Ytrebygda Ungdomsskole

On November 25th and 26th, I visited Ytrebygda Ungdomsskole which is located on the outskirts of Bergen. The school has approximately 600 students, which is one of the larger ungdomsskoler I have attend thus far.

During my two days I did mostly the presidential election presentation, and one presentation on short stories and one using the inquiry stations. It has been awhile since I had 45 minute classes (lately the schools have scheduled me for longer stretches of time) so I was surprised at how fast the two days went and how quickly the lessons went.

The students in this school were fairly typical in that they had similar comments about the issues in the election and about American culture as other students have in the past. For example students spoke about American by saying statements like:

• Many different cultures
• Big buildings
• Movies from the US have much more humor than Norwegian [sic]
• They get warm lunch at school [sic]—This is actually one of the things Norwegian students seem to think is really cool about US schools.
• American teenagers are very social

One of my classes was interrupted by some students outside the window. As you can tell from the picture above, it was dark, cold, and snowy. However, a group of students who were just finishing their swimming unit in PE class decided to run around the school in their swimsuits. So during one of my lessons, the class was distracted as about 15 fourteen year olds ran half naked in the cold around the building. I chuckled, but some of the other teachers didn’t find it so funny.

It was at this school that I first saw (or maybe just noticed) a yearbook. The yearbooks appear very similar to US middle school yearbooks in that they are paperback and in color. However, my host teacher showed me her son’s videregående skole yearbook. That book was also in color and a paperback, magazine-looking text. The thing that seems different than yearbooks in the states is that each section starts with a class photo and then individual pictures of the students. In the class photo the students create a theme and then dressed the part. So there were pirates, all dresses (even the boys wore dresses), and some that were quite provocative like the pimps and hos groups photo. Some of the students wore their costumes for their individual pictures and did interesting poses as well. Like in the pirate group, one student had a fake machete that she was drawing across her neck at the time of the picture.

This school was also the first time I saw a wide variety of student art work hanging in the hallway. There were sculptures in glass cases, photographs framed and hanging on the walls, and drawings framed and hanging. This was very similar to the way US schools do it. Interestingly though one set of artwork was nude drawings of women. This would probably NOT happen in a US school, yet it seemed very appropriate considering the artwork that students in Europe are immersed in (especially here in Norway).

Ytrebygda Ungdomsskole is also a part of Comenius. Comenius is an organization affiliated with the European Commission responsible for Education, Training, Culture, and Youth. To see a video about this program check out http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/doc84_en.htm. Basically the goals of this program are:

• To improve and increase the mobility of pupils and educational staff in different Member States
• To enhance and increase partnerships between schools in different Member States, with at least three million pupils taking part in joint educational activities by 2010
• To encourage language learning, innovative ICT-based content, services and better teaching techniques and practices
• To enhance the quality and European dimension of teacher training
• To improve pedagogical approaches and school management

Because of this program the students and teachers travel extensively throughout Europe meeting and working with other schools, learning with them. Most recently the group went to France and Italy.