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. :)

Just for FuN!

I found this video while i was looking for an example for the silent way method in our English class,and i think it is really fun,in silent way you know the teacher doesn't speak so much,but in this video both the teacher and the students are silent. :) I liked it!!!

First impressions about the lessons

The fisrt class we had in Denmark was 21st century Education and global citizenship.Unfortunately,we missed much part of it because of some problems about our visas,but anyway we could participate a little and i can say i saw some different perspectives.The truth is i didn't know much about how democracy and citizenship take place in Danish schools, and also i didn't know so much about global citizenship and these kind of things so the lesson was interesting for me.

In Denmark,schools look like apply democracy in their classes but may me they don't have theoretic information about what the democracy and global citizenship mean.In our country,i don't think we apply the democracy or teach it in our classes, but i dont think we have enough theoretic information as well. Actually we all have some problems about the democracy and the citizenship all around the world so some kind of solutions should be generated,so may be some people from different cultures and countries can come together and work on it.And another thing that surprises me about Danish schools is the relationship between families and the schools.I think it is all about democracy too.The teachers,students and their families come together and talk about the students' development, how the things are going on in the class.That is really very good application,in Turkey we have  some kind of parent-teacher meeting too,but it is so rare,may be one or two times in a semester, and the students don't involve in,and what the teachers do is to talk general issues actually, they don't talk to parents for each student in this meeting,parents can ask about their children's development individually.This application doesn't have  any useful aim,it is just like an obligation,so there has to be some changes about it.Because education doesn't take place only at schools,students start learn something from their parents actually in the first place,they have some different backgrounds,so the students need to be thought and evaluated as an individual person.There are certainly different perspectives in education, so i guess Danish schools look much more learner-centered,and this is what we need to do.After this interesting and entertaining experience about democracy and citizenship,now we are dealing with English and teaching and learning classes.In English class,Danish students and we are working together,and it is very enjoyable.We are just trying to learn some words from each others,and also about our cultures, and the theories that we study aren't new for us actually,we have already done most of them in our country too.So it is good to know that we study some same books and theories.But again there are some differences about how the teachers teach.In here,we don't only look at theories, our teacher is also applying them to show us how they work,again more learner-centred when we compare it with our country.Also in our country of course we make some presentations,practices about these theories too but may be limited a bit,and sometimes you can feel nervous when you present or teach something in the classroom.And our other lesson that i want to mention is teaching and learning.We have had some informations also about them,but the things can be different in here.For instance,we discussed about planning and pupil plans sound very different to most of us,because we don't have this kind of plan in our country for each pupil.Honestly,i really want to be a good teacher and develop myself all the time,but preparing plan is may be the most difficult part of being a teacher and i saw it in the class as well.:) To prepare pupil plan,at the pre-planning stage it is mentioned about discussion with pupils.It must be very difficult for the teacher to know about students' knowledge about something,then what they want to learn and how they want to learn it.And the teacher should combine them with the curriculum as well.It is tuff,but we will be a teacher and teach so many new things to our students who can say that it would be easy.We just should try to figure out how we can manage and apply it succesfully in our classes.As time goes by, i think i have some other thoughts about the classes,so i just will wait and see what we are going to do!

Starting a new life in Vordingborg

   I would like to mention about our arrival first.First of all it was really difficult for our families when we left them behind and also a little difficult for us too because you will come a new country, you don't know so much about people, rules, how the things are going on in here.Before we came,of course we had some informations about the counrty and the town but it is not like you live in here.Anyway, our travelling was really very tired, me and my friend(Gülşah) came together and we waited at the train station a while,actually the only problem was our suitcases because they were too heavy.But i think the day we came was our lucky day because in the train from airport to the central station,there were a boy sitting next to us and he was Turkish too.He helped us a lot for carrying our stuffs.When we finally arrived Vordingborg, we needed to call Trine but we couldn't manage it actually, so we just stayed in the station in vordingborg for a while and tried to find a solution, again luckily there were some guys in here and they called Trine for us .I have heard about how Danish people are helpful and can speak English fluently but also i saw it in the first day myself.Whenever we asked some questions, everyone answered us politely.We are also really very helpful as a Turkish people but  unfortunately,not so many people can speak English in our country, so it must be very difficult for  people who come  our country from another country, i can know exactly understand how they can feel when they can't explain themselves in another counrty.One way or the other we came here and met also more Turkish students in here, they helped us so much too about everything.Because we arrived in Vordingborg in the evening we could had a chance to see the town the day after. I know the weather is cold in Denmark but honestly i couldntt expect that much.The weather is generally cold and cloudy.But i like sea so much so it is enough for me to like the town. 

So a couple of days i tried to get used to the town,to live in there and it was easy actually.I observed people and saw most of the people are old in here, not so many young people live in there i guess.And also i noticed that people really like to stay at home,it is may be because of the cold weather i don't know for sure,but the streets aren't crowded whenever i go outside from the school.But we should think that Denmark is not also a crowded country when we compare with Turkey.In our country people , especially young people like so much go outside, spend time at cafes and restaurants, so you can nearly always see some people in the streets.

But it is not always a good thing because of this crowd population, we have some kinds of problems like traffic, unemployement and even education.In here, there is no deep traffic, and the rules are really effective, people always tend to obey the rules for their own goodnesses.And also most of them are using bike.It really surprises me in the beginning, but i like the idea so much.Most probably you can go everywhere with bike in vordingborg,it sounds great and the shopping is also doesn't be a problem, supermarkets are so near. We are totaly in a different country now, but i started to feel like i have been always living in here.I am very lucky to be in here to know about this country's culture and systems.

Of course as time goes by, i will learn about the country and the people who live in there,but i am sure i will have great and enjoyable times with those people.