Berlin, Rome and so on…

  I would like to say something about our trip to new countries.As long as we are in Denmark,we are also trying to visit another countries because we dont have this kind of opportunities  when we turn back our country. We visited Berlin, Amsterdam,Rome, Oslo and Madrid. It was so nice to see new places and learn some new things about different countries and their cultures. Actually we didnt have so many difficulties in our trip but i can clearly say that Berlin is the only place that we had some problems to find our way because people couldnt help us when we asked something, some of them dont know English, okay i can understand that but i think even though they know it, they dont like use it so they didnt wanna help us. I know how they are nationalist, and care about their language, it is definetly normal and good thing but it shouldnt be so bad or difficult to know and use another language especially a language like an English which is considered to be an international language all around world.As a tourist or stranger we have never faced this kind of behaviour in another countries and also in Denmark,so it was rude a little in my opinion. Anyway we could manage to visit good places in Berlin, and i really liked the city. Amsterdam is also so nice, but a bit crowded even than Berlin. It was like everybody was on the streets. Amsterdam seems like Copenhagen to us because of some buildings and channels. We visited some important places and sometimes museums in almost every city. Rome is of course the most fascinating part of our trip.

 You can see the history in everywhere, but again it was so difficult for us to visit some places,this time because of the crowded, because it was easter holiday, and there were so many people who came here from another countries for the holiday, but luckily we could see what we wanted to see. The easiest part of our trip was Madrid. I dont know why but it was so easy to find places and streets in Madrid. It was like every important places that you would like to visit are placed in the same neigbourhood, and the city is very nice. I feel very lucky myself about visiting all of these countries and living in Denmark for a while, it is a deathless experience and adventure in my life.

23 Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayramı

  This national day (23 April National Sovereignty and Children's Day) in Turkey is a unique event.The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dedicated April 23 to the children of the country to emphasize that they are the future of the new nation. It was on April 23, 1920, during the War of Independence, that the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara and laid down the foundations of a new, independent, secular, and modern republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Following the defeat of the Allied invasion forces on September 9, 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, Ataturk started his task of establishing the institutions of the new state. Over the next eight years, Ataturk and his followers adopted sweeping reforms to create a modern Turkey, divorced from her Ottoman past. In unprecedented moves, he dedicated the sovereignty day to the children and entrusted in the hands of the youth the protection of this sovereignty and independence.Every year, the children in Turkey celebrate this "Sovereignty and Children's Day" as a national holiday. Over the last two decades, the Turkish officials have been working hard to internationalize this important day. Their efforts resulted in large number of world states' sending groups of children to Turkey to participate in the above stated festivities. During their stay in Turkey, the foreign children are housed in Turkish homes and find an important opportunity to interact with the Turkish kids and learn about each other's countries and cultures. The foreign children groups also participate in the special session of the Grand National Assembly. This results in a truly international Assembly where children pledge their commitment to international peace and brotherhood.(quoted passage)

About presentations;

   I can say that yesterday was one of the most enjoyable class that i attended in Denmark. We studied about how we can present our project and it was really fun. I  cant say that we dont have any presentations in my own country but it is not as much as we do in here but i am lucky because also in my country i had many chances for teaching practice in my old schools.Some of my teachers gave a a chance to teach in their classes and everytime i am just trying to improve myself about my teaching methods or classroom management, and yesterday was also a good experience for me. By the way, finally we could make our presentations about our democracy and citizenship project.We were only two groups in the classroom but it was also enjoyable and we learnt many things from each other and from the teachers. Our videos were so successful in my opinion and we did not only talk about how democracy and citizenship are working in Danish schools but also we compared them with our own countries and it was so good to compare different systems in schools. It seems like in Spain and Turkey systems are a bit similar but in Denmark we definitely saw different education system. When we turned back our countries, i guess most of us would like to apply some parts of  education system or methods that we saw in here. And here is our video about democracy and citizenship system in Danish schools,it includes only interviews with the teachers and students but anyway we will always remember what we observed in this school.

puppets:)

   Again while looking something,i found this video about how to teach English to children by using puppets.Last year, in our teaching English to young learners class, we made some presantations,we used songs, cards,pictures, videos and puppets, and also we brought materials to the class, made our puppets.Everyone made different puppets and it was so enjoyable even for us, so using puppets in English classes is very effective way of teaching it to children,i think.Some teacher may not want to attend to use it or may think that it is a waste of time,but they are wrong, in this way learning can be enjoyable, entertaining and permenant.I like puppets!

New places; Odense, Roskilde and Aarhus

  Just after we decided to go to new places in Denmark,Odense and especially Aarhus are the cities that i would like to see.While we are living in here,i really would like to visit some other cities of this country because Vordingborg is only a small city in this big and beautiful country and in here we dont have much chance to contact with people, but in Copenhagen, Odense,Aarhus and even in Roskilde, there are more people around the streets,cafes or shopping centres.When we went to Roskilde, we visited a stunning cathedral and Viking's ship museum and Roskilde museum.It was so nice to see old ship and learn some new informations about Vikings and this pretty city.Roskilde isn't so big but still a bit crowded city,we enjoyed there so much.In Odense, although the weather was bad and rainy,we still insisted on walking around the city and visited Andersen's museum and an amazing railway museum.When i was a kid, i read many stories of Andersen but just a fwe years ago, i learnt that he was a Danish writer, and it was very impressive to see his books, personal stuff and portrait in here.Also this railway museum is one of the most affecting museum i have ever been.There were lots of old Danish 

trains in here, some of them were open so we could get in the train and see how the old trains were,even some trains had sound effect that was so enjoyable.By the way, i realised another thing about Denmark.In here there are lots of woman bus driver.It is so strange,i have never seen a woman bus driver in my country,i still couldnt understand how women could use these big busses so well in here,and why women drivers are more then men, but women are so good at it.Anyway, after this nice city, we visited another big city in Denmark, Aarhus, but it was  far that i thougth. 

It took nearlı three and half hour to get there, and we had to change three trains, but it worths because this city really very nice, beautiful and fun.We had time to walk in the streets and go into the shopping centres actually when i come back to my country i would like to bring some gifts with me,some special things about Denmark but i still couldnt find what i can buy to bring with me to remember this country.May be i can buy some special things about Denmark in Copenhagen.In Aarhus, luckly the weather was nice so that we could  enjoyed the city and the weather and after a long trip,we finally came back our home,Vordingborg.It is a good experience everytime when we saw new places in Denmark

because we are living in here for a short period but we need to learn about their life styles ,culture or these kind of things so that we have some things to say about this country and our lifes in here.

Teaching practice time!

   Finally,we could go to a very nice school for teaching practice,it was a bit late but doesnt matter actually i can totaly understand,it is diffucult to arrange teaching practice for all students.In teaching practice, we could have a chance to observe three different classes,one of them is fourth, and the others are fifth and seveth grade although we could attend the class only two days.We have some difficulties about our video project,so we tried to find a solution,and  talked to three different teachers and some students about democracy and citizenship.It was better to ask questions may be,so that we could learn some information about Danish schools.

The most interesting thing  for us i think are the posters we saw on the walls in the classroom when we first came in. They were all popular singers,actors,actresses. It is impossible to see these kinds of things in our classrooms actually, but it was so nice, the class environment is like home.Especially for very young learners like fouth grade, it is very important to walk around,go outside or come in when they want, they are all know what to do, i mean they have responsibility to do their works.It was so impressive.Another thing that surprises me was fifth grade students' successes in English course.I know Danish people learn english from very young age,and they learn it by practicing not only in theory,but these students were really good at translating English into Danish in the classroom.I dont think translation all the time is a good method to teach a language but it is interesting and impressive that they can do it when i compared our schools.In fifth grade i couldnt think myself while translating what my teacher said in English into Turkish,but in Danish schools teachers make the students to speak in English,practice it all the time thats why they are very good at speaking in English, and also students have a chance to tell about their opinions, feelings about the lesson,method or other things,sure it a part of democracy. I dont think that they feel stressed or under pressure even when they are wrong,so the students are very lucky to attend a class in these schools, also i'm lucky to have a chance to observe their system. :) I liked the school and the students, the teachers helped us a lot, everything was okay and good experience for us.

i would like to buy a hamburger (:

    When i saw this video, i just remembered one of my memories.About four months ago,i saw two girls trying to explain themselves in the post office,but the man working in here couldn't understand because he didn't know English.Then i wanted to help them and asked about the problem.Girls told me they are from Austria and came our country as an exchange student and they were waiting a card from their own country and they wanted to learn if it arrived or not.It sounds so easy but we spent so much time to understand each other. They told me that they are not so good at speaking English and their pronounciation weren't good so i had really hard time to understand exactly what they were trying to say to me.They know the words and use them in a sentence but you always understand different things because of pronounciation mistakes.I think especially in English it is important to pronounce the words correctly because some words sound so similar or may be the same.Fortunately,in Denmark again,we dont have any difficulties about it because people speak English both fluently and correctly.Sometimes, when we talk an old person,there may be a misunderstanding but it is totally normal, one way or another they always catch what we mean. We are lucky again to be in here. :)