Week Five Professional

This week was the beginning of our school placements here in Nijmegen.  Alarms were set for 6:00am on Monday morning and although the thoughts of getting up that early were horrible deep down I was very excited to meet my new class for the first time.

Mikado school and playground

After a 30 minute cycle and a trip on bus number 33 Olli and I eventually arrived in Bemmel.  As we turned the corner to walk to our school all we could see were children cycling in groups and swarming into the playground.  This was quite different from being back home as the kids would be getting of buses instead of bicycles.  Immediately the first thing that I noticed about the school was that the children did not have to wear a uniform, although I already knew this before I went to the school it was still a shock to see the kids dressed up in the latest fashion.   From “snapback” hats to the latest converse trainers I could easily see the different personalities of the kids by the way that they dressed.  It was also quite hard to determine how old the children were when they were dressed in their normal clothes.  

After meeting the rest of the staff in the “team room” (staff room) we were then shown into our classroom.  As we entered the class we were greeted by a number of Irish and Finnish flags hanging from the roof.  The children had printed them out and wrote in English on the back of them.

The Irish and Finnish flags

 The teacher had asked us not to speak when we went into the classroom because she wanted to see if the children could decide who was from Ireland and who was from Finland.  However my cover was blown when one child said that he had heard me talking outside the classroom and he said I was defiantly Irish.  Another thing I noticed about the school was that the teachers do not get called “Miss or Mr” but that the children call them by their first names.  As I was used to introducing myself to children in primary schools before as “Miss Donnelly” it was quite nice to introduce myself by my first name and explain to the children what it meant. 

 

The quiet room where the children can play games

As I looked around the classroom the next thing I noticed was the layout.  I was in a Primary 7 class last year were the desks were set out in groups of five children but this classroom was set out in groups of two children sitting at a desk.  I proceeded to ask my teacher why she had planned the classroom like that and she informed me that the children had decided themselves that they wanted to sit in twos as they believed that sitting in bigger groups would distract them from their work.  This was a shock for me as it showed me how mature the children were and that they were very interested in their studies.   

On Tuesdays my class are scheduled to have physical education.  However instead of being taken to a hall inside the school my teacher told me that you have to have a special qualification to teach P.E in the Netherlands.  She explained that the children would be taken out of school by another teacher who was qualified to teach P.E.  This was a new experience for me as in Northern Ireland teachers teach every subject. The Northern Ireland Curriculum (2007, p.99) states that “Physical Education provides rich opportunities for children to think in different ways, to be creative and imaginative, allowing them to express their feelings and interpretations through a variety of movement contexts”.  Although schools in the Netherlands don’t have a specific curriculum to follow I was able to see that from the extra training the P.E teacher had she was able to ensure that the children were getting the most out of her lesson and that they were learning may different skills in each game that they played. 

Although I thought that the language barrier may have caused problems at school, I was amazed to see how the children used different methods to communicate with me.  Some of the children have extremely good  English and to my amazement sit beside me in class and translate everything from Dutch to English,  while other children get great joy out of using Google translate. One child out of the younger year groups who doesn't speak English actually sat for 15 minutes and had a conversation with me by using Google translate.   Other children have drawn pictures for me and have also acted out different activities that they would like me to do with them. 

A question I was asked using Google Translate

So after two days of placement I can honestly say that I am glad to be back in the classroom and I am eager to teach my first proper lesson. 

References

CCEA (2007) Northern Ireland Curriculum, Belfast, CCEA.