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.