Week 7 antics....

Personal and Cultural

This week was a very busy week for us all with tasks and activities planned for everyday of the week! However busy it was, there was also a lot of fun involved!

On Monday we had a visit to the school on wheels which can also be included within the professional part of the blog but I feel it was also a cultural experience as travellers have such a different culture to that of their native country. Although the school only runs from April to November it was so interesting to go to the Headquarters and find out about their winter work, getting organised for the summer term. It was interesting to learn that the children attend local schools in the winter before they travel with their families in the summer months. The school on wheels has 3 different types of classroom, a large lorry that expands into a classroom for about 12 children, a medium van for approximately 4 children and a small van for 1 or 2 children. This experience was not what I expected at all, the equipment and classrooms they have were so modern and up-to-date and it would have been great if we could have experienced teaching in this environment. The video clip that we did get to watch showed how important this school on wheels is to the communities they are involved with and demonstrated how devoted every member of staff from teachers to technicians to administration are to their job as a lot of work is involved to make this a success.

It was good to also have the opportunity this week to taste some different foods from Sweden and Poland, pancakes. The Swedish pancake was the most different as it was bread in pancake mix fried with jam. The Polish pancake was similar to home but the filing was cheese and sugar and they were so delicious, a tradition I could take home for my family and friends to try.

On Wednesday we took part in a Pub Tour but it was not like a Pub Tour that I have taken part in before. In groups we went around 5 different bars in Nijmegen competing against each other to win points for an overall prize at the end. We had to take part in a general knowledge quiz like no other as it had a lot of questions about smurfs, i.e. how big is the average smurf? 3cm? No the size of 3 apples stacked on top of each other. We did ok in this round but general knowledge was not our teams’ strong point! Our excelled in the ‘down your drink’ game and the ‘guess who’ game, with extra points from our attempt at Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance. The night finished in Dollars Bar where the drinks were cheap and the craic was good!

On Friday evening we decided we would relax and a few of the Erasmus group and some of the Dutch students from the CIS (Committee for International Students) went out for dinner with Mikayla (English student) as her mum had come to visit and meet us all. This was good banter, although I ate too much!

On Saturday we decided to take a trip to Arnhem, a city about 20minutes away by train. It was good to have a day trip out of Nijmegen. We walked around the town sightseeing like the good tourists we are and had lunch in a typically American restaurant, McDonalds! After lunch we went to the Water Museum and the History Museum which wasn’t very good as it was all in Dutch so we looked at the pictures only. To get to the Water Museum we had to walk out of the centre, passing a lot of fields which reminded me on summer at home, as I like to walk in the country near my home with friends. That night we had a flat party and went to the city centre, where we met new Portuguese students that had just arrived in Nijmegen a week earlier for Erasmus.

Professional Development

We had school placement on Tuesday and Wednesday again this week. On Tuesday, 4 classes from the school including mine went on a fieldtrip to the NEC Stadium as part of a Health course they had been taking part in previous to our arrival. During fieldtrips in NI we take a bus to the destination and we just take it for granted that the school will fund it, however in this school, parents had to volunteer to drive students to the stadium or volunteer to cycle along with the group to the stadium. Around 30 pupils and 8 adults, including me, cycled from school to the stadium for about 30minutes. It was really different from anything I have ever seen, traffic had to stop and let the entire group cross and every child was so responsible and sensible during the travelling. I would like to see the reaction of staff, parents and students at home if they were told they had to cycle for 30minutes to get to the destination of the trip! While there we got a tour of the stadium and a free goody bag!

That afternoon I was able to take my first lesson with the class on Northern Ireland. This was a good opportunity for me to get to know the students better and vice-versa. I had pictures of my family and our dog as the class like animals. I had a range of slides in the presentation with pictures of tourist spots around Northern Ireland like the Giants Causeway or Derry City Walls. I had a slide based on Londonderry, where I am from and I was able to explain each picture to the group and why we have city walls. The class responded very well to the lesson and were very keen to ask questions about NI and as usual religious issues in NI were a hot topic for the class. It was good to use youtube.com to show traditions such as the marching season, traditional sports and music.

On Wednesday I was able to continue this lesson with a pupil activity based on themselves. Writing I English they had to explain about themselves, their family, hobbies and interests and their favourite thing about living in the Netherlands. Again pupils were enthusiastic about this task and were very keen to try and read out to the group in English.

Looking back to the school on wheels trip, I would consider taking up an internship during a summer to get experience in this field of work as I took a good interest in this while visiting it. It was a school setting that I have never seen before and the work they do it truly valued. Each classroom/van they have is extremely well equipped and they use technologies such as video conferencing to teach lessons to pupils out of their reach via road.