So as our school placement doesn't start until March at the moment from the professional side of things we have
only experienced class. This week class once again began after the crazy
antics of the Dutch Carnival and our own trip to Amsterdam. To be honest I was
looking forward to classes starting again as it would enter in some routine
into our Dutch lives, but I most certainly wasn't looking forward to the bike
rides each morning as we would have to get up earlier just to be on time for class –
Urgh!
Our first class was on Tuesday which was our Dutch language lessons… well
that was interesting to say the least! The whole lesson or most of it was in
Dutch as the lecturer would only speak Dutch and not English. We struggled on
and managed (eventually) to be able to say “Ik ben Darren” and “Ik kom uit
Ireland”; which is really saying what your name is and where you are from. Another
hugely important sentence that we learned was how to say I understand and I do
not understand – clearly the latter being used more often! So…“Ik snap het “or “Ik
snap het niet”. Clearly though this class will be useful and will force us to
think about the Dutch language and what to say. Obviously, I had not been used
to thinking and concentrating so much in a while as I was completely drained
after our Dutch language class.to say the least I am extremely looking forward
to the next class to find out more of this historical language.
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every
door along the way.”
Frank Smith
Homework’s also are
starting to pile up which isn't a great thing but I suppose it gives us
something else to do. The homework’s at the moment though don’t seem too
strenuous because they really are making presentations on yourself and your own
experiences. However, this will change as the weeks go on.
Dutch culture and
society this week was a lot of people talking about their own countries through
the representation of pictures. We got to delve into a lot of cultures and see
what their country was about and what it meant to each individual. Again, it
was interesting to see each student’s different perspective especially as I chose
a more controversial picture for Northern Ireland with the reason of wanting to
root out the stereotype placed against us as a country. However, I was severely
glad to find out that other people’s perceptions were a lot different than
expected!
Finally, our class on
Friday let us gain more knowledge into the professional side of teaching in The
Netherlands concerning really our school placements. We were told that some
placements might be outside the main centre of Nijmegen which did concern me
but if I am placed there I’m sure I will be fine. We found out that we will
have placement on a Monday and Tuesday of each week and depending on the class
and teacher it is up to them how much involvement they want me to have. Though,
we were told thankfully that if we want to do more we just have to ask! I see
this as a brilliant opportunity and experience to be able to teach in a
different country and so I am willing to do as much as possible. Furthermore,
this will be a lot different to our own teaching practise and placement back in
Northern Ireland as we have a block period compared to here, which has just the
two days then class the rest of the week. Hopefully we will be able to see
which process works better and that we prefer! Finally we also got to see
lesson plans and got to see about how here they plan, assess and evaluate their
lessons. This still corresponds with our curriculum as The Northern Ireland Curriculum
states:
“Schools will still assess pupils' progress in the key areas of
Communication and Using Mathematics with reference to levels and report
outcomes...”
N.Ireland Curriculum 2007 Assessment
for Learning
This further relates
with the GTCNI competences as Competence five states ““A knowledge and
understanding of curriculum development processes, including planning,
implementation and evaluation.”
Planning in The Netherlands seem a little different as the Dutch lesson plans
seem to be a lot fuller of content compared to ours. Instead of our table format
response the most of theirs seem to be more ‘question answer’ form, where you
just have a for example learning goal and then space below to write in your
goals. However, we were told if we wanted to use our lesson planners from back
home we could, but I think I will truly experience the Dutch student teacher
life and use their own planners.
So after week 3 we have
nearly a month complete in Nijmegen and really it seems just so natural to be
here now. Everything just seems normal, continuous skyping to family and
friends, shopping, cleaning etc. Also, now that classes have begun and we are
beginning to learn about teaching here and the schools, it really just feels
like we are back home about to begin our own normal teaching practise. P.s. top
tip for this week – get up earlier in the morning so you don’t have to cycle
really fast just to be on time for class or this will result in sore legs and a
sore bottom!
References
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