Week 9 ¦ Back to School ¦ Professional, Cultural and Personal Development

After a heavy weekend of partying Monday came around again all too soon! We headed for the bus at Ana's accommodation and prepared for class with Aase. In this class we learned about the Danish citizenship system and how it differs for both Danish individuals and immigrants coming from different countries. Throughout this class Aase reflected on how we can explore citizenship when we are out on our block placement, for example when I am which children aged around 10 years old I can ask their view on different aspects of citizenship in relation to equality, freedom and independence to name a few. By doing this I can further develop my own cultural knowledge of Denmark and develop professionally by expanding my knowledge on how to education children on the cultural diversity within different countries as well as back in Ireland.

On Wednesday we went to visit Åby Skole, which was exciting for me as I will be carrying out my block placement here with the fourth graders. When we arrived we were sent to the assembly hall were we were split into two groups, My group first went off to visit the seventh graders, one of which was Marie’s son, Gorm. Here we played some activities with the class, we each had to speak in our mother tongue, describing ourselves and what we study at home. We also had to perform a little and because Kate and I are from the same country, we decided to speak (somewhat badly) in Irish, just to make it that little bit more difficult for the pupils. To our surprise it didn’t take the class long to guess correctly that we are from Ireland and even Gorm guessed the North of Ireland so we were very impressed indeed! Once we had met the class and asked them some questions about democracy in their school life, we went to have our lunch.

After lunch Marie decided it would be best if I switched over groups and went to see the fourth graders too as that was who I would be spending my placement time with. Here we carried out the same activities with the children, however it took them a little longer to correctly guess Ireland, and we even got some countries like Australia and America! All the children were so lovely and such a pleasure to meet, so I’m looking forward to spending more time with them in April.

'One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world' - Malala Yousafzai

On Thursday morning we got the news that our tutor was feeling unwell and had cancelled both classes for Thursday and Friday, which wasn’t so good for him but good for us as that meant we had a four day weekend! In true student style we started organising when our first outing would be. Ana told us about a concert that music students from Aarhus University were organising and so we decided to go and see what is was about. To say the least it wasn’t so much typical music concert, more a free-for- all jamming session! It was a slightly strange set up but an experience to say the least.

After the concert the other international student class were holding a Greek themed party in the dorm next to Ana’s and so we decided to join to meet some more international students.

'Wherever we travel to, the wonderful people we meet become our family.' - Lailah Gifty Akita

On Saturday night we decided to have a change of scenery and head into the city. We went to a bar opened by a famous ping pong champion, Shen Mao Nightclub. It was a club like I have never seen before, there was music and a dance floor like any other place, but as I walked on through there was a ping pong table with about 12 people playing whilst running around the table and a huge audience watching them. It was amazing to watch how something so simple can cause such chaos and an exciting atmosphere. I will definitely be returning here in the near future.