After the Easter week at home it felt quite surreal to be
back in Denmark, almost as though I was starting all over again but I didn’t have
much time to spend thinking about it as I was due to begin my three week block
placement at Åby Skole on Tuesday.
Niels, our mentor, had given us a timetable of the hours we
would be in placement for the next three weeks but that was about the height of
preparation we had received so we arrived at the school with some nerves but
mostly I was excited about the days ahead. When we arrived Niels showed us
around the school so as to give us an insight in to the places we would be
spending most of our time, especially with the fourth and fifth graders.
Once
we had the tour of the school Poppy, Leah and I accompanied Niels to our first
class, in the gym hall. Here the children could choose between three different activities
in the gym or there was other apparatus in the playground, either way the
children were able to roam free between the two, they weren’t restricted to any
given area.
This came as a surprise to us a students who come from a schooling system
were the children are constantly watched and aren’t given the opportunity to
choose so freely. Little did we know this was the beginning of our insight into
how completely different the schooling system and rules were in Denmark
compared to home.
We then went with Niels to a Maths class with the 4th
graders, aged 9 and 10. As we entered the class we brought about an aura of
newness with us. Even though there was an evident language barrier between us
and the children, we picked up on their curiosity about who we were and they seemed
excited to get to know more about the ‘3 Irish girls’.
‘A different language
is a different vision of life’ – Federico Fellini
One thing I found particularly interesting about the setup
of the classroom was that there didn't seem to be any ‘hard’ rules as such. The
children were allowed to sit on tables, shout out answers, talk to each other
and even eat during class! Again it shows how much freedom the children are
given throughout the school day and I found that this has both positive and
negative aspects to it.
The children seemed to have a much closer and trusting
relationship with the teacher and they all seemed to be comfortable in that
environment, but as we came to acknowledge throughout the week, the children
appeared to be further behind academically compared to pupils of the same ages
at home. But again I have learnt that this works well for both the Danish
pupils and teachers and is maybe something I could learn to incorporate in my
placements at home and hopefully as a further my career in this profession.
After our first week of placement, we were glad to see the
weekend. Better still it was the first time Kate and I had seen everyone since
we had got back from Ireland. We all decided to meet at Álvaros dorm to reunite
and catch up with each other. Honestly the friendships I have made with them is
beyond me! I was genuinely so happy and excited to see everyone again as if I
have known them for years. It’s amazing the bonds you can make with others when
you’re all thrown into the deep end, and uprooted to a different country. We
all have one thing in common and that’s that we took the chance to study abroad
and leave our comfort zone and at this early stage I can already tell it was
one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!
‘Greatness begins beyond
your comfort zone.’ – Robin Sharma
References
Robert Sharma - http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/comfort-zone
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