Practice preschool

The second week of my practice I went in a Kindergarten, the age of the children of my group was normally 5 years.


In Denmark, pedagogues think it's really important for the children to take fresh aire (they don't care if it's really cold or rainy). Children learn a lot by playing freely in the nature, it's really good for the physical developpement of their body, they use a lot of imagination to invent new games and strategies.
I think it also explains in one way why danish children are more independant, autonome and responsible, teachers give them much more freedom!

Impressive playground

Today, during my practice I went out side at the break, I was totally shocked (in a good way) by the playground!
It's so different compared to my country...

The space
Firstly, the playgroud is huge(compared to Belgium).
There is a lot of grass, trees... the childeren have a lot of space where they can run and play, but of course they are some invisible limites.
They have a lot of "games" : swings, bridges, tunnels, climbing walls... in Belgium the playgrounds look like a prison: there are high walls, a big gate, 120 kids more or less in the same space without any grass because it brings mud!


The freedom
There is a teacher watching them, but he let the children play (some children are climbing in the trees, others are playing with branches,some of them take their shoes off while they are in the sand, they don't have to wear there jacket even if it's not that warm...)In Belgium, there are so many rules, the teacher who watchs the children has to remind the rules a lot of times.

I was realy suprised that they could go out of the school without problem, there is no gate, you can just come in or out as you wish !In Belgium there is a huge gate, that the children can't even open and the teachers are controling who comes in and out.

I think that the children are much more able to exert and then be more concentrated later in class.

Drama and theatre

Thuesday 6 of April

We went to Aabenraa to the other campus of University College South Denmark.
We started with icebreaking exercises.
For instence: the teacher says 3 colors, you choose one in your head, then all the people who took the same color, change from place.
It looks a bit stupid but it's a nice way of changing people from place and make them meet other people by sitting near to them.

We also did some improvization games.
One of them was to pass an imaginary box, which was very haevy...it was a good exercise because most of the people were not use to do such exercises, but this one was simple and funny!

What I want to remember about this, is that before working with a new group of people, or to start something new, it's very important to feel good in the group. It's important to have contact with the people by doing simple things (that makes you laugh, interact and that's able to be done by everybody)
What I could also add is that we often changed the seize of the groups (groups of 2,3,6 people, sometimes alone)thats is very benefic (and less annoying).

After a very little moment you already feel more confident and ready to work (in a better mood and spirit).

International diner

On thuesday 16 of Match, we did an international diner!
Everybody had to prepare a tipical meal from his country, of course many countries prepared different meals, we worked in groups.

We had a delicious meal, there were so many different things.
It was one of my favourite moments in the international week because, everybody did his best, worked together. Everybody knows a tipical meal from his country, so everybody could participate and chear something he liked. It helps to communicate with the other erasmus student (for 1 week), but also it's so nice to eat something you like and know so well from you country when it has been already nearly 2 months that you have been in a foreign country.
It's so an important part of your culture and of course it's so nice to eat :)
It's a way to discover and respect the other cultures and everybody is intergated in this activity !

I think it's a great and simple way to meet other cultures, I hope I will use this as a teacher later on.

Video: something special about Denmark...

International week

Didactic and pedagogy
Imagine what make people different:
-food
-education
-daily routine
-the body langage
-climate
-geography...

Imagine what people have in commun:
-a live (they are all going to die)
-have feelings
-need water and food
-inctinct
-socialeize
-humour
-have a future and a past...


You need to understand the history and the geography of a country to try to understand the people!

To teach pupils with different cultures you need to have: respect, tolerance and reflexion !

Visit of a special needs school

Today we visited a mainstream school where there were 2 kinds of integrated children:
1.Pupils with physical disabilities (exemple: blind children or in a wheelchair)but without intellectual problems.

Those children are integarted in "normal" classes, but can get some extra help from a special teacher. There was a blind child in second grade (9 years) integrated in a class I visited, he had a special teacher who was there only for him, he also had his own computer with a special lamp (on the picture)thanks to that he could read.

2. Pupils with learning disabilties .
They have difficulties to learn in many different subjects, can't stay concentrated for a long time and they mostly have social gaps (difficulties to live with others).
Those children were in special classes, with fewer students. In those classes, students can be from different levels and ages, the teacher adapts his work for each student and work a lot on social skills, to make the pupils become well intergated citizens in the society.

3. There is also special classes for pupils who have problems in one specific subject, in this case the child is taken in a special class (a few times a week) where he is going to have intensive courses in the subject in wich he has more difficulties, that lasts several months(it depends of his evolution).

Special classes to relax
The school has 2 special classes where the pupils can relax if he has behaviours problems, he can be alone or talk with a person.


Special programmes
Each year they have 10 "special weeks" (spread all over the year) in those weeks,pupils do different stuff (for instance:a play).

The school building
The school is very big and has a large garden. The school is divided into " 3 little schools" according to the age of the children. The main facilities are in the center of the school and used by everybody (exemple: the gym, the kitchens...). It's nice because verybody knows everybody of his "little school". The pupils in special classes are in the same "little school" as the other pupils of their age.

I tought this school was very interesting and in advance compared to Belgium where it's difficult to integrate special needs children in mainstream schools.