ART lessons with Dorte

Drawing was the highlight for me!

We started with drawing our own face. A mirror in front of us, a pencil
and a piece of paper were all we needed.
First we had only two minutes to bring our own face on the paper.
Of course it can only be the important lines of expression of the face.
But with the task and the short time we were more focused on our work.







The next time we had 5 minutes.









And for the last time we drew 20 minutes.





Dorte was an effective mentor and every time she discussed the results
with us and gave us suggestions or inspiration.


I drew more at home:







In the second lesson we analyzed different historical portraits. The choice
of colors supports the statement of the picture. Dorte gave us information
and examples of the connotation of the different colors. Our group decided
to discuss the color red at these paintings.









The absolute highlight for me was to work with Mischa. We took picture
with an emotional expression from each other.






These expressions should be confirmed by using specified colors.
We draw on the photo with oil pastel.







To draw the face of an unknown person, talking and discussing about
the composition, was an excellent way to get to know each other.








Another great technique particular for pupils was the mirror monoprinting.
I saw this already in an exhibition of Edgar Degas in Hamburg, but I never
created pictures with this simple technique before.
Looking in a mirror we had to draw really quickly our own face on this mirror.
We used three colors. Then we put the mirror down and printed the color on the
mirror on several papers.



After the print we could complete the results with oil pastel
to finish our portrait.
But for me the unmodified print was always the best.






Giving an impulse is important for the pupils, so they know what to do
and can find their own way to be creative. The results take place swiftly
with the technique of the 2 or 5 minutes drawing and with the monoprinting.
Furthermore the technique can be linked with the artists and the historical time.

School practice at St. Severin School in Haderslev

My schedule





6th Class interior:

The 6th classes are all in the same area and share one bigger common room for alternative activities or team work.
Each class has got about 25 pupils in a large room. Everybody sat on his own table; table and chair can be modified for every height. It is always in the right proportion with the growth of the pupils. It avoids having problems sharing one table with somebody else. In the back of the classroom are shelves, where each pupil can place books and exercise books.
A Smart-Board at the front is standard; using it implies changing the necessary didactic. With this tool the teacher can save time, connects easier different subjects and can also immediately change his planned lesson, if needed. His recorded lesson can be used for repetition.
With the smart-board software on the own computer is it easy to prepare the lessons at home, saving this on a USB flash drive und using it in the classroom. It is an excellent medium to document the own work. But the teacher has to know how it works and it always has to be operated by him, not to speak about the capital investment for such a Smart-board.
Nevertheless the teacher should also always be prepared, when the Smart-board has got a malfunction.

Verginie, Aurélie, Fanny and me joined all interesting lessons with Lasse.




ENGLISH lesson with Lasse:

Lasse teaches English in three parallel classes, so he repeated the same lesson two times. At the first lesson he wrote the task and the examples on the Smart-Board and saved it on the flash drive. For the same lesson in the parallel class he used this and saved time, which he used for more practice.
The English schoolbooks are located at the school. 75 pupils have to share 25 books. For each lesson the teacher has to hand out the English books. It is important to modulate the lesson, because the pupils have no books at home to learn or to make homework. For some subjects, the teacher makes copies of the book. But often he plans time for the pupils to learn the new words in different ways during the lessons (memorizing, working with the neighbor, going around in the class and asking different people, as a play game to collect points, become STAR of the day,…).

The actual subject was about Australia. All audio texts in the book were spoken by native Australian speakers. The pupils can always read the text at the same time. That is important, because there are different ways of learning (visual type, audio type, motion type).
Afterwards Lasse asked questions about the texts. Sometimes he starts telling a story and then one pupil has to continue.
A good example was that the learner prepared an interview like being one of the actors in the text with no yes/no questions. The teacher gave some words which they could use for the dialogue.

The pupils were excited with the language game: “Call my bluff”. They have to make three realistic false statements and one true. The others have to find out which one is the right one.

Lasse used a lot of different interactive strategies and adapted his didactics on the circumstances.


MATHEMATICS lesson with Lasse:

Currently Lasse taught probability. The pupils made experiments by counting how often their shoes fall down on the side or on the shoe sole. As a second experiment they chose their own testing and created roles for it like for a game. I joined two boys, which were creating a game with too dice (casino). They worked alone in the common room till it was finished, nevertheless the lesson was over.
Learning mathematics is also to learn how to solve problems and this is a good way to practice it.


MUSIC lesson with Lasse:

Danish people like to sing (Syngelyst), it opens the mind.
First we sang the English Song ”I like the flowers” with piano accompaniment.
Then “I denmark er jeg fodt”, the text of this song was from the internet on the Smart-board.
Every year there is an event to promote singing. This year was the skolernessangdag at the 15th of April from 9.00 to 9.45 am with 600 pupils.



ART lesson with Jan:

Clara, Maria, Natalie and me joined this interesting lesson:

The title of the lesson was “MONSTER”.

Jan started at the first ART lesson with the introduction.
First he asked the pupils to close the curtains and to turn out the light. He produced an atmosphere like in the evening, when young children should lay in their beds and listen to a little scary story told by older siblings or friends. All pupils were sitting around on the couch, on big balls, cushions or on their chairs.



Jan told an interesting fairy-tale. He often used body language to explain the situation and feelings in the story. All pupils were pulled into the spell, I have never ever seen such a quiet room.
Then Jan showed some cutouts of the movie Monsters, Inc., produced by Pixar Animation Studios 2001. He and the pupils described and discussed some of the monsters in the movie. Why do we think, something or someone is a monster? Because of the colors, the guise or the size?





For the second lesson we went to the art room. The room is large and equipped with quite a lot of material.




The subject was from the Children's Environment. The most pupils have known the movie and this was a new way to deliver content. We felt that they were so excited that they wanted to work immediately. Jan induced high motivation. With these introduction every child created a new monster by their own fantasy.

For the next week it was planned to color the monster. Jan is really an engaged teacher and he explained and discussed constantly with his pupils.


Christel*

My school practice in Askov!!!!!!!!

My højskole days

From april 5th to 14th, I went to school practice in Askov højskole and efterslole.
It was only 10days, but I could make wonderful memory in Askov.
There were 120 students and there were more boys than girls.
I always attended their class together, ate together, and stayd in efterskole.
The age of students was from 16 years old to 18 years old. Every student sleeps and eats together.
Of course, teachers also stayed together.
This is one of the examples of their 1day.

7:00 get up
7:15 breakfast
7:40 morning assembly(singing, walking and so on)
8:15 1st class
9:30 break
9:55 2nd class
11:35 break
11:40 lunch
12:00 break
12:35 3rd class
13:50 break
14:15 4th class
15:30 break
15:45 5th class
17:00 break
17:40 dinner
18:00 free time
21:00 meeting
22:00 go to bed

The most inspired point was every student was so motivated to work together with the others. And
They had really close relationship each other. I also had lived in dormitory for 4 years, so I was so I could remember my dormitory life too. Living is learning, and they grow up each other through human relationship. For each one of students, the experience in the efterskole must become their precious and unforgettable memories. They played together, had a quarrel, and they discussed a lot of things to make better life. I was so inspired about it. It was very great to see them. Then I noticed they will learn how to get social and how to live with together. I was inspired

In 2nd week, they were making theatre. It was also very creative. They prepared all of staffs by themselves. They made clothes, lights, backgrounds and music. Then they practiced for 1 week to show the theatre on Sunday. They followed the advices of teachers and also they made a lots of ideas by themselves. I could not believe all of theatres were made by students. I could see how they did their best to make one big theatre.

During my stay in Askov, I felt a lot of things. I could think about the meaning of learning. Humanity is blushed up by relationship between human and human. That is why the efterskole it the best place to brush up their humanity because it is very close relationship each other in the efterskole, so it is easy to see good and bad point of others. From seeing such points of others, we can grow up ourselves. So, I hope this spirit will be taken for long time to the future.


Mitsue*

Postmodern Attacks Upon Science and Reason

M2 Global Citizenship (Torbjorn)

Names: Fatima Sanabria, Elisa Heimbold, Madeleine Angermeyer,
Christel Rösner

Author: Richard Baliley

Titles of the acticle: The Abdication of Reason: Postmodern Attacks Upon Science and Reason. In Swann & Pratt (1999): Improving Education. Cassell, London.


Postmodern:
The Postmodern Theory has no standard definition, but it seems that there are some themes in common.” Most fundamental of these is a general assumption of the breakdown of established forms of knowledge and inquiry, specifically those associated with the Enlightements’s self-confident pursuit of truth and reality: science and rationality.”

When? The term ‘postmodernism’ originated in 1960s literary criticism.

Where? Intellectual left of continental Europe and America.

Key figures? Theodore Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida,
Richard Rorty, Sandra Harding

The Postmodern view criticise that the established form of knowledge has only a superficial objectivity. The mind does not perceive reality, but constructs it and it is always a human interpretation. All is subjectivity and there is no truth.
It describes the lack of confidence in the “Western conceptual system” of the elite, because it is: - Arrogant, insensitivity to others cultural traditions and values
- Used against human/people
- Excluding others (women, minorities, coloured people…..)
- Used for their own power
- Expense of others (Imperialism, slavery, genocide……)

There is no ‘objective truth’ like the points of Verification:
1. All findings must be repeatable.
2. All findings must survive the test of fellow scientists
3. Scientists theories can be seen/ used all over the world every day.
It should rather be a Hermeneutic truth.

Truth is always subjective, depending on the Society with their values and standards of behaviour. The elite (white, male, middle-class, western) define the truth.

But if we do not know what is right and what is wrong, when all things are non-judgemental relativism, how it is possible to describe how the world really is.
There is no alternative approach.

In particular it is important for teacher to reflect how they should describe the world for the pupils.





------------------------------------------------

March 21st!
This is the opinion of our group!

[Respect as the Ethic of the Open Society
Stefano Gathei]
(University of Pisa, Italy)

The aim of our paper is to conclude the article ´Respect as the Ethic of the Open Society´ by Stefano Gathei where he discusses the possibilities and the dangers of the relativism in the open society. In which the tolerance and respect are the basic idea for it, which are often used in the wrong way and misunderstood.
The biggest problem of our society is the confusion about the meaning of tolerance and respect. So it is necessary to make it clear.
Open society starts with tolerance by allowing differences to exist. To tolerate someone is rather passive, it is just the patient connivance of something we nearly do not care about or cannot accept as equal or worthful.
Moreover, the difference between respect and tolerance is that we do not only allow the difference but we also try to learn from them. According to Notturno “Respect […] means that we take the dissenting opinions of other seriously, and that we regard them as possibly true. It means, in fact, that we treat them as potentially our own – since we want to discover the truth and since we recognize that we may be in error […]” (Notturno, 2000, p.33).
At the same time, being critical is really important in having respect for someone else. We have to be willing to learn from the others. Have an open mind but still be critical enough because every opinion does not have to be the right one.
However, we cannot forget the dangers of an open society. We can only afford to tolerate and respect those who in turn tolerate and respect us. “Aggressive people not only fail to appreciate respect, they also ignore tolerance, thus putting the minimum condition of civil coexistence at risk.” (Popper, 1945a, p.265).
And that´s why we think it is important to teach children how to be respectful and tolerant, in order to be a global citizen in a multicultural society.


Mitsue*

Key words of Mathematics: Didaktik 2.0 tools

Acticle by Tina Nedegaard:
From 2004 till 2007 the IT program for the primary schools was developed. In 2009 Denmark was claimed as the best computer-country.
The innovation in the primary school has cost a lot of money, which have to pay each community.
The teachers need to know, how they can use the IT-technology for teaching. Today the students know it better how they can use IT-technology than the teacher.


Article by Lise Richter:
About Arnt Louw Vestergaard
If the students do not learn with pencil and paper, it could be that they lose their focus on the subject. Then they are using the computer only for itself.
It is a great challenge for the teacher and the students to use the IT-theory in the practice.
The problem is also to loose the eye contact. Over 80 percent of the body talking gets lost. The children meet less their peers. Not everybody can deal with this.

Particularly difficult is it to acquire new knowledge with other computer programs. It is easier to copy the learned structure from the lecture.

To what extent is this also useful in elementary school? Since the time for using the computer the time for socializing and games can be blocked.


Artikel of Dorrit Saietz (28.08.2008): (www.Politiken.dk)
The development of the teaching with computer is in the Primary till now not enough. Also the Teacher has to learn to do it, but it isn’t easy for them. It is easier for the children.
(Linked to Karin Tweddell Levinsen)
Every year there is more innovation. How can we connect pedagogicly the new possibilities with the teaching habits?
What makes sense, what is only playing with a gadget.

Text of Niels Jakob Pasgaard, eViden Center (blog, 28.06.2010):
The transformation from the theory to the practice is not easy for the teacher.
Today at the Danish schools is only one computer for 4 students, so only one can work and the other students are sitting beside.



Experiment combinatorics:

How often fall a drawing pin on which side?
Make it sense to do this experiment with the students?
What could be the different in the results?

Work with exel:
Coin heads with tails
Point diagram: With more experiments we get a better result (0,5).


Introduction of “Det digitale penalhus” (Project of Microsoft)



Results of SMART Notebook can be shown like this at the blackboard:





Smart Recorder: to record the development at excel with explaining voice
this was created by Henrik (Thank you!)




written by Christel, with help from the UCSyd Students Dana and Henrik

How can citizenship be learned in Germany? How do we provide knowledge, values and skills at schools and kindergarten?

Kindergarten:

Citizenship is taught more in indirect way:

Kids got to know the basic rules and skills which are important to live together in a group (respect, tolerance, equality). This also counts for schools.

I.e. Kids are allowed to choose what they want to eat at the week schedule in discussion with the other kids.

Training of special communications skills: i.e. speaking only is allowed for the kid who has the “Stone” in the hand. The others have to listen and need to be quiet.

There are many activities and events, which are organized by the kindergarten (Celebration of St. Martin, Harvest Festival). There are visitations to different places within the community (Bakery, Fire station, Church, City Hall) and to institutions like nursing homes.

Schools:

In Germany citizenship, politics and globalization is taught in different subjects, like social-science, history and religion. In social science pupils get informed about our government, about our rights as a citizen and about economic and political topics going on around the world. But also there is a kind of democratic system at school, in which pupils are involved. Each class has its own pupil representative who is elected by the classmates. These pupils’ representatives can participate at teachers-parents conferences. Furthermore they are responsible for taking care of school festivals. Besides, during school time they can demonstrate for their own rights like the development of education or the payment for education facilities to get attention from the government.

Considering the teaching, there are also democratic activities used in the classroom, for example pupils can say their opinion and the teacher even asks for them.

By Ina Feldmaier, Madeleine Angermeyer, Christel Rösner

Special needs* March 4th, 7th, 11th, 14th,

In the special needs class, we are learning how to treat for special needs children. Also we are learning what is the important value for special needs students.

We learned about inclusion now. We discussed about how to include children. Children have different special needs, so there is need of special teaching way. And the way is depending on children. Teachers have to be more flexible to teach them. And they have to set different goals for each one of them. Because their needs are totally different, it is depending on the children.

Inclusion consists of social skills and academic skills. Both of them are need to include children. Every sturents have to be a member of children. So, it is important to learn social skills as well as academic skills.

Then, what is the important thing for special needs teachers?!
These are my opinion.
*tolerance
*honest
*flexible
*consideration
*understanding
*creativity
*management ability for multipul work

As my opinion, I have never studied about special needs education before, so I thought it is important to know about Japanese special needs education. So, I will try to learn more, and at the same time, I will try to learn about inclusion more in this class!!!!

Mitsue*