On Monday Gokcen told us some things about Dutch culture (Old Dutch Masters, tolerance and windmills). In the afternoon we had to evaluate our Montessori school visits and the assignment we had to do for the Montessori teacher, Mrs. Lander. You can find the presentation of Ana, Silvia, Derya and me in this portfolio.
After this I just went to my Dutch lessons. It was a pity it were the last lessons as I really enjoyed them. I could work in my Dutch, got some nice ideas to use in lessons and I discovered that I could still write very well. You can also find my assignments for this in the portfolio.
On Tuesday I visited Wolfert van Borselen again. No tour today but I followed a lesson of the ISK pupils. These pupils only arrived in the Netherlands this school year. Their Dutch was already very good and when they really didn’t understand they used their dictionaries or asked the teacher to explain (which he did in Dutch and English). The pupils had to do some exercises on their own, which they did in silence and very independently.
After this lesson I followed the class I observed last week (the loud ones). They didn’t really calm down during last week so once again it was quite an exhausting hour for the teachers and me.
The last 30 minutes of this lesson the pupils could go to the mediatheek/openleercentrum to work on the digital learning environment of the school.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay the entire day as I had to go to the CVD to join the other international students and Mrs. Stofberg.
The CVD is a voluntary work organisation. It links people who need volunteers to people who want to volunteer. They always make sure that the people have the same interests or something, to make sure that the volunteers like volunteering and keep volunteering.
We talked about voluntary work in our countries and what we did so far. Especially helping pupils and older people seemed to be done the most.
Unfortunately, the lady of CVD had to leave after 45 minutes so we didn’t really learn that mucht.
Voluntary work is very important to society. A lot of things just wouldn’t work or even exit if there weren’t volunteers. I’m thinking about youth movements, sports manifestations, etc. As a consequence of this it is necessary that volunteers feel appreciated and like doing what they do.
On Wednesday the weather was extremely fantastic that I decided to go to school on my bicycle. This day it was finally up to me to present my country. You can find this presentation in this portfolio. I also treated to chocolate but I didn’t include that to this portfolio.
Thursday promised to be a day full of good weather and exploring the ‘natural surroundings of the city’. In the morning Janneke Verloop gave us a presentation on field-work. This was interesting but for somebody who teaches Dutch, English and religion to secondary pupils, this was nice but not really useful.
We learned that although Rotterdam didn’t really looked like it, it was full of nature. We went outside and investigated the school pond.
Afterwards we had a presentation about the ARK. The ARK is an organisation that takes care of the natural surroundings of the city and they also organize things so that pupils of primary education get to know the nature all over again (or for the first time).
We went to visit the Isle of Brienenoord in the afternoon, one of the pieces of nature of the ARK. The ARK makes sure not to interfere with nature, so they don’t get rid of dead trees or they don’t have any paths throughout the forest.
It was a very nice trip, not only because of the weather but also because we got to learn some things about nature in Rotterdam and about the nature itself.
I think it is very important for primary and secondary pupils to explore the natural surroundings of the school. They should know what’s going on with the world surrounding them. They should also know that milk doesn’t come from the shops but from cows. Organisations as the ARK should be popping out of the ground like fungi.
On Friday we had another lesson of Google Earth.
zaterdag 12 april 2008
Week 9: Democracy on excursion
Just as Monday 2 weeks ago, this was also a very common Monday. In the morning we had Dutch culture. The only thing that was different from a regular Monday was that we didn’t have the concept of education but an information lesson about Early Bird schools. Early Bird schools are primary schools where the pupils get English a few hours a week (yes, even when they’re four years old).
For me this lesson was only interesting because the teacher told and showed us some nice things you could to in lessons of English, things I can most certainly use in my own school practice at secondary schools (e.g. singing, letting pupils repeat but in different voices, etc.).
On Tuesday I visited Wolfert van Borselen TTO. This is a school that offers education in English and Dutch (TTO = TweeTalig Onderwijs).
First I got a tour around the school’s premises (which were huge). The school doesn’t only house a normal secondary school, there is also ISK (a school for children who just arrived in the Netherlands) and the International School (a school for children whose parents travel all around the world as a consequence of their profession and only go to international schools).
As usual when I visit a school for the first time, I got a tour through the huge buildings. Very interesting to discover was that the International school clearly got more funds than the other schools. I also learnt following things about International schools:
• teachers have to be native (English) speakers, so not Dutch;
• there are meetings all around the world with the teachers of the same subject to make sure that they all follow the very strict curriculum and are at the same point in the same week. This is because the pupils can move at every time of the year and to make sure that they don’t miss out on anything;
• the examinations are also global, so the International school in Tokyo has the same examination as the ones in Perth and Rotterdam;
• for subjects like art, a group of examiners travels around to visit the schools and give grades to the pupils. They do this so that every pupil gets the same sort of evaluation;
• there’s also a group of controllers who checks the grades that are globally given. If they’re too high to be normal, the teacher who gave those high grades, can expect a visit. This is also the same for teachers who give really low grades.
A thing I didn’t really learn about the working of this sort of schools, but about the pupils themselves, was that it’s very difficult for them to make friends. They live a uprooted life and feel out of place whenever they have to move again. As a result of this life, they are very eager to make friends but because they know they have to leave their friends, or their friends are about to leave them, they stay quite distant from each other. This doesn’t mean that they don’t make any friends, but not close friends. I think this is a problem because pupils of every age, especially during their teens, really need close friends to tell them all their grieves and gossip. It must be hard to bear without having a close friend around you at that sensitive age. A result could be that these pupils have problems adjusting or become rebellious against their parents and/or teachers.
On the order hand, these pupils also get the opportunity to get to know the world, travel around and explore themselves and this world.
A thing that I want to mention as well, is that almost (I think there are 4 exceptions) every classroom has got at least a beamer, screen, overhead projector, computer, television with video and dvd and a sound installation. There were also a lot of classrooms of which the screen mentioned was a Smartboard. It was very clear that when it comes to ICT, this school is ready for a computer revolution.
I think it’s a nice thing to be able to work with these things in the classroom, but it’s not something I would use any lesson (except of Smartboard perhaps, because then I can save good blackboard schemes to use them again, or to adapt them at home first and then use again).
The pupils will find these things nice and interesting, but when you use a powerpoint very single lesson, their attention is bound to fade away.
The school also had a ‘mediatheek/openleercentrum’, where the pupils can work in silence and use books, computers, etc. I think it’s very good for a school to be able to offer the pupils something like this. In a mediatheek, they can learn to look up things on the Internet, in encyclopaedia, etc. The pupils also have the ability to borrow books. I can imagine that in Rotterdam, not every pupil has access to one of the public libraries. Therefore it is very good that they can do this at school.
After this extended tour (it took two lesson periods to get around) I joined my guide for today, Jurriaan (duaal student of the HRO), during a lesson of English (also two periods).
I already got some warnings about this class (first year, the so-called brugklas) and those warnings turned out to be correct. This class indeed proved to be quite ‘busy’ as I was told. It took the teacher (a young woman, also a duaalstudent of the HRO) almost 15 minutes before she could anything that didn’t sound like: “Could you sit down? Be quiet. Be quiet!!!”, etc.
When most of the pupils calmed down, one of them could give her presentation on her country of origin, Morocco. After this presentation the rest of the pupils could ask her some questions. This had to be done in English but most of the time it was done in Dutch without anybody telling them to at least try English.
It really struck me that a lot of the pupils just started to talk and even walk around whenever they felt like it. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all the pupils but most of them were talking. The pupils who remained calm and worked, were of course bothered by this talking and walking around.
After this, the pupils could make up a list of three songs, one of them was going to be performed during a karaoke competition between all the classes of the first year. As I expected of pupils, they all chose things like Rihanna and Leona Lewis. I think this is an international phenomenon, every pupil loves almost everything that is in the Top 50.
The teacher looked for karaoke versions on the Internet, found them but the pupils didn’t all sing along.
At the end of the lesson I suggested that they should try something more spectacular as all the other classes were going to sing this sort of thing too. I doubt it if they’ll listen to me (“That weird Belgian”).
We had to move to another classroom for the next lesson period. The teacher (this time a man who is about to retire) wanted to correct the homework. This was done in Dutch and it startled me that in the workbook and textbook, the explanation of a lot of things was also in Dutch (like the assignments).
The teacher just read the answers out loud, or the pupils could answer and most of it was in Dutch.
When pupils didn’t understand a word, the teacher would translate it.
After the correction of the homework, it was time for some grammar on the tenses and negatives. The teacher explained this but without writing anything down on the blackboard and also very fast.
Afterwards the pupils did the exercises on this subject. The pupils didn’t really care about these exercises as they were going to get the grades of a test.
They almost harassed Jurriaan who had corrected the tests, and, as a result of that, knew their grades. At the end of the lesson the pupils finally found some satisfaction in hearing their grades.
What struck me most about this lesson, was that a lot of things were in Dutch. I can understand that pupils of 12 years old have some difficulties in understanding every single word in English, but I think a little bit more of Dutch wouldn’t do any harm.
In Belgium the pupils get English when they’re 13, 14 years old. In these lessons there’s only some Dutch when they really don’t understand anything or when the grammar has been explained in English and it wasn’t clear. We also don’t translate words, we explain them in English by using sentences, body talk or images. In this way the pupils are forced to use English (and work on their speaking skills) and they always have an example to listen to. In the workbooks and textbooks, everything is in English.
After the break I got an introduction into the digital learning environment of the Wolfert. This turned out to be very developed.
For each subject, for each year there was an extensive range of exercises to be found. When the pupils do these exercises, they can save them. The teacher can give grades for this and can also see how many times it took the pupil to come up with the correct answer. If all your pupils do an exercise on e.g. the Simple Past, then you can have a look later on what the most common mistakes are. In this way you can shape your next lesson around a revision on the Simple Past, paying extra attention to the common mistakes.
A digital learning environment is very useful when it is developed like this one. Pupils are able to test and extend their knowledge. Also all the pupils have to have access, this is taken care of by the mediatheek/openleercentrum.
The teacher who showed me this digital learning environment, Mrs. Slangen, she also showed me some fantastic websites to use during my future as a teacher. Especially the BBC website proves to be an almost magical source of information and exercises.
When the ICT tour was over, I was expected to join the homework class. This class has been installed for pupils who need help or with grades that are going down. This homework class takes two periods.
When a pupil is finished doing his or her homework, they’ve got it checked by the teacher (always one of the students of the HRO) and they can go home. You can imagine that some of the pupils can leave the classroom after 20 minutes.
I think it might be a good idea to keep the pupils for one lesson period, not longer. They should also learn how to study, using a set of guidelines or something of that kind. Learning how to use their diaries properly, how to make schemes and summaries, is very useful, not only for now, but also for their future. This homework class is the perfect opportunity to do such a thing.
On Wednesday we were going on excursion to The Hague, Den Haag.
When we entered the Central Station of The Hague (by Randstadrail) we met with a teacher of the HRO whose name I can’t remember right now, I’ll call him teacher. Janneke Verloop also joined us.
At first the teacher gave us an introduction to The Hague when we left the Station. We found ourselves standing in front of the Ministry of Education. Then he took us for a walk in the direction of the parliament.
We came across some very fancy shops and we concluded that The Hague was cosier than Rotterdam. The city resembled older and because all the people looked relaxed, it also felt relaxed.
The first thing we visited was the Second Chamber (the parliament). We first had to get past the security and leave our coats and bags behind (including our cameras and mobile phones). We saw a part of a debate on nuclear energy and we found out that there were more visitors listening than there were members of parliament present, also an international phenomenon.
When we left the Second Chamber we went to the building of the European Union, just down the road. We got a cup of coffee and a whole lot of material to use, read and perhaps even work with in class. After we’ve finished our coffees we were taking into another room where we watched two films on the European Union and its use.
Then a man came to talk to us about the Union and to answer our questions. As I expected the Turkish people wanted to know why the Union always keeps saying no to their country. The man gave an answer but it was not really satisfactory, it didn’t really cover it. Every time Turkey did what Europe asked, Europe gives them other things to do before they can become a member. Nowadays, the Turkish population doesn’t even care about the Union anymore because they’re getting sick of it.
The main problem according to this man was that the Turkish law stated that nobody can say anything negative about the state of Turkey. This is, according to him and the Union, a violation of the human right of freedom of speech.
The Turkish people consider this rule a good thing, because they have to learn to respect everyone and everything. This discussion lasted a long time, especially when the Turkish people and the teacher quite rightly stated that the countries that joined the Union last time, aren’t exactly good examples of human rights lovers as well. They also pointed out that Turkey had economically a lot more to offer than five of these countries counted together.
Unfortunately, the man of the Union had an appointment (or he wanted to get rid of us because we questioned the European Union, no idea) and we left the building as well.
After this European adventure, we went to get something to eat. When our stomachs were full again, we left for the Tower (het Torentje). We could only see this and its surroundings from the outside. What struck me, was that all the political power of the Netherlands can be crammed in into such a small surface and right in the centre of The Hague. The teacher told us some things about the Tower and about the Knight’s Chamber.
Then we went to the Mauritshuis where we could see the famous Vermeer ‘Girl with a pearl earring’. This is one of the few things I remember because I’m not really into the Old Dutch Masters. Of course I appreciate them because their work is really outstandingly natural (sometimes it was just like looking at a photograph). I took some pictures but suddenly (after taking a picture of ‘Girl with the pearl earring’) someone of the security pointed out that I couldn’t do that. I thought this was funny because nowhere, in the entire building, had I seen an icon that said I couldn’t do it. Also I found it remarkable that he saw me getting ready to take the picture and he waited until after I took it. Yeah well, Dutch, my mother (who’s Dutch herself) would say.
After enough art we went for a walk throughout the beautiful centre of The Hague, which we crossed on road to the Panorama Mestdagh. We passed the working palace of the Queen, palace Noordeind. We waved but she didn’t seem to wave back so we walked along (without an invitation to a cup of coffee).
This Panorama Mestdagh was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen in my entire life. The panorama is a huge painting (14 metres high) that is 360°. Around the painting the makers of it made it resemble that the painting was real by using real sand and objects that mingled perfectly with the painting.
It’s difficult to explain but it was a very nice and weird experience. I even felt dizzy!
Then we walked back to the Central Station, passing again Palace Noordeind, a lot of expensive shops, a gallery just like the big one in Brussels and just the normal shops you can find anywhere. We thanked the teacher for the really nice day and took the next Randstadrail back to Rotterdam.
After an entire day of seeing the political powers of the Netherlands, we got a lesson on this subject on Thursday. Mr. Marcel Mooijman explained us very clear how the Dutch state system worked and what its history was.
It turned out that this system was very similar to the Belgian one, we also have a constitutional monarchy/parliamentary democracy. Of course, our history is mingled together until the independence of Belgium in 1830.
Finally it became clear to me what the exact differences and meanings were between the whole list of Dutch political parties (something like D66, what’s that about?). A difference was that in Belgium PvdA is the very socialistic party with hardly any power and SP(a) is a socialistic party (but not very) and has got power.
In the afternoon we went to the Dienst Jeugd, Onderwijs and Samenleving, also known as the JOS. A very friendly gentleman explained all we wanted to know about this JOS and gave us a cup of coffee (really, everywhere you go in this country, you can get coffee or tea, remarkable).
The JOS is a service that connects education to society. They help schools, organisations and parents to work together to the children’s benefit.
They are also the link between schools and the City Council.
This year they want to work on a higher educational level because Rotterdam needs highly educated people. The schools get motivation to higher their standards and to make sure the program is extended with cultural, recreational and sporty activities.
These are some of the goals the JOS sets for itself and the schools:
• by 2010 80% of the children of three years old is in preschool;
• by 2010 45 community schools (brede scholen) offer their pupils a program of 6 extra hours of activities a week;
• by 2010 16 too white or too coloured schools have mixed preschools;
• by 2010 none of the Rotterdam schools will get an unsatisfactory mark of the inspection;
• by 2010 25 secondary schools will open their buildings for 3 or more days with extra programs for pupils and children from the neighbourhood;
• by 2010 the number of drop-outs will be decreased with 20% in comparison with 2006.
These aims are realistic and I think they can be reached.
I think it is very important a thing like the JOS exists, especially in big cities like Rotterdam. The JOS stays in touch with similar services all throughout Europe, to learn and to help other big cities similar to Rotterdam.
On Friday I could get some extra hours of sleep in the morning as it was Dutch language lesson (which I don’t have to follow as Dutch is my mother tongue and my main subject at school). I had to get out of bed to go to a lesson on Google Earth. What can you do with Google Earth and is it useful for classroom use?
First we learnt how to work with Google Earth. This seemed very easy. We showed each other where we lived and if there were some pictures on the map we could also show them.
Then, to test if we understood it, we had to look for volcanoes all over the world and connect them.
I think this is very useful when I would teach about the UK, London, etc. Google Earth offers a lot of nice material to work with, e.g. the photographs of a lot of places (like for London: the Tower, Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, etc.)
The pupils can also look for those things themselves as it is very easy to use.
After this lesson I went home.
For me this lesson was only interesting because the teacher told and showed us some nice things you could to in lessons of English, things I can most certainly use in my own school practice at secondary schools (e.g. singing, letting pupils repeat but in different voices, etc.).
On Tuesday I visited Wolfert van Borselen TTO. This is a school that offers education in English and Dutch (TTO = TweeTalig Onderwijs).
First I got a tour around the school’s premises (which were huge). The school doesn’t only house a normal secondary school, there is also ISK (a school for children who just arrived in the Netherlands) and the International School (a school for children whose parents travel all around the world as a consequence of their profession and only go to international schools).
As usual when I visit a school for the first time, I got a tour through the huge buildings. Very interesting to discover was that the International school clearly got more funds than the other schools. I also learnt following things about International schools:
• teachers have to be native (English) speakers, so not Dutch;
• there are meetings all around the world with the teachers of the same subject to make sure that they all follow the very strict curriculum and are at the same point in the same week. This is because the pupils can move at every time of the year and to make sure that they don’t miss out on anything;
• the examinations are also global, so the International school in Tokyo has the same examination as the ones in Perth and Rotterdam;
• for subjects like art, a group of examiners travels around to visit the schools and give grades to the pupils. They do this so that every pupil gets the same sort of evaluation;
• there’s also a group of controllers who checks the grades that are globally given. If they’re too high to be normal, the teacher who gave those high grades, can expect a visit. This is also the same for teachers who give really low grades.
A thing I didn’t really learn about the working of this sort of schools, but about the pupils themselves, was that it’s very difficult for them to make friends. They live a uprooted life and feel out of place whenever they have to move again. As a result of this life, they are very eager to make friends but because they know they have to leave their friends, or their friends are about to leave them, they stay quite distant from each other. This doesn’t mean that they don’t make any friends, but not close friends. I think this is a problem because pupils of every age, especially during their teens, really need close friends to tell them all their grieves and gossip. It must be hard to bear without having a close friend around you at that sensitive age. A result could be that these pupils have problems adjusting or become rebellious against their parents and/or teachers.
On the order hand, these pupils also get the opportunity to get to know the world, travel around and explore themselves and this world.
A thing that I want to mention as well, is that almost (I think there are 4 exceptions) every classroom has got at least a beamer, screen, overhead projector, computer, television with video and dvd and a sound installation. There were also a lot of classrooms of which the screen mentioned was a Smartboard. It was very clear that when it comes to ICT, this school is ready for a computer revolution.
I think it’s a nice thing to be able to work with these things in the classroom, but it’s not something I would use any lesson (except of Smartboard perhaps, because then I can save good blackboard schemes to use them again, or to adapt them at home first and then use again).
The pupils will find these things nice and interesting, but when you use a powerpoint very single lesson, their attention is bound to fade away.
The school also had a ‘mediatheek/openleercentrum’, where the pupils can work in silence and use books, computers, etc. I think it’s very good for a school to be able to offer the pupils something like this. In a mediatheek, they can learn to look up things on the Internet, in encyclopaedia, etc. The pupils also have the ability to borrow books. I can imagine that in Rotterdam, not every pupil has access to one of the public libraries. Therefore it is very good that they can do this at school.
After this extended tour (it took two lesson periods to get around) I joined my guide for today, Jurriaan (duaal student of the HRO), during a lesson of English (also two periods).
I already got some warnings about this class (first year, the so-called brugklas) and those warnings turned out to be correct. This class indeed proved to be quite ‘busy’ as I was told. It took the teacher (a young woman, also a duaalstudent of the HRO) almost 15 minutes before she could anything that didn’t sound like: “Could you sit down? Be quiet. Be quiet!!!”, etc.
When most of the pupils calmed down, one of them could give her presentation on her country of origin, Morocco. After this presentation the rest of the pupils could ask her some questions. This had to be done in English but most of the time it was done in Dutch without anybody telling them to at least try English.
It really struck me that a lot of the pupils just started to talk and even walk around whenever they felt like it. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all the pupils but most of them were talking. The pupils who remained calm and worked, were of course bothered by this talking and walking around.
After this, the pupils could make up a list of three songs, one of them was going to be performed during a karaoke competition between all the classes of the first year. As I expected of pupils, they all chose things like Rihanna and Leona Lewis. I think this is an international phenomenon, every pupil loves almost everything that is in the Top 50.
The teacher looked for karaoke versions on the Internet, found them but the pupils didn’t all sing along.
At the end of the lesson I suggested that they should try something more spectacular as all the other classes were going to sing this sort of thing too. I doubt it if they’ll listen to me (“That weird Belgian”).
We had to move to another classroom for the next lesson period. The teacher (this time a man who is about to retire) wanted to correct the homework. This was done in Dutch and it startled me that in the workbook and textbook, the explanation of a lot of things was also in Dutch (like the assignments).
The teacher just read the answers out loud, or the pupils could answer and most of it was in Dutch.
When pupils didn’t understand a word, the teacher would translate it.
After the correction of the homework, it was time for some grammar on the tenses and negatives. The teacher explained this but without writing anything down on the blackboard and also very fast.
Afterwards the pupils did the exercises on this subject. The pupils didn’t really care about these exercises as they were going to get the grades of a test.
They almost harassed Jurriaan who had corrected the tests, and, as a result of that, knew their grades. At the end of the lesson the pupils finally found some satisfaction in hearing their grades.
What struck me most about this lesson, was that a lot of things were in Dutch. I can understand that pupils of 12 years old have some difficulties in understanding every single word in English, but I think a little bit more of Dutch wouldn’t do any harm.
In Belgium the pupils get English when they’re 13, 14 years old. In these lessons there’s only some Dutch when they really don’t understand anything or when the grammar has been explained in English and it wasn’t clear. We also don’t translate words, we explain them in English by using sentences, body talk or images. In this way the pupils are forced to use English (and work on their speaking skills) and they always have an example to listen to. In the workbooks and textbooks, everything is in English.
After the break I got an introduction into the digital learning environment of the Wolfert. This turned out to be very developed.
For each subject, for each year there was an extensive range of exercises to be found. When the pupils do these exercises, they can save them. The teacher can give grades for this and can also see how many times it took the pupil to come up with the correct answer. If all your pupils do an exercise on e.g. the Simple Past, then you can have a look later on what the most common mistakes are. In this way you can shape your next lesson around a revision on the Simple Past, paying extra attention to the common mistakes.
A digital learning environment is very useful when it is developed like this one. Pupils are able to test and extend their knowledge. Also all the pupils have to have access, this is taken care of by the mediatheek/openleercentrum.
The teacher who showed me this digital learning environment, Mrs. Slangen, she also showed me some fantastic websites to use during my future as a teacher. Especially the BBC website proves to be an almost magical source of information and exercises.
When the ICT tour was over, I was expected to join the homework class. This class has been installed for pupils who need help or with grades that are going down. This homework class takes two periods.
When a pupil is finished doing his or her homework, they’ve got it checked by the teacher (always one of the students of the HRO) and they can go home. You can imagine that some of the pupils can leave the classroom after 20 minutes.
I think it might be a good idea to keep the pupils for one lesson period, not longer. They should also learn how to study, using a set of guidelines or something of that kind. Learning how to use their diaries properly, how to make schemes and summaries, is very useful, not only for now, but also for their future. This homework class is the perfect opportunity to do such a thing.
On Wednesday we were going on excursion to The Hague, Den Haag.
When we entered the Central Station of The Hague (by Randstadrail) we met with a teacher of the HRO whose name I can’t remember right now, I’ll call him teacher. Janneke Verloop also joined us.
At first the teacher gave us an introduction to The Hague when we left the Station. We found ourselves standing in front of the Ministry of Education. Then he took us for a walk in the direction of the parliament.
We came across some very fancy shops and we concluded that The Hague was cosier than Rotterdam. The city resembled older and because all the people looked relaxed, it also felt relaxed.
The first thing we visited was the Second Chamber (the parliament). We first had to get past the security and leave our coats and bags behind (including our cameras and mobile phones). We saw a part of a debate on nuclear energy and we found out that there were more visitors listening than there were members of parliament present, also an international phenomenon.
When we left the Second Chamber we went to the building of the European Union, just down the road. We got a cup of coffee and a whole lot of material to use, read and perhaps even work with in class. After we’ve finished our coffees we were taking into another room where we watched two films on the European Union and its use.
Then a man came to talk to us about the Union and to answer our questions. As I expected the Turkish people wanted to know why the Union always keeps saying no to their country. The man gave an answer but it was not really satisfactory, it didn’t really cover it. Every time Turkey did what Europe asked, Europe gives them other things to do before they can become a member. Nowadays, the Turkish population doesn’t even care about the Union anymore because they’re getting sick of it.
The main problem according to this man was that the Turkish law stated that nobody can say anything negative about the state of Turkey. This is, according to him and the Union, a violation of the human right of freedom of speech.
The Turkish people consider this rule a good thing, because they have to learn to respect everyone and everything. This discussion lasted a long time, especially when the Turkish people and the teacher quite rightly stated that the countries that joined the Union last time, aren’t exactly good examples of human rights lovers as well. They also pointed out that Turkey had economically a lot more to offer than five of these countries counted together.
Unfortunately, the man of the Union had an appointment (or he wanted to get rid of us because we questioned the European Union, no idea) and we left the building as well.
After this European adventure, we went to get something to eat. When our stomachs were full again, we left for the Tower (het Torentje). We could only see this and its surroundings from the outside. What struck me, was that all the political power of the Netherlands can be crammed in into such a small surface and right in the centre of The Hague. The teacher told us some things about the Tower and about the Knight’s Chamber.
Then we went to the Mauritshuis where we could see the famous Vermeer ‘Girl with a pearl earring’. This is one of the few things I remember because I’m not really into the Old Dutch Masters. Of course I appreciate them because their work is really outstandingly natural (sometimes it was just like looking at a photograph). I took some pictures but suddenly (after taking a picture of ‘Girl with the pearl earring’) someone of the security pointed out that I couldn’t do that. I thought this was funny because nowhere, in the entire building, had I seen an icon that said I couldn’t do it. Also I found it remarkable that he saw me getting ready to take the picture and he waited until after I took it. Yeah well, Dutch, my mother (who’s Dutch herself) would say.
After enough art we went for a walk throughout the beautiful centre of The Hague, which we crossed on road to the Panorama Mestdagh. We passed the working palace of the Queen, palace Noordeind. We waved but she didn’t seem to wave back so we walked along (without an invitation to a cup of coffee).
This Panorama Mestdagh was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen in my entire life. The panorama is a huge painting (14 metres high) that is 360°. Around the painting the makers of it made it resemble that the painting was real by using real sand and objects that mingled perfectly with the painting.
It’s difficult to explain but it was a very nice and weird experience. I even felt dizzy!
Then we walked back to the Central Station, passing again Palace Noordeind, a lot of expensive shops, a gallery just like the big one in Brussels and just the normal shops you can find anywhere. We thanked the teacher for the really nice day and took the next Randstadrail back to Rotterdam.
After an entire day of seeing the political powers of the Netherlands, we got a lesson on this subject on Thursday. Mr. Marcel Mooijman explained us very clear how the Dutch state system worked and what its history was.
It turned out that this system was very similar to the Belgian one, we also have a constitutional monarchy/parliamentary democracy. Of course, our history is mingled together until the independence of Belgium in 1830.
Finally it became clear to me what the exact differences and meanings were between the whole list of Dutch political parties (something like D66, what’s that about?). A difference was that in Belgium PvdA is the very socialistic party with hardly any power and SP(a) is a socialistic party (but not very) and has got power.
In the afternoon we went to the Dienst Jeugd, Onderwijs and Samenleving, also known as the JOS. A very friendly gentleman explained all we wanted to know about this JOS and gave us a cup of coffee (really, everywhere you go in this country, you can get coffee or tea, remarkable).
The JOS is a service that connects education to society. They help schools, organisations and parents to work together to the children’s benefit.
They are also the link between schools and the City Council.
This year they want to work on a higher educational level because Rotterdam needs highly educated people. The schools get motivation to higher their standards and to make sure the program is extended with cultural, recreational and sporty activities.
These are some of the goals the JOS sets for itself and the schools:
• by 2010 80% of the children of three years old is in preschool;
• by 2010 45 community schools (brede scholen) offer their pupils a program of 6 extra hours of activities a week;
• by 2010 16 too white or too coloured schools have mixed preschools;
• by 2010 none of the Rotterdam schools will get an unsatisfactory mark of the inspection;
• by 2010 25 secondary schools will open their buildings for 3 or more days with extra programs for pupils and children from the neighbourhood;
• by 2010 the number of drop-outs will be decreased with 20% in comparison with 2006.
These aims are realistic and I think they can be reached.
I think it is very important a thing like the JOS exists, especially in big cities like Rotterdam. The JOS stays in touch with similar services all throughout Europe, to learn and to help other big cities similar to Rotterdam.
On Friday I could get some extra hours of sleep in the morning as it was Dutch language lesson (which I don’t have to follow as Dutch is my mother tongue and my main subject at school). I had to get out of bed to go to a lesson on Google Earth. What can you do with Google Earth and is it useful for classroom use?
First we learnt how to work with Google Earth. This seemed very easy. We showed each other where we lived and if there were some pictures on the map we could also show them.
Then, to test if we understood it, we had to look for volcanoes all over the world and connect them.
I think this is very useful when I would teach about the UK, London, etc. Google Earth offers a lot of nice material to work with, e.g. the photographs of a lot of places (like for London: the Tower, Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, etc.)
The pupils can also look for those things themselves as it is very easy to use.
After this lesson I went home.
Week 8: Special needs week
This week didn’t really start nicely: instead of going to Rotterdam on Monday evening I got to the city at Tuesday afternoon, 4 o’clock. How did this happen?
On Monday evening I heard the news that the Central Station of Antwerp was closed down because of a fire. Because nobody in Belgium seemed to know what to do exactly and my mother and father refused to drive me because of the poor weather conditions, we decided that I would leave the next day, Tuesday.
That Tuesday I could get a ride with my neighbour who had to go to Rotterdam for a meeting. We arrived at 4 o’clock so I missed out on a day of the program (introduction on the subject of special needs and an excursion to a special needs school).
Nevertheless, Wednesday I was present to go to the Reconvalescentenschool in the morning. This school, with a terribly difficult name to pronounce and spell, is a school for children that are chronically ill. We joined the pupils for breakfast and then got a tour around the school. After the tour we observed some classes but only for 15 minutes because of the pupils’ sake.
We left the school at noon because in the afternoon we had a presentation on Spain, back at the building of the HRO. The Spanish girls talked a lot about their country, showing everything there is to know about geography, tradition, food, etc. It was very interesting.
On Thursday we went to Mytylschool De Brug. This school left a huge impression on me, actually not really the school but the pupils. This Mytylschool is a school for children who are physically disabled or who have severe behavioural problems. The headmistress first gave us an introduction to the school and a tour. The school had things like a swimming pool, therapy rooms, etc. for the treatment of the pupils.
I joined in with a class of 6 year old pupils, not really my target group, but still very interesting to observe. I didn’t really observe, I actually helped the teacher, the teaching assistant and a girl who did her practice at that school. In the end there were 4 people for 8 pupils (as another teaching assistant joined another class on excursion to the children’s farm with F., a pupil who’s just new at school).
During the time I was with this class I was really moved by the way in which these pupils want to work it all out for themselves. They want to be independent, the teacher gives them the chance to be independent and that is beautiful.
I will never forget a little girl in a wheelchair who was very bright and intelligent. Also a boy who had a physical disability will always be on my mind. Why? Because these children are so young but are amongst the bravest people I’ve met during my life. That’s why.
A nice thing about this class was that it had its own weblog! One of the parents had developed it and the teacher puts things on it. I think this is a really nice idea to make parents more involved in school life. If I will “have” my own class once, I think I will do something similar.
On Friday we went all international again as we were expected to bring food typical of our country to school. The students of Biology of the HRO had set up an entire morning of activities in which we were to participate.
We had to mingle amongst the Dutch pupils, which I liked because I could speak Dutch for more than 4 hours!.
I first started with a dancing lesson. We learned a Turkish dance that wasn’t too difficult and very easy to remember. After this we had a real sports lesson. We had to jump, train our abs, etc. and I can tell you, after 25 minutes of this, I was really tired but on the other hand, I was also pleased with myself that I could still do such things without having to stop in meanwhile.
After the active parts we (my group members too) went to the game activity. This game was developed by students of the HRO and was about SOA’s and safe sex. I won the game 3 times in a row! I took some notes on this game because I think it’s a really good way to make pupils aware of the problems of SOA’s and sex.
The last thing we did, was measuring. We had to measure our blood pressure (I had the lowest: 79/44), our long capacity and the force of our longs (on those I also had the lowest).
After this we were summoned to the biology room where all the food was displayed and ready to be eaten. There was a whole range of different things, going from Belgian to typical Dutch, Turkish and Moroccan. It was a really nice experience (not only the food part) but it was nice to get to know some Dutch students as well.
In the afternoon we joined Irene to evaluate our school visits from the last few weeks. I’m still very positive about those visits because I learnt a lot of things and I really felt comfortable and welcome at every school I visited. Let’s also don’t forget the lesson I got to teach!
On Monday evening I heard the news that the Central Station of Antwerp was closed down because of a fire. Because nobody in Belgium seemed to know what to do exactly and my mother and father refused to drive me because of the poor weather conditions, we decided that I would leave the next day, Tuesday.
That Tuesday I could get a ride with my neighbour who had to go to Rotterdam for a meeting. We arrived at 4 o’clock so I missed out on a day of the program (introduction on the subject of special needs and an excursion to a special needs school).
Nevertheless, Wednesday I was present to go to the Reconvalescentenschool in the morning. This school, with a terribly difficult name to pronounce and spell, is a school for children that are chronically ill. We joined the pupils for breakfast and then got a tour around the school. After the tour we observed some classes but only for 15 minutes because of the pupils’ sake.
We left the school at noon because in the afternoon we had a presentation on Spain, back at the building of the HRO. The Spanish girls talked a lot about their country, showing everything there is to know about geography, tradition, food, etc. It was very interesting.
On Thursday we went to Mytylschool De Brug. This school left a huge impression on me, actually not really the school but the pupils. This Mytylschool is a school for children who are physically disabled or who have severe behavioural problems. The headmistress first gave us an introduction to the school and a tour. The school had things like a swimming pool, therapy rooms, etc. for the treatment of the pupils.
I joined in with a class of 6 year old pupils, not really my target group, but still very interesting to observe. I didn’t really observe, I actually helped the teacher, the teaching assistant and a girl who did her practice at that school. In the end there were 4 people for 8 pupils (as another teaching assistant joined another class on excursion to the children’s farm with F., a pupil who’s just new at school).
During the time I was with this class I was really moved by the way in which these pupils want to work it all out for themselves. They want to be independent, the teacher gives them the chance to be independent and that is beautiful.
I will never forget a little girl in a wheelchair who was very bright and intelligent. Also a boy who had a physical disability will always be on my mind. Why? Because these children are so young but are amongst the bravest people I’ve met during my life. That’s why.
A nice thing about this class was that it had its own weblog! One of the parents had developed it and the teacher puts things on it. I think this is a really nice idea to make parents more involved in school life. If I will “have” my own class once, I think I will do something similar.
On Friday we went all international again as we were expected to bring food typical of our country to school. The students of Biology of the HRO had set up an entire morning of activities in which we were to participate.
We had to mingle amongst the Dutch pupils, which I liked because I could speak Dutch for more than 4 hours!.
I first started with a dancing lesson. We learned a Turkish dance that wasn’t too difficult and very easy to remember. After this we had a real sports lesson. We had to jump, train our abs, etc. and I can tell you, after 25 minutes of this, I was really tired but on the other hand, I was also pleased with myself that I could still do such things without having to stop in meanwhile.
After the active parts we (my group members too) went to the game activity. This game was developed by students of the HRO and was about SOA’s and safe sex. I won the game 3 times in a row! I took some notes on this game because I think it’s a really good way to make pupils aware of the problems of SOA’s and sex.
The last thing we did, was measuring. We had to measure our blood pressure (I had the lowest: 79/44), our long capacity and the force of our longs (on those I also had the lowest).
After this we were summoned to the biology room where all the food was displayed and ready to be eaten. There was a whole range of different things, going from Belgian to typical Dutch, Turkish and Moroccan. It was a really nice experience (not only the food part) but it was nice to get to know some Dutch students as well.
In the afternoon we joined Irene to evaluate our school visits from the last few weeks. I’m still very positive about those visits because I learnt a lot of things and I really felt comfortable and welcome at every school I visited. Let’s also don’t forget the lesson I got to teach!
Week 7: Art and teaching at a Dutch school
This Monday wasn’t quite exciting: in the afternoon we had the concept of education (Arendt; if you want to read more about Arendt and this subject, please read the paper I made with Gokcen), followed by Dutch culture. Ana and I had to present our topics. I talked about Orange, made in Holland and clogs (this presentation is also included in the portfolio). I missed Ana’s presentation because I had to go to my own Dutch lessons (Verzorgd Nederlands and Creatief Schrijven).
To talk and learn about my three subjects was interesting. I never thought about the question why the Dutch people use orange as a sort of national colour. Now I know why (thanks to William of Orange).
On Tuesday I was to teach a lesson at a Dutch school. You can imagine I was a bit nervous. Not that I don’t have any experience teaching, but, as I already observed through my visits at some schools, I dare to state that Dutch pupils are a bit more “extraverted” than Belgian pupils.
This lesson was to be taught at the Juliana department of the Calvijn school.
First I got a tour by Janneke Verloop (one of our coordinators of the international class) because she used to work there. Then I followed a lesson of ‘Mens en cultuur’. The teacher and the pupils were doing an exercise on how to analyse a picture (in the exercise it was a picture of U2). The pupils had to follow seven steps which were all thoroughly explained in their books. To be honest, this exercise didn’t really work out because the teacher was solving the exercise on its own, with hardly any help or response from the pupils.
After this period, I followed the pupils to their next lesson, drama. The teacher just got back from pregnancy leave so she treated us to some chocolate éclairs and showed us pictures of her baby girl. After this very nice introduction she wanted the pupils to think about words they linked with ‘fairy tales’. A whole lot of words appeared on the blackboard (written by two pupils who could be ‘teacher’) and one of the word combinations was ‘Little Red Ridinghood’.
This fairy tale was to fill the rest of the period’s time. The teacher adapted the story to these modern days and with the help of some pupils, she acted out the entire story (the adapted version). I think this was a very nice way to work during a drama lesson. The pupils have a nice brainstorm as introduction, they can think a lot for themselves and they have to use their creativity.
After this lesson I joined in on a few lesson periods in the technology classroom. First the teacher did an experiment with water, fire and a piece of paper (something you shouldn’t try at home), afterwards the pupils worked on their assignments (something to put their mobile phones in).
During this lesson it was hard for me to concentrate because a) I hardly know anything about technical things and b) the next period I was to give a lesson on my own!
Finally, the moment had arrived: I was to teach a class of 27 15-year old Dutch pupils (VMBO, similar to BSO in Belgium) of whom only 5 or 6 had a Dutch origin.
I started my lesson by letting the pupils rise from their chairs. I said good afternoon to them and they repeated it to me. Then they could sit down again.
I asked why I made them to such a thing. The answer (in short) was: “Because you are from Belgium and they have more discipline over there.”
We talked a bit about the differences in disciplinarian matters between the two countries. From these differences we started talking about language differences.
In the Netherlands, people think that because we still use ‘gij, ge and u’, we are very polite people, although in Belgium ge and gij are most of the time considered to be used in dialect.
To point out big differences between the language variations, I let the pupils listen to a song by Flip Kowlier. He’s even hard to understand when you’re from Belgium. The pupils had to write down words they thought they could ‘translate’ (the English ones didn’t count of course). Not a lot of words came up that moment but I gave them the lyrics and the translation as well and then it was much easier for them to look for differences.
After discussing the lyrics, we thought of some ‘Flemish’ words that were known to the pupils but without the pupils knowing what they meant. Things like ‘allee, amaai’ are known in the Netherlands thanks to programs as ‘De Pfaffs’, ‘Spoed’ and ‘Flikken’ being broadcasted on television.
Now it was the pupils’ turn to learn me something. First I asked them to teach me some typical things from Rotterdam. Unfortunately we had to leave that path relatively early because the pupils didn’t really know a lot of typical Rotterdam words. Words they did know were things they use ‘on the streets’. We decided that they could give me a list of words from the street language they use in every day life. Nice to remember here is that they are aware were that street language comes from. Because Rotterdam is such a multi-cultural city, they take over words from the different languages such as Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese and Cape Verdean.
After this lesson I was very happy that everything worked out just fine. The pupils thought it was a nice lesson and so did I , everybody happy.
It was a true challenge for me to teach these pupils. You hear a lot of things but I always manage to clear my head and make sure my pupils have a fair go.
That’s really important to me. Ever since I started teaching during practices I kept in mind some things that you heard about the pupils (because you can’t ignore everything) but the pupils always started with a clean sheet in my lessons. I think it demotivates pupils when they know the teacher has ‘branded’ them, even before they’ve entered the classroom.
Wednesday promised to be equally exciting as Tuesday, although I wasn’t going to teach another lesson. This day Mrs. Jildou Zandstra was taking us out to discover the creative corners of the city.
We started nicely with a mug of hot chocolate in front of my face at café/hotel Bazar (Witte de Withstraat). Bazar is a very special café as you can find all sorts of food there, menus in Turkish and Spanish (and other languages) and each member of the staff has another nationality.
Because the Spanish and Turkish ordered something typical for their countries, I decided to take hot chocolate and a piece of chocolate cake, as it was the only thing on the menu that made think of my country. After eating and drinking that amount of chocolate I joined Jildou and the Spanish people to go to the Witte de With museum. In this museum there was an exhibition with video art.
I’m not really fond of video art to be honest. I’d rather see paintings and sketches because then I have the ability to look at every singular detail and to think about it at my own pace. The 3 films that were projected were all interesting, although I had to watch them twice before I could grasp what the artist wanted to tell us, spectators.
After this experience we went back to Bazar to fetch the Turkish people and go to the rehearsals of one of the best dancing companies of Europe, the Scapino ballet of Rotterdam. We saw a bit of a lesson of classical dance. I didn’t know professional dancers still had lessons. They did this because they had to stay focussed and perhaps they could get nice ideas out of it.
After this fragment of a lesson, we got a tour by one of the dancers, a Dutch lady who has been with Scapino for quite a long time. It really startled me that there was a lot more to dancing companies than just the dancers: there was a fashion atelier where the costumes were made (by two very nice women), there were people taking care of technical things such as lighting and sound, managers, (very important) art directors, etc. It was nice to hear that the dancers did know that they lived under a very strict regime but they thought it was worth it because they turned their hobby into their profession. The last stop of the tour was the cafeteria where we got have a glass of water, coffee or tea and eat our sandwiches.
When we were done with eating we went back to the dancing hall where rehearsals and corrections for the show of that evening were going on.
Corrections are things from the last show (the day before) that had to be better the next show (so the evening of this Wednesday). After only 30 minutes of witnessing this we had to go because we had an appointment at the other side of the city with three very interesting visual artists.
At the other end of the city there is a huge industrial building standing, very close to the Randstadrail (which connects Rotterdam with Zoetermeer and The Hague). This industrial building houses a few enormous ateliers, three of them always in use, the rest of them part time in use.
The three visual artists I mentioned earlier on, use the three ateliers which are always in use. Once in a while they invite artists from all around the world to come and work there. After one of those foreign artists finishes what he/she was working on, they have an exhibition.
When we entered we could get a cup of coffee or tea (very remarkable, everywhere you go in this country, people offer you coffee or tea), after this cup we went to visit the three ateliers.
First I visited the atelier of a sculptor who worked with wood. He explained to us the concept of these ateliers and where he got his inspiration from, the two things we really wanted to know). He showed us some of his best work (others too, it was all very nice) and then he guided us to the next artist.
She was a female painter who had a very organized atelier. Everywhere around there were paintings made by her and it was all about colours and stripes. Now she also works with a lot of other shapes.
Our last stop was at a draughtsman’s atelier. He worked with all the material I liked to work with when I was still at the art academy: charcoal and pencils.
He had drawings of flowers and trees and he got his inspiration from a whole range of different things (as he travelled a lot, he found a lot of inspiration abroad).
After this we went to have another cup of coffee (which I didn’t drink because I had enough coffee to drink) and we said our goodbyes to the artists.
We were leaving them to get to Zoetermeer on time where we were going to see the Scapino ballet perform their show ‘For the Joyce’.
We hopped on a Randstadrailtrain and got off at Zoetermeer where we first had something to drink or eat in a so-called English pub where the only thing English was the language in which we communicate.
We left the pub in time so we wouldn’t be late for the ballet. The show started with a piece called ‘The Green’. In this dance only men perform on a fake-grass foundation. This dance was really powerful and alive, the energy really vibrated through the theatre.
After this we witnessed a very special thing, a solo dance called ‘Äffi’, performed by Tadayoshi Kokeguchi and developed by Goecke. This dance really took my breath away. It was tragic but funny, grotesque but intimate, it had got everything. The thing I remember most was that the dancer’s face hardly showed any emotions but that it was all about the way in which the body moved.
Then we got a few minutes to regain our energy after this dance that wasn’t only exhausting for the dancer himself but also for the audience to keep up with him, physically but especially mentally.
After the short break it was up to the ladies to dazzles us in a dance called ‘De Bruiden’. These brides weren’t really up to the marriage thing and being tied up to someone so the dance was also very lively and full of emotions.
The last dance of the evening was called ‘Der Rest ist Schweigen’. I read somewhere that this was a controversial piece so I paid attention to things I would find quite extraordinary. Some musical and less musical sound fragments, the way in which the dancers moved sometimes and little shouts of them were all things that were out of the ordinary. I have to be honest: I thought it was all quite funny.
This evening was really heavy and tiresome so I was glad that I could put my head down to sleep at 12 o’clock.
Especially because the next morning I had to think about parents’ participation.
I think that parents’ participation is essential for the development of the child and for the development of the school as being part of society. My opinion on parents’ participation can be read in my reflection paper on this subject, also included in this portfolio.
In this lesson we talked about the next statements:
• Why are parents important to the school?
• Give a definition of parental involvement and parental participation.
• What can the school do to stimulate the participation and the involvement of parents in the school in your own country?
Especially this last question interested be because it’s clear to me that parental involvement is a necessity for the child’s development but it’s not clear to me why there aren’t a lot of parents who are involved in the school.
Most of the parents care about their children’s grades and perhaps help them with their homework. But what’s going on at the school, or helping the school, are other things. How do we have to convince parents that it’s not only helping the school but also themselves and their children to participate in school life? To be honest, at the end of the lesson I still didn’t have the perfect answer to this question. A lot of parents don’t have enough time to participate in school life, that’s the biggest problem. To change this, we should change the way in which society thinks: it’s not all about work. I reckon this is very difficult and this can’t be solved in a day, it will take years.
In the afternoon we were supposed to meet Mrs. Tonkens but due to an example of bad communication we missed out on her and she missed out on us so I went home to fetch my bag to get to Amsterdam where I would be joining my fellow-students and Mrs. De Pauw from Belgium.
Once I arrived in the capital city of the Netherlands it took me 1 hour to get to the hotel which was only 10 minutes away from the Central Station. Yes, I got lost. It turned out I missed my fellow-students at the Anne Frank House so I went to the Vincent van Gogh museum to wait for them over there.
As soon as they arrived we entered the museum. I was really anxious about this museum because van Gogh is according to me one of the greatest painters ever. One of his paintings made me decide to go to the art academy, not to become as great as he was but to be able to understand things he and his colleagues did.
Inside the museum we saw a lot of van Gogh’s most important paintings, such as ‘The Potato Eaters’ and a version of the ‘Sunflowers’. The thick layers of oil paint were very clear to the bare eye and you could almost touched them (although that was forbidden of course).
When we saw every sketch and painting we went downstairs where I discovered that the painting of the Dead Ophelia by John Everett Milais could be seen at the museum at that instant. Unfortunately, most of my fellow-students much rather got back into the rain to go and eat something and return to the hotel. Maybe some other time I will have the change to see this famous painting.
After a short walk we found a cosy and funny little restaurant where everybody ordered croques instead of me, who ordered a pancake with bacon. It’s one of my convictions that when you’re abroad you should try the country’s specialities, especially when they’re as tasty as pancakes with bacon. When we finished our meals and desserts, we went to the hotel. Jens, who turned out to be a perfect boy scout, got us there save and sound using a map that was literally falling to pieces.
Back at the hotel Eline, Jens and I decided that when you’re in Amsterdam you couldn’t go to bed before midnight so we went to have a drink.
Next morning, after a deserved night of rest, we got up early because we had a meeting with a guide who was going to tell us all about this city.
The guide turned out to be a very pleasant young man who could really capture whilst telling stories of the city’s history. The last stop was the Anne Frank House where we said our goodbyes and thanked him for the interesting guided tour. As quick as we could we got into a café where we ordered some hot drinks to get our bodies up and running again because it was like they didn’t really want to go along anymore. When we felt we were warm enough again we left the café and went back to the hotel to get our bags and leave for Rotterdam.
In that other big Dutch city I was to be the guide, not a pleasant young man (but a pleasant young woman!). I prepared a tour of approximately 2,5 hours throughout the entire city with lots of sightseeing and opportunities to take nice pictures and to hide from the rain. The tour went from the Central Station to the Lijnbaan, to Blaak (kubushuisjes), along the water to the Erasmus bridge and then in the direction of Museumpark. At this last point we had a choice to make: or we were going to take the tram to the station and the train back home or we were going to visit the beautiful Boijmans-van Beuningen museum. I said that if there was a tram coming right now, they could take it and otherwise we would go to the museum. Just as I said my last word a tram arrived and suddenly 3 of my fellow-students rushed off, yelling “Bye!” and into the tram. Mrs. De Pauw and the 2 other fellow-students were standing there rather dazzled and said their goodbyes properly and thanked me for the nice tour (you’re welcome!).
I waved them goodbye and took a tram back home.
To talk and learn about my three subjects was interesting. I never thought about the question why the Dutch people use orange as a sort of national colour. Now I know why (thanks to William of Orange).
On Tuesday I was to teach a lesson at a Dutch school. You can imagine I was a bit nervous. Not that I don’t have any experience teaching, but, as I already observed through my visits at some schools, I dare to state that Dutch pupils are a bit more “extraverted” than Belgian pupils.
This lesson was to be taught at the Juliana department of the Calvijn school.
First I got a tour by Janneke Verloop (one of our coordinators of the international class) because she used to work there. Then I followed a lesson of ‘Mens en cultuur’. The teacher and the pupils were doing an exercise on how to analyse a picture (in the exercise it was a picture of U2). The pupils had to follow seven steps which were all thoroughly explained in their books. To be honest, this exercise didn’t really work out because the teacher was solving the exercise on its own, with hardly any help or response from the pupils.
After this period, I followed the pupils to their next lesson, drama. The teacher just got back from pregnancy leave so she treated us to some chocolate éclairs and showed us pictures of her baby girl. After this very nice introduction she wanted the pupils to think about words they linked with ‘fairy tales’. A whole lot of words appeared on the blackboard (written by two pupils who could be ‘teacher’) and one of the word combinations was ‘Little Red Ridinghood’.
This fairy tale was to fill the rest of the period’s time. The teacher adapted the story to these modern days and with the help of some pupils, she acted out the entire story (the adapted version). I think this was a very nice way to work during a drama lesson. The pupils have a nice brainstorm as introduction, they can think a lot for themselves and they have to use their creativity.
After this lesson I joined in on a few lesson periods in the technology classroom. First the teacher did an experiment with water, fire and a piece of paper (something you shouldn’t try at home), afterwards the pupils worked on their assignments (something to put their mobile phones in).
During this lesson it was hard for me to concentrate because a) I hardly know anything about technical things and b) the next period I was to give a lesson on my own!
Finally, the moment had arrived: I was to teach a class of 27 15-year old Dutch pupils (VMBO, similar to BSO in Belgium) of whom only 5 or 6 had a Dutch origin.
I started my lesson by letting the pupils rise from their chairs. I said good afternoon to them and they repeated it to me. Then they could sit down again.
I asked why I made them to such a thing. The answer (in short) was: “Because you are from Belgium and they have more discipline over there.”
We talked a bit about the differences in disciplinarian matters between the two countries. From these differences we started talking about language differences.
In the Netherlands, people think that because we still use ‘gij, ge and u’, we are very polite people, although in Belgium ge and gij are most of the time considered to be used in dialect.
To point out big differences between the language variations, I let the pupils listen to a song by Flip Kowlier. He’s even hard to understand when you’re from Belgium. The pupils had to write down words they thought they could ‘translate’ (the English ones didn’t count of course). Not a lot of words came up that moment but I gave them the lyrics and the translation as well and then it was much easier for them to look for differences.
After discussing the lyrics, we thought of some ‘Flemish’ words that were known to the pupils but without the pupils knowing what they meant. Things like ‘allee, amaai’ are known in the Netherlands thanks to programs as ‘De Pfaffs’, ‘Spoed’ and ‘Flikken’ being broadcasted on television.
Now it was the pupils’ turn to learn me something. First I asked them to teach me some typical things from Rotterdam. Unfortunately we had to leave that path relatively early because the pupils didn’t really know a lot of typical Rotterdam words. Words they did know were things they use ‘on the streets’. We decided that they could give me a list of words from the street language they use in every day life. Nice to remember here is that they are aware were that street language comes from. Because Rotterdam is such a multi-cultural city, they take over words from the different languages such as Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese and Cape Verdean.
After this lesson I was very happy that everything worked out just fine. The pupils thought it was a nice lesson and so did I , everybody happy.
It was a true challenge for me to teach these pupils. You hear a lot of things but I always manage to clear my head and make sure my pupils have a fair go.
That’s really important to me. Ever since I started teaching during practices I kept in mind some things that you heard about the pupils (because you can’t ignore everything) but the pupils always started with a clean sheet in my lessons. I think it demotivates pupils when they know the teacher has ‘branded’ them, even before they’ve entered the classroom.
Wednesday promised to be equally exciting as Tuesday, although I wasn’t going to teach another lesson. This day Mrs. Jildou Zandstra was taking us out to discover the creative corners of the city.
We started nicely with a mug of hot chocolate in front of my face at café/hotel Bazar (Witte de Withstraat). Bazar is a very special café as you can find all sorts of food there, menus in Turkish and Spanish (and other languages) and each member of the staff has another nationality.
Because the Spanish and Turkish ordered something typical for their countries, I decided to take hot chocolate and a piece of chocolate cake, as it was the only thing on the menu that made think of my country. After eating and drinking that amount of chocolate I joined Jildou and the Spanish people to go to the Witte de With museum. In this museum there was an exhibition with video art.
I’m not really fond of video art to be honest. I’d rather see paintings and sketches because then I have the ability to look at every singular detail and to think about it at my own pace. The 3 films that were projected were all interesting, although I had to watch them twice before I could grasp what the artist wanted to tell us, spectators.
After this experience we went back to Bazar to fetch the Turkish people and go to the rehearsals of one of the best dancing companies of Europe, the Scapino ballet of Rotterdam. We saw a bit of a lesson of classical dance. I didn’t know professional dancers still had lessons. They did this because they had to stay focussed and perhaps they could get nice ideas out of it.
After this fragment of a lesson, we got a tour by one of the dancers, a Dutch lady who has been with Scapino for quite a long time. It really startled me that there was a lot more to dancing companies than just the dancers: there was a fashion atelier where the costumes were made (by two very nice women), there were people taking care of technical things such as lighting and sound, managers, (very important) art directors, etc. It was nice to hear that the dancers did know that they lived under a very strict regime but they thought it was worth it because they turned their hobby into their profession. The last stop of the tour was the cafeteria where we got have a glass of water, coffee or tea and eat our sandwiches.
When we were done with eating we went back to the dancing hall where rehearsals and corrections for the show of that evening were going on.
Corrections are things from the last show (the day before) that had to be better the next show (so the evening of this Wednesday). After only 30 minutes of witnessing this we had to go because we had an appointment at the other side of the city with three very interesting visual artists.
At the other end of the city there is a huge industrial building standing, very close to the Randstadrail (which connects Rotterdam with Zoetermeer and The Hague). This industrial building houses a few enormous ateliers, three of them always in use, the rest of them part time in use.
The three visual artists I mentioned earlier on, use the three ateliers which are always in use. Once in a while they invite artists from all around the world to come and work there. After one of those foreign artists finishes what he/she was working on, they have an exhibition.
When we entered we could get a cup of coffee or tea (very remarkable, everywhere you go in this country, people offer you coffee or tea), after this cup we went to visit the three ateliers.
First I visited the atelier of a sculptor who worked with wood. He explained to us the concept of these ateliers and where he got his inspiration from, the two things we really wanted to know). He showed us some of his best work (others too, it was all very nice) and then he guided us to the next artist.
She was a female painter who had a very organized atelier. Everywhere around there were paintings made by her and it was all about colours and stripes. Now she also works with a lot of other shapes.
Our last stop was at a draughtsman’s atelier. He worked with all the material I liked to work with when I was still at the art academy: charcoal and pencils.
He had drawings of flowers and trees and he got his inspiration from a whole range of different things (as he travelled a lot, he found a lot of inspiration abroad).
After this we went to have another cup of coffee (which I didn’t drink because I had enough coffee to drink) and we said our goodbyes to the artists.
We were leaving them to get to Zoetermeer on time where we were going to see the Scapino ballet perform their show ‘For the Joyce’.
We hopped on a Randstadrailtrain and got off at Zoetermeer where we first had something to drink or eat in a so-called English pub where the only thing English was the language in which we communicate.
We left the pub in time so we wouldn’t be late for the ballet. The show started with a piece called ‘The Green’. In this dance only men perform on a fake-grass foundation. This dance was really powerful and alive, the energy really vibrated through the theatre.
After this we witnessed a very special thing, a solo dance called ‘Äffi’, performed by Tadayoshi Kokeguchi and developed by Goecke. This dance really took my breath away. It was tragic but funny, grotesque but intimate, it had got everything. The thing I remember most was that the dancer’s face hardly showed any emotions but that it was all about the way in which the body moved.
Then we got a few minutes to regain our energy after this dance that wasn’t only exhausting for the dancer himself but also for the audience to keep up with him, physically but especially mentally.
After the short break it was up to the ladies to dazzles us in a dance called ‘De Bruiden’. These brides weren’t really up to the marriage thing and being tied up to someone so the dance was also very lively and full of emotions.
The last dance of the evening was called ‘Der Rest ist Schweigen’. I read somewhere that this was a controversial piece so I paid attention to things I would find quite extraordinary. Some musical and less musical sound fragments, the way in which the dancers moved sometimes and little shouts of them were all things that were out of the ordinary. I have to be honest: I thought it was all quite funny.
This evening was really heavy and tiresome so I was glad that I could put my head down to sleep at 12 o’clock.
Especially because the next morning I had to think about parents’ participation.
I think that parents’ participation is essential for the development of the child and for the development of the school as being part of society. My opinion on parents’ participation can be read in my reflection paper on this subject, also included in this portfolio.
In this lesson we talked about the next statements:
• Why are parents important to the school?
• Give a definition of parental involvement and parental participation.
• What can the school do to stimulate the participation and the involvement of parents in the school in your own country?
Especially this last question interested be because it’s clear to me that parental involvement is a necessity for the child’s development but it’s not clear to me why there aren’t a lot of parents who are involved in the school.
Most of the parents care about their children’s grades and perhaps help them with their homework. But what’s going on at the school, or helping the school, are other things. How do we have to convince parents that it’s not only helping the school but also themselves and their children to participate in school life? To be honest, at the end of the lesson I still didn’t have the perfect answer to this question. A lot of parents don’t have enough time to participate in school life, that’s the biggest problem. To change this, we should change the way in which society thinks: it’s not all about work. I reckon this is very difficult and this can’t be solved in a day, it will take years.
In the afternoon we were supposed to meet Mrs. Tonkens but due to an example of bad communication we missed out on her and she missed out on us so I went home to fetch my bag to get to Amsterdam where I would be joining my fellow-students and Mrs. De Pauw from Belgium.
Once I arrived in the capital city of the Netherlands it took me 1 hour to get to the hotel which was only 10 minutes away from the Central Station. Yes, I got lost. It turned out I missed my fellow-students at the Anne Frank House so I went to the Vincent van Gogh museum to wait for them over there.
As soon as they arrived we entered the museum. I was really anxious about this museum because van Gogh is according to me one of the greatest painters ever. One of his paintings made me decide to go to the art academy, not to become as great as he was but to be able to understand things he and his colleagues did.
Inside the museum we saw a lot of van Gogh’s most important paintings, such as ‘The Potato Eaters’ and a version of the ‘Sunflowers’. The thick layers of oil paint were very clear to the bare eye and you could almost touched them (although that was forbidden of course).
When we saw every sketch and painting we went downstairs where I discovered that the painting of the Dead Ophelia by John Everett Milais could be seen at the museum at that instant. Unfortunately, most of my fellow-students much rather got back into the rain to go and eat something and return to the hotel. Maybe some other time I will have the change to see this famous painting.
After a short walk we found a cosy and funny little restaurant where everybody ordered croques instead of me, who ordered a pancake with bacon. It’s one of my convictions that when you’re abroad you should try the country’s specialities, especially when they’re as tasty as pancakes with bacon. When we finished our meals and desserts, we went to the hotel. Jens, who turned out to be a perfect boy scout, got us there save and sound using a map that was literally falling to pieces.
Back at the hotel Eline, Jens and I decided that when you’re in Amsterdam you couldn’t go to bed before midnight so we went to have a drink.
Next morning, after a deserved night of rest, we got up early because we had a meeting with a guide who was going to tell us all about this city.
The guide turned out to be a very pleasant young man who could really capture whilst telling stories of the city’s history. The last stop was the Anne Frank House where we said our goodbyes and thanked him for the interesting guided tour. As quick as we could we got into a café where we ordered some hot drinks to get our bodies up and running again because it was like they didn’t really want to go along anymore. When we felt we were warm enough again we left the café and went back to the hotel to get our bags and leave for Rotterdam.
In that other big Dutch city I was to be the guide, not a pleasant young man (but a pleasant young woman!). I prepared a tour of approximately 2,5 hours throughout the entire city with lots of sightseeing and opportunities to take nice pictures and to hide from the rain. The tour went from the Central Station to the Lijnbaan, to Blaak (kubushuisjes), along the water to the Erasmus bridge and then in the direction of Museumpark. At this last point we had a choice to make: or we were going to take the tram to the station and the train back home or we were going to visit the beautiful Boijmans-van Beuningen museum. I said that if there was a tram coming right now, they could take it and otherwise we would go to the museum. Just as I said my last word a tram arrived and suddenly 3 of my fellow-students rushed off, yelling “Bye!” and into the tram. Mrs. De Pauw and the 2 other fellow-students were standing there rather dazzled and said their goodbyes properly and thanked me for the nice tour (you’re welcome!).
I waved them goodbye and took a tram back home.
Week 6: Stormy weather and Turkey
This week started with a shot of stress. Gokcen and I were to present our assignment on Dewey during ‘The concept of education’.
Dewey’s theory is very interesting although there are some things Gokcen and I didn’t agree on. If you want to know more about our opinion on Dewey and the others of the concept of education, you can check our 5 page essay.
On Tuesday I went to the Calvijn school. This is a Christian school which has a few campuses spread over the city of Rotterdam. This day I visited Vreewijk and Fichte.
The things I will remember, is the behaviour of a few pupils during the afternoon sessions on relationships and sex. Of course, this behaviour doesn’t represent the behaviour of all the pupils. At this school, most of the pupils were silent and respectful towards their teachers and each other.
But these few pupils really scraped the barrel. During a presentation by a woman who suffered from HIV, the pupils hardly listened to her. They shouted at each other, repeated questions because they didn’t hear them or asked questions which had nothing to do with what the woman was telling about.
I didn’t really like this, but, being a stranger to the pupils and a foreigner with a ‘funny accent’, I decided to keep a low profile. There were two other teachers in training present in the room and I thought they should make sure the pupils would behave. Unfortunately, they didn’t really manage.
One of the pupils was sent to the headmaster. As soon as he left the office, he started acting in a wrong way again.
Of course, as I stated before, this bad behaviour doesn’t apply to all the pupils. It also depended on which teacher they had. Just like in Belgium, not every teacher has the same ‘amount’ of authority.
Wednesday morning we almost risked our lives by going out for a walk in the Scheepsmakerkwartier. This neighbourhood, very close to the school, lodges the houses of the old directors of harbour companies (e.g. shipbuilders). Their richness is reflected in their houses as they are big and expensive.
Most of the houses are now restaurants, hotels, art galleries, bank offices or lawyers’ agencies.
Mrs. de Wit-Storimans told us the story about a house with a private park (private, but it is accessible for everybody). This park was asked and paid for by the owner of the house as a tribute to his dead son. We couldn’t go into the park because of the stormy weather. I found this a pity because I really love walking in nature.
The park of Rotterdam, simply called ‘Het Park’, was also off limits today. We decided to take a quick look at a small harbour where one of the boats was used as a men’s club. Now this men’s club is also open to women but you have to be introduced by a certain number of members and you have to pay a large sum of money to get in. Clubs like these don’t really grip me because they remind me of the days when the border between rich and poor was synonym for good and evil (when it came to the rich of course). On the other hand, I like the idea of eaten of golden plates, using silverware, followed by smoking cigars and drinking cognac in a room dressed with brown leather chairs and paintings of all the chairman of the club.
At the end we went to a café where we had a coffee, tea or hot chocolate (Silvia had tomato juice, although she wanted tomato soup).
Thursday was Turkey day. In the morning we had a guest lecture by Mrs. Esin Pekmez, a lecturer of the University of Ege. She gave us a presentation on “The place of scientific process skills in the Turkish Primary Science Curriculum”.
The main thing I remembered was that the pupils seemed to loose interest in science when they grow older. In Turkey the pupils get science in primary school.
Because I am not a primary school teacher and because sciences don’t really interest me, it wasn’t really an interesting morning.
It was nice to hear something about the way in which sciences are approached in Turkey but that was it.
In the afternoon we watched the film ‘Across the bridge’, by the maker of ‘Gegen die Wand’ (I can’t remember his name right now). This film discussed the huge variety of music that can be found in the Turkish capital, Istanbul. We saw rappers, rock musicians, pop artists, street musicians, etc.
To read a reflection on this film, please read the separate document I’ve written about it.
After this film I had enough Turkey for one week, so I was actually kind of glad to go home. This doesn’t mean I didn’t find it interesting but at times it was annoying that the Turkish spoke Turkish amongst each other and their teacher, and the Spanish girls and me were left by ourselves. Especially during the film this was difficult because the film was in French and Turkish.
On Friday we went climbing. Climbing in the Netherlands, the most flattest country of the world, I can hear you think. Well, it’s possible. Just go to an indoor climbing wall!
Mrs. Verloop took us to the wall on which we could test our muscles and body. I decided to stop at a height I was still able to come down, as I am afraid of heights. It appeared that most of us were born climbers as most of us reached the top.
For me this wasn’t really the goal, I just wanted to get higher on one wall than on another so that I overcome my fear.
Despite my painful knees, shoulders and fingers, I found a very pleasant way to end the week.
Dewey’s theory is very interesting although there are some things Gokcen and I didn’t agree on. If you want to know more about our opinion on Dewey and the others of the concept of education, you can check our 5 page essay.
On Tuesday I went to the Calvijn school. This is a Christian school which has a few campuses spread over the city of Rotterdam. This day I visited Vreewijk and Fichte.
The things I will remember, is the behaviour of a few pupils during the afternoon sessions on relationships and sex. Of course, this behaviour doesn’t represent the behaviour of all the pupils. At this school, most of the pupils were silent and respectful towards their teachers and each other.
But these few pupils really scraped the barrel. During a presentation by a woman who suffered from HIV, the pupils hardly listened to her. They shouted at each other, repeated questions because they didn’t hear them or asked questions which had nothing to do with what the woman was telling about.
I didn’t really like this, but, being a stranger to the pupils and a foreigner with a ‘funny accent’, I decided to keep a low profile. There were two other teachers in training present in the room and I thought they should make sure the pupils would behave. Unfortunately, they didn’t really manage.
One of the pupils was sent to the headmaster. As soon as he left the office, he started acting in a wrong way again.
Of course, as I stated before, this bad behaviour doesn’t apply to all the pupils. It also depended on which teacher they had. Just like in Belgium, not every teacher has the same ‘amount’ of authority.
Wednesday morning we almost risked our lives by going out for a walk in the Scheepsmakerkwartier. This neighbourhood, very close to the school, lodges the houses of the old directors of harbour companies (e.g. shipbuilders). Their richness is reflected in their houses as they are big and expensive.
Most of the houses are now restaurants, hotels, art galleries, bank offices or lawyers’ agencies.
Mrs. de Wit-Storimans told us the story about a house with a private park (private, but it is accessible for everybody). This park was asked and paid for by the owner of the house as a tribute to his dead son. We couldn’t go into the park because of the stormy weather. I found this a pity because I really love walking in nature.
The park of Rotterdam, simply called ‘Het Park’, was also off limits today. We decided to take a quick look at a small harbour where one of the boats was used as a men’s club. Now this men’s club is also open to women but you have to be introduced by a certain number of members and you have to pay a large sum of money to get in. Clubs like these don’t really grip me because they remind me of the days when the border between rich and poor was synonym for good and evil (when it came to the rich of course). On the other hand, I like the idea of eaten of golden plates, using silverware, followed by smoking cigars and drinking cognac in a room dressed with brown leather chairs and paintings of all the chairman of the club.
At the end we went to a café where we had a coffee, tea or hot chocolate (Silvia had tomato juice, although she wanted tomato soup).
Thursday was Turkey day. In the morning we had a guest lecture by Mrs. Esin Pekmez, a lecturer of the University of Ege. She gave us a presentation on “The place of scientific process skills in the Turkish Primary Science Curriculum”.
The main thing I remembered was that the pupils seemed to loose interest in science when they grow older. In Turkey the pupils get science in primary school.
Because I am not a primary school teacher and because sciences don’t really interest me, it wasn’t really an interesting morning.
It was nice to hear something about the way in which sciences are approached in Turkey but that was it.
In the afternoon we watched the film ‘Across the bridge’, by the maker of ‘Gegen die Wand’ (I can’t remember his name right now). This film discussed the huge variety of music that can be found in the Turkish capital, Istanbul. We saw rappers, rock musicians, pop artists, street musicians, etc.
To read a reflection on this film, please read the separate document I’ve written about it.
After this film I had enough Turkey for one week, so I was actually kind of glad to go home. This doesn’t mean I didn’t find it interesting but at times it was annoying that the Turkish spoke Turkish amongst each other and their teacher, and the Spanish girls and me were left by ourselves. Especially during the film this was difficult because the film was in French and Turkish.
On Friday we went climbing. Climbing in the Netherlands, the most flattest country of the world, I can hear you think. Well, it’s possible. Just go to an indoor climbing wall!
Mrs. Verloop took us to the wall on which we could test our muscles and body. I decided to stop at a height I was still able to come down, as I am afraid of heights. It appeared that most of us were born climbers as most of us reached the top.
For me this wasn’t really the goal, I just wanted to get higher on one wall than on another so that I overcome my fear.
Despite my painful knees, shoulders and fingers, I found a very pleasant way to end the week.
Week 5: Back in Rotterdam
This week I have decided that from now on I will write weekly rapports instead of daily. It was nice to do it for the first month but I think that it’s a bit too much sometimes.
This week we had a very regular week. Tuesday I encountered the Turkish rage. At this time, a politician called Geert Wilders wants to show a film on the Koran, a film in which he burns this holy book and in which he shows the world how violent it is. The entire country talks about it daily and you can feel the tension in the air. Because the Rotterdam population is almost for 50% Islamic, some people are afraid of riots like in Paris or in the Islamic countries. This aspect is not nice for the Turkish students; they hardly understand what’s going on and why anyone could make a film like that. The four of them are very open-minded and love the guidelines of Ataturk who said that everyone is equal and therefore everyone should be respected. Especially because of this last thing they don’t understand why the people in the Netherlands (and also in Belgium) can’t just get along with each other. For example; they also asked me how the situation in Belgium was because they heard about the ‘splitting up’ of the country. They really didn’t understand the way we treat each other. I think they’re right. How difficult can it be for such a small country not to get along with all the inhabitants?
Another thing that annoys the Turkish students is that every teacher has to make a remark on the fact that the girls in Turkey don’t wear scarves and are more modern than the Turkish girls in the Netherlands. The Turkish girls explained to us the reasons for this. The Turkish immigrants here are mostly from the centre or the eastern part of the country. Most of them aren’t educated.
In those parts of Turkey social control is also a lot more present then in the region where they come from (Izmir and Ankara).
Today we yet had another teacher who had to point out these differences and the way in which he did it, wasn’t really nice to them. The openness of the Dutchmen is also something to get used to. It still hasn’t grown on me, let alone the Turkish or Spanish students can already deal with it all the time.
Besides this little negative thing, the lesson ‘Ethical dilemmas’ was quite interesting because I had the opportunity to think about ethics and I just love that. Thinking about values, about the big Why?, it’s just relaxation for me.
Another thing that really relaxes me is art. This week we visited the museum Boijmans-van Beuningen. This museum is the biggest of Rotterdam and has a beautiful collection and at the moment, there are also very interesting exhibitions. The mixture of older and contemporary art was really nice. I got to know some new names of artist of whom I really want to see more work.
Before we went to the museum we had a nice discussion about using art in the lesson. This was interesting, especially because my final dissertation is about symbolic photographs (art) in the lesson of religion.
This wasn’t our only trip this week. We also visited a mill which is still working and which makes snuff powder. Snuffing is a real art and it was nice to hear more about it. It was a pity it was so cold in the mill. The man who guided us, was a really good narrator and he could really catch and hold our attention.
Afterwards we went to eat some pancakes and poffertjes (tiny puff-pancakes). I took a bacon pancake, the rest had poffertjes. I had a conversation with Edgar and Mrs. Verloop about the differences between Belgium and the Netherlands. We also talked about music (why is it that there is a lot more Belgian rock music than Dutch?) and about nice parts of Belgium. I also had to explain the relationship between the Walloon provinces and Flandres. Again.
It is striking that everybody asks two things when they hear I’m from Belgium
(1) How is the relationship between the French-speaking and the Flemish?
(2) Is it true your education is really disciplined?
After a while you get used to it and you start to develop a standard answer. Another thing that happens (before you give that answer) is that you take a big breath and think by yourself: “Here we go again!”
“Here we go again!” was also what I thought when I got in the car of my Belgian neighbour (my neighbour from Belgium who works in Rotterdam on some Fridays) who was going to take me home for yet another weekend.
This week we had a very regular week. Tuesday I encountered the Turkish rage. At this time, a politician called Geert Wilders wants to show a film on the Koran, a film in which he burns this holy book and in which he shows the world how violent it is. The entire country talks about it daily and you can feel the tension in the air. Because the Rotterdam population is almost for 50% Islamic, some people are afraid of riots like in Paris or in the Islamic countries. This aspect is not nice for the Turkish students; they hardly understand what’s going on and why anyone could make a film like that. The four of them are very open-minded and love the guidelines of Ataturk who said that everyone is equal and therefore everyone should be respected. Especially because of this last thing they don’t understand why the people in the Netherlands (and also in Belgium) can’t just get along with each other. For example; they also asked me how the situation in Belgium was because they heard about the ‘splitting up’ of the country. They really didn’t understand the way we treat each other. I think they’re right. How difficult can it be for such a small country not to get along with all the inhabitants?
Another thing that annoys the Turkish students is that every teacher has to make a remark on the fact that the girls in Turkey don’t wear scarves and are more modern than the Turkish girls in the Netherlands. The Turkish girls explained to us the reasons for this. The Turkish immigrants here are mostly from the centre or the eastern part of the country. Most of them aren’t educated.
In those parts of Turkey social control is also a lot more present then in the region where they come from (Izmir and Ankara).
Today we yet had another teacher who had to point out these differences and the way in which he did it, wasn’t really nice to them. The openness of the Dutchmen is also something to get used to. It still hasn’t grown on me, let alone the Turkish or Spanish students can already deal with it all the time.
Besides this little negative thing, the lesson ‘Ethical dilemmas’ was quite interesting because I had the opportunity to think about ethics and I just love that. Thinking about values, about the big Why?, it’s just relaxation for me.
Another thing that really relaxes me is art. This week we visited the museum Boijmans-van Beuningen. This museum is the biggest of Rotterdam and has a beautiful collection and at the moment, there are also very interesting exhibitions. The mixture of older and contemporary art was really nice. I got to know some new names of artist of whom I really want to see more work.
Before we went to the museum we had a nice discussion about using art in the lesson. This was interesting, especially because my final dissertation is about symbolic photographs (art) in the lesson of religion.
This wasn’t our only trip this week. We also visited a mill which is still working and which makes snuff powder. Snuffing is a real art and it was nice to hear more about it. It was a pity it was so cold in the mill. The man who guided us, was a really good narrator and he could really catch and hold our attention.
Afterwards we went to eat some pancakes and poffertjes (tiny puff-pancakes). I took a bacon pancake, the rest had poffertjes. I had a conversation with Edgar and Mrs. Verloop about the differences between Belgium and the Netherlands. We also talked about music (why is it that there is a lot more Belgian rock music than Dutch?) and about nice parts of Belgium. I also had to explain the relationship between the Walloon provinces and Flandres. Again.
It is striking that everybody asks two things when they hear I’m from Belgium
(1) How is the relationship between the French-speaking and the Flemish?
(2) Is it true your education is really disciplined?
After a while you get used to it and you start to develop a standard answer. Another thing that happens (before you give that answer) is that you take a big breath and think by yourself: “Here we go again!”
“Here we go again!” was also what I thought when I got in the car of my Belgian neighbour (my neighbour from Belgium who works in Rotterdam on some Fridays) who was going to take me home for yet another weekend.
Week 4: Holiday!
This week we had a holiday. I’ll quick tell you what I did. My mother and I went to London for 3 days. It was a nice trip. It was a present for both of us: for my birthday and as a result of a promise made 4 years ago and for my mother’s birthday (she turns 50 in July, but don’t tell anyone!). We saw (almost) everything there is to see in London and we did it all on foot! As a result of that I couldn’t walk for one day when we got back in Belgium.
The other days I spent working for school.
The other days I spent working for school.
Dag 15 (22 Feb)
Because I got lost in the building, I was 5 minutes too late today. The Turkish girls Derya (Daarja) and Ayse (Aisje, you can also pronounce it as ijsje, you can hardly hear the difference) had already started the presentation of Turkey. Because there are 4 Turkish students and the country is so big, there will be 2 presentation on Turkey. Ayse and Derya discussed the festivals (badrams) in their country. They really know how to party in Turkey!
They also showed us the differences between regions in Turkey, especially folkloristic differences such as regional clothing and music.
Another thing they talked about was the entire engagement-wedding ceremony. This is a happening of a few years and is very interesting to know as a foreigner. Ayse is already engaged but she’s only getting married in 2 years from now. I asked if this was the same for everyone and it isn’t. Some people get married after 6 months, others after 2 years; it depends on circumstances.
In the afternoon Mrs. van der Leer took us to the Laurenskerk. They got a typical Dutch boy, Edgar, to take us there. He will guide us on more excursions.
The Laurenskerk is a huge church in the centre of the city. It was partially bombed in the Second World War, just like the rest of the city, and it was one of the very few buildings that was still standing. Well ‘standing’, the roof burned and there was a part ‘of’ the church but the rest was standing.
Just like most protestant churches this church was very ‘bald’ on the inside (at least, that’s what someone who is used to catholic churches thinks). There were a few organs, one of them being the biggest in the country.
After this excursion we went to Dudok. Dudok is very trendy (and expensive) bar/café in Rotterdam, very near to the Laurenskerk. Dudok is nationally famous for its cakes. To test if they were any good, I ordered ‘chocoladetruffeltaart’. Now, I have to admit, it was a good cake but a bit too much. Nice to know is that Dudok cake can also be bought in other Rotterdam bars and cafés because it’s just the best the city has to offer. Then you can read on their menus: “Dudok chocoladetaart”. It has to say Dudok because it has trademarked his name and 2 recipes. It is said that especially the Dudok apple pie is heavenly. I didn’t test it and will not test because I don’t like apple pie (unlike all the Dutchmen).
Just like in Hotel New York (where we went with the kickbikes) you could also have ‘afternoon tea’ in Dudok. Then you get a range of teas, specially selected by the chef and only made in one town in England, and a range of pies and other things to eat. It looks really fancy but you have to have time and money (€ 16,80 for one person) for afternoon tea.
They also showed us the differences between regions in Turkey, especially folkloristic differences such as regional clothing and music.
Another thing they talked about was the entire engagement-wedding ceremony. This is a happening of a few years and is very interesting to know as a foreigner. Ayse is already engaged but she’s only getting married in 2 years from now. I asked if this was the same for everyone and it isn’t. Some people get married after 6 months, others after 2 years; it depends on circumstances.
In the afternoon Mrs. van der Leer took us to the Laurenskerk. They got a typical Dutch boy, Edgar, to take us there. He will guide us on more excursions.
The Laurenskerk is a huge church in the centre of the city. It was partially bombed in the Second World War, just like the rest of the city, and it was one of the very few buildings that was still standing. Well ‘standing’, the roof burned and there was a part ‘of’ the church but the rest was standing.
Just like most protestant churches this church was very ‘bald’ on the inside (at least, that’s what someone who is used to catholic churches thinks). There were a few organs, one of them being the biggest in the country.
After this excursion we went to Dudok. Dudok is very trendy (and expensive) bar/café in Rotterdam, very near to the Laurenskerk. Dudok is nationally famous for its cakes. To test if they were any good, I ordered ‘chocoladetruffeltaart’. Now, I have to admit, it was a good cake but a bit too much. Nice to know is that Dudok cake can also be bought in other Rotterdam bars and cafés because it’s just the best the city has to offer. Then you can read on their menus: “Dudok chocoladetaart”. It has to say Dudok because it has trademarked his name and 2 recipes. It is said that especially the Dudok apple pie is heavenly. I didn’t test it and will not test because I don’t like apple pie (unlike all the Dutchmen).
Just like in Hotel New York (where we went with the kickbikes) you could also have ‘afternoon tea’ in Dudok. Then you get a range of teas, specially selected by the chef and only made in one town in England, and a range of pies and other things to eat. It looks really fancy but you have to have time and money (€ 16,80 for one person) for afternoon tea.
Dag 14 (21 Feb)
This morning we had a lesson on ‘The landscapes of the Netherlands’. Unfortunately I don’t study geology or geography, so it was quite hard for the teacher to fascinate me (although I did try to be fascinated). Soil, once again the story of how the Netherlands conquered their land and a few very difficult words, not my piece of cake.
In the afternoon we had another refreshing session of drama, unfortunately it was the last one we will have. Mrs. Schuit (those names!) is a really good teacher and I like her. She is very open-minded so you can try whatever you want in drama class. Today I wasn’t feeling very well, she saw it and said that I could just take it easy. I think this was really nice of her.
This lesson we worked on characters. First on posture, then also on speech. It was really nice to discover how much you can do with your posture. You can act with your body without using words; I like this. As a teacher this knowledge is very interesting. You shouldn’t always tell a pupil he/she isn’t behaving as it should be; you could also use your body language or your eyes. I think I’m more an ‘eye’ teacher.
Because of my not so feeling well, I just went straight to bed after the lessons.
In the afternoon we had another refreshing session of drama, unfortunately it was the last one we will have. Mrs. Schuit (those names!) is a really good teacher and I like her. She is very open-minded so you can try whatever you want in drama class. Today I wasn’t feeling very well, she saw it and said that I could just take it easy. I think this was really nice of her.
This lesson we worked on characters. First on posture, then also on speech. It was really nice to discover how much you can do with your posture. You can act with your body without using words; I like this. As a teacher this knowledge is very interesting. You shouldn’t always tell a pupil he/she isn’t behaving as it should be; you could also use your body language or your eyes. I think I’m more an ‘eye’ teacher.
Because of my not so feeling well, I just went straight to bed after the lessons.
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Hey iedereen
Ik ga in de volgende berichten de rest van mijn reflective diary plaatsen. Wanneer je dit leest, weet je wat ik zoal gedaan heb in Rotterdam.
Foto's komen er ook nog aan!
Ik ga in de volgende berichten de rest van mijn reflective diary plaatsen. Wanneer je dit leest, weet je wat ik zoal gedaan heb in Rotterdam.
Foto's komen er ook nog aan!
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