It has been my final
week at Fridaskolan and I have had an amazing time being at this school and
have learnt a lot from both teachers in my class. They have been very helpful
with answering all my questions about the Swedish school system. The school is like
a small community with all staff members being friends and enjoying a Friday
‘fika’ which they have organised themselves within the school. The staff
members take it in turns throughout the year each Friday to make different
kinds of desserts and cakes and then spend some time talking and enjoying the
food. (This idea should definitely be adopted into all schools in Northern
Ireland!). Throughout my time at Fridaskolan I have been able to see the
different types of assessment and how teachers and other members of staff deal
with inappropriate behaviour in the classroom.
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| An induction day for preparation for moving to grade 6. |
I have been really
lucky to be able to speak with every pupil in my class in English as well as
being given an opportunity to use a national testing method for English to
measure their standard of spoken English. The national test that I was given is
similar to the type of test that will be used in grade six (age twelve and
thirteen). I spoke with the pupils in groups therefore it was easier for me to
listen to their English. Each pupil picked a category on the test and then they
had to speak about their chosen category and try to achieve the goals that were
set for example, a category could be sport and the children would have to talk
about their favourite sport, sport they play, how many times they train, their
favourite player and things they don’t like in sport. It is very similar to how
a child at secondary level would be tested for a foreign language oral
examination but so strange for me to think of my first language being tested in
the way of a foreign language (speaking, listening and writing).
This week at
Fridaskolan has also enlightened me on how the teachers deal with discipline of
children who are not behaving appropriately. I asked my teachers about this as
the children are allowed a lot more freedom in the classroom in Sweden and
things that I would see as inappropriate are not here. But if there are
problems between pupils or individual problems (bullying, constant misbehaving,
undesired attitude towards others/school work) the teacher must try to solve it
with the pupil and those involved by working on changing the things that are
causing problems and focusing on things that are good. This gives the child
support and motivation and hopefully their parents do not become involved in
the situation if it can be solved this way but if the pupil(s) are unwilling
then their parents become involved to help make the situation better.
I also had an opportunity this week to see an induction day for the new grade six pupils who will be joining the current grade five class that I have been placed in. The day was filled with games, fun and laughter and a lot new friendships were made. The children were divided into three groups (x, y and z) which will be their classes for next year. It was really interesting from a teaching perspective to see the transition from primary school to secondary school and what methods of integrating new pupils into the school are used. The weather was lovely which allowed some of the icebreakers to be outside. A lot of the icebreakers and methods Fridaskolan used would be similar to that that school in Northern Ireland would use.
From being at
Fridaskolan I have learnt so much from a teaching perspective as there are so
many differences between teaching attitudes in Sweden and Northern Ireland. I
think that Swedish teachers are a lot more relaxed than teachers in Northern
Ireland and more care free but they still plan and implement great lessons in
the classroom which enables the children to learn and fulfil the criteria in
the Swedish curriculum. Being in a class where English is not the first
language of anyone has certainly made me more confident as a teacher as I must
be careful of the words I choose to say and the way in which I say it. I have
also developed my ability to plan suitable and effective lessons for English as
a second language and when I return to Northern Ireland I intend on
participating in a TEFL course to improve these skills.
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