Day 31: Math and Orientation

We handed out a worksheet of multiplication problems to the 4th grade today. They were mostly double by double problems and quite a few multiplying by 10's. I was surprised at how many students didn't understand why or how it worked. Every single student got 14 x 15 wrong. They didn't even know how to get started on how to solve it. For me, it was very frustrating. Especially since this is a skill normally learned in 3rd grade in the United States.

I have also realized that in my classroom I want it to be as student oriented as possible. I want the students to be able to help themselves as much as possible. If that means getting their own counters to help with a problem or finding a pencil. My students need to know where everything is and know when they can use things. 

I realized today when a student sat with her hand raised for 5 minutes just to get some dice, that I needed my students to be independent. The teacher said she could have got the dice herself, but the girl didn't know that. Every time previously she had had dice given to her. I want my students to learn independence. 

Day 30: S'mores

Today, my students had s'mores and I am once again the best teacher in the school.
Norway doesn't have graham crackers, but Hilde and I found some biscuits (cookies) that worked out really well.
During the last hour we went outside in the pouring rain to the fire shack. Trude had already started a fire for us and I instructed everyone to get a skinny long stick. It took a little while, but they got them. Then I showed them how to make a s'more.
First you make sure you have two biscuits, two pieces of chocolate and one marshmallow. The I showed them how to roast the marshmallow to perfection. After it was done I held my stick between my legs, and squished the marshmallow between the two biscuits with chocolate and pulled it off the stick. There were noises of amazement all around the fire. When I took a bite and the marshmallow squished out all over my face, the "ohhh!" sounded in unison. Then I passed out all of the ingredients and the kids started making their s'mores.
Hilde and Trude tried them as well. When I asked them what they thought Hilde said "It was okay." Then Trude interrupted and said "Okay? That was delicious!"
S'more day... success!

Passing out ingredients

How to make a s'more 

Lots of sticks!

Everyone was very patient... for 4th graders

Look at that delicious gooeyness

squish

Everyone loved the s'mores

Day 29: Singing

I love singing. I got to sing with the 5th graders again, only for a few minutes, but the time doesn't matter. I was just glad we got to sing.
When we sang "Da Moose, Da Moose." I don't think the teacher in there had heard it before. He was laughing so hard, and had to video the song so he could watch it again.

On an unrelated note, I am getting very good at knitting! It is amazing how quickly I can do it now! I have already made 5 hand warmers, or 2 and half sets of hand warmers. I am pretty proud of myself! Now I just need to make sure I can get them done by the time Christmas rolls around.

Day 28: Religion

Religion.
This is something that is labeled as "better safe than sorry." So most teachers just don't teach this. But here in Norway they do teach it. They have two hours of religion a week where they learn about different religions.
Today I got to teach about my religion. I got to tell the students all about what I believe, when I go to church, where I go to church and other things like this. I was not teaching them to convert them, but rather to inform them. The more students know the smarter they are. The more they understand the better they will be able to accept other people they meet who may have different views.
The study of religion is one thing I wish the United States would adopt. But I guess I will have to keep to the casual mention rather than an entire lesson.

For English today I did mad-libs with the students. It was how to talk like a pirate. This is the story we ended up with:
"Ye can always pretend to be a bloodthirsty DESK, threatening everyone by waving yer CRAZY sword in the air, but until ye learn to GO like a pirate, ye'll never e UNDER accepted as an authentic LADY. So here's what ye do: Cleverly work into yer daily conversations BLACK pirate phrases such as "Ahoy there, PIRATES," "Avast, ye GIRLS," and "Shiver me SANTAS." Remember to drop all yer gs when ye say such words as sailin', spittin', and fightin'. This will give ye an ARM start to being recognized as a swashbuckln' baby wipe. Once ye have the lingo down pat, it helps to wear a three-cornered MAN on yer head, stash a LIVER in yer pants, and keep a NOSE perched atop yer EAR. Aye, now ye be a real pirate."
One student asked me "What does swashbucklin' mean?" that was an interesting question to answer.

In the lunch room the sun was in my eyes. I said "Look! I can see the sun!"
One of the other teachers looked up suddenly and said "Something must be wrong."

Day 27: Interview with a Celebrity

Ronny asked me if I would be willing to let the 5th graders interview me in English today. I told him I should and asked him if he wanted me to dress up at all. His suggestion... was great!

Me as Anna and the 5th grade class

Ronny had told the kids that they were going to get to interview a celebrity straight from Hollywood. When I walked into the classroom, you should have seen the kids faces. They knew it was me, but they couldn't really get past the fact that I was also Anna from Frozen (or Frost as it is known here). They asked me all sorts of questions, and I answered them as Anna. This lesson was really good for the students because they wanted to ask the questions. They had to come up with the questions first and then ask them, and nearly everyone asked the questions.

This is something that I want to have in my classroom. I want to have different characters, fictional or real, come into my classroom. So I am going to need a lot of different people willing to help me with this. My mom has already said she was willing to help me. When I was little my mom had a friend who would dress up as different people for my birthday parties. I loved having her come. We could all dress up with her and we loved it. 

I also taught the 7th graders about adverbs. Once again, I found a very annoying song to help them remember what an adverb was. Then we made a anchor chart of adverbs so they could remember them later. 

Day 26: Thanksgiving

Today marks the first Thanksgiving I have ever spent away from my family. It also marks the first time in a nearly 10 years my family is having Thanksgiving at my Grandma's house. Needless to say, I am feeling the 4,744 miles it is between Norway and Utah.

However, being in a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving gives me an excellent opportunity to teach other people about my culture and tradition. So I created a small slideshow and presented it to my 4th grade class. They were interested in the Indians and Pilgrims. But they were VERY interested in all of the food. They really enjoyed learning about it, I think. I wish I had the forethought to make some of the foods for them so they could try them. Maybe I can make at least one of them next week. Perhaps a banana cream pie? Or stuffing...

I am increasing my knitting skills. Hilde taught me how last week and I finished my first hand warmer... it is a little lumpy and obviously not as perfect has hers are, but overall I thought it went well. I started my second one that I think it is going to turn out very good! Maybe I can give these for Christmas presents! It might not come from Norway but it certainly was inspired by Norway!

Day 25: Add to my Toolbelt

Hilde and I were talking about things I want to bring to my classroom and we had some pretty good ideas.

1. Parent Communication
I want to call 2 or 3 parents every weekend and tell them something good their student did that week. I got this idea from my first cooperating teacher and it seems like such a fabulous idea that I had to add it to my toolbelt.

2. Student Best Work
Save the student's best work to show off at parent teacher conferences. Hilde said a week before the conferences she goes through all of the work with the student and they pick their best work for each of the subject areas. My idea was to have a best work folder, the students pick their best work from each subject area that week and put it in. Then right before conferences they go through all of their "best work" and pick their favorites from those. Then there is not an entire semester's worth of assignments in there but the student is not sad about having thrown something away a long time ago.

3. Parent Teacher Conferences
I want to have student lead conferences, not matter what grade I am in. But I am not sure how I am going to do that if I am in a younger grader.

4. Brag Board
Have a board where students can brag about something nice their friends did. This board would need to have correct spelling and punctuation, but we would have 5 minutes after lunch to fill it out each day.

5. Spot the Mistake
Have a spot the mistake board where I find articles or books that have mistakes and early finishers get to go and try and find the mistakes.

6. Early Finishers
I would like to have a file of early finishers work. They can go over to this file when they are done, pick the subject we are doing and then do the activity. This could be something as simple as a worksheet or even a project that spans over a few days. Whatever it is, many students may want to participate it and so will work to finish their work.

Day 24: Kindergarten

The kindergartens here are totally different than the kindergartens we have in the US. Kindergarten ages are 8 months - 6 years. Sometimes they are splint into two groups (older and younger) but often they are all together.
The year before the 6 year-olds are going to start school, the 4th graders get to start becoming friends with them. When the 6 year-olds are in 1st grade next year the 4th graders(then 5th graders) will be in charge of them at recess to make sure they are having a good time and they have a friend to play with.
I wish we had something like that in America. It wouldn't be that hard. One big kid for every little kid, make sure they are having a good time. But then we don't really need to have that because our kids don't all go out to recess at the same time.

The 4th graders and the kindergartners went on a walk today. When we got to the spot we were going to have lunch the kids immediately ran off and started playing. They slid down the muddy hillslide, bounced on moss covered rocks, tried to pull tree's out by the roots. This last one they actually succeeded in doing. It took 8 kids 20 minutes of work. At first I was pretty horrified "You can't do that to the tree!" and I don't know that I liked them doing that. But Hilde said it is good for the kids to be challenged sometimes. And getting the tree up was challenging, they had to use their weight and their brains to get it up.

One of the kids was complaining about being thirsty.
"Well, let's go down to the river and get a drink." Hilde said. She led the kids down to the river and they got to experiment on how to get a drink! I told her how we shouldn't drink straight from the rivers in the US. She simply responded "We're vikings, we drink from the river." I loved that response!
She actually used that response a few other times while we were there. She told me that the kids are tougher, which I believe. The kids can fall down and suddenly they are okay.

One little boy fell down  and Hilde asked him what was wrong. He told her he got his shoes muddy and she said, alright do you want to try and drink from the river. He was so involved in drinking the water that he forgo to be upset about his shoes. I loved that!

On the way back I asked a student to teach me the Norsk Alphabet. I don't know that I have ever had a better teacher! She sang the whole thing for me and then went through it letter by letter. When I did something correctly she would praise me "Good job!" and then continue on. When I had trouble she would say the letters and have me repeat it at least three times. Then when I had successfully learned the alphabet she praised me some more then encouraged me to sing it for everyone around me individually. She was a perfect teacher! I hope I can be like her when I grow up.

Day 23: An Awesome Math Idea

I got to see the end of a really cool math lesson. The teacher had the students write 6x1 = 6 and then do all of the 6 times tables up until 12. Then the students wrote over that in marker before cutting the answers off of the paper, but leaving a small piece at the top attached. She showed the students that they could then roll up the answers to test themselves on the times tables. She did tell them that they had to say the entire problem, not just the answer. "six times one is six." I thought it was genius. I may use that for my students in the future.

I also got to teach 6th grade English for the first time today. It was really fun. We learned the noun song and the verb rap. We also talked a little bit about adjectives. The students loved learning the songs and I enjoyed helping them refresh their memories.

I haven't ever really put my schedule up here. That could be something interesting to know.
Monday: Plan, Assessment, 6th grade English, 3rd grade English, 7th grade English.
Tuesday: 4th Math, 5th English, 5th Study Hour, 4th P.E.
Wednesday: Plan, 4th English, 4th Arts and Crafts
Thursday: 4th Math, 4th English, 4th Social Studies, 5th Arts and Crafts
Friday: Plan, 5th English, 7th Arts and Crafts/5th Music/2nd P.E., 6th Music/5th P.E.

I love going into the 3rd grade classroom. The students there want to talk to me and they try so hard. And we both get frustrated at the lack of communication, but neither of us give up. It is a wonderful feeling. Both the students and I enjoy each other's company even though we can't talk to each other very well.

Day 22: Melodies and Harmonies

Music with Sylvia today was enlightening. I learned so many new songs and had several insights into classroom management.
Sylvia taught 2-4th graders and they all loved to sing with her. I think all children love to sing. She spoke to them in English at a normal pace, but used a lot of hand motions. I think those hand motions are what helped the students to understand.

I am very excited to bring music into the education of my students. There are so many songs available on Youtube and through other resources, I could even make some of my own if I wanted to. Music is a powerful way to teach and a wonderful way to help the students learn what they need to learn.

Day 21: It's An Action Word!

♫"A Person, Place, or Thing is a noun!"♫ This song has not only been stuck in my head all day, but also in my student's heads. This is a good thing because hopefully they will remember it! We practiced all day today.
"When I say 'what is a noun?' You say..."
♫"A person, place, or thing is a noun." ♫ We only went over it about 50 times today before moving onto verbs!

"What is a verb?"
♫"A verb is a word, it's an action word!"♫ This one is a rap. They loved learning the words to this one. Yesterday when we learned these songs Sylvia suggested that we add in different actions to make the song a little different each day. I think we may do that on Monday. Or Wednesday as that is when I teach 4th grade English next.

I am going to teach both of these songs to the 6th graders. I feel like I am using a lot of music recently, but that is not a bad thing. Quite the opposite. When the kids learn a song they remember it. They might remember it for years. But at least it will be stuck in their heads for the rest of the day, so they will remember it for at least that long!

Day 20: Differences

Observations today.
I was a little bit nervous, but the kind of nervous I get when I am just waiting for something, not because I was scared. Observations have never really bothered me. I figure if I let them bother me then I can't perform my best. I would rather teach the students well then be nervous about someone watching me to give me some positive and constructive feedback.
Overall, I thought the observations went really well. My lessons were pretty good and my students were very well behaved (though they always are... or most of the time). I almost wish I had more time to talk with Sylvia and Donna. Both women had so many good observations and there just wasn't enough time to cover them all. I am glad that they took notes, that way I can look on those and get some information we didn't have time to cover afterwards.

Since I have been here in Norway, I have found time to read again. I haven't read much in my college career as I needed to make sure I got my homework done and tests studied for. But now, I have more time. After I plan my lessons for the next day I am able to relax by sitting on my couch, reading a book, occasionally looking out over the fjord and enjoying the serenity of being in this beautiful country.

One thing that is difficult about being here in Norway is my lack of personal time. When I am not at school I am often with my cabin mates or the other student teachers. This is mostly because it is relieving to be with other people that speak my same language as well as I do. But Thankfully I have found a way to get some alone time. If I go to bed early, then I can get up early, which no one else wants to do. This way I get plenty of time to meditate with myself.

Day 19: Cool Ideas

Today felt almost surreal. I had a wonderful meal last night and I have felt full all day! We had a traditional Christmas dinner, which was delicious. We also got some free books (who doesn't love a free book?) And I brought them all to school today which the teachers loved looking through the picture books.

Most of my lessons today were with the 5th grade. I hadn't planned anything which meant I got to read with them. I love getting to spend the one on one time with each student. That is something that is difficult to do when you are the main teacher. But I also believe that it is very important to find the time to do it. The students love it when they know they are loved and appreciated. What better way to show them then to give them their own special time with the teacher. 

Sometimes I am amazed at how cold my body can get. I came home from school and got straight in bed and sat there freezing for the next two hours. How can Norwegians even stand to go outside? Especially when they only wear a light jacket. I guess I might be like that if I lived here for a long time. 

Day 18: Musings on Effectiveness

As I continue to become more comfortable in my place here, I am finding it easier to loose track of time. It is easier to appreciate how much I am learning and how I would not be able to learn these lessons any other way.
This weekend I was contemplating the effectiveness of placing American student teachers in a Norwegian school. I can immediately see the benefits for the teachers and students of the school. It is always helpful to have a native speaker when trying to learn a language. But what about for the student teacher? The lessons I am learning here are not how to best incorporate the standards into my teaching, how to prepare the most elaborate lesson, how to show my classroom management skills, or even how well I can give a lesson. I have practiced these things for years in my study, and these are not the skills I am practicing here. On that hand, it looks like I am not getting a very good student teaching experience.
But on the other hand I am learning how difficult it is for a someone, child or adult, to be surrounded by people who speak a different language. I know first hand how an English language learner feels. I am immersed in a different culture, and though people explain some parts to me, there is much that I have to discover on my own. I am experiencing a way of life that is deceptively similar to my life at home. This is an experience I could get in no other way. I am learning how another country runs their education system.
While I may not be practicing all of the things I have been pounding into my head for 5 years, I am learning how to open my eyes to new possibilities. Education here is different in good and bad ways. But I can take the good ways and incorporate them into my teaching in America. My experience here will be another tool in my toolbox, one that not many teachers have access to.

Day 17: Music in my Soul

It was strange to go to school today because yesterday I did not go. But today was my music day, and so I was happy.
I love to sing and to share that with my students is wonderful.
I was asked if I could make a large heart for an exhibition that Valen school is doing at the Husnes library. I am pretty excited about, and very glad that I have the opportunity to create something for this.
The students of my school are all learning a dance and will be performing it soon, though I don't know when. They had a practice outside today and it was so cool to see all of the students dancing, the first graders through the 7th graders. The 7th graders tell me that they don't like the dance, but they were obviously enjoying themselves.
I also played some football with the kids during recess, they loved it! And I did as well. Though playing with the 7th graders is a little intimidating because they have all been playing for ages, and me... well I was on a team once when I was 10...
During 5th grade music there was a substitute teacher. When I say substitute teacher, I don't mean like we have in America. One teacher was sick, so they fenagled the teachers around until they could get one to cover her classes. This works out well here because everyone works together to keep the students learning. Anyway, the sub didn't really know what he was going to do for music. I told him I had some songs ready that I could teach if he wanted me to. The look on his face was so relieved. So we went over the songs that we learned last week and learned two new ones. I think their favorite was Da Moose Da Moose. I love that song, and they loved doing the voices and the actions. I hope they like all the songs, but it is cool to have a favorite.

A Day in Odda (oh duh)

We went to Odda yesterday. The experience, unsurprisingly, was amazing.  We got to see some of the history of the area in a video and then saw an old hydro power plant. This factory was not the boxy, blocky, ugly factories that I come to think of when I think "factory." In fact, the video we watched said "Once people realized that factories didn't have to be ugly, everyone was much more willing to have it built in their town." The building is now a museum, and also used for concerts. The acoustics in the old factory are so good that they built a stage right on top of the power generators! 

The river that the factory used (and a different one 600 meters inside the mountain uses now) is under the glacier. It spits out something like 50,000 liters per second into these pipes on the side of the mountain. You can see the pipes in this picture. 

The tour guide said that they put the pipes up there one section at a time. There were men standing on the mountain, tied to each other and mountain, pulling each pipe piece up hand over hand. That is crazy! 

After we went to museum we go to see a dam, which was amazing. Then we went to a fish farm. This farm had rainbow trout and salmon. We got to see how they immunize the fish! Holy cow, it was cool! Apparently they raise the fish on land in tubs until they are 100 grams and then send them out to places in the ocean where they live for 1 and a half years before slaughter. 

When that was all said and done we were so hungry. It was 1 and we all normally eat at 11! We were taken to a barn house that was built in 1812 and ate the most delicious soup and bread. I wish I could go back and eat some more. It makes me want to make more soup. 

Our lunch table. This was a barn in Sundal that was built in 1812. The bread was hot and the food was delicious! The room was heated with a wood stove and everything was so quaint.

Bit Soup. It was made with ham, beef, sausage, carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onion, and celery. Yes, it tasted as good as it sounds. 

The world's only authentic antique power plant control panel. 

Someone made the comment that this looked like Star Trek.

This dam was built a long time ago and is beautiful! Even the factories in Norway are beautiful!

This tunnel is 11 kilometers and 126 meters. That is about 7 miles long. The acoustics were great! 

This is a waterfall just before one of the tunnels. Sometimes it is so full that they have to close down the road! 

Day 16: Cookies and Chatting

Yesterday my roommates made some cookies. Oatmeal chocolate chip. Delicious, however they were also different. The brown sugar that they bought was a little different, more grainy than the brown sugar in the States. Also, Norway does not believe in chocolate chips apparently and they had to purchase a chocolate bar and cut it up into chips. But even with these differences, the cookies hit the spot! Speaking of which, I think I will make stir-fry with rice tonight. That will be very good.

I think I got the hang of teaching English now. Last week I realized that I wasn't doing a very good job with teaching them English that they needed to know. So I changed how I did it today and I think it worked a lot better. I looked at their goals for next week and based my lesson off of that. We did some work in the book and practiced how to respond to the question "When is your birthday?" " My birthday is on (month) (date)" I think this will help them more than just writing.
Yes, I know writing helps a lot and they need it in their education. However, that is not all there is to English and I need to address all the sides of English, not just one. These English lessons I think would fall under the Utah Core English Language Proficiency standards, and not actually under Language arts. They are learning how to talk with people, at least they were in this lesson.

Day 15: Some Thoughts and Ideas

I am always on the lookout for good ideas and ways to communicate with parents. Today I found one that I think I like a lot. 

Each student has a folder that looks like this:

Inside of that folder they have an 11x7 book filled with blank pages. Each week on Friday their homework for the next week is glued onto the left side of a new page of their booklet. The teacher sends these home everyday so the students know what it is they have for homework. On the right hand side of the page she leaves it blank. This is the space for parents to write any notes they might have for her. She can also slide papers into the folder on the current page. 

Using these folders for this is brilliant because the unused pages can go under the folds. I thought this was a very good idea to communicate with parents at home. 

I observed a lesson on a and an today. I get to teach more about that on Friday. Before I went to the lesson I looked up some information about them, just to refresh my memory about when to use which one. I sat in a desk and watched the lesson as if I were a student. I found that I understood what the teacher was trying to tell the students, even if I still had no idea what he was saying. I could see which students understood the concepts as well as which students needed a little bit of extra help. Hopefully I can give them the extra help on Friday when I teach my lesson.

The Book Bus came today. Even though the school does not have a well stocked library, they have the Book Bus that comes every other Tuesday. Though the students don't have a large variety books to choose from, they do still have the opportunity to get books. According to the Utah Core the students should be able to read for intellectual, personal and emotional growth. I don't know that any of the students are getting the intellectual growth they need from their reading, but they are getting personal growth. They are finding things that they enjoy reading. I think that there are many teachers who are very good at helping their students find books that are interesting for them to read. There are many teachers who are not good at that as well. I would like to be one of those who is very good at it. I want to have read most of the books that my students are reading. If I get to be in 5th grade, I think that will be very easy.

Day 14: Names

Forrest Gump. A critically acclaimed movie that deals with a lot of stuff that happened in the 70's. It is a good movie to see some American history and to promote understanding of disabilities.
However playing this movie at school... well it just shows how different the schools are. In order to watch that movie in school in America, the students would have to be in High School and would still need a permission slip. Here... nope. They just watch it. Even though I don't really agree with the viewing of this movie, unedited, in the school room, there are still connections to the Utah Core. Standard 4 is about seeing how global events connect with their lives.
They don't use permission slips. I guess the parents just trust that the teachers know what the are doing. As if the teachers have gone to school and been practicing their profession for years. As if they were professionals.

I also stared planning some lessons for the next two weeks, which is much more difficult than in the states. In America, there are lesson books and in order to get the children ready for the test you have to follow a strict schedule. Not so here. They teach according to a schedule, but if they need to change or something else takes priority, they can change what they are doing easily. But that makes it very difficult to plan for the future.
I do miss being called "teacher". Here everyone just calls me Laura. That is nice in some ways, however there is less respect and not as much order in the classrooms. I do not know if the name is what causes it, but I think teacher or miss Bennett is what I would like to be called.

Day 13: Sing A Little Song

Music today. And that was wonderful!
I got to teach music with the 4th and 5th graders.
For the 5th graders I was trying to teach them ordinal numbers and so we learned the song " I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly" and then went through what she swallowed first, second, third, and so on. I think they enjoyed the song but it did get a little monotonous after a while. And my lesson did not take up the entire time. Thankfully, I already had some other lessons planned and was able to use those to fill up the time. I am often thankful that I am good a thinking on my feet so that when things like this happen I can just take it in stride.
Then I got to teach 4th grade music. We learned some fabulous songs such as John Jacob Jingleheimer Shmidt, Turtle Tim (I had a tiny turtle), and There's a Hole in the Bucket. For John Jacob Jingleheimer Shmidt I had to tell them to say "SHHHHMIDT" other wise they said it all silly. They enjoyed the hand motions I used for the Turtle Tim song. For me it was hilarious to watch their frustration as we learned There's a Hole in the Bucket. Each time I pulled up a new slide they had an audible sigh and I just smiled. That song is ridiculously long, but fabulous.
Back to 5th grade for the 4th lesson. I watched them dance to a song that they were getting ready to do with the whole school and after they had done it twice the teacher turned to me. "Do you have anything you would like to teach them?" Seeing as I had just finished teaching the 4th graders, I was excited to teach them some of the same songs.
They loved learning the Turtle Tim song and If All The Raindrops. But I think their favorite song was Da Moose Da Moose. When I got to the end of the song and it says "he decomposed" I had to explain what decomposed meant, but after that they all started laughing. I thought it was fabulous to see them singing. A full day of music always makes me happy.

Day 12: Some Ways America Could Improve

I would like to preface this post by saying "Norwegian's and their love of nature is a wonderful thing!"
Today for science my teacher decided to go to the Tarzan park. I was confused about what it was, but she told me I would know when I saw it.
Apparently, the people at the mental health hospital across the street had some free time and build an obstacle  course in the middle of the forest.

My mom asked me to take pictures of my every day life, just the normal boring things. Honestly, most of my life is not that boring. I get to do things like this all the time! 

One of my students gave me a flower.

I also got to watch my scooperating teacher do some awesome teaching in the woods! It was amazing! Some good aspirations to live up to. 

I was thinking about all of the planning this little trip would have taken in the United States. There would be permission slips and chaperons and all sorts of hoops to jump through. Here, Hilde said "I think today we will go to the Tarzan park because I don't like the lesson I prepared." and so we did. 

I wish America could be a bit more like that!

Day 11: MORE Songs

Assemblies are always awesome. But Norwegian assemblies are the bomb! 
All of the kids in the entire school (which would be just the 1-3 grade in any American elementary school) went into the gym. Then they proceeded to have an entire hour where everyone just sang! I tried to write down at least the first line of each song so I could find it later. 

Lille Føken Kantarell - these are the lyrics to the first one. I know, they are in Norwegian, but I couldn't find the music. 

The next song is called Sambalele. The kids loved it! I think it was translated from Spanish, but I couldn't find it. 

Another was the Valen Skule Song. It was so cute! I wish I could at least get the lyrics. 

The next has a first line that goes like this " krystallklare dagar, ja no er det haust." I couldn't find the lyrics though. 

The last (that I got the name of) was called Regnvæsang. Apparently the Internet doesn't even know what that is, so that is cool. 

I wish we had times here we just sang in America. I think I might put that in my classroom. This assembly connected to the Utah Core music standards for 4th grade, standard 2, objective 2. 

Another thing I have been thinking of to do in my classroom is to have a classroom library. I was already going to have one bu I have a really good plan now. In my library I will have at least one book on every level in every genre I can think of. Then I can give kids the books on their level  until they find one that they really want. Then I can either have more books, or a list a books they can get from the library of other books they might like. As I am typing this out I am thinking to myself "Don't you think that is what every teacher tries to do?" Well, yes, but I haven't tried it yet. 

Day 10: Songs!

I got some cool insight today. There is a Norwegian Student Teacher here who is in her second year of university. She said that in every year there are 2 weeks of observation before Christmas and 4 weeks of teaching after Christmas. I thought that was rather brilliant. She is working on her bachelor's degree and when she is done (in 5 years, but only because she is going part-time) she will be able to go right into teaching!

The students 4th grade and under at my school have been learning some songs for the Christmas program (which I will miss by ONE DAY!!!!!) But I got the music for the songs so that I can learn how to sing them with the kids!
Here are the songs.
Lille Måltrost

Skippervise

Blåklokkevikua

Julekveldsvise

Musenes Morgensang
(This one is a link because I couldn't find a video.)

Having the students learn songs like these follow the Utah Core music section, standard 1, objective one.

As I was talking to my mom last night we discussed how there are not a lot of books here. That got us thinking about the literacy rate. From what I can find online (which isn't all the reliable at the moment) Norway has a 99%+ literacy rate by the age students are 15. Some places say 100%. Either way, that is super high! I wanted to compare that to the poverty rate, but according to CIA World Factbook their poverty rate is NA or unavailable. However they only have 3.5% of their population unemployed. I compared this to the USA. We have 15.1% of our population under the poverty line, a 6.2% unemployment rate, and our literacy rate is 97.5%. Overall, not too bad. But wouldn't it be grate if everyone could read? At least read enough to be able to shop at the grocery store, cause I am here to tell you that I know how hard it is to shop at the grocery store when you can't read anything there!

A Weekend in Oslo

I had the opportunity to go to Oslo this weekend, and it was amazing! It was very tiring, going non-stop from museum to museum, but so worth it! Here are some pictures!

Hovedøya Monastery

The Cathedral in Oslo

Showin' a little Aggie pride in front of the Scotsman!

Oslo Parliament Building

The Palace in Oslo

City Hall in Oslo

Nobel Peace Center

Oslo Opera House, we went and saw a contemporary ballet here. 

The Monolith at Vigeland park

Courtyard of the castle. 

The German rifles in the shape of a swastika at the Norwegian Resistance Museum

The Stave Church at the Norwegian Folk Museum 

The Viking Ship Museum

The Munch Museum

Overall, the trip was amazing! I got to see so many things, and I wish I could have had more time to look at it all. But I was very happy for the time I had.

Day 9: Teaching Around the World

I got to see some Parent Teacher conferences today. Well one. But I figured they were mostly all the same. I was surprised to find that they are not all that different than the parent teacher conferences in America. The only difference I could really find was that here the parents know the teacher already because their student has had the same teacher for a few years. That would be a great advantage.

As I have taught here, I have realized that it is difficult to use classroom management. Their philosophy regarding children is "kids will be kids" and so they let them do many things that we don't let our kids do. Most of those things I agree with, and others... well my kids wouldn't be doing those things. But this makes classroom management very different than in the States. I don't know how to get their attention or how to keep it or how to let them know when I am done teaching. The style of teaching is mostly the same in all of the classes. Lecture for a bit, then have the students do some group or individual work. In most of the classes that is how they teach.
However, there is one teacher who has some wonderful ideas! Today the kids went out onto the football (soccer) field for Math. The teacher put 25 sheets of paper across the entire field. The kids rolled a dice then when to the paper of the number they rolled. They had to answer a three digit subtraction problem then run back to the teacher and tell her the answer. If they got it right they got to roll the dice again, this time adding the first dice number to this second. The first pair to 25 won the game. The kids loved it and they didn't even realize they were learning.

I have noticed that as far as the Utah Core is concerned, I am right in line with NL.IL. Actually until recently, I didn't even know World Languages was part of the Core. That is a really cool aspect of the core I didn't know about.

Day 8: My Brain Hurts

Today I got to teach English and Arts and Crafts again.
English... was a nightmare. I started by splitting the kids into two groups. This was my first mistake for today's lessons. Half the kids were working on their Halloween stories and half of the kids started writing letters to my American students. Yeah, those kids can't write on their own! I should have realized that after watching them write their Halloween stories ( it took them three days for 5 sentences.) I left that class feeling really discouraged. I went over what Hilde thought and she had some good ideas. Some of them were writing the letters together, talking about strange words, and letting them talk about their letters together. Overall... I need to re think that lesson!

Arts and Crafts went much better. I did the Picasso face with my new improvements. That worked out well! I also told the kids if they asked me questions they could get candy. I had questions for the entire two hours! I did switch to stickers which they also loved. I am going to need some more stickers!

Hilde had me read a paper to her in Norwegian today and then she translated it... that was so mentally taxing. I don't know that I have done anything that hard in a while.

Day 7: Improvement Requires Reflection

Today I got to teach almost all day! I was very excited about it and nervous. I can teach all day, no problem... in English. But I was teaching 4th grade and they need a translator. So I didn't quite know how it was going to go.
Overall, I think it went well.
English was first. Last week when they had questions they would ask the teacher in Norwegian and she would translate for me and then I would answer. The kids got no experience talking in English. So this week I upped the stakes.
"If you ask Hilde for help and then ask me a question, I will give you a sticker." I promised the children as I showed them the awesome stickers I had brought.
"But, if you ask me without getting help I will give you a candy!" A chorus of amazement met this declaration.
Every single child got at least one candy today, most two or three. I think my plan worked out rather well. Since I don't want the kids to never ask questions I am going to switch it up next time. I will tell them that if they get help, or if they don't, either way they still get a prize. The requirement is asking me in English. This way each of the students will be able to get any help they need without fear of losing some reward.

Then the part of the day I was looking forward to the most. Arts and Crafts! I have always loved art time, and here they have designated two hours for art! It is like a dream come true! Last week we started working on our patterns and designs. This week we drew the head and started adding the designs to the paper. The kids were really engaged and I had to herd them out of the door for recess assuring them that they could keep working on it when they came back in.
As I taught this lesson I recognized some things I could do better. So I added them to my lesson plan and when I get to teach this same lesson to 5th grade tomorrow I get to try and make it better! The lesson directly relates to the Utah core standards, especially 4th grade standard 1 objective one.

There are three main things I learned that weren't directly tied to my lesson today.
1. When Hilde has students grade themselves she has three boxes they can check: I'm good at this, This is difficult, and I want to practice this more. I love the last one. It does not mean bad, it just means the student wants more practice!
2. I need a signal for when I am done with instruction so they children know when they can move. Today I used "let's go." as my signal but I thought maybe a specific clap would be better. And it would be more fun as well.
3. I need to be better at noticing students who haven't been commenting or who need a bit more attention. When I am teaching I get so involved in answering questions and teaching that I forget to look for understanding.

Day 6: Dislike, Picasso, Classroom, and P.E.

I have found something I truly do not like in Norwegian schools. There is not enough books. There are no classroom libraries, the school library contains one bookshelf. Every other Tuesday the Book Bus comes and the students can check books out from there. But I have not seen a single 4th grader with a book. I understand that America puts too much emphasis on reading and math, but I feel like Norway is not putting enough. There needs to be a happy balance.

I created a lesson plan for the Picasso head activity that I did a while ago. The lesson plan spans over 2-3 days and I have already started teaching it in 4th grade. It addresses the Utah Core Standards for 3rd grade, standard one, objective one. While I was planning after school I found out that the 5th grade doesn't have an art lesson for Thursday. I volunteered this lesson and shared it with two other teachers here. I did not realize how helpful it could be to have lesson plans already written up and ready to use and share.

I have thought about teacher desks before. Do teachers actually need a desk to keep all of their stuff? To an extent, my opinion is yes. But it does not have to be the main focus of the classroom. Here in Norway all of the teacher desks are in a common room. All planning takes place there and then teaching is done in the classroom. Most teachers have a small table to set their teaching book, but no "Teacher Desk."

The 5th graders got to go to the Book Bus today so I noticed a lot of books in the classroom. I was surprised to find that most of them were Diary of a Wimpy kid, or similar books. That is the same kind of books the 5th graders were reading in 5th grade in America. I think it is good that they are reading, but I wish they would read better books!

I got a picture of the classroom so you can see how small it is!

View from the back, and you can see the cool chairs I was talking about! 

View front he front. Their chairs balance on their desks. 

That is a large classroom in Valen school. That is not very big! 

I also got to go to P.E. today! Man that was fun and I learned some really cool games! When we walked into the gym today it looked like this:

The ladders on the wall are permanent fixtures. Other permanent fixtures include: climbing ropes, basketball hoops, and net posts. 

The first game I call:

Obstacle Course Tag!

Object of the game: don't get tagged. 

Rules of the game: you can't touch the floor, only one step in each hulahoo (in the middle of the floor), no hurting others.

How it works: One person is it, everyone else runs away. If you get tagged you have to go into the corner (upper left hand side) and jump rope 5 times, then you can go back to the course. 

Every few minutes the teacher chooses a new person to be it. 

We played to music today with was brilliant because the kids knew to listen when it turned off. 

Second game:

Flag Tag!

Object of the game: get as many tails as you can! 

Rules of the game: no shoving, no pulling on tail/flag/ tag around someone's neck

How it works: Each person as a flag (which is a loop of fabric or rope) and they stick it in their waistband. Everyone commences to run around trying to grab someone else's flag. When another flag is won that person puts it on like a necklace. If their flag is taken, they can use the necklace as a replacement. If a person has no flag at all, they can still grab someone else's and use it. 

Third game:

Toilet Tag!

Object of the game: Don't get tagged!

Rules of the Game: pull gently, don't hit

How it works: Same rules as generic tag, but when a person is tagged they have to "go to the bathroom". This means they squat down with their hand up. Someone can grab their hand and pull them "off of the toilet" and then they can run again. 

Today the person who was "it" was the teacher, and the students loved that!

Fourth game: 

(Yes, I know. "Four games? How did they fit that into 45 minutes?!"They didn't. P.E. was 2 hours!!!!)

Norwegian Base- Ball

Object of the game: get around the bases

Rules of the game: don't hurt anyone

How it works: There are four bases, home, first, second, third. All except for 6 people are line up to hit the ball. Five people are in the middle of the gym to catch the ball, and one to pitch the ball. When the batting team hits the ball they use their forearms, like in vollyball. If the ball is caught by the team in the middle, whoever caught the ball gets to switch places with whoever hit the ball. 

We did not play with a winner, but it could be changed that way if you wanted too. 

Seriously, Norwegian P.E. is the best! 

Day 5: A Little English, A Little Polish

Today I got to be in three different classrooms. 3rd grade, 4th grade and 7th grade. I would have also been in 6th grade, however they were just refreshing on how to get online to do a test and that is pretty much the same everywhere. 

In 4th grade today I got to help kids figure out what to draw. That was fun. I showed one student how to draw fire, another how to draw a flying carriage. Not too shabby. 

In 3rd grade we learned the names of fruit and berries. According to the Utah Core Language Standards these kids are in the Level 1 category of speaking when it comes to everyday objects. They can't have a conversation with me. But they can listen pretty well, though they don't understand everything. 

Then to 7th grade. By far, this was my favorite part of the day... okay second favorite part. The kids talked to me and asked me questions. They gave me foods to try and told me about what they were writing reports on. It is very refreshing to be able to talk to people. I never knew how difficult it would be to not be able to communicate well with everyone around me. 

My favorite part of the day recess. I know, typical answer. But today there was a good reason for it. Last week I had promised the 5th grade girls that I would paint their nails. And today was the day we had decided to do it. I brought my nail polish and they lined up to have their nails painted. But it did not stop with the 5 girls I promised. No, some of the boys wanted their nails painted, and then the 3rd grade girls and then some 4th graders. There seemed to be a never ending line! I told them I would have to do more tomorrow. And that is true! I also need to bring my acetone so they can clean their old nail polish off first. I won't do it for them though. They will have to do it. (I don't want to ruin my nails!)

Some things I noticed today, or rather have been noticing but stood out to me today.

- Everyone talks over each other. Whether it is conversations going on in an X shape, or someone interrupting and talking first. It is all fair game in Norsk. And no one seems to be offended by it. Which I appreciate that they aren't offended, but I think I would rather just listen to one person at a time. 

- Mental math. Most of the math I have seen here has been mental math. The students solve pretty large addition and subtraction problems (in 4th grade) in their heads. Pretty awesome. 

After school the other student teachers and I went and played football (soccer) and basketball. I had so much fun! and it was nice to get all of my energy out from the day of sitting and standing at school. 

Student Teaching Adventures in Norway

This post is not about school, but rather about my experience in Norway.

So far... the only thing I can really complain about is the tight curves on the road and the speed at which Norwegian drivers take them. But, if it was perfect everyone would live here, right?
This country is so beautiful! Since coming here we have gone on several different hikes, all of which present new breathtaking views and memorable scenery.
Here are a few pictures from the hikes I have done since being here.

The waterfall near the Rosendal barony.

The coolest glacier! It looks like it could cascade down the mountain at any moment.

A view of Rosendal from the top of a mountain.

There were so many more amazing pictures! But looking at the pictures does poor justice to the real thing. Being here is so much more amazing than I could have ever imagined. I have fallen in love with the landscape and the people of Norway. It is hard to believe that I have only been here for a week!

Day 4: Can Do Attitude!

Today was the first day that I didn't feel totally overwhelmed. I still didn't understand everyone but it was okay. I got to do some teaching which always makes me feel better. The kids also gave me a list of foods to try and I started keeping a Norsk Journal. These two things... I think made a huge different.

Before I get into those I was noticing some things that I dislike about the school system ( I had to look hard for these)
- They don't have as much technology. There is a set of computers for the entire school and everyone shares them. Yeah they only have 100 kids, but still, they could use those computers a lot! Every classroom has a Promethean board, which is like a next gen SmartBoard.
- Blackboards. They still have blackboards. I can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes it is very useful to have a blackboard, other time I wish I had the smoothness of a whiteboard. Both have their place I think.
- National tests are the same everywhere. (from what I have observed). I watched the 5th grade take a national test. The only real differences were that the teachers could explain what the question asked of the student. They couldn't explain the concept, which is to be expected. But in America the teachers can't even answer any questions!
- The classrooms are pretty small. Smaller than the classrooms in the states. Hilde is in one of the biggest classrooms and it is not big. I think every classroom should have plenty of space for activities.
- Big desks. All of the desks are huge! Okay, not huge but at least one and half of the start desk size in the US. They also have these really cool chairs that are made so students can lean their chair back or sides ways and have a footrest that is bumpy. That is perfect since the kids don't wear shores in school.
- Recess. They have recess every hour. And school is out by 2 pm every day.

Okay so that was not all things that I don't like.. I only really don't like the lack of technology or the small classrooms. Everything else on that list I really love!

Foods to Try:
- fiskburger (fish burger)
- farikol (sheep, cabbage, peppercorns)
- hjort
- pinnekjott
- makrell (in a can)
- krabbe (crab)
- roykt fisk (smoked fish)
- blot kake (sponge cake)
- fiskkake (fish cake)
- orret (trout)

Norsk I have learned
liker du - (likado) do you like
ha det - (ha dey) good bye
tak - (toc) thanks
finn fram - (fin from) find
bokene (the o has a slash through it) - (bo-ken-uh) the books
gjer side - (yer seeda)  do page...
bra - (brra) good, well done
ha det bra - (ha dey brra) have it good
raud (growl the r - roud) red
sand - (sont) true
usant - (osont) false

A long vowel sound happens where there is one consonant.
short vowel sound happens if there is two conontants after.

Day 3: Hodet

Well, I now know what it is like to teach in conjunction with another teacher. And I can see how it would work. But it will take time for me and Hilde to be able to work seemlessly together. It will probably happen right before I leave. Right now, even though she speaks English, there is still a language barrier. I try to tell her something but she doesn't know what one word means and so the whole sentence doesn't make sense. We will get past it eventually. 

I taught English and Arts & Crafts today. English we sang a song about the months and practiced our verbs and our nouns. For Arts and Crafts we started the Picasso Hodet (or Picasso Head). They made their patterns, which turned out pretty cool. Some of them were really cool! Here are the ones I made. 

Next Wednesday or Onsdag we will do the head portion. I need to remember next time I do this assignment to tell the students that they can't have any white space in any of their squares and if they want white they need to have a white colored pencil. 

The 5th grade girls found out that I like to do nails and so I am bringing my nail polish stuff to school on Monday. If I were to do that in the States... I don't think I could do it in the States. 

There was a faculty meeting today, which they just called a meeting. All 14(ish) teachers were there and they started out their meeting by turning to look at me (all of them) and saying "we want to welcome you to Valen school." Then proceeded to ask for all of my free time. I now have quite a full schedule and I think it is going to be very fun. Lots of English teaching and two days of Arts & Crafts, some P.E. and some random things stuck in there. It is going to be very fun!