Time flies

Greetings, as the pupils write here.

The past month has been relatively unsurprising. I have continued to help out close to 250 pupils, over several grades, who need training for their state exams. The first round of examinations has passed and the results have brought smiles to my teachers’ faces. Whatever my effectual contribution, the pupils have done very well and have been gracious enough to credit me with some of their success. As you might well imagine, the staff are rather pleased with their allocation of my time and I must confess that it was smart of them to employ me in this manner.

I am currently mostly dealing with the school’s eldest pupils who have an oral exam spread over the next few weeks. At times, it seems as if the 19^th-century American scholar and educator Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury’s remembered quotation "We must view with profound respect the infinite capacity of the human mind to resist the introduction of useful knowledge" is the anthem of the weary in the teacher’s lounge, but I am finding the pupils very receptive and intelligent, for the most part.

The school tolerated a lighter schedule at the start of my assistantship to allow me the time to find a place to live so, in this busy part of the year, I am working a few extra hours here and there to help out. It must be this, in part, which gives me the impression that time is creeping up on me. It is hard to believe I am over halfway through my stay. Likely another part of this is that since I am now settled in a room in which I am able to stand, I have started to ponder my future. As a chapter of my life draws to a close, I am finding myself increasingly concerned with what will follow.

Overall, this is proving to be an enjoyable experience in the company of Maastricht’s teenagers. My somewhat special status and the severe scarcity of vacant classrooms have meant that I have even been able to enjoy some of the spring sun’s first diffident rays by teaching in the schoolyard. The only tinge of disappointment clouding my trip so far is the manifest lack of Dutch in my life. I even speak more French since every other day I bump into a talkative assistant from Brittany who as is thirsty for conversation as a man lost in a desert.

I will sign off by wishing you all the best.

Sauce,

A

My fight for work! :-p

I'm here since nearly two months and I must admit that I passed through a lot of different periods.
I had to fight a lot to get what I wanted and I was still a bit unsatisfied.
I'm now accepting my lot because I think that it is part of the experience to try to take the best out of what you are given.

When I arrived, I was ready to give a lot of lessons, to discover a new educational system, to give French lessons, to learn Danish, I was ready to be more than active but my mentor was everything but energetic!

I told him about all the different things I wanted to do but he kept saying: "Ok we will think about it, we've have got the time, you are staying three months..." but after two weeks of just observing and one week of holiday (I really didn't need any holiday) I decided it was time to react. I asked other English teacher if I could observe their lessons and perhaps present some aspects of Belgium or help during the lessons. They were all enthusiastic but it took me ages to get a real answer because they had to think about it and plan it.
I had to write thousands of E-mails to get a few answers.
I had to give up with trying to find Danish lessons because I'm in a small city and there are none. After one month of asking: "and what about giving a brush-up course in French?" I also gave up.

After a period of observing and presenting some aspects of Belgium, I felt bored and not really part of the school. Everybody was nice to me but I was going from one class to another and doing nothing but helping and presenting.
I decided to talk seriously to my mentor and asked him to give real lessons that were part of his programme. I had to insist and say that my school wanted me to do this :-p
He accepted ans sounded enthusiastic but he only gave me one hour of lesson per week !
I was desperate! So I went to the other English teacher and asked the same and I finally obtained some hour of lessons.

Here is my situation: I give one or two hours of lesson a week, one or two presentation about Belgium and I help during some lessons.
Student often have to write papers or to build up presentation.
I mostly help them structure their thoughts and define what they need to do.

To fill in my time I took some initiatives and I received positive answers:
-I'm now giving a belly dance lesson in English every week.

-I observed a cooking and an art lesson in a primary school.

-Next week I'm observing two French lessons and organising a workshop about Belgium in lower secondary school.

Now that I'm looking back, I think I had high expectations.
I might not give as much lessons as I wanted, I'm learning a lot and because I'm free I was able to spent a few day's the primary school of an other assistant, I visited several school on my own and managed to obtain interviews with teacher's to try to deeply understand the Danish mentality.

Here is the beach 3km away from my place :-)

Goes I love you!

Hey everyone,

I hope you are all still enjoying your stay! Mine is great. I personnally did not encounter any real difficulties...

However, I have had some little disappointments. As I told you before, I have only one mentor. I wish I had more than one. She is very special and she has a very personal way of teaching. I would have liked to know if it is just her or if the other teachers are acting the same way. But Mrs Dieleman made it clear that the other teachers found it “difficult” to have me with them. So, I understood that the other teachers did not want me and I must admit I was a bit sad about it.

Before my departure, I did not have specific expectations. I was planning on taking things as they were coming. I was just hoping I would be part of something, concidered as a teacher and that I would live something different that during my other internships. For what I expected, I am delighted. This internship is the opposit I had in November. And I think it is great to test a bit of everything.

The way they work here is so different. They do not have lessons about vocabulary like we do. During my other internships, I was used to give a few lessons about “the time” or “the clothes” or “the house”. Here, they do not work with topics. The pupils have a book with English words in it and they have to study it by themselves. They have grammar lessons but, again, it is not at all structured like in Belgium. There are no introduction and closed or open exercices. She takes 10 minutes to explain the rules and, then, they have to work on their own for the rest of the lesson. They usually see more than one grammar subjects in one hour and have lots of homework to do about these subjects for the next day (and they never complain!)

I have not thaught a lot yet. I have only given five hours until now.
Why?
Firstly, I can not give the grammar lessons because it is in Dutch and she wants to do it herself (and the pupils are not supposed to know that I can speak Dutch)
Secondly, The VMBO classes have exams almost every week. So she has to do some important revisions with them and she want to do it herself to be sure that they get everything.

However, I always do something. She always uses me, just like a real assistant! :- )
For example, during the reading classes, I help them with their reading file. I correct it with them and if there is a grammar mistake, I explain the rules in English and check that they understand using some examples.
Or when they work on their own and they have questions, she tells them to ask me.
And during some lessons, I just go in another room with one or two pupils to speak English (which I already told you about... well, I am still doing it.)

I have a really good relationship with my mentor. She cares a lot about me and about the pupils so she always tries to make us feel comfortable.
My relationship with the pupils is also fine. I do not know if you remember but I told you that they were all really respectful except some girls from one of the VMBO classes. Well, yesterday, these girls went to see the teacher to tell her that I had passed their test! And that they had decided to like me. It was such a weird situation because the teacher was glad I had passed their test and all I could think about was what you always tell us (meaning “It is not important to be liked, it is not what you there for”).

My mentor has a lot of friends in the school and so it is convenient for me because they all know me now and are really friendly with me too!

To summarize, I love my life here. I never get bored at school because I always do something.
During my free time, I read, watch TV, walk around, and I also started fitness! I took a season ticket at the fitnessclub and I go there everyday ( I say that now but I started two days ago... so we will see how I feel about it in a couple of weeks!) and there is an option, which I took, where you are “followed” by an instructor. And mine is yummy!!! (And no, I am not flirting with him because everytime I see him, it is during the training and I am all red and sweaty and my face looks like a pumpkin! So there is no way I could even try to flirt with him!)
So as you can see, everything is fine with me and it makes me sad to know that there are only six weeks left!

...


I am back! I had to leave because I had to be at the school at 19:30. Tonight, it was the talentshow! There were pupils, teachers, and parents playing instruments and singing. They were really good at it! I was so impressed. Some of my pupils were in the show so I am glad I saw it! That is just the kind of activities this school organized. On Monday, the pupils from VMBO 4 have their music exam and all the teachers and the other pupils from year 4 will be there and it is going to be like a big concert except it is their exam. I really love the way they work here!

So that is it for this month.

I miss you all, take care,

Victor

Hello !! :)

I have spent one month in Leuven and the only difficulties I encountered were the organisation of our planning and the delays of the trains of course. J

I didn’t really know which lessons I was going to follow because as I told you before the first two weeks I took part in the project. I only had one week with courses as we have at the I.S.P.G. because after this week, I went on teaching practice in Lycée Mater Dei (Stockel) during two weeks. Those two weeks were followed by a week holiday. I didn’t have time to relax and to recuperate because during this week I worked with children in Enghien.J

This week I was finally back in Leuven with my two classmates, Sarah and Romain. We discovered

new courses because the last time we went to the courses the students received their exams and had the opportunity to ask questions about their mistakes. That’s why we hadn’t a lot to say about the subjects.

Now that I have spent more 10 hours in Groep T, I can tell you more about my expectations. I was expecting that the Flemish students were good English speakers but I’m really overawed. You could confuse them with native speakers. In one hand I don’t feel really comfortable when I have to speak in front of the class because they all have a better level than I, on the other hand I think that it is something good for me because I know that thanks to them I’ll be able to improve my language skills.

They also speak English together; it seems so easy for them to speak English. But if you remember we discovered last year that most of them study English and another subject which most of the time isn’t a language; because in Flanders you can choose to teach History and English or Geography and English, and that’s why I think they can be more focused on the English language. (We can’t! We have English and Dutch!J)

In this school I have a course which is meant for international students. I wasn’t expecting to work with people from all over the world before coming to Groep T. I thought that I was going to meet Flemish people but not people from China or Nigeria; and that’s great! I like it! The group of the international people is up to now the most welcoming group we met! You have a lot of different cultures, they are interested in everything! I’m pleased to work with those people and to learn more about their experiences. In this group you don’t have students who intend to go into teaching; I think Sarah, Romain and I are the only one.

The international students aren’t the only one we met. Yesterday we met students who are following the same lessons as us in English. (That’s when I discovered that Flemish people were good English speakers) Those students seem to be nice and friendly.

We wanted to buy all the documents (syllabi, books) we need for the courses but we couldn’t because the shop was already closed at 6.00 p.m. In this school you have to buy your syllabi in a shop called “Alpha Copy”. It’s quite different than our school in Brussels. J

I almost forgot to speak about another group of students we met today! We’re with this group for

“Communicatieve vaardigheid 2” I spoke a lot with some of them and they were really friendly! One of them wanted to show us the way to go to the shop I spoke about; it was on the way to his student accommodation, but we hadn’t time to follow him because we only had thirty minutes break and we needed more then thirty minutes to get to the shop.

I’m looking forward to discover more about those people, the courses and Leuven City!

I’ll also be pleased when I’ll read your articles!

I hope you’re all doing well!

Lots of love,

Céline

Latest news

(Fonske - Picture taken by Romain)

Hello everybody!

I hope everything's going well for you. I also want to start by saying that this post won't be very interesting since I can't really talk about the subject we've been given for this month :s. We only had one week at Groep T because we had two weeks of teaching practice and then one week off.

I'm going to try to talk about the subject based on the week we still spent at Groep T. Since we arrived late in the school year at Groep T, it was difficult to socialize and make friends. The students' all know each other and there are already groups and stuff. During the week, we got to meet our new group. The group we're going to be in when following English lessons. We've only had two hours with them. It's a big group and the students come from a little bit everywhere : Spain, Cameroon, Japan, etc. They seem very nice and I'm sure we'll get to know them better once we'll be back at school.

Getting used to my new environment was quite easy. Céline and Romain being there definitely helped a lot. We now know the school, the neighborhood, etc. That was easy for us. I really thought it was going to be way more difficult to get used to a new system, new buildings, new teachers but it ended up ok for me. We still don't know everything perfectly but we feel welcomed and we feel good where we are. I feel like I'm part of this new school and I didn't think that would happen since I hate change.

We still didn't have our correct schedule the week before our teaching practice so we were running a little bit everywhere. We had to call Mr Vandepaer a lot, meet the person taking care of us at Groep T, ask our different teachers,... but we finally managed to get our schedule. We're going to follow a lot of English courses: language and culture, regional issues, world cultures, etc. We also have a few hours in Dutch during the week. Most of the time, we have oral presentations in groups. That's the work we have to do. Get in a group, work on a subject and then present it to the others. It's fun and it "forces" us to meet different people which is good.

After this week at Groep T, we had our two weeks of teaching practice. I was in "Centre Scolaire Dames de Marie" in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode. It was a very difficult teaching practice for me in terms of organisation. We received our schools quite late and I had three mentors but the phone number of only one of them. It's very difficult to work with three mentors because you have to find the right moment to meet them all, you have to work with a lot of different books, you have to adapt yourself to three different personalities and methodologies, etc. It was the first time we didn't have a preparation week. I was very happy when I learnt that we didn't have to get a "feu vert" because I worked so hard and the pressure would have been too heavy. My mentors weren't really happy because we got in touch late and it was "evaluation weeks" at the school. They didn't have a lot of hours to give to me because they needed their hours to evaluate the pupils. I even had to drop one of my mentors because she wasn't able to give me my subjects before Friday and I had to start working.

So the preparation period was extremely difficult but I made it. Once I started my teaching practice, everything went well. The pupils were nice and my mentors were happy with my work. I was still very relieved when those two weeks ended because the stress took its toll on me. I ended up exhausted but extremely happy I managed to do it.

I am now very happy to go back to Groep T and see Céline, Romain and the others again :)

Sarah

Fun at Technopolis :)

Chronicles of Leuven Chapter 2

Hello Everybody !

A month ago , we (Céline , Sarah & me) arrived in Leuven and started our experience there. After two weeks of "project works" , we are now taking our real lessons. It all started on February 15th. When I arrived at GroepT for the first "lesson"day , I already had a lot of funny memories in mind. Then my expectations were quite simple ; to meet new friendly people , to discover a new environment , to practise & develop as much as possible my language skills. I also expected to learn a lot about other cultures towards lessons and towards contacts with students.

And , so far , that is what is happening! I/We have met a lot of different people because a big part of our lessons happen in a group with several nationalities ; Spanish , French , Irish , Chineese , Belgian , Indian , etc... During a lesson , we often have a debate on various cultural aspects all over the world and everyone can share his/her point of view with the others. That is very interesting and learnful !!

Our lessons are given by teachers in both languages ; English&Dutch. With these lessons I can develop and regularly train my language skills ; listening , reading , vocabulary learning ,... It was and still is very easy for me to follow and understand what is said in the various lessons. Even if the rythm of the lesson was/is sometimes different (questions,time available,...). So , from a linguistical point of view, that is another of my expectations which is completely fulfilled.

During a "normal" week (that is to say without holidays , changes in the schedule,...) , I only follow lessons on Tuesday , Wednesday and Thursday.During a lesson , we have to take notes of course but , as in the I.S.P.G , there is a website where all the lessons-documents are available. It is very helpful if we want to complete our notes. I/We have sometimes some tasks to do ; to sum up a text about culture , to write a personal analysis on a cultural language aspect , to prepare & take part in a debate during the lesson,...

The only difficulties I encountered so far were linked to the schedules . The first few days , I did not know exactly which course I had to follow because we were not registered in any class-list. That was due to the fact that we are no "basic" students from GroepT. There were also some shifts in the schedule after a discussion with our tutor & with Mr Vandepaer. But now , all the problems are solved and the show goes on !!

As a way of conclusion , I would say that this experience is a very positive one as far as I am concerned. So far , I have no regrets at all about my choice!

TO BE CONTINUED....

Romain

News from Reykjavik

My favorite students

Hello everybody !

I hope everything is still going well for you and that you have enough time to explore new horizons abroad or in Flanders.

I'm still in a very positive dynamic here but time goes off too fast !!! I'm starting to realize that three months are not sufficient ...

My first month in Iceland went off very smoothly. The school context in which I am here is much more relaxed than what I experienced in my previous training schools in Brussels. The teachers take themselves far less seriously among themselves and when they are teaching.
The headmaster and the head teacher of Menntaskólinn i Reykjavik are very approachable. The hierarchical relationship is in other words clearly not as pronounced than in the belgian secondary schools I have frequented.

A few words about Menntaskólinn i Reykjavik:

This school is one of the oldest institutions of Iceland (built in 1846) and it offers a four-year course of study. The students are between 16 and 20 years old.
It's the secondary school which has the best reputation in Iceland. Almost every Prime Minister of Iceland has been educated at MR.
The students have a general education essentially focused on the classical subjects (Islandic literature, latin, ancient Greek and mathematics).

A few words about my training:

I encountered globally not much difficulties during my first month teaching.
I have just to pay more attention to speak slowly enough to be understood by the students.
It's something difficult in the beginning when you teach your mother language to foreigners.

I have the feeling to be completely integrate in the school and the education authority as well as my mentors have fully confidence in my pedagogical approaches.

I'm essentially asked to give communication activities (with dialogue preparations, songs, ...) related to the different lessons given by my mentors. I have also to give pronunciation exercises, listening comprehension and lessons about Belgian and French culture.


The way of teaching is almost the same than during my previous teaching trainings. I use practically every time the same methodology ... I often use internet or PowerPoint for my lessons. There is a computer, a overhead projector and speakers in all the classrooms.

A lesson lasts only forty minutes here and it's sometimes frustrating because it doesn't let me always the opportunity to give everything I have planned in my lesson preparations. But it's just a matter of adaptation.



Students are allowed to do certain things that are completely forbidden in Belgian secondary school. They can eat, drink, sew or knit during the lessons ! It was a little bit disturbing when I started to give lessons. But these freedoms do not impair the concentration or the participation of the pupils. When you ask them to do something, you don't have enough time to finish giving the instruction because they are already working ! They are very motivated and also hard workers ( it's in the Icelandic mentality to work a lot) .

The conditions in which I am are really comfortable and ideal to practice my teaching training!

These are the latest news from Iceland.

All the best !

Karim

Hello everyone! Do not forget to send me your papers... ;-)

Dear students,

How good to read of all your adventures and discoveries! :-) It seems you all have so many things to say, that's wonderful!!! I must say that I discover with great pleasure that you have a real talent for writing travelogues. Fantastic!!!
Do not hesitate to post pictures if you can. It's always nice to find out more about where you live.
On a more serious, and possibly boring, note (yes, i know, I can't help it... the dusty teacher is back! :-)), the Comenius students should not forget to send me their NTIC paper.
In the meantime, enjoy your stay abroad, make the most of this experience, keep us posted... I'm sure you'll all find this extremely enriching! And your future students will be proud to have someone like you who went abroad to learn more about another language and another culture.
Warmest wishes,


V Henin