"Nearly" the end of this unique experience ...

As a conclusion to this unique and marvellous experience, Sophie and I can say that first, this Erasmus stay in Denmark was really amazing : we really learnt a lot.
We are really glad to spend one more month here with Vikki, Cedric, Isabel, Mery, Carla, Seyhan, Zeliha and Sinem :)
And more, creating this blog was really a good idea: thanks to it, our parents/family/friends/etc can share this experience with us even if they are so far...
They can see all our pictures, comments, opinions, etc and also be aware of another culture.
It was also a way to share our experience between Erasmus students by reading the others' blog: we could see how they felt, etc.

This blog will stay online as a souvenir of this unique experience for the rest of our life...

Thank you - Tak :):)

Teaching practice in Realskole

From Monday 11th to Friday 23th Sophie and I went to "Realskole" and observed some English lessons. We heard it was a private school where parents have to pay.The amount of students can't be more than 20.

We got the chance to observe 4 differents classes : 7b, 7c, 8a, 8c. They were between 13 and 15 years old.

Immediatly we felt at ease there and also with the teachers. They were all nice with us and didn't hesitate to answer our questions. They tried to make us involved in the lessons.

The first days, they offered us to make a presentation about Belgium.

We were really surprised by the students' level of English. It was really great to make some activities with them : they have a lot of ideas and they feel at ease. They know that they are able to speak and dare to take part in lots of conversations.

We also observed some similarities and differences between Denmark and Belgium. For example, the lessons here last 45 minutes and 50 in Belgium. The students here don't have to complete a diary but we have to do it in our country. Finally, nobody repeats a year here. In Belgium, if a student fails his examinations, he has a second chance in August and if he fails again, he repeats his school year, even for one subject.

We noticed that there were many differences as far as the school system and teaching English are concerned.

Being aware of that made us realize that there are many ways to be a good teacher :)

Some differences between Denmark and Belgium...

- The parking disc is not the blue plastic you have to put under the windshield but it's in the windshield .... so useful :) The parking is free and you can stay there for one or two hours.

- The lock of the door is above the doorhandle.

On Tuesday 6th and Friday 9th, we had a drama lesson in Aanbenraa.

What I found interesting:

- At the beginning of the lesson, we didn't feel really at ease because we are not used to theater and we were afraid to be ridiculous, etc. But we made some exercises to be more relaxed and it worked :) These exercises were great because, in my future classrooms with my own students, they will need to feel at ease to dare and speak an other langague.

- The teacher needed to know our names and we made some activities to remember them. It's also good and intersting for my future job: it's beter to know our students' names to have a good atmosphere in the classroom. Actually each teenager has a name and a personality (and not only a "you" in the group) , we have to be aware of it!

- An other great activity was to give some feelings to a sound/picture, etc. In the language lesson , it's good to use feelings and movement to learn and improve a language: we can associate words with feelings for example and so, it will be easier for the students to remember.

After the lesson, I visited Aanberaa. It's a really beutiful city where you can see the sea and some shops.

Kolding

After Easter break, I went to Kolding with my boyfriend. It's a very nice town where you can shop and see some places surounded by water.
We were very lucky because the weather was dry and sunny. It was also quite hot.
I am happy to have visited this city, I am used to Haderslev now and it's good to see somewhere else.