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| Niall's 30th |
So it’s been yet another great week here in Växjӧ....but
the cold has come, it’s dropped to -20 so my face goes numb after a couple of
seconds. Then again as they say in Sweden ‘there is no such thing as bad
weather just stupid clothes’ and I have found this to be true.
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| Strannies at welcome dinner |
The Strannies had to do a presentation on our country in front of
the class. It was great fun to show what Ireland has to give. I really enjoyed
listening to the other presentations as well, just to hear things and see things
that I don’t usually get to.
One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Sweden was for their
standard in education and their abstract ways of teaching. This pretty true to
what I’ve seen/heard so far. I was reading an article (http://www.businessinsider.com/a-group-of-schools-in-sweden-is-abandoning-classrooms-entirely-2012-1) about some
schools in Stockholm getting rid of the classroom and using more open spaces to
work in to help with children creativity. The students also don’t always work
with the same age they work with their level. I feel this is maybe not the best
way as it could bring a lot of focus to older children that are struggling with
certain subjects and they could get bullied or picked on for this. It’s really interesting to see that Sweden isn’t
afraid to take a chance or a risk at trying something knew with education, I feel
that they take the risk because at the end of the day they can always revert
back to the older style if it doesn’t work but we can progress if we don’t take
risks. That is how I kind of feel about going away also, I have nothing to lose
in this experience but everything to gain.
We went to visit a high school today one that is more focused on
vocational subjects rather than the normal main stream subjects. People in
Sweden don’t have to pay for school or many of the things around it like
transport to school, books, lunch etc. This may sound like the perfect system
but I feel that is loses on a lot as well especially when I focus on the
primary sector. I remember when I was in primary school I loved going on
schools trips to the zoo, W5 or places like that and the children would pay a
small sum of money to go. In Sweden like I said everything is paid for so if
they want to go on a school trip the school pays. Sounds pretty good but it’s
not as the school gets very little funding for these type of trips so the
children rarely go on any. The school also cannot ask the child to pay anything
or they would lose other funding. I feel if I was a parent I would not mind
paying for my child to have a fun and educational visit to somewhere.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg to things I have seen and
heard this week but I will leave that for another day.
Tak så myket for reading.
Until next time Hej då
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