A Kestrel For a Knave - A Heartbreaking Story

A Kestrel For A Knave - A Heartbreaking Story

Well, when you start reading a book, you expect it to be interesting for you and to keep you reading. This book, A Kestrel For A Knave by Barry Hines is exactly one of those. At first, it was an obligation (which is something I hate - reading books not because you like them but beacuse you are told to do so) to read the book for my English lessons  but when I started reading it, I couldn't help going deeper and deeper into Billy Casper's heartbreaking story.

The story is set in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and it is about a working class schoolboy named Billy Casper. Billy has a lot of problems both at school and at home. He is delivering newspapers in the mornings and his mother and his brother are mostly in the pub drinking. His brother, Jud, is always bullying him, just like almost every single person in Billy Casper's life. He is only interested in his kestrel, which he names "Kes". The story includes flashbacks in which we could see details about his capturing the kestrel and the details about Caspers' family. 

No caring at home, no love, sometimes no food; yes, basically nothing important in his life; the story of Billy Casper is really heartbreaking. Living with a bullying brother who steals his bike in the morning, Billy Casper is within the unfair arms of his fate because of the fact that he has to be a "survivor" in this unfair world. He is even thought to be an idiotic troublemaker at school. However, as we learn more about him and his story of training a wild kestrel, we see that he could do good at school too. So the story of Billy Casper is a very good example of how becoming passionate about something can change your life in a tough world.

The dialogues in the book are written in dialect but this makes the story even more realistic even though it takes time to get used to the language use in the dialogues. This book was also made into a movie (Kes) in 1969, the year after the book was published. Although the movie is also a great success I don't think that it can catch up with the book's great depictions. As Imogen Carter states in his review of the book  "Although undoubtedly a masterpiece, Loach's film can't match the novel's dazzling natural imagery... A dew drop becomes "the tiny egg of a mythical bird", a young lad rides his tricycle "his legs whirring like bees' wings". Hines's descriptions throughout highlight Billy's love of the natural world and the contrasting harshness of his home life." I haven't really made a list of "my all time favorite books" but if one day I decide to make one A Kestrel For A Knave is definitely going to be somewhere close to the top. 

"RudoLf Steiner" School Experience...

Last week, I was supposed to make presentation of my teaching practice and my video I have made with other friends from my group during my teaching practice about democracy and citizenship in Danish schools. However, Dorthe Palm arranged a school visit for us and that's why we postponed our presentation to this Wednesday and we went to a private school called Rudolf Steiner School. 

At first, I was a bit reluctant to go because I was in mood of doing the presentation which was almost the only focus of my studying for the last two months. Even though "democratic citizenship" is not a topic that I would normally study in Turkey, I had thought that it would be interesting to work on this topic when it was introduced for the first time. Focusing on this theme for the last couple of weeks, I even realized that I haven't paid enough attention to English lessons. Therefore after thinking about it, I decided to go to this private school; so that I could change my focus point a little bit towards my own subject again. After visiting the school, I am glad that I skipped the presentation and paid a visit to this private school.

Rudolf Steiner School is a private school in Vordingborg, Denmark. It is a little bit different from other schools I have been to during my stay in Denmark. The first thing that makes this school different from other Danish schools I have visited is the fact that Rudolf Steiner School has an interesting vision of the relationships between the teachers and the students: During my visit, I have had the chance to observe a music lesson, and an English lesson of 3th graders. At the beginning of the lesson the teacher of the lesson greeted the students in front of the class and they shook hands. The teacher looked at every single student's face, smiled and said "Hi!". As I was explained by one of the teachers of the school, this is kind of the vision of the school. They do it because they think that each student is a human being who deserves to be respected and who is supposed to respect others. As they shake hands (when they see each other for the first time in the morning and when they enter into the classroom) it means that they accept each other's presence and give the message that they care about each other (quite interesting understanding of caring school,caring teachers; right?). Torben Larsen, the French teacher at the school, calls it, Rudolf Steiner School (Rudolf Steiner Skolen in Danish), spiritual school and in this way they could see what is happening in the students' lives; namely they go inside the students. However, this tradition seemed a little bit strange to me. Because teachers in this school were more authoritative compared to the teachers I have seen in other Danish schools. And just before greetings in front of the classroom, the teachers set students in lines and ask them to put their hands on their chests, on hand over the other, creating a cross. This reminded me an army officer's marshaling the troops. Even though the teachers say that it has nothing to do with discipline I think that it is directly a disciplinary issue beacuse the students wait in lines with their hands on their chests until the silence is provided with the teachers' warnings.

The classrooms of the school are also a little bit different than other classrooms that I have observed in other Danish schools. First of all, they are quite big and they look like rooms of the houses more than classrooms. Students sit in rows unlike other Danish classrooms I have observed. Each line forms a kind of group and they have a special categorization for making the groups. They have four different category of students: the group of leaders( students that show leadership features ), the group of melancholic students( students that seem sad most of the time and behave like they have nothing good in their lives all the time) the group of hyper actives ( students that cannot stand still most of the time)  and the group of students that lose their attention very easily. The reason why they put the students with similar features together is that they can be more competitive in that way. 

In addition to this, in this school Danish culture is not the dominant culture. The school has an international view and they teach about other cultures as well. There is no seperate religion lessons in this school but the students learn about different religions and beliefs such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism etc.

Every week, in Rudolf Steiner School,  there is a meeting at the school hall in the morning. The students sing along and every week a different class show ( or say ) something about their work during the week. It may be about math, art, history anything that they have been working on. They share it with the other students, teachers and also some of the parents. On Wednesday, when I was lucky enough to see one of these meetings, a third year class performed some of their play at this meeting, which they have performed again on the stage later on during the day). 

Rudolf Steiner School is 37 seven-year old private school which seems to be quite unique in its path and which has obviously a different understanding of education and teaching. There is a kindergarden within the school's campuss as well as primary and lower secondary school until 10th grade. They start to teach German and/or English as a second language from the first grade. If a teacher, graduated from "normal" schools wants to be a teacher in Rudolf, s/he has to apply for a job at this school and if accepted for the job s/he is sent to Norway for three years to study to become "a Rudolf teacher".  

Red, Sunset...

It is 27th of March already! We are almost in April now, and days are getting longer and longer in Denmark. As we adjusted our clocks one hour forward yesterday, from now on we will have more daylight and late sunsets, which we have been missing for a long time. So, today, just on the day of setting our time one hour forward,  I had one of those perfect late sunsets watch. I enjoyed the sunset and all the beautiful colors of the sky in Vesthavnen (Vesthavnen, Brovejen Bridge; Vordingborg, Denmark), in Vordingborg. 

I have recently had a lot of problems with my computer. Today I decided to work a little on our video presentation in the evening but to my surprise my computer didn't work and I was very sad about it because I have all my data, photos, videos on my computer. I was quite worried about losing all of my data when my computer didn't work. A little bit upset about my computer, I just wanted to go for a walk and when I see the sunset from my window, which is the moment I decided to watch it from the harbour so that I could maybe feel better. Instead of walking, I cycled around 3 kilometers to the harbour to catch the late sunset on the west of Vordingborg. There it was! I had "a spectacularly red sunset" watch from the harbour. The colors on the horizon were so beautiful that I forgot all about my computer and got relieved with this exquisite show. Of course I remembered to take some pictures, too. Now, it is time to enjoy the long days and beautiful weather here in a northern European country, which presents probably the most beautiful natural phenomenons with its Northern lights, beautiful sunsets and long days with a lot of daylight.

Spring in Denmark and St. Patrick's Day 17th of March

Winter is almost over! Well -unluckily- only theoretically! Normally, 21st of March is the beginning of the Spring and when spring begins, it is supposed that trees turn into green, flowers blossom, and it gets warm and warm everyday . However, it is still quite cold in Denmark. Now, it is 0

°C  in Vordingborg but "the felt air temperature" ( also known as the apparent air temperature ) is -6

°C (Weather Forecast in Vordingborg) due to wind chill factor. It hasn't been snowing for a long time, too. So, the sky is gray, the trees are brown and it causes gloomy and boring days especially when it is cloudy - just like today. Even boring to talk about it, right?  Still, since today is St. Patrick's Day, I prefer talking about green, which is one of the most important signs of st. Patrick's Day. It is the day of GREEN! So, let's discover what is special about today?

About St. Patrick's Day!

The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385. His given name was Maewyn, and he almost didn't get the job of bishop of Ireland because he lacked the required scholarship.

Far from being a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. At that age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. During his captivity, he became closer to God.

He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, 

bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity.

His wishes were to return to Ireland, to convert the native pagans to Christianity. But his superiors instead appointed St. Palladius. But two years later, Palladius transferred to Scotland. Patrick, having adopted that Christian name earlier, was then appointed as second bishop to Ireland.

St. Patrick's Day parades in USA - Chicago River 

Patrick was quite successful at winning converts. And this fact upset the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time. He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries across the country. He also set up schools and churches which would aid him in his conversion of the Irish country to Christianity.

His mission in Ireland lasted for thirty years. After that time, Patrick retired to County Down. He died on March 17 in AD 461. That day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since.

Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day. Not much of it is actually substantiated.

Some of this lore includes the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead. He also is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland. Of course, no snakes were ever native to Ireland, and some people think this is a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans. Though originally a Catholic holy day, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday.

One traditional icon of the day is the shamrock. And this stems from a more bona fide Irish tale that tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.

The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737. That was the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated in this country, in Boston.

Today, people celebrate the day with parades, wearing of the green, and drinking beer. One reason St. Patrick's Day might have become so popular is that it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring. One might say it has become the first green of spring. 

( retrieved from wilstar.com on the 17th of March, 2011 )

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY DENMARK!!

A Visit to A Boarding School in Næstved - Herlufsholm International School

A small part of Herlufsholm School And Campuss

Last Thursday, together with some of my friends, Sevgi and Uğurcan, we joined an interesting project. One of our classmates in English Class, Brenda,  invited everyone to attend a panel in a boarding school in Næstved where she works as an English teacher. As I have already been in Herlufsholm International School and I had been quite impressed by the presentation of the school given by one of the students, I was quite sure that it would be interesting to attend this project too - and now I see that I were not wrong.

American Ideals As Expressed Through Music

Poster Examples prepared by the students for "English Day"

In Herlufsholm International School (Herlufsholm Skole), we attended a presentation of USA given by Brenda, as a native of USA. The panel was about American Ideals Expressed Through Music so there were many surprises about music. Brenda had invited some other friends to attend the panel and they sang different songs from the most popular music figures of US, from Michael Jackson to Elvis Presley. It was quite fun to sing along and dance with the other Danish students. Also, it was a different experience to hear about USA from the viewpoint of an American. The panel was within the context of "English Day". Thus,  everywhere, everything and everyone turned to English at this 
amazing boarding school. Posters for English speaking countries all over the walls of the school, songs in English, English food and everything had something to do with English. It was a very interesting project for us, which inspired me to have the same kind of projects when I start my teaching.

Herlufsholm Boarding School

When it comes to Herlufsholm International School, it is a private  day and boarding school for boys and girls (co-educational since 1950s)  in Næstved, Denmark. It is founded by Admiral Herluf Trolle and his wife Brigitte Goye). It is the oldest boarding school in Denmark and at first it is founded as a monastery. Untill recently it was  a boarding school for boys but recently it has gradually opened to day students and girls. 

Suså River and Herlufsholm Boarding School

The school is located by a river ( Suså River ),in Næstved and it has a huge green campuss , which has also quite Gothic appearance with the church (from the Middle Ages) in the school garden. The school also has a seperate library ( one of the oldest in Denmark ), a museum, a gym, a small hospital, a few house for teachers and dormitories for boarding students. Students have to wear uniforms, which is unique to this school in Denmark. 

Teaching Practice And Reflections

After a while I am back to write on my blog. Teaching practice has come to an end in a short time and now we are back in lessons. It was one week of practice with observing different lessons with different classes. In general, it was a good project to observe different lessons and and try to make a movie. It made me feel like I am doing  a kind of documentary of Danish schools - which are quite different than Turkish schools as I mentioned on my blog before-. 

Doing this project we had a few problems with bureaucracy. For instance, they didn't allow us to make a movie inside the school for the first three days of our observation and when you think that we only had four days to observe the lessons and the school , it was quite unfortunate for us. We could record only on our last day of practice. Also, they didn't allow us to record interviews with individual students; we could only make a video of group works or whole class. Besides, we expected - more or less- to observe English lessons. However, lessons we have been observing were mainly music and math class so we couldn't get to see much about our own subject. Still we tried our best to reflect upon our observations in our movie. Now that the teaching practice period is over, we are working on our movie.  In two or three weeks, we will make a presentation of our movie about democracy in Danish schools and  our teaching practice period. 

Iselingeskolen, Vordingborg

In one of the classes we have been observing, there were a dyslexic and an autistic (Autism) student. And as far as I learned from the teacher, they sometimes have quite hard time to deal with the students with special needs, which shows that teachers should always be ready to deal with these kind of students who have some learning difficulties and/or disorders. Also in the school we observed, teachers do their best to integrate these students with others and they are taught with the other students, which shows that Danish schools have a kind of inclusive structure. Especially teachers try their best to make sure that nobody is excluded somehow in the classroom even though some of the students who have learning difficulties might sometimes be too unwilling even to say a word. Also as I learned from the teacher, the school supported the dyslexic students with a special kind of computer to help them read and write better. (To learn more about Dyslexia, click on this) Finally, although Danish schools are generally multiethnic, I haven't felt any kind of exclusion of students from different ethnic backgrounds in the school we have observed. This might be thanks to the idea of integrating all the students in the same school, teach them Danish language which is the dominant language in the society and treat them equally. Allthough music and history lessons could be quite Danish, the idea of being different than the majority does not seem to cause problems but the idea of dominant Danish culture in these multicultural Danish schools is open to discussion.

As I have been observing, Danish schools have a quite informal environmet and structure compared to Turkish schools. First of all, students are more comfortable in the classroom in terms of relations with the teachers. Students can stand up, work while standing, change their place without permission from the teacher; come into the classroom without knocking on the door while the teacher is in the classroom and most importantly call their teachers with their names. In Turkey, on the other hand, teachers have a kind of authority. It is not as strict as it is always reflected but students are expected not to move that much in the classroom without permission depending on the age of the students. There is generally a kind of formal distance between teachers and students. Students have to wear uniforms and teachers wear suits unlike Danish schools where teachers are a part of informal structure of the school as well as students. 

In Danish schools, there are student councils where two students from each classroom express their opinions, suggest, and make some changes in the school which is quite democratic even though they don't have much power to make changes. Student centered learning can be seen as a foundation for Danish education system. Students needs and interests are taken into consideration. Students are not given too much homework and in the classroom they work cooperatively. Students are divided into group of four or five students and each group has a kind of leader, a slow learner and two or three average students; to strengthen the idea of cooperation within the class. Also the idea that "students might be at different levels at the same time" is paid much attention. Slow learners are encouraged by the teacher to catch up with the other students. 

When it comes to Danish education system, Danish primary schools are also a little bit different from Turkish schools. For instance, pre-school class is voluntary whereas it has been obligatory in Turkey for the last two  years. Then, 9 year of "folkeskole" ( The Folkeskole consists of one year of pre-school class, nine years of primary and lower secondary education and a one-year 10th form )  -  the years up to the age of 15-16. Danish schools are supported by tax-based governmental and municipal funding and regular students do not pay any tuition fees in public schools and universities. Whether the education is received in a publicly provided school, in a private school or at home is a matter of individual choice, as long as accepted standards are met. It is education itself that is compulsory, not school. On the other hand, in Turkey, high school is also compulsory. One year of pre-primary education and 8 years of primary education ( 5 years primary, 3 years secondary ) and then 4 years of high school is obligatory. 

To get an overview of how the Danish Education System is structured: 

retrieved from  www.eng.uvm.dk on the 14th of March,2011

To learn more about Danish Schools and Danish education system go to www.eng.uvm.dk .

INTERNATIONAL Conversations...

There is something quite different and funny "going around" this semester: international conversations... Last semester, almost all of the exchange students were from Turkey and we used to speak English with all friends. Now that we have exchange students from Spain and Belgium and we have been exposed to Danish for six months, you can hear many different languages being spoken around since almost everyone tries to learn some words or expressions in other languages. When we meet with other exchange students, everyone tries to get some words from the other friend's native language because it is fun. For instance, it is likely that you hear "Teşekkür ederim" (Turkish), "Tak!" ( Danish ) and "gracias" (Spanish)  or "merci" (French) or "Thank you" at the same time; all of which means the same thing. The same thing goes for many basic words in different languages. And sometimes it is quite confusing but at the same time funny to hear all these. 

We had one of these conversations tonight, which made us laugh a lot. Me, Rikke (one of our Danish housemates) and Charline (another exchange student from Belgium) were sitting in the kitchen and playing with cards. Then, Müslüm arrived and we invited him to our game but he said that he was so tired and he needed to go to bed and sleep. Then, each of us said "Good night" but in different languages. Rikke said "Good night" (in English) , Charline said "İyi Geceler" (in Turkish) and I said "Godnat" (in Danish). To our surprise, none of us said it in our own native language. But the funniest thing about this conversation was what Müslüm said next. When we all say "Goodnight" in different languages, he replied in Spanish and said "Buenas Noches". So, since we have already been confused a lot while speaking, apparently we will be confused much more when we go back to our country while speaking with other people and the most difficult thing that we are going to face will probably be "reverse culture shock" ; the language problem. 

Teaching Practice

Now that 21st Century Skills and Democratic Citizenship Education course has ended up and winter vacation is over, we have started something new: teaching practice in Danish schools. With three of my friends,as a group, we have started to observe Danish schools and lessons. We will be doing our teaching practice for a week. Since, I have already been to different Danish schools in Copenhagen and Nykobing- and also a boarding school in Næstved- I am familiar with how Danish schools look like and how Danish education system works. However, I can still find something new while I am doing my teaching practice during this period. Also, the aim of this teaching practice arrangement is that we go to Danish schools and try to figure out    How are Danish schools dealing with issues related to bringing democratic, culture and citizenship theory into practice? And even though I have also been teaching in two classes in Denmark - First Teaching Practice with Danish Students -  it is still something quite new for me.

In our teaching practice, while trying to find the answers for this question we are supposed to produce a movie of our observations, interviews etc.- which is probably going to be the most enjoyable part of this project. We have started to the practice period yesterday. However, we could not start making a movie as we haven't had the permission from the parents to film in the classroom and at school. This seemed us a handicap at first but after thinking about it, this is in fact  a very good starting point for the movie we are supposed to produce because it is a clear indication of what Peter Lang calls "doing democracy". 

Thanks to this project, we will be able to form ideas of how we can bring democracy and citizenship theory into practice in our classrooms when we become teachers within the circumstances of our own education system. 

Furthermore, thanks to this observation of democracy and citizenship issues in Danish schools,  instead of talking a lot about democracy and doing nothing or "doing a lot of democracy" - so to speak- and knowing almost nothing about it, we may have a better view point of how to combine these two points  especially if we think about the disciplinary structure of Turkish schools and the  "teacher-centered lecturing" history of Turkish education system. To illustrate, as we know, Turkish education system has recently gone through a renovation period and the view of learning has totally changed to student (child) centered learning, it might be good for us as the teachers of next generations in Turkey to observe how Danish schools has achieved this and how we can break this traditional view of receptive role of students so that we could focus on the needs, interests and abilities of our students -which is obviously more democratic compared to teacher centered lecturing. 


Besides these democracy and citizenship issues, while observing,  we can learn a lot about  how to manage our teaching as a means of classroom management and how to deal with language teaching methodology. As I, personally, believe that teachers should always use a variety of methods while teaching, it seems beneficial to observe different teachers with different teaching styles. This teaching practice period is also a kind of starting point for my first teaching practice period in Turkey next year. When I start my teaching practce in Turkey next year, I can benefit from all of my experiences I have had in Danish schools this year. Now, I am looking  forward to having more and more experiences of Danish schools and lessons to gain the practical as well as theoretical knowledge and experience I need to become a teacher. 

21st Century Skills and Democratic Citizenship Education

 We have recently started a new course called "21st Century skills and Democratic Citizenship Education". Together with our pedagogy teacher Peter Gundersen, Thomas Thomsen is also teaching us in this course. Even though I have missed two of Thomas's lessons due to my teaching practice, I really liked to have another lecturer and  get the opprtunity to see another teaching style.

Lessons with Peter goes the same way as they were during the first semester. We read a lot and generally we have to discuss the text in the classroom and deal with different tasks. However, it also seems that we will make more presentations in his lessons this semester In fact, it is nice to stand there in front of the class trying to explain what we have discussed or read as we are going to be teachers.The more we practise the more we will get used to do it.  With Thomas, on the other hand, we have similar class discussions but since his profession is not English but religion and history we could learn to see education with another point of view. Also, it is an extra point for a teacher to observe different teaching styles as I said before.

Together with new exchange students

Besides, this semester we have exchange students from different countries. During the first semester, in classroom management lessons we were generally only Turkish exchange students and I didn't like Tukey's being main focus all the time as some of my friends insisted on talking about -so to speak- "the theory based education system" in Turkey. Anyway, now that we have students from different countries, the class is a lot more multicultural, we have the possibility to see other point of views and I don't feel like we are talking about the same  "thing" all the time.

First "Teaching" Practice with Danish Students

It has been a long time since I didn't write on my blog. In fact, we had a long and a little bit boring holiday after the first semester because everyone was doing their teaching practice for the last three weeks and we, as exchange students couldn't start our first teaching practice in Denmark and that's why I have been a little away from my blog; not much to talk about. However, this week we, me and my friend Müslüm,  had our first experience as a teacher in Denmark. 

Our school couldn't arrange teaching practice for exchange students yet and as we were quite eager to go to teaching practice in Denmark we asked our Danish friends if they could ask their schools to have us as guest students so that we can at least observe one of their classes. Fortunately, Rikke and Alice could arrange it and we had  the chance to observe one of their classes and give a presentation of Turkey. First, we went to see them while they were teaching. We met the students who were, in fact, going to be our first students. We had already had a kind of observation in one of the schools in Copenhagen so the environment was not too strange to us. However, it was going to be different because we were going to teach this time so we were quite excited. Last week on Thursday, we went to the school where Rikke and Alice have their teaching practice in Nykøbing. We observed them teaching to 5th graders for two lessons. Then, on Tuesday this week, we went there for the second time and we gave a presentation of Turkey in two different classes of 5th graders. For we do our first teaching practice in our last year of education , untill now we had never had a kind of teaching experience.

In our presentation, we talked about Turkey and Turkish culture. We prepared some questions for them to see what they already know about Turkey. Then, we started our presentation. Müslüm talked  about Turkey's geography, population, social and political structure ; and I talked about Turkish culture, Turkish schools and religion in Turkey. In our first presentation with the class A,  almost every student was eager and motivated to listen and they helped us a lot in this way without being aware of it. However, when we gave our presentation second time with the class B, we had a little bit hard time because compared to the first group they were a little bit slower at understanding what we were really saying . However, they were also motivated to learn about Turkey and they asked lots of questions. At this point, I, as a teacher, have learnt how important it is for a teacher to be able to make his/her class interesting so that students are motivated and ready to learn. Also, as they already knew that we do not speak Danish , they had to communicate in English with us so it was a good chance for them to force themselves to speak in English. 

In this practice, what I also learnt is the importance of knowing your students academical level. In our first presentation, we knew that they were better compared to the other group so we didn't limit ourselves in language use. In contrast, in the second group, we had do to be slow and  use simple sentence structure while speaking English. Also, Rikke and Alice helped us when the students needed Danish translation. So it seems that it is necessary for a teacher to know what your students can achieve and what they can't.

Besides, it was a really different experience to be there in front of the class as a teacher and having the responsibility to make sure that they understand and everything goes well. There seems to be lots of things that teachers should take into consideration such as managing your time, facilitating learning, trying to reach every student in the classroom, helping them to cooperate and so - on. So, there are many other things to talk about but in short it was a good oportunity and good starting point for us before we start our teaching practice in Turkey.

When it comes to the environment of the class and the school , it was almost the same as the school we observed in Copenhagen. They were sitting in groups of four students in the classroom. Students were wearing casual clothes, and almost all of them were walking all around the school without their shoes. What was different in this school from the one we observed in Copenhagen was the fact that they use school bells just like we do at schools in Turkey. So, they all have lessons and breaks at the same time which seems more effective. Otherwise  it might be distracting for the students who are actually trying to concentrate on the lesson while others are having their breaks and probably making a lot of noise.

In short, as a teacher I had my first teaching experience in Denmark. It is obvious that it is really hard job to be a teacher.It is even harder to do it in a foreign country especially when you don't have the common native  language with the students. Even while just getting prepared for two hours lesson, we had to think about many different points. Luckily everything went very well as to say in our first step towards starting to teach . There is also one more important thing that I learnt from this experience: as you start teaching you also start learning... So I am looking forward to starting my next teaching practice period so that I can learn and improve myself to be a better teacher for my students in the near future.

Winter Time In Denmark

Christmas holiday is over now! For the last two days, our Danish friends have been doing their teaching practice. Unfortunately, the school couldn't arrange schools for exchange students yet so we are still on holiday. No classes, almost no one at school, and that simply means nothing to do especially as it is cold outside.

Sunset over Taastrup, Denmark

Denmark is the land of contrast. In the summer time, the days of mid-summer are quite long. In winter time, dark and cold days are paralelly quite short.  Denmark is closer to the north than the Turkey is, hence in Denmark nights are a lot longer than we are used to. That's why thesedays most of the time we are staying indoors and it is a little bit boring.  Since it is winter time now, nights are quite long, which means very little day light.  The sun rises around eight thirty in the morning (when we are lucky enough to have a sunny day) and around four o'clock in the evening everywhere is totally dark. Especially when I sleep a lot in the afternoon, I can't sleep at nights. Then I start to sleep early in the morning and wake up in the evening. This even makes it harder to see day light so it makes me think as if it is night all the time which is not something I am used to. In short, I really have to find an activity to do in the afternoon so that I sleep at nights as I used to.

Christmas In Denmark

Everything has finally came to an end and it is holiday time. It was Christmas on 24th of December in Denmark. I don't know why but in Denmark Christmas is celebrated a day earlier  than many other countries. In our last week at school we had a Christmas dinner with friends from English class. It was really enjoyable in fact because it is not celebrated in Turkey and we are not familiar with all those things taking place during Christmas. Besides eating traditions for Christmas, we have learned a lot about other Christmas traditions such as giftgiving.

It has been a month since they started playing Christmas songs on the streets in the town. I am not sure that it is a Christmas tradition but it is really nice especially when you have a lot of snow. So, we had a "white Christmas" in Denmark which seems to be quite important for many people. Also, the trees in the town has been decorated with lights and almost every shop has a Christmas tree decorated with lights. However, Christmas was also a little bit challenging for us. Everyone left for the family visit for Christmas Eve and we were alone during the holiday. We also didn't know that shops would be closed on Christmas Eve and the day after. Therfore, we were quite lucky to learn it in the morning just before going for a trip to Malmö, Sweden although it was a little disappointing. It was still fun to stay in Vordingborg with our fellow Turkish friends. Now that it is almost New Years Eve, we are planning to go to Copenhagen and have fun on New Years Eve with friends. And this time we are sure that everywhere will be open :)

What about Christmas or Christmas Day? As far as I  learned from Danish friends Christmas or Christmas Day is the holiday to commemorate the birth of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity. The day is known to be the actual birthday of Jesus and in most of the countries it is celebrated on the 25th of December. It is one day earlier in Denmark. Decorating Christmas Trees, sending and receiving Christmas cards, family gathering on Christmas Eve, gift giving and believing in legendary gift bringing figures - Santa Claus and/or Father Christmas-  can summarize the Christmas in short. I am glad that I had the chance to observe all of these myself in a Christmas celebrating country. Merry Christmas to everyone...  :)

First Semester Ends...

After a long time, I am back to write. Exams are over and we handed in our papers; in short, we are done with the first semester in Denmark. Some of our friends have already left but  me and some of other friends will stay in Denmark for the next semester as well.

This semester has been  long, tiring, and full of fun of course. In English class, we have been dealing with several  dimensions of language and language teaching; from culture to grammar. For the last two month we have been dealing with phonetics and I really learned a lot during these lessons. For instance, in the past I used to consider pronunciation only something that I should be aware of. However, now, I also realized the importance of teaching pronunciation and other speaking skills in my class. Moreover, in educational studies class, we have been studying classroom management, different educational theories, problems in youth. Meanwhile, we have been dealing with different tasks, including group discussions, verbal and written presentations. 

At the end of the semester, we handed in an exam paper for educational studies and we had an oral exam. It was a different experience to take an exam I haven't been used to. We also handed in a phonetic portfolio and an exam paper for English class. We have been working hard on our papers and teaching plans.  In short, it was a challenging and productive semester for me. Now, we really deserve having a rest and enjoying our free time in Denmark.

Week 48 - Exams In Denmark

These days, it has been very tough on me because of some reasons. First, I have recently started writing my exam papers for educational studies. We are going to have an exam on the 10th of December. Second, I have to hand in a phonetic portfolio for English class on the 17th of December. Also,I am going to write and hand in an article about teaching pronunciation with my portfolio. Last, but not least, the weather is getting worse everyday in Denmark.

Yesterday I have read an article about the weather conditions in Denmark. It states that this year, it has been the coldest November in Denmark in the last century. So, in order not to get sick we are staying indoors most of the time. In fact, it is a good chance to focus on our exam papers as well. I sometimes really enjoy watching the snow outside through my window while studying for my exam papers.

When it comes to exams, I have never read this much literature in such a short time - for the last ten or fifteen days. While looking for relevant  literature for my exam paper, I have been reading a lot and it is hard to find something you need at the very beginning. It is hard, yes but still it is sometimes very enjoyable when you read and try to find out something interesting.

Sometimes, when you are nervous about the exam, it is hard to focus on your work. However, I feel that I am not as nervous as I used to be in those times of exams in Turkey. Because, we generally have a whole week or two for the exams and take more than five exams for different courses. It is a quite stressful period in deed. I am still nervous about my exam in Denmark as well, but it is not because of the structure of the exam but just because I want to do my best.

In an ordinary exam in Turkey, you wouldn't feel like you can succeed even if you study very hard. You have to memorize a lot and you generally don't have an idea of the possible questions in the exam. They might be multiple choice questions or theory related  classic questions. Also, exams mean a lot in Turkey. In every step of your education you have to take an exam to be qualified so it is really stressful. On the other hand, now, I just write on a topic I found interesting and I don't have to memorize a lot of unnecessary things. I read more literature, try ro make use of it in the future and that's it! There is nothing to do with memorizing what theory exactly says, it is more important to try to understand what it says and how can I apply this to teaching. To illustrate, if we evaluate the exams in Bloom's taxonomy,  the exams in Turkey would be in knowledge or comprehension level. On the other hand, I can say that the exam I will take here is not limited with these two levels. I can see that I change my route through Knowledge Level and Synthesis Level, and even evaluation, which makes more sense.

Al in all, it will be a different experience for em to take an exam in Denmark. After the exam I may right about my observations and thoughts about the exam but now; I have to turn back to my work and go on writing...

P.S. We, as exchange students, are not taking a usual exam in Denmark. Other Danish students are taking a different kind of exam and later on I will write about that!

Do You Need Subtitles While Speaking English?

Week 46 / 47 ( Pronunciation )

What does it mean to know a language? For years, this question has been a great concern for many linguists. Some would argue it is important to know grammar of the language, others would say knowing a language would mean being able to use it. For me, linguistic knowledge is only one side of knowig the language. Reading and writing, and finally speaking are also quite important parst of the language learning.

In the past, what the traditional language teaching methods were missing most was the fact that speaking is equally important in language teaching. In teacher based classrooms, students were learning (we can say memorizing) the grammar of the language perfectly without being able to use it. However, today, it is quite important to let the students use the language in communicative situations. Namely, students are supposed to communicate in the foreign language in the classroom. Then what makes communication effective and what causes break downs in communication? In other words, how could teachers help their students to use the language correctly so that they can communicate with native or non-native speakers of that language without having any problems? Well, there are lots of things to take into consideration but one of the most important points is being comprehensible in the foreign language while speaking.

In order to be comprehensible one should use the language correctly. So it makes the teaching of correct pronunciation, intonation and stress vital for teachers. For a teachers who wants his/her students to use the language corretly it is necessary to teach speaking skills as well as others. For instance, if your students were making the same pronunciation mistake very often, then you should definitely work on it before the mistake is fossilized. It  is also important to teach intonation in the foreign language. English is one of the languages in which there are a lot of variation in intonation. So if the student's native tongue is Danish for instance, then it would be much more vital to teach intonation so that no negative transfer from native language will occur. Moreover it is very easy for the pupils who doesn't have some of the sounds of the foreign language in their native language so they will definitely have difficulty to pronounce those sounds in the foreign language. 

Now, are you aware of the fact that it is equally important to teach speaking skills in the classroom? Are you aware of the fact that speaking a foreign language is not limited to knowing grammar pefectly? Are you comprehensible enough in the foreign language or do you need subtitles while speaking?

For the illustration " To need subtitles while speaking English", here is a funny video about pronunciation and pronunciation mistakes. I hope that you enjoy it :) 

Getting to Know - and Evaluating Teaching Materials

What makes a teaching material good or useful? Who is the one to evaluate the materials used in the classroom? And what kind of materials should we, as teachers, use in the classroom? These are the questions I have been trying to answer these days. Here is the reason why I have been thinking a lot on this issue:

Yesterday, we had a class with Hanna Thomsen from Teachers Resource Center Roskilde. The whole lecture was about English teaching materials and evaluating them. First, Hanna Thomsen started her presentation with some information about  English course books. Then, she presented some of other kinds of teaching materials including story books  ( Read Away ) , and games ( Grandma's Purse - A purse with full of different objects in ) and also some web based materials. After that we chose one of the materials and tried to make a ten minutes presentation about that material. There weren't many people in the classroom  so we could only have a very few presentations. However, we could have a deep look at the materials presented.

Grandma's Purse ( one of the teaching materials presented )

Even though some of the materials were prepared for teaching English in Denmark ( including English - Danish glossary and so-on) , I found some of the materials quite useful, in fact. Some of them were including Teacher's guide book, which is one of the things that should be in a good teaching material for me. Since  it is important to know how to use the material, a good teaching material should definitely have some instructions for the teachers. For instance, in some of the materials, there were some suggestions about  the ages of the learners with whom you can use the material. Of course it is also important to know your own learners and adjust the teaching material accordingly but if there is a guide included in the material, it takes some of the pressure on the teachers and makes it easy for the teachers to use the material effectively.

Also, a useful teaching material is the one which is adjusted through the years. As the teachers uses the materials, they get feedback from their students and then they have an idea whether to use the material in the same way or not. Then, it brings us to the point that it is also important to take our pupil's feedback about the material into consideration.

All in all, choosing the teaching materials is a hard job and there are many points to be taken into consideration so the teachers should think twice before choosing a mterial.

First Snow In Vordingborg...

Finall the snow arrived in Vordingborg...

Here, the story of winter in Denmark begins. We have been expecting snow for over two weeks in Vordingborg because it has got colder and colder. Finally, tonight we had the first snow in Vordingborg.

In fact, it has been quite a lot time since I saw snow for the last time because the only way to see snow in my hometown in Turkey is to go up to the mountains. Anyway, it rarely snows in the sea level in my hometown so I was quite excited about the first snow. When it started snowing tonight, I really wanted to go out to see more snow and to have some snow ball fights with friends. I could hardly convince Rikke, one of our friends from Rex ( the house where I stay )  to come with us because she, in fact, does not like snow at all. We just went by the ruins of the Goose Tower and enjoyed the perfect scene together. We, of course, had some snow ball fights. I also learned the Danish word for the mixture of rain and snow ( slud ) from Rikke as it was snowing like that.

After enjoying the snow, we turned back to home and had some hot tea in our warm kitchen. Now, I am writing in my room thinking how it is going to be in the winter? I hope that it is going to be as enjoyable as it has been tonight in the winter as well.

P.S. : How do we pronounce "slud" by the way? I don't remember at all. OK, I will ask Rikke tomorrow =)

Week 45 - Final Lesson for Educational Studies

Last week, we finished the classes with our Educational Studies Lecturer, Peter. Until now, we read a lot of different texts regarding different topics. We started with ethics of teaching and classrroom management. Then, we read about learning problems in youth. We studied " the risk society"- which was a new term for me as well-, curriculum and aims, problems of the modern world relating to globalization and modernization. Untraditional education and schooling, care ethics, democracy were some of the other themes that we have discussed so far. 

In general, I really liked the courses with Peter this semester. I enjoyed attending the class feeling no pressure, being active all the time and trying to express myself as muh as possible. In fact, this was what Peter was seeking for during the lectures.He wanted us to be active as much as possible. That's why he always had a different task for us. I never felt bored in his classes because we were always dealing with our task in our mixed groups (sometimes it was hard to mix the groups when we were only exchange students ) so that we were in interaction with each other a lot. In our last class, we realized that everyone has been in a group with each person at least once. Moreover when we expressed our opinions in any topic, Peter helped us to be more specific and clear with his questiıons since it is sometimes hard for one to get through others when you are not able to explain what exactly you mean. 

I also would love to give some details of our educational studies courses this semester:

In Turkey, our pedagogy courses are generally in Turkish. Firstly, I should state that it is quite better to read the texts in English. Also, it is a lot more beneficial to get the pedagogy courses in English since one of our aims to be here is to improve our communicative skills in the foreign language..  In this aspect, Peter helped us a lot because we read a lot of texts in English inside and outside the classroom and during the lectures we had a large scale of tasks all of which required a lot of discussion, negotiation and communication. 

As I mentioned above, we have had many different themes and topics in educational studies. Now I can see that they are like the parts of a puzzle and when you put them all together, it completes the picture ( the core in this picture is education) I mean we have looked at education from different perspectives and we have tried to observe, analyse and understand different educational ideas. One of the things that I liked a lot in this aspect is that we did not just leave some topics behind and move on other topics. For instance, while discussing the idea of untraditional education we turned back to the ideas of Thomas Ziehe and talked about it again. In this way, we could establish connections between different topics and ideas.

While Helma is explaining what to do for our evaluation papers at the end of the class

During our educational studies courses, as I mentioned above, we had a lot of different tasks such as Classroom Parliament, class discussions, mind maping and so-on. I learned not only the subject matter of the course ( I mean the content ) but also different techniques to use in the classroom. Completing these tasks, I also realized how much interaction all those tasks required, which is a desired situation in language classes. I will often remember "Center the Circle Task" from educational studies courses (we did it a few times)  and I will probably use it in my classes while teaching. 

I really enjoyed attending all of the courses this semester. A few times, we had the educational studies class with Danish friends, which I liked very much. However, when we were only international students (eight Turkish and one Deutch student), I felt a little bit isolated. It is nice to be in a kind of multicultural classroom so that there occurs different ideas and we try to see other people's point of view. Otherwise, the main focus is generally Turkey and examples from Turkey, which is a kind of limit in itself. So, I hope next semester we will have many of Danish friends in our classroom as well as exchange students.

Classroom Observation in Copenhagen - Week 44

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.