Week Sixteen - Vecka sexton (Professional Development) 28-04-12 - 4-05-12

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. 

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.  

Week Fifteen - Vecka femton (Professional Development) 21-04-12 - 27-04-12

Having had another week at Fridaskolan I have seen many more activities and I think I will be sad when leaving at the end of next week. I have become quite attached to the children in my class and have gotten to know each of them individually by helping them with their work and I can now finally remember everyone’s name! 

Poetry that Grade 5 were writing about love.

It has been a busy week as I have been teaching some English lessons to my grade five class and have been trying to persuade them to speak more English at the request of my two class teachers. It doesn’t take much to persuade some of the pupils as they say they enjoy speaking English and want to learn more vocabulary and phrases therefore they will voluntarily come to me and ask to speak in English. There is a lot of structured time for English lessons in the class as they are timetabled for every other day which stresses the importance of learning English at compulsory school in Sweden. After looking at the Swedish Curriculum for compulsory school (school from the age of seven to sixteen) I have realised that several parts of the curriculum are much the same as the Northern Ireland Curriculum and that lessons taught in the classroom would be similar to what teachers in Northern Ireland would teach, yet sometimes it can be very different for example, the pupils have home economics to the level that secondary pupils in Northern Ireland. 

 

It is strange to be able to see many similarities but still see a lot of differences. One of the main differences I notice at Fridaskolan is the freedom that the children have in the classroom and outside the classroom. I was astonished to realise that the pupils walk to a local sports stadium for physical education; they are not supervised by any adults as they walk and they cross several roads on their way. I was in total shock that they were allowed to do this as in Northern Ireland pupils are generally not allowed to leave the school grounds unless supervised by a member of staff. Another difference I have recognised is that there are two full time teachers in most classes which allows for adequate planning time for each teacher nearly every day for at least one hour which is something a teacher in Northern Ireland would do after school.

I think that the school ethos at Fridaskolan is one of trust, respect and equality as pupils can have a say in what they want to learn and what they want to do. Most of the pupils I have talked with have said they really like the school and that they are glad that they are at it and to be honest if I attended Fridaskolan as a child I think I would say the same thing!