This week we have been to a school in Copenhagen to observe an English class. Before our trip to Copenhagen I tried to learn about Danish schools and classes as much as possible so that I, at least, had an idea of what I was going to see and I was quite excited about that since it was a kind of first practice for me. After a one-hour trip to Copenhagen we met Peter in Copenhagen and we went to the school.
My first impression of the school was about the school environment. I was quite surprised by the school which had no entrance policy -we went into the school directly; wtihout being asked who we were and why we were there -Almost all of the schools in Turkey are surrounded by fences and you're generally asked for the reason of your visit to the school.
After meeting the English teacher of the school, we observed two classes. All of the students were very kind to us. And we had the chance to observe the students and the classrooms while they were dealing with their tasks.
The first class that we observed were quite good at English and many of the students were willing to speak in English. They were around 25 students and they were sitting in groups from three to six - which I found quite useful to increase cooperation.
When we first went into the classroom with the teacher, they just sat down after getting their things. It took around two minutes for them to settle down. They started with a game of describing animals. They were all walking in the classroom to meet their partners and to ask each other about the animals they described -which involved communication. Then, they wrote poems and they read the poems aloud. After that, the teacher gave feedback for the worksheets they did before. Except for a few moments of giving feedback, teacher did not explained any grammar point explicitly. When they were talking about the language, the teacher tried to ask yes/no questions to the students so that they were still thinking and finding the right answer. The teacher gave instructions, answered the questions of the students individually, and walked around the class to observe her students while they were on their tasks but still it was a student centered class. All of the students were active all the time since the teacher assigned the students with another task when they finished their first task. In this way, she made the quick learners practise and created a stress-free environment for the other students.
During our observation of both of the classes, the teacher did not state how much time they needed for any of the tasks. When I asked her after the class, she explained that in this way she was not that much time - focused and she had the possibility to see how much time they really needed.
With the other class we oberved, the teacher was more authoritative compared to her first lecture that we had been. In fact, this is generally what most of the teachers lack in their teaching style because you need different strategies for different classes- even for different students sometimes. Of course the teacher had many things in common in both of the classes relating her teaching style but it was a good example of how to deal with two different classes especially in terms of discipline.
In both of the classes, students were to obey some basic rules; like asking for permission before speaking, being quite while others were speaking and keeping the classroom environment clean. There was a kind of table of rules on the wall. It was quite interesting because the title was "The rules made by the teacher". I guess it would be better if the students felt they made the rules themselves. In this way, I believe that they might obey the rules better.
Both of the classrooms we observed were quite colourful and stress-free. Students were wearing their casual clothes - in Turkey students generally wear uniforms- . Some of them were wearing hats during the classes. To my surprise, two of the students took off their shoes in the classroom, which you can never come accross in Turkey. So, the classroom environment had been arranged in a good way so that students could feel comfortable enough to focus on their task and the subject.
Finally, I want to mention a little bit about the techniques and the methods that the teacher used. As far as I observed, the teacher gives a lot of importance to cooperation and group work. All of the tasks she assigned her students involved a lot of interaction. She benefitted a lot from communicative tasks, and games. She also benefitted very much from translation. When the students needed translation, she tried to use the native language of the students. She either gave the equivalent meaning of the unknown words or asked one of the students to make sure that everyone understood the same thing.
To conclude, it was very interesting for me and for my friends to observe an English class in Denmark. It was a kind of first step for our teaching practice since we will start observing and doing practice in Turkey next year. It was also the first step for our school experience in Denmark as we will do teaching practice in January and February in one of the public schools in Denmark. Now, I am really looking forward to starting my practice here.
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