Heidal Skule

This 1st-10th grade school has 175 students and is situated in the town of Heidal which has a population of 1,500. It is located in the mountains and is about 30 km outside of Otta (which is the closest large town, but that is a relative word as there are only 3,500 people in Otta). The town might just happen to be the most beautiful place I have seen thus far in Norway. It was absolutely gorgeous nestled in the mountains with the fresh snowfall, the rushing river, and the smoke coming out of the tiny little houses (many with sod on their roofs). Absolutely breathtaking.


The school was recently remodeled and the inside was gorgeous. Each classroom had a smartboard and throughout the school hung beautiful pieces of original artwork from local people and antique school pieces. The teachers were part of the design team and were able to design much of the school structure.


The picture to the left is the common area for the students and the photo above is the teacher's lounge.

I presented in the auditorium on October 28, to two classes (9th and 10th graders) combined. Interestingly, all my students were in their socks as they took their shoes off outside of the auditorium. I had 37 students and about 4-5 teachers in attendance including the headmaster of the school. Of those 37, four of the students had some type of severe disability. I was supposed to teach about the US election for two 45-minute class periods.

I had low expectations for this lesson prior to teaching it for several reasons. First 90 minutes on the presidential election would not be the most exciting thing for Norwegian teenagers. Second, the idea of combining two classes never works well as the students are even more nervous about talking in English when they are mixed with a different class especially when it is a different grade. But then when I woke up in the morning and saw the dusting of snow and realized it was still snowing, I had another sinking feeling. It is always hard to teach on the first snowfall of the season. So you can imagine, the lesson was not my best.

However, I did get some funny comments and some interesting work. For example, when I had the students do the agree/disagree four corners activity. I had a group of boys stand under the “Strongly agree” sign for the statement: I believe that assault weapons should be banned. When I asked them why they felt that way their response was, “Because Americans are dangerous with weapons.” This, of course, made everyone laugh. This first activity of four corners was more difficult to do with 37 students and none of them wanting to talk in front of the other 36 students. Plus not as many students had a chance to talk. They were all moving around and at least thinking about the issues (though I am pretty certain several just went where their friends went).

After the break in which the kids went out and played in the snow (thus the reason they took off their shoes prior to entering the auditorium), we went onto the next part of the presentation. They were broken into groups and were supposed to deconstruct their given media (i.e. bumper stickers, political cartoons, TV clips, etc.) and then create a piece of media similar to what they looked at (i.e., if group A looked at bumper stickers, then they were to create a bumper sticker) to share with the rest of the class. Their media was supposed to reflect how they think Norwegians view the US presidential elections. To be quite honest, this didn’t go so well. They struggled with the deconstruction and they struggled with making the media. Of the 5 groups 3 were really strong:

Bumper Sticker

Poltical Cartoon

Magazine Cover (this one is my favorite!)

And another group who did an excellent job on the deconstruction of the social networking sites, but their visual wasn’t as creative. I did find their drawing of Obama interesting as they remembered to give him ears:

I had one group who did it at all. They were to create a skit of a TV interview with one or both the candidates. One girl came up to me after class and apologized for not doing it. She was the leader and one of the strongest of the whole group in English, but she could not get the others to talk in English in front of everyone else. This was interesting to me, because US students love an opportunity to be a class clown and do these type of performances. However, Norwegian students are a bit more shy and they often do not like to bring attention to themselves.

This school, though small and rural, was very progressive in terms of how it dealt with its students who struggle with learning challenges, bringing in outside resources (like myself, they had a 3 year relationship with a school in Ireland where the students even went to Ireland for a trip, and outdoor activities). In each season the school takes the students to do some sort of out door activity. One of these activities is for the 9th grade. Each year in March, the 9th grade students go for a week into the mountains. They take snow mobiles (not like ours, they look more like snow tanks) to get there while some of the teachers ski along behind. They dig snow holes, build igloos, cross country ski, and hike to the top of the 2nd largest mountain in Norway. There is no cell phone reception up in this area. I asked if there were ever any problems and I was told, “Ja… with the weather.” The week before the trip, the teacher give the students in-depth instruction on “mountain behavior.” I assumed that meant things like, “listening when an adult is talking and not wandering off.” Good thing I asked, because they meant things like dealing with avalanches, warding off frost-bite, etc. Last year, as they students were digging their snow holes, there was an avalanche. The teacher in charge told me, “That was a bit scary” and I thought that is a bit of an understatement. They held an informational meeting with the parents upon arrival back to the school and the parents “were okay with it.” Obviously they were not American parents! The school headmaster invited me to go along this year and I am going to try everything I can to do so. It sounds like such a wonderful experience and a fun way to interact with the students. I will just have to work on my Norwegian from now until March so that it will be easier for me to understand what is going on. I will also need to work on my tele-ing abilities so that I can ski down from the mountain.

Vinstra Ungdomsskole

Vinstra Ungdomsskole is located in the town of Vinstra, Norway. I visited them on October 27th and did four lessons for students and then an after school session with the teachers. Vinstra is a town of approximately 3,000 and when I got in on Sunday night around 10 pm the entire town was shut down including my motel. The only thing open was the one pub in town and there were maybe seven people in there. Luckily the bartender spoke some English and pointed me in the direction of the motel. Once I arrived the place was closed and locked, but there was a note on the door, some of which I could actually translate and quite a bit I couldn’t because it was written in what they call New Norwegian. Eventually I figured out that I could pick any of the rooms in back that had a key in the door. So the trip to Vinstra started out a bit stressful.

However, the next morning I was picked up by the host teacher, Knut, who is married to an American from Minnesota. They made sure that I was well-taken care of the rest of my stay driving me out to the ski resort, making me tacos for dinner at their house, and then driving me to Otta.

The Vinstra Ungdomsskole has around 375 students from grades 8-10. Though it is a small town, it is very liberal. For example, I was told that the nurse at the school is allowed to give out contraception including birth control pills to students. The school is also one of only two schools in Norway who have begun a new program that integrates English into their content classes. The teachers visited a school in Germany that is currently using this pedagogy. My first lesson that I taught was to an 8th grade social studies/English class. I was to do a simulation on the American War of Independence (a.k.a. the Revolutionary War) and it turned out really well. I did taxation without representation and gave out Non-stops (their version on M&M’s) and then taxed them. I gave the candy I collected as a tax to one of the students who I named the king (and yes I purposely chose the kid who was acting silly when I came in because I knew he would really act his part!). We didn’t have time to discuss the current day examples of this, but the lesson was fun and they were able to get the big idea.

I then did three lessons on the US election. I am starting to feel a little rote as I have done this lesson so many times. I have simplified it a bit. One way was to get rid of the free-writes as the students don’t get the idea of this and when I come in for just one class it isn’t something I can work with them to understand how to do it. Many of the comments and reactions are the same as I have received in other schools. But for entertainment purposes I thought I would share some of the funnier comments the students said during these lessons.

The first comment came when I was doing the agree/disagree four corners activity. The statement the students were to share their opinion on was Same sex marriages should be legal. Like in all the classes, the students were fairly evenly divided among the four corners. However, this time I had one boy who stood in the middle between agree and disagree. When I asked him why he chose to stand where he did, he responded, “Well, I don’t like the idea of two guys getting married, but two girls would be okay.” This of course caused all of us to laugh.

I also had the kid in the white hoody above come talk to me after class. He started the conversation, “Have you ever been on a goat farm?” I told him that my father had goats, but I have never been on a real goat farm. He told me all about the farm that he lives on, how they milk the goats, and his motocross injuries. It was so sweet. He truly loved farming. He told me as he left that his dream was to go to America and buy a farm. It broke my heart, because I am not sure that dream will ever come true for him. Though I told him that with the recent economic downturn he might be able to find a farm fairly cheap soon in the US.

I also had the kid in the gray v-neck sweater above, ask me if I ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. I said, yes occasionally but that I didn’t eat that much fast food in the US. He told me that was good, because he recently read an email sent to him by the PTA and he told me that “Basically Kentucky Fried Chicken are assholes.” I wonder when I will be used to the amount of swearing from the Norwegian students.

After school I presented to 10 English teachers. Knut asked me to talk about inquiry stations, webquests, and the elections. So I did a brief description of what I do with the Norwegian students and had the engagements there for the teachers to try. It was interesting for two reasons. The first was a teacher who said that all the ideas were okay but they seemed to take a lot of time. Knut told me this was typical of Norwegian teachers. That if something takes time or money, they choose not to do it. The other intersting part of this after school workshop was a teacher who commented about a US student letter. I brought with me several 8th grade students' writing from the rural south in which they were to explain what it was like to live in the US. One of the students repeated several times about how blessed he was to live in America. The teacher was surprised at this and said that "no Norwegian student would ever say that he was blessed to live in Norway." She seemed almost offended by the comment the US student made. I didn't probe this further, but wished I had after I thought about it further. It is a question I may need to ask Knut via email.

Heistad Ungdomsskole

On October 22 and 23, 2008, I took the train to the town of Porsgrunn to visit Heistad Ungdomsskole. Porsgrunn is a town that combined with neighboring Skein is around 90,000. There is a lot of industry and manufacturing in the area and sits right on the harbor. The area is most well-known as the birthplace of Henrik Ibsen.

The school, Heistad Ungdomsskole, has over 350 students from grades 8th-10th. The inside was newly remodeled and technologically updated. For example, each classroom had computers for each student.

Then for each grade level, there was a classroom that did not have computers for students, but was wired for presentations. The teachers used this when they wanted space free for students to work away from the computers. It was in this space that I taught all my lessons. The remodeling wasn’t just to add technology, but also to update the school all around. One way they did this was to have an interior designer come in for the faculty lounges and the offices. So all of the teacher space was decorated in a hip, Scandinavian style.

The school was set up in a similar fashion to US schools in that the students had lockers that they kept most of their personal items in. It had a large common room where the students ate lunch and hung out during their breaks. This room also had a screen and stage that allowed for performances and auditorium-like seating if needed. The picture below is of the common room and if you look closely on the left you can see a table with the panini makers available for students to use on their breaks (this is very common in the schools). The students generally make ham and cheese paninis and they call it toast, not a sandwich. The 9th graders tried to tell me it is because it is hot, thus it is toast. But I am skeptical…

On the left you can also see a sculpture that was created by one of the teachers at the school. The faculty and students are very proud of this piece.

The first day I gave 5 presentations. The first lesson I gave was with an 8th grade class and they were to go through a variety of stations where I had such things as music, clips from recent movies, photographs of people, travel brochures from various states, and letter from 8th grade kids in the US about what their lives are like. As they rotated through the stations they were to make comments, questions, etc. about what they noticed about life in the US. As usual, the first class was a little bumpy but by the end of the day and after a few modifications to my lesson plan, it got better. The part that was the most difficult is that the students didn’t really know what I wanted them to do at the stations. I realized that for them, this was not a typical activity so they needed a bit more structure to know what I was expecting as well as clearer directions which was actually more simplifying my language.

Since I started the lessons the same as I do with the others, I once again got interesting answers regarding what they know about the US. Most of the comments were the same as the previous students in the other schools (i.e., Americans are fat, love junk food, and have celebrities). However, I got a few new ones. For example, some students said “Paris Hilton,” “Nasa,” and “Jonas Brothers.”

Because the way I structured the lesson, it provided me with some assessment information and a way to see what the students were getting from the stations. Here are some of the statements students said about the US after browsing the stations:

• it [America] remind a bit me of Norway
• They [Americans] got more nature that I thoug [sic]
• different dialect, different culture
• I just love it, the mountains and animals, it’s just beautiful.

Comments like these suggested to me that they were getting what I was trying to accomplish with those stations. However, in all fairness, I did get some crazy, off-the-wall comments as well. For example:

• I see a lots of mans. [sic] I think this one came from a picture that the student was just trying to describe what she saw in the picture. This made me realize my directions needed to be a bit clearer!
• money and gold and shopping. Yeah, not sure about this one… no where in the stations was there anything about money and gold, unless you stretch it a bit with the rap song by Nelly, Grillz.
• Vi had not time [sic] This comment I loved because it is a great way to see how many times the students moved between Norwegian and English. It is one of those things that I had to learn to keep up with as they talked.

At the bottom of several of the students' papers, they made little notes to me. This was the first time that I have seen this and thought it was really cute. Many times the 8th graders are shy and don’t want to talk in English in front of their peers, so this group figured a way to talk to me with out having to talk to me. I had about 10 girls give me their email address and asked if I would give them to students in the US so they could practice their English and get to know an American kid. However, my favorite comment was the following, written at the bottom of a boy’s paper: I just need to say that I am a fan of Michal Peleps Big fan. [sic]

On the first day, I had a teacher ask me at lunch if it was okay if I took her 8th grade class by myself. She needed to go to the doctor and if I was okay with being by myself she could leave school early. I said, “Sure.” Then quickly began to worry. Here I was in a foriegn school with no authority, and legally responsible for 25 fourteen year olds who don’t have a really strong grasp of English. I began to think that I might have made a rash decision. This anxiety only grew stronger as the class right after lunch had a student who decided to light a match in the back of the room. However, the 8th grade students I was left alone with were amazing. It turned out to be the best class of the day. In fact at one point, a teacher walked accidently into the classroom thinking no one was in there. After he left, I did the "once over" you give your classroom when someone walks in to see what my students were doing. Are they engaged or are they bouncing off the walls? As I looked around, I was pleasantly surprised. The kids were in small groups, all working quietly and thoroughly engaged in what they were doing. It looked like the picture perfect classroom. Needless to say, I was relieved.

Though I was happy it was a successful class, I was even happier the next day when I told one of the teachers about how well the class went, and she told me she was surprised the teacher left me alone with that group because they are labeled the worst class in the school. “But,” she said, “it just goes to show, that if you expect students to be good they are.”

One thing I found curious and will be interested to see if this plays out in other classrooms, is the station that has photographs of people. One of the photographs is of two old ladies drinking tea. Every group who went to this station, thought this was the funniest picture out of all of them. This was strange to me because I have photographs of people playing basketball on donkeys and a circus family, but it was the old ladies drinking tea that made them laugh. I will have to get one of the students to explain to me why it is such a funny picture to them.

The second day I did 4 lessons all on the US Presidential Election. This lesson consists of doing a four corners (agree/disagree) activity on the current issues in election and then an analysis of contemporary media. I found it interesting that this group really enjoyed the political cartoons. They actually preferred them over the video clips that I had of the candidates. And I would argue that they understood the cartoons better than the last group I worked with and probably many American students (at least from my expereince with teaching political cartoons in middle school).

This school like many others in Norway are having an overnight party the night of the US elections. During the party the students will watch some US films, hear lectures about US politics, and closely track the developments as they come in on CNN/BBC. Every school when they tell me about their election parties always sarcastically comment, “I’m sure US schools do the same for our election.” I tell them that most people probably don’t even know who the prime minister is in Norway, much less when, where, and how he was elected.

Both days the students made me lunch. The first day was a salad and pancakes (not the Norwegian kind, but the fluffly kind) and the second day was a burger and Norwegian apple cake. Each day they left me a cute note like the one below:

The burgers were interesting as they gave me two slices of bread with butter and a piece of lettuce on each. Then they placed a handmade thick burger on top of each piece with sautéed onions and then some cucumbers on top of that. As strange as it sounds, it was yummy.

Once again, I was warmly welcomed by the teachers and was even given Norwegian chocolate as a thank you gift. The teachers told me the students really enjoyed my class and even said that they thought I was more organized and prepared than the Roving Scholar from last year. They asked if I could come back before I left Norway. So I guess, all in all, it was another positive experience. I realized as I walked from the train back to my apartment, that I had a smile on my face.

Lyngmyr Ungdomsskole

On October 10th, 2008 I presented to three 10th grade classes at Lyngmyr Ungdomsskole in Tvedestrand, “The City of Books.” I finally hit my stride in these lessons and even though the teachers told me there were several students with ADD, Autism, etc. the classes went really well. I finally got back into the groove of working with this level of kids and had a great time doing so.

Since this was a sleepy little tourist town, I was interested to see how these kids were similar or different to those in Arendal or Oslo. Once again, the students all told me that Americans are fat, eat a lot of fast food, have movie stars, and guns. They loved television and listed similar shows that the other students watchws. This group did struggle more in terms of writing and I found it easier to have them share verbally with me their ideas.

Some of the comments students said during the lessons were quite telling about the US reputation around the world. Here is a sample of the comments/writings of the kids at this school:

• USA is the strongest millitary contry in the world [sic].
• Right extremist (this was one of my favorites)
• Bad relationship to Russia
• Sky skrapers [sic]
• Donuts
• Grand Canian [sic]
• Chevrolet
• Paparazzi
• Gangsters
• That there also is nice people in Americka [sic]
• Cocksuckers
• Bloddy assholes [sic]
• Many movies we see in Norway comes from USA. [sic]
• Americans are nice baced on or teacher for today [sic]

And then I had my personal favorite… the two boys who turned in a blank sheet of paper.

I did have two interesting experiences while teaching. The first was in the middle of my lesson, I walked over to the side of the room where a small group of boys were working, but needed the presence of an adult to stay focus. But as I was standing there I saw of the corner of my eye and through the window a teenage boy outside on the playground light a stick on fire, drink something out of a bottle, and then blow it on the stick. The stick then would flare up. I said, "OMG what is he doing?" which of course drew the entire class to the window. The irony here is that no one seemed really stressed about it and when I asked about it, I was just told that he does this thing all the time.

The group of boys that I had originaly gone over to supervise were quit funny, though a bit a mischievious. They kept taking the clock off the wall and setting the time forward. The teacher at one point says to me that she doesn't know why this clock is always a bit fast. I finally walked over to the group of boys and told them that I was going by my watch so they didn't need to worry about the clock. Ahh... the fun of teaching 14 year olds!

From my first week in the schools, I would say my biggest impression is that the schools seem less structured and strict. The teachers dress more casually, the students call their teachers by their first names, the students are not supervised every second of the day. It is a more laid back environment. I love the fact that the teachers are treated more professionally and that the students are given more responsibility and ownership. However, all is not utopia here. The kids are just as squirrely. They write on each other with marker, they lay across the desks and don’t read, the turn in work that is done without a lot of thought since they know they are not getting graded on my work, they are disrespectful at times, and unruly. But they are teenagers and I wouldn’t expect anything else. They love the activities that have them up and moving around, talking with their friends, and drawing. They enjoyed the Q&A at the end when they could ask me anything they wanted about the US. I got questions like:

• Do the kids in high school dress like the Gossip Girls?
• Who are you voting for in the upcoming election?
• Do kids have piercings and if so where?
• Have you ever seen a gangster?
• Have you ever met a celebrity and if so who?
• Which is your favorite futbol team?
• What do you eat for lunch when you live in the US?
• What do you think about the Iraq war?
• Who will win the 2008 presidential election?

The other interesting component of presentations is that at each school, the teachers have mentioned their surprise that in every lesson there was a student who seemed to talk the most and it was always one of the students who normally was either doing the worst in the class or wouldn’t talk at all. I am not sure what it is about having a foreign teacher come in and present, but it never failed. The teachers would say, “Wow, I can’t believe ______ was so talkative. He never talks in class and especially not in English.” So, hopefully it gives students more confidence to know that they can be understood by a native English speaker.

Overall, the students understanding of English has been strong. They even keep up with me…though I always start off slow, it’s just as the lesson goes on I generally speed up a bit. So that is a huge accomplishment!

St. Franciskus Ungdomsskole

On October 8th and 9th I traveled to Arendal and visited St. Franciskus Ungdomsskole. Arendal is a harbor town of approximately 40,000 people and are known for their summer festivals and boat races. St. Franciskus is a private catholic school going from elementary, or barneskole, to grade 10. Private schools are not as big in Norway as they are in the US, but they do receive partial funding by the government. Many of the students at the school are not there because of religious beliefs but there because they think the school is better than the others in the city or they were kicked out of the others and this is their last opportunity to attend school. There are 720 students at the school, but they will not have more than 20 students in a class. Once a month the students in the school attend chapel, and they being each day with the Our Father. Each year, the 8th grade class travels to Oslo to meet the Bishop and stays at a Monastery. Often those who take French will go a day early and attend a class at the French school, view a French film, and eat at a French restaurant. The 10th grade class, like all 10th grade classes in Catholic schools in Norway, will take a trip to Rome to see the Pope and meet some of the higher officials in the Vatican. The schools will also take a ski trip together in February.

The teachers shared with me their typical schedule. They are to teach 23 class periods of about 45 minutes each in a week. They then can manage the rest of their 17 hours (to make a 40 hour work week) however they choose. They have what is known as bound time, in which Monday-Wednesday they have to be at the school from 8:00-3:30. Thursday and Friday they can work at school or at home. This set up seems more like a college environment, where the teachers do not have to be on campus for their planning time or grading time. Each grade level has 2 teachers who are their “class teachers.” These teachers are in charge of contacting parents, tutoring students who need help, scheduling, and the administrative components of teacher for that class. In exchange for this work, the teacher gets what is similar to what we call at the college level a course release. The teachers I talked to though said that it is easier to teach a class than being the class teacher. If the school can’t manage to arrange the schedule for the teacher to not teach a class, then the teacher is paid extra for the work.

I taught for 2 days at the school. The first day I taught a 2 hour lesson to an 8th grade class using textsets and a 2 hour lesson to a 9th grade class about the electoral college. The second day I taught two 2 hour lessons to two different sets of 10th grade students. I did short stories with both of the 10th grade classes. All my lessons start off the same (though even this intro is getting better). Most teachers do not introduce me and at times sometimes there isn’t even a teacher in the room when I start. So I always start with who I am and what I my job is here in Norway. Then I have a PowerPoint where I have a slide for each of the states I lived in (MO, IL, CA, & SC). I have a picture of the US map and then pictures of that area. I tell them little trivia about the area like that you can feel the St. Louis Arch sway in the wind if you are up top on a windy day, that there are as many Norwegians that live in the US as in Norway, and that it takes 3 or 4 days to drive from California to South Carolina. I then have them each tell me their names and one thing they like about living in their city. I do this to get them talking in an easy and non-threatening way and after they do this successfully, they do usually seem to loosen up a bit with me. I think it is because once they know that they really can be understood by a native English speaker their confidence levels go up dramatically.

I then ask them questions like how many of you have been out of the country? The ones that raise their hands tell me where and usually there is one person in the class who has been to the US. They have usually been to Orlando, New York City, or LA. Though I did have one student tell me she went to Las Vegas as well. I then ask them what they know about Americans and how do they get this information. I ask them to tell me the TV shows they watch, the movies they have seen, and the music. Each class I have worked I have found the students to be most excited about talking about TV. Like the other group, they love Gossip Girls, The Simpsons, South Park, CSI, House, The Family Guy, etc.

The first class went great. The 8th graders enjoyed the class, their English was fantastic and they were a general joy all around. After the introduction, I had them write down everything they could think of about Americans. This group wrote down things like many Americans are fat because they eat to much fast-food [sic], a lot of expencive clotes [sic], big houses, big malls, gangs, they love movies, loud, friendly, and they live in big cities. Some of my favorite ones are:

• They are verry fat or realy then and the super models et cotton and drink walter. [sic]


• My impression of americans is that they eat a lot of food, the government is greedy, and that they have mexicans. they sue each other constantly. They got many poor places (ghetto’s) and they have terrorist (middle east) they are all fat, and they play a lot of PC [sic]


• They talk very fast. (you think this one might have come from their first introduction to yourse truly?)

After their freewrite, I put the students in groups by taping to their backs a word that was related to the US (i.e., names of states, current politicians, food, holidays, money, etc.). They had to walk around and ask in English yes/no questions to try to figure out what the word was on their back. Once everyone had figured out their word, they then had to group themselves on like words. The students had a great time doing this and was a fun way to get them talking to each other and me in English.

Once they were in their groups, I passed out textsets of pictures books based on topics (similar to what I did in Vergårshei) and had the students create graffiti based on what they learned from the pictures books. As it has been a long time since I have taught kids and this didn’t go as well as I would have liked in Vergårshei, I made those adjustments that when you look back at it you just forget when you teach college students who follow your directions for the most part. For example, this time I didn’t pass out the markers until I gave them 10 minutes to browse the books… wow, what a difference! I am almost embarrassed about the fact that it took me a couple lessons to get back into the swing of things. However, the types of engagements I have been doing with the students seem to be different than what a lot of the teachers usually do in class. So when I walk in with markers and group work, it’s like mass chaos. However, with that being said, it didn’t take me long to go back to memories of working with 13 year olds and structuring my directions in a way that promoted success (thank God I can still do it… otherwise it would have been a LONG year). The groups did an excellent job and the students thought it was fun to do graffiti.

I had them present their work to the class at the end of the lesson. I still get a chuckle at how much Norwegian swear. For example, one student who was sharing his graffiti explained that one of the pictures was a “fucked up car.” I took advantage of that teachable moment to explain how in the US that phrase would probably be received with a little shock as it is not typical for students to use that type of language in a classroom presentation (or in the classroom at all).

The second class, the 9th graders, I had 2 hours on the electoral college. I am fairly sure that US middle school students would not be interested in a 2 hour lecture on the electoral college, so I had to be a bit creative. After the introductions, I used a simulation to get the students interested. Each student was given a slip of paper that told them what state they were in. They grouped up based on their state. They then picked an elector, someone they trusted to be honest and do the right thing. They returned to their desks, I then played a Coke commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1NnyE6DDnQ) and a Pepsi commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Ps1fISESA), gave them a taste test of both drinks, and shared with them the excerpt from Blink by Malcolm Gladwell about how the taste test is skewed. They then had to vote for their favorite. They returned to their state and submitted their votes to the elector, who then tallied the votes and submitted to me which soda the state chose. It actually worked perfectly. Three states for Pepsi and three states for Coke. This meant I could explain what happens in a Presidential election occurs and there is a tie. To make the simulation even better, the popular vote actually went to Coke, but since it was a tie, Coke didn’t necessarily win. It worked perfectly. The students and teachers loved the simulation.

I then broke the students up and gave each group a one page summary of the electoral college. They had to read and make sure everyone understood. I then had them jigsaw and reciprocal teach it. Once each group had discussed the handouts, the students had to create a symbol that they think best represented the electoral college. This was difficult for them, the primary reason is that the one page handouts were written at too high a level (so if I do this again, I am finding easier reading for this part of the lesson), and then developing a visual representation is something they have never done before. So it was a bit of a struggle. It was interesting that in assessing their understanding during the presentations, one of the teachers said, “it seems the groups either did a good picture or they explained it well.” Unfortunately none of the groups did both well. So in an effort to be completely honest, I thought I would share the best symbol the students created and then I will show you some of the others because they are interesting in the fact that you can see how 9th grade students perceive the 2008 US Presidential elections. I let you determine which one most represents the Electoral College and which ones are just editorializing about US politics:













The second day, I worked with 2 10th grade classes. They warned me before going in that these classes were a bit rough. One class was chatty with several students who have ADD and the other had some mean students who were in trouble with the law and were on their last alternative because they have been kicked out of the public schools (this group of students had piercings, tattoos, and pink hair; came in late; and at one point literally turned on her IPOD so loud I could hear it in the front of the room). With this group after the introductions, I did a variety of short stories with them. They were broken into groups and each group was given a different short story. They did a pair share with the story (they could choose to read it together or individually but had to stop in different places to talk with their partner). I then had the small groups jigsaw and share their stories with each other, develop a thesis statement about what these stories suggest about teenagers in the US, and create a symbol. I chose a variety of stories including one about a Mexican American boy in California, a boy struggling with his sexual identity, a Native American boy in a Northern rural town, a boy going through his bar mitzvah, a teen on death row, etc. I didn’t realize until I got there that I had all boy characters! I also didn’t realize that some of the stories were just too long for the students. Eight to nine pages seemed to be ideal; the longer stories the students lost interest quick. Even though I picked stories that 7th graders in the US could probably read independently, having to translate took a bit more time and the students had to work harder at the reading. Needless to say I sent a frantic message to Julie Neihaus back at USC to help me find shorter short stories (and ones with girls in them) to use in the future. Regardless, the students work hard and I was impressed with some of the ideas they came up with. The best example came from a group of boys. But the other groups came up with decent responses as well. In the final assessment, my goal was to show that the US doesn’t just have one type of culture. It was interesting to note, however, that one group of 10th graders took this one step further and began critiquing the US and pointed out that in each of the stories, the US teens were judging others and often looking down on those who were different.

My time in Arendal was great…even though I definitely had to work hard at classroom management. As I was leaving one of the teachers told me that the teachers were talking about me in the teacher’s lounge. They said that it was obvious I had taught a long time because I really knew how to keep the students on task and engaged. The teachers also asked if I could come back to do a workshop for them to share more of the pedagogy I did with the students. That was probably one of the best compliments I could have ever received from teachers.

Vegårshei Ungdomsskole

On October 7,2008 I visited Vegårshei, a small town of about 1800 people on the southern coast of Norway. The town is very conservative (you still can’t buy alcohol in the town and there wasn’t a restaurant in the vicinity) and has only 50 immigrants, mostly from Somlia. In the past the town was not happy with foreigners coming in and buying up their land, but now they call themselves the "model town" for immigration. They have welcomed the refugees and have made sure they all found homes and jobs/school.

The school is a grade 1-10 school with about 770 students. The elementary is separated from the lower secondary by wings. When the students get into ungdomsskole, they literally move to a new wing of the building which for them they say it is a big transition, but the teachers tell me the transition isn’t really big as there is only one class of students in each of the grades, so they stay together they just get new teachers and a new wing of school.

I did two lessons one with a 9th grade class and one with a 10th grade class. The ninth grade group I had only 17 students as the other 13 were gone for the week. It apparently was moose/elk hunting season and this was the first week of the hunting season, so many of the kids were out hunting. I started the lesson with having the students write down their stereotypes of Americans. Many only jotted down words like Harley Davidson, fat, cool, hamburgers, cheerleaders, and Hollywood. Some wrote phrases like probably very cind [sic], and like sport [sic]. Others wrote sentences; for example, They eat junk food, They are famous, They have big houses and big cars, and They have good jobs. Only two ninth graders had ever met an American before, the rest said they got their information from the internet and TV. They told me they watched House, CSI, and Dawson’s Creek. I did a textset activity with the students. I had 6 different textsets of picture books and the students were to browse the pictures books, discuss what they read, and jot down their thoughts in graffiti format on a piece of paper. To be honest, it’s didn’t go so well. I think they struggled with English more than their teacher realizes. The picture books were too difficult for them to browse easily. I would say of the 6 groups 3 made some sense out of the engagement and the other 3 really struggled. I then had them share with the class, something else that was new to them and they really struggled with that as well. The teacher was not the strictest disciplinarian and it was difficult for me to be too mean when I am supposed to be there as an ambassador for the states. So there were times I just let the kids get out of work rather than push them when they were acting silly. I didn’t watch my time very well, so the conclusion was weak as well. All in all, I started off my lectures on a low note.

The next class was the 10th grade students and I was to do the presidential election with them. This group was much better with English, had stronger community, and were all present. Apparently 10th grade attendance is kept and recorded and is passed on as the students apply for upper secondary school, or videregående skole. So there was no hunting for the 10th graders. I started the lecture off with the four corners (agree/disagree/strongly agree/strongly disagree) activity. I read off contemporary political issues (like Iraq, immigration, abortion, same sex marriages, etc.) and the students went to the corner that represented their opinion. They loved this activity, but struggled with articulating WHY they choose what they did. The next part of the presidential election lesson was similar to the textset lesson in that I split the students up into groups and gave each group a type of media (i.e. bumper stickers, magazine articles, political cartoons, myspace/facebook webpages, and TV interviews). The students were to deconstruct the media provided thinking about the target audience, the author, who’s voice is being heard, etc. The group understood the directions and were engaged with the media. But once again I was surprised at how difficult it was to get them to think critically, or should I say to express their critical thinking in English, because I am not sure which one it is. They struggled with the media activity but worked diligently on it, unlike the 9th graders who just goofed off when they found it difficult. I had four groups and once again I think half of the groups really got it and the other half struggled. Part of the problem with the two groups who struggled was that they had more to work with. I had a bunch of political cartoons and several TV interviews. By the time they got through all of the examples, they didn’t have much time to talk.

The particular teacher wasn’t much about getting in to the class to prepare prior to the lessons. Instead we sat in the teacher’s lounge and drank coffee until 5 minutes before I was to start the lesson. This threw me off a bit and I think that is one of the reasons the second group went better than the first. Part of having me there, I began to realize was for him. He enjoyed talking to me about the lastest terms and phrases. For example, he wanted to know what we called our thumb drives, or flash drives. The teachers in the lounge were all very collegial with one another and when we sat in the teachers’ lounge after the lessons eating our bread and cheese “sandwiches” I noticed that this school was very similar to the one previous, just a little older and smaller.

Two things that I thought were rather interesting. The first was that the teacher whose class I visited was an older man who has a daughter my age. He told me about how in recent years the ministry of education has gone from prioritizing written work to spoken work in the English classes. To him that meant he could tell more stories about growing up in Liverpool. I wonder if that is why the kids struggled a bit when I asked them to articulate their thoughts, yet they understood me fairly well. The second thing is that for some reason I can understand the kids when they talk in Norwegian better than the adults. I am not sure why that is. Maybe I focus more on them when I am teaching or the context is clearer. For example, I know what typical students would say at a particular part of a lesson… I don’t know but when a kid asked me jobber sammen? I answered yes, then stopped to second guess myself; though I needn’t. I was right. I did want them to work together.