Lofalitsidwa: 25.02.2018
Time flies so fast here, it's crazy. It's already the end of February and the first month is almost over.
I have experienced and seen so much here and at the same time, it feels like I've only been here for a few days.
19.02 + 20.02:
On Monday and Tuesday, we had the task of creating a cartoon on the internet. In this cartoon, we were supposed to reflect on our work from the previous week (Dream School) and present our results. We were shown a Danish website where we could create cartoons, which also had many other creative methods (bookcreator, explaineverything..).
So we got the login details for the online program 'Pixton' and started working on our cartoons. Although it takes a VERY long time to get used to it, I really like this program. In the advanced version, you can change EVERYTHING in one image. Whether it's the background, objects, or colors, shapes, and facial expressions. You can even change every single finger of a character. I really enjoyed working on my cartoon, even though I spent about 10 hours on it. I can imagine using this method as a presentation format - instead of PowerPoint, and so on..
In my cartoon, I portrayed our dream school 'GALAXY', which we created together last week :-)
Here's the link to the cartoon:
https://skoletube.pixton.com/dk/schools/comic/9y7v2twu
On Monday, after the university, we had our first language course at the language school here in Haderslev. The course lasts 1.5 hours and we have to attend it every Monday and Wednesday. Our teacher's name is Carol and she's really nice. She spoke Danish on the one hand and English on the other, which made it easier to understand :-)
What exciting things can I already say in Danish?
'Hvad hedder du?' (What's your name?)
'Ja hedder Verena' (My name is Verena)
'Hvordan staver du det?' (How do you spell that?)
'V - E - R - E - N - A'
'Hvor kommer du fra?' (Where are you from?)
'Jeg kommer fra Østrig' (I'm from Austria)
So I'm already very professional - or something like that :-P
The language has its peculiarities. I think reading won't be a problem, but the pronunciation is really not easy, even though some things are similar to the German language.
Well, anyway, I have to learn Danish since Monday :-)
21.02:
Today we were divided into small groups for the internship after the Easter holidays. I'm in a group with Sofie and Katoo from Belgium, and Jen from England. We are in a primary school that is located just outside Haderslev. (only 3 hours by foot :P)
Fortunately, Sofie has her car here in Denmark, otherwise it would be hardly possible ^^
So, we are in this school: Fællesskolen Nustrup-Sommersted - Forside
The first big difference from Austria: There are specialized teachers, which means that there is not only one teacher for one class, but, as in high school, there are teachers specialized in different subjects.
Our teacher's name is Anne and we spend most of the time in her home class, the 4th grade. (Although the fourth graders here are 10-12 years old, so it doesn't really correspond to our primary schools at home).
In the morning, we actually just wrote to the school and introduced ourselves, and asked if we could come to observe on Friday.
After the university, I went straight to the town hall to apply for my residence permit. We had to wait for three weeks just to be allowed to go there, and now it takes another two weeks until we are officially registered here and can then go to the doctor. But well, hopefully I won't get sick until then :-)
22.02:
Because our teacher Iben has been sick all week, she couldn't come today. That means: No university today :-D
So I finally got to sleep in (I don't have time to sleep for a long time because of my free time stress).
In the afternoon, Pia, Julia, Fabienne, and I went to the city to Damparken and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Actually, we wanted to ride our bikes to Ørby (beach), but since it only became sunny around 16:00, it was too late to go so far. So, we rode our bikes to the bakery and bought a DELICIOUS chocolate soufflé and sat by the lake. After about an hour, we rode back home because it became really cold.
23.02:
Today was our first day at the practice school. At first glance, the school was really cool. A HUGE building with lots of space.
In the school, there is a kindergarten and the first four grades. Since the school used to consist of primary school and secondary school up to high school, you can imagine how big the area really is, especially for the few classes that are still here.
In the teachers' room, the coordinator of the students immediately greeted us and told us a little about the school. She looked so funny with her leopard-print tights and her purple dress. Here in Denmark, it doesn't really matter what you wear. Even as a teacher, you have all the freedoms, and you can tell. With some clothing styles, you would never be allowed to enter a classroom in Austria. But yes, these are the differences :D
Then we immediately went to our teacher and her home class. First impression: not good.
She was very uncommunicative and more or less ignored us. She didn't say anything to us or to the children about why we are here, etc. So we stood at the back of the class for a whole hour (there were no chairs) and watched. In the second hour, the teacher took the children to the library and left us standing in the classroom again. Since we don't speak Danish yet, we naturally didn't know where they went :'D but yes, fortunately, she eventually came and got us :P
After the two hours, we had the opportunity to talk to her a little. (What she expects from us, what we have to do, etc.)
Then we went home, in the evening we went to the Friday café again, and that was it :-)