just going away for a wee holiday I was going to have to study, be responsible and make sure this time didn’t upset my education.

 I can honestly say it was amazing and that I truly loved the challenge of studying abroad. Personally I don’t understand why more people are not jumping down the throats of our lecturers in Stranmillis to let them go. I think people think it will be a disadvantage when it comes to getting a job, but I don’t see how being able to teach in a different country for 6 weeks would be a disadvantage, if anything it is an advantage surly.

I was able to keep on track of my essays and class work, have an amazing placement and still visit 3 countries that I had never been both. All this broadens your resources for the classroom and just yourself as an individual.

I think people sometimes are too comfortable to take that wee leap of faith into the unknown and let opportunities like this pass them by. I am just happy to say that I didn’t and it has been one of the best decisions I’ve made. I think people should take the risks because the positives far outweigh the negatives, if it doesn’t work its only 4 months and you will have learnt something.

Sweden you have been amazing thank you for the time, experience and the people I met. I shall see you again soon.

Many thanks

                          Michael

The Finale........Personal

My final week in Vaxjo, this is my last couple of days in Sweden and I decided to go and visit some family relatives. They live on the west coast of Sweden in a small town called Lysekil. It is a beautiful part of Sweden filled with fishing villages and seafood. I had to get the train from Vaxjo to Gothenburg. I have really enjoyed getting the trains around Sweden I believe it is the best way to get around. Gives you time to sit back and enjoy the countryside.

I was staying with them for 3days before I would start my journey home through London. It was a beautiful small town with and old town and new town. I was able to go and see where my dad’s partner grew up. I was just there to spend time with family so I didn’t do an awful lot of traveling, which was perfect after my 4 and a bit months of none stop traveling.

I was taken to a small little tourist fishing village called Smogen. It was absolutely stunning with a wooden board walk going around the whole villages. I was glad I was able to relax and not have any worries and be able to have time to think over my time away and what I had learnt both educational and personally. I think it’s important like we tell our class to self-evaluate about the good things and bad things I have experienced over my 4 and bit months away. I just wonder how it will affect my teaching in the years to come.

Until next time Hej då

My 6A class.....Professional

13/05/2012

It’s my final week in school and I have to say I have loved absolutely every minute of this placement. The children have been great at making me feel welcome and not being scared of using their English. My teacher Lasse has been wonderful at how much freedom he has given us with our lessons. We have taught everyday which I was over the moon about as I wasn’t sure if that was going to be possible to have one every day. Even though most lessons were either English or PE I feel it has taught me a lot.

Me and my buddy Andy

My teacher asked if another girl and I would take their national tests for them. I feel this has been one of my best learning experiences with in a classroom. I had to take the English oral exams by getting the children to talk on a topic either family, their house or what they did in their spare time. I was so impressed by the standard of the English and had good fun marking it. I then had to take there listen exams, which I felt was quite long maybe 25 minutes. The children all preformed at very high standard. I found it a challenge to mark the work as I knew the importance of it and that I had to really take my time and make it sure I didn’t make a mistake. Finally I had to mark their written exam where the children had to write a short story on what the world would be like in 2112. The stories made me laugh a lot and I really enjoyed getting to see the creative side of the children.

The velcro wall...Gothenburg

Me and Lasse spoke after and told us how great it was too have us in the class as the children could have no better experience with English. I have to say I felt very proud of the job I down and I can’t wait to come back and visit Lasse again. We are going to keep in contact by email.

Vaxjo

I had a lot of fun with the class but it was the learning experience that I really enjoyed and I appreciate Lasse a lot for letting take the exams as it’s not really something I get to do when I am home.

Until next time Hej då 

Gothenburg....Culture

07/05/2012

I’ve had my traveling shoes on again and this time Niall, Mary, Dean and I went to Gothenburg. It started a bit frantic as my alarm failed to wake me up, making me miss my bus and having to get a taxi into town to the station just in time for the train. I love traveling by train as you get to see so much of the country side and the surrounding areas. It was only me and Niall traveling down in the morning and Mary and Dean were going to meet us later that night.

Niall and I under the heat camera

We arrived in Gothenburg which is a beautiful city, I think I preferred it to Stockholm but I think the weather didn’t help Stockholm so I will have visit it again sometime. Niall and I made it to the hostel which looked great and left our bags off and set out to explore the city. We saw some bike stands and decided it would be the cheapest and probable the more fun option of traveling around the city, for three days for 10Kr (one pound) we couldn’t go wrong.

With our bikes

We decided to cycle to the Universeum which is a kind of W5 centre. It was so much fun they had a full jungle area with wild birds and monkeys running around. I was able to coax a parrot onto my arm so that was a lot of fun. They had a underwater shark tunnel which was amazing to see. Being able to get so close to the sharks was really cool. We decided after that to go and cycle around the town in search of an Irish pub to watch the Ulster rugby match. Not long after that Mary and Dean arrived so we grabbed some food and called it a day as we were going to have a busy second day.

The parrot

We woke up early and went for a walk in the nearby park which had moose and other animals in it so we walked around and enjoyed the lovely weather looking at the native Swedish animals. We decided we want to go to Liseberg which is a theme park. We arrived and tried to coax Mary to go on her first ever rollercoaster, we finally managed. By the end we found it more difficult to get here away from them. We went on the log flume and got totally soaked which made a good few people laugh a most people were pretty dry coming of it. I really enjoyed Gothenburg and would have loved to have stayed longer.

Us all soaked

Until next time Hej då 

Change… Professional

30/04/2012

 In Sweden at this moment are working with a new curriculum, so it has been great to see this working within the classroom over the last couple of weeks.

Our curriculum seems to never stop changing back home. But I feel that the current curriculum is on the right lines. As it still has some focus on the main subjects but now with a more student centred approach. In Sweden they do not seem to have PDMU as a subject but more as just a way of life in the classroom, if one of the students wants to talk about something they are not happy about they talk about it and sometimes as a whole class approach. My teacher Lasse says he always tells the children not to say ‘not’ and so far they don’t. They never seem to moan about the work they have to do they just seem to get on with it.

Also a thing I have noticed within my classroom, I cannot say about the whole school, but there seems to be no bullying everyone helps everyone. My teacher told me that at the start when he first had the class that he makes them do different exercises to show that some people are better at different things than others but that they all have their individual strengths. I think this is something that I feel very strongly towards as I hate when a child thinks they are bad at something or insecure about themselves because others have made them feel like that. I feel it’s our jobs as teachers to enforce that each child is an individual and that they can do and be what they want. As a child’s happiness within the classroom is essential if they are going to learn.

There are only 16 students in my class and you can see the different groups of friends within that class but everyone gets on. I noticed it most when I had to pick pairs for some group work and no one complained about who they were with. This is something I always notice back home when there is paired work some of the children complain who they are working with and that is not nice for anyone to feel unwanted. So I have really come to see how passionate I am about the actually happiness of the children within my classroom and for each of them to feel and have a vital part within that. Pastoral care could be the module I will pick next year.

Until next time Hej då

Adjö..... professional

25/04/2012

So I am finally back on school placement again after having quite sometime of and having to orgainse it myself, but I am just glad to be back in the classroom.

Since i have been in the classroom a bit longer now i have started to see a few more differences with in the Swedish school system and the Northern Irish school sysytem. One of the largest differences i have noticed with in the class is that phyical contact with the children is alot less strict. So far i can see the reasons behind it and the reasons for doing it and so do the children which i feel is good.

I mostly notice this when it comes to Fridays within my classroom. On Fridays my teacher wears a tie (usually it is just normal clothes) and he ask me why he did this, he told me its to let the chldren know its hugging day. So every Friday they hug before they go home. The children seem to enjoy the close rapor they have with their teacher. Futhermore on Fridays the children give each other back rubs. The teacher says they do this to help bring postitive feelings towards each other in the classroom and helps to reduce bullying withn the classroom and school as it lets the children have contact in a non violent way.

I think that in Northern Ireland we have taken no contact with children to the extreme, that of a child gets hurt or is upset we can really do anything to comfort them. I feel that children are going to start growing up with issues of contact as from a young age in school if they fall or are upset they have to deal with it themselves. I also am a bit confused as the Northern Ireland makes us as teachers teach PDMU, which is about feeling and difficult issues, but at the same time don’t let children react they feel is normal when they are hurt especially at Foundation stage and Key 1. I understand that it is for our own protection as teachers but I think we miss the point sometimes. 

Maybe Sweden is too comfortable but I think they have a better idea about it than us in the United Kingdom. 

Until next time Hej då

Vaxjo spring...Personal

19/04/2012

Spring has arrived in Växjӧ and the weather has begun to get warmer….finally. This week the weather was particularly warm with the temperature rising to 20°C. So people were out in numbers with their shorts and t-shirts on ready for a BBQ. Our friends decided that we would all chip in and buy a proper BBQ together rather than keep spending the money on the disposable ones.

During the day before the BBQ we decided that we would go down and enjoy the sunshine beside the lake. I had told my friends previously that I would love to swim in the lake and jump of the bridge into it, so I decided that today would be the day. We enjoyed the sun for a while and I change and went for a swim in the lake. The water was so cold but so nice at the same time, really refreshing with lots of fish around me. I decided that I would head round to the bridge to see if I could jump in as I wasn’t sure if it was going to be deep enough. I got back in the water and swam out to the middle and tested the depth, but it wasn’t deep enough and I didn’t want to risk anything stupid.

Me and the BBQ

It’s great when the sun comes out over here as you just start to realise how many Swedish students there are as every grass area is just filled with people sunbathing, barbequing and playing games. It starts to bring that community feeling around campus that I have missed from home.

Vasa Stockholm

We have enjoyed some of the spring night by having camp fires down by the lake. I have to say I love making camp fires; I always do it at home so it was nice to have one over here. My friends at home make fun of me for being a bit of a fire bug and it didn’t take long for my friends over here to pick up on that.

Campus is beautiful at the minute with the beautiful weather, just hope it stays.

Until next time Hej då