Dag 6 (11 feb): Een lange maandag

Today (Monday) I started lessons at half past ten. Mrs. van der Leer-Veth gave us a tour in the OWP. I could take some nice pictures of it for the essay and I could a clear view on the way it works.
The OWP is a great source of didactic material, especially when you’re working with younger children. For me it wasn’t that useful but sometimes teachers in secondary education need special self-made didactic material too.

After this tour we listened to Silvia and her presentation on Amsterdam, Anne Frank and cycling in the Netherlands.
She told us really interesting things and once again I’m amazed by the impact a 15 year old girl’s diary has on people. I read the Anne Frank story every year in the summer. I don’t know why, but I always do. It’s almost like a habit. Every year I read her story and remember how it must have been during those terrible years.
The first time I read the book, I was 10 years old. I wanted to give a speech about in class and while the rest was discussing horses, a boy band or something like that, I talked about the story of Anne Frank and the Holocaust. The stories of those days always have a huge impact on me.
Silvia also gave me some extra reasons to visit Amsterdam: it once was the hippie capital of the world. I always think of myself as being born 40 years too late. I would love to have lived in the time of PROVO, John Lennon and his bed-ins, sleeping outside on the Dam, etc. Nowadays I feel there’s something living under the youngsters but they don’t have the ability, personality and courage to take action like in the 60’s and 70’s. Off course we realize that nowadays life’s quite good and you have to be really poor or really spoiled not to realize this.
2 years ago (2006) we had this event in Belgium called ‘0110’. It was a reaction to the growing racism and hatred between people (especially a reaction against Vlaams Belang and the murders in Antwerp by Hans Van Temssche). Organized by Tom Barman of dEUS, a band with great influence, thousands of people went to Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels or Luik to see the best of Belgian music perform live and free.
There was no patronizing so that was nice as well. You could really feel the positive vibes of the crowd and you knew that everyone was there, thinking that the world can become a better place for all of us. That thought was fantastic and the feeling that went with it, was great as well.
Things like ‘0110’ make me think of the hippie period and make me feel that I’m part of a bigger cause.

In the afternoon we compared our different cultures and the implications of these differences on the education we get and give. This was really interesting because it seemed that in Belgium the educational backgrounds are quite different to the Spanish and Turkish ones. Because Belgium is an individualistic country (instead of Turkey and Spain, where society still has a large role in people’s lives) our pupils can say and do a lot of things of which pupils in Spain and Turkey hardly dream off: telling the teacher he/she is wrong, speaking spontaneously, etc.
It was really interesting to discover in what ways a social structure has an effect on the way education is given.

After this lesson the others went home and I stayed at school for my two lessons of Dutch: Verzorgd Nederlands and Creatief Schrijven from Mr. Kroezemann.
These lessons were really nice. Especially the difference between the two was nice to experience. In Verzorgd Nederlands we learn how to write in commercial language. Because I have problems with keeping my essays and letters to point, this lessons can be really helpful and interesting for me. Off course I can also practise my spelling and grammar.
During Creatief Schrijven we worked on some haikus. This was really nice because I could finally do something creative. I love writing and this lessons will help me to become a better writer. Mr. Kroezemann always gives us some work to do for next lesson, so it will be interesting and time-consuming but I’m looking forward to it!