Åsnes Ungdomsskole

On January 26, 27, and 28th, I visited Åsnes Ungdomsskole in Flisa. This is a small town that draws students from all around the area. Some students ride the bus for up to 45 minutes to get to school in the morning (this is a bit unusual for Norwegian schools). Though they are public busses (with a stop at the school) and anyone can ride, they have skolebuss on the front and most of the students take them to get home. Very few people in the area speak English; so this was actually the first place where I actually HAD to know some Norwegian to get by throughout the day.

The school has around 280 students from grades 8-10th. I worked with all grades and did several different lessons: inquiry, taxation without representation simulation, US High Schools, book-in-a-day, and Who is Obama. On day one, I had four lessons all approximately 40 minutes each. The first three classes were extremely quiet, almost brutally quiet. Then the last class was incredibly squirrely. I think I have been recently spoiled by well behaving students!!!

I used post-its this time with the book-in-a-day... I still haven't found the way I like the best. The problem with the post-its' is that the students faced the wall they were putting their post-it on rather than the class, so it was difficult to hear them.



I then had them draw some conclusions about the US from the book used (The Jacket by Andrew Clements).

The following are some of the comments from the inquiry lesson:

• In texas it is really mutch country so i think that it is really different between the stats. [sic]
• It’s typical american hanging out. football games and things like that. [sic]
• It mush to look at [sic]
• Americans peoples live in big houses and lissten on great music. [sic]
• They do normal things like we do.
• It’s different nature all over the country.
• Everything is big. In every ways. [sic]
• There are many kinds of people there.

On the second day I worked at the school, I had 3 classes of students and was supposed to have an afternoon session with teachers. Ironically, like many teachers in the US, since they were not required to attend, no one did. One teacher, the host teacher, showed up and I just talked a little bit about what I was going to do and gave her the handout. The students did the inquiry lesson and the lesson about US middle/high schools. The day went fairly normal. The main difference I saw at this school on the first day (and then was validated on day 2 and 3) was that this school had some serious cliques. This was the first time I saw students ostracized, not included in groups, and not treated very nicely. It hurt to watch because I haven’t seen that much in the other schools. Even if there was a student who maybe chose to be an outsider, in many of the other schools there were always one or two students who made an effort to include him/her. Not at this school. This appeared in some of the comments I received in the US middle/high school lesson:

• We would like to have more focus on our parents and what they know about what we are doing at school.
• US school has nothing to take from Norway. Norway sucks! Norway can learn to party!
• We could have more activities in the school like in the US.
• Norwegian schools could learn to be more polite. American schools could learn to be more friendly. (this was written by an immigrant student from Saudi Arabia—who informed me that my Norwegian was probably better than his and who I watched work alone because no one invited him to work with them).
• We should learn to set up a TV’s in the classrooms. [sic]
• The school [in Norway] maybe could give us more responsibility like the US. (I am not sure where they get this idea from, as time and again I think it is the reverse.)
• US can learn to take food from those home at the school. Norway can learn to take all the cultures with more respect. [sic]
• American schools should learn number grades, not letters. Norwegian shold learn codes on the lockers. [sic]
• The US schools should be a little more tidy. (This is my personal favorite!)
• We don’t think Norwegian schools are good enough to have something to learn away. [sic]
• We can learn how to job [work] together in groups
• US schools should not aloud [allow] candy at school [sic]

It is always the inquiry lesson, where I get the most positive comments about the US. I think this is partly because of the artifacts I bring them. I also don’t really try to push them into thinking deeply. Instead I want the students to just immerse themselves in the US. I want this immersion to be a positive experience and therefore I think they often come away with this highly romanticized view of the US. Here are some of the comments I received from this group of students:

• America has all the great movies.
• It’s a fine and large country.
• It’s a lovely country, alot of football (yeah!). It’s the dream country, right? [sic]
• A lot of different cultures. [sic]
• I learn about it is nice and the are many football games. There are big cars and big houses. The are good movies there. [sic]
• It is a big land with big things and people.

On the third day I worked with two 10th grade classes and one 9th grade class. I did the lesson on Middle/High Schools, Obama, and the inquiry stations. In the school lesson, I did the picture pass and realized that the pictures are working a lot better than the comics. I think it is too much for the students to translate the comics AND be deductive in a short amount of time. I do, however, think I am getting better at explaining what I want on the picture pass by the responses I am getting, though I have made some modifications. First I took away the picture books (they were too long for the students to read), and I gave only one or two pictures per group rather than 3 or 4. I would like to find some pictures of a school dance, after school sports, maybe a theatre class, yearbook signing, a pep rally, a typical schedule, and maybe a weigh gym. These are things I am starting to see are very different from Norwegian schools so the students would be interested in them. I also changed the handout. I got rid of the place to write the title and instead just put numbers (it was not important for what I was doing). This is still a little confusing for some, but they end up getting it after a few rounds. The only problem with this system is that I can’t tell on their notes which picture they are referring to. So in the future, I might number the pictures so that they can respond in the correct slot of the number. This way I will know what picture they are talking about. This time I also showed a clip from Oprah about two different high schools in Illinois and the huge discrepancy between the two. The students were amazed at this and were surprised at not only how nice the Naperville school was, but how bad the Chicago school was (a Norwegian school is somewhere in between). The majority of the students, however, focused on the fact that some US schools have strict dress codes or uniforms and that they receive hot lunches in school. Yet, I did get some other interesting responses from this lesson:

• The US should learn that people should make their own choises abot the chlotes. And maybe don’t be that strick. [sic]
• The norwegian school should learn to have more sun, and have more sport. [sic]
• The US could get more money for the poor schools.
• The US schools could be more similar to each other instead of good ones and bad ones.
  they shouldn’t learn shit from us [sic]
• Get more money in the US schools.
• Norwegian can learn from the US: homework help after school. The US can learn from Norwegian schools: moore skiing [sic]
• We should have a study hall so we did not have to do them at home (not because I do them but anyway) :)
• No effence to Norway but they are stupid, but if you wane know from Sweden witch is the best country you should take the teachers. [sic] (written from the lone Swedish kid in the class)
• One thing Norwegian schools should learn from US schools: warm food, cheerleading, each school have their own sports team (soccer, baseball teams etc). [sic]

This was the second time I did the Who is Barak Obama? lesson. I really don’t find it all that stimulating… probably because there really isn’t a lot of controversy with him and the Norwegians love him so much. So the lesson always seems to me to be a bit drab. I had to modify it slightly for this group due to time, so after viewing each of the stations I had the students write one sentence that answered the question, who is Barack Obama. Here are some of the results:

• Barack Obama wants to help American families, and he is a hard working family man [sic]
• He is a hard working man that loves his family. [sic]
• He’s the best in the world now. :)
• Barack Obama is the first black president of the USA, and he’s very symphatic. [sic]
• Barack Obama is a Afroamerican, as the people think is God. People have expectation that he should save the world. [sic]
• Barack Obama is a understanding person who wants to help other people with problems like no they have no job… [sic]
• Barack Obama is a loving and caring man!

The last class at Åsnes Ungdomsskole that I taught was a large group of 9th graders. I did the inquiry stations with this group which was a good choice by the teacher as there was a very wide range of abilities. But like in almost all the classes I have visited, the teacher commented on how surprised she was by the amount of English some of the students actually had. Many who have never spoken English aloud in class, spoke with me. I wish it was something about me, but I think it is more that I am new, can’t understand Norwegian at all, and am from America (which apparently is fairly exotic for some kids). Nina, the host teacher, said, “They can’t say no to you.” Which in reality they can and do, in that some just don’t write anything down; however many find it is easier to just do what I ask than argue with me (since they would have to argue in in English). So there are some pro’s about not speaking the language. Here are some of the comments the students wrote about the US after viewing the stations:

• I love American because they have Wal-mart and WWE. [sic]
• There are many different types of people in the US, they have different religions and listen to different types of music and so on. [sic]
• It’s a big difference in the music, and many cultures in the USA. The nature was very beautiful, small lakes to big mountains. Go on school in USA heard hard, if I don’t know the language [sic]
• USA is very nice and I would like to move to Miami Florid because is very macts sunn down there. [sic]
• Well, American is awesome, but some of the culture looks kind of boring and I don’t like the music examples. (this written by a student who wished I included techno music in my options).

And then in case you feel like these might be too advanced for a class with a wide variety of levels, I also received these two responses:

• I dont know [sic] (at least it was written in English!)
  
  
  (which reads: And they have very good movies [sic]).

A side note: I still love the comments the students write to me individually on their papers. For example, this time we were talking about whether or not Norway had M&M’s and one student told me they had them, but they were not colored. At the bottom of one of the handouts, a girl wrote, “we do have colored M&M’s!” This is very typical Norwegian. They do not like to be pointed out or show that they are smarter than anyone else. But they also do not want people to get the wrong idea. So often, I get comments written on their papers that corrects what another student said. I find this incredibly endearing.

The other thing that I still love to see is the students playing in the snow and cross country skiing during their free times. There is something that seems so pure and healthy… something very childlike about the whole thing. It reminds me how that 8th-10th graders are still kids and I wonder if we push our students in the US to grow up too quickly…

Den norske skolen på Gran Canaria

On January 20 and 21, 2009, I visited the Den norske skolen på Gran Canaria. This is an international school located in the Canary Islands. There are around 250 students from kindergarten to grade 13 and the school follows the Norwegian national curriculum.

I visited the 8th, 9th, and 10th grade students on two different days. It was really strange being in a tropical environment in Spain, but surrounded by norsk-speaking people. The school has a lot of students moving in and out of the school with several of the students just arriving at the school with the last few weeks.

The first day, I worked with the 8th and 9th grade students and did the inquiry lesson. I had 45 minutes for each group. Once again I found the 8th graders the most involved and interested in the activity. I am starting to think that I just click better with the younger students! The 9th grade students are always a bit more cynical about the whole experience. That being said, the ninth grade students sent me notes after the presentation. Many saying "Happy Birthday". Here are some of the notes they sent me:

Dear Jennifer

Thank you for coming and learn us about the USA. I think it was good to hear an real American speak, you didn't speak too fast. I liked the way you taught us about the Americans, you didn't only speak but you let us learn for us self. It was a fun class. By the way, happy birthday. Hope you have ha great day.

Best wishes from Sofie.

Dear Jennifer

Happy Birthday :)

I really liked having you here, a little different then an ordinary class. I liked the «post's» it was fun :) Thank you.

Hope you'll come again.

- Ying

Dear Jennifer!

Happy birthday, and thanks for your coming.

It was interesting and I learned a lot of things. And it was a fun lesson.

Best wishes, Anna

Dear Jennifer

Happy Birthday! I hope you have a good one and get many nice presents.

Also, Thank you for coming and teaching us a little more about The U.S

Even if you talked a little fast, I think we all understood it and all in all you had a good presentation. :) Have A Nice Day!

(Emil)

Dear Jennifer. Katrine told us you hav bithday today so I just wanted to say happy bithday an thanks for coming and thanks for everything.

I see ya in the U.S homie;)

(Sebastian) 22.01.09

Dear Jennifer,

Thanks for the visit, it was very nice that you came here and told us about USA, I actually learned something new. I like the american dialect, it's lovely. I want to live in the United States one day, I will never get bored there!

I think you're a very nice person. Hope we meet one day.

xoxo,
Elisa Moltubakk, ninth grade.

Dear Jennifer

thanks for your visit

we have learn alot from you, thank you come agien

our teacher told us that your bursday is today so, happy birthday. :)

Your norwegian sucks, hehe.

(Helge)

On the second day I worked with the 10^th grade students and we did the book-in-a-Day lesson. I used Andrew Clements’ book, The Jacket, mainly because it is shorter than the rest, a bit easier too with less subplots, and this allowed us to get through the text in a shorter amount of time. The following were comments they made about what they were able to learn about the US from the text:

• Very many people are not racist.
• The younger generation is less racist than the parent’s and older. [sic]
• America is a huge sallot bole[salad bowl]/ mix of cultures. [sic]
• They judge people after theyre skin colour. [sic]
• It seems like black people lives harder than the white people. [sic]
• Even if you are black or white every people is very much like each other. [sic]
• Sometimes they judge black peoples befor they get to know them [sic]
• They think that The kids think that there is such differences to a persons life it you are black, then if you are white, but their life and how they live is actually very similar. [sic]
  

Sortland Ungdomsskole

I visited Sortland Ungdomsskole on January 16, 2009. Sortland Ungdomsskole is located in Sortland which is far north inside the artic circle. Thus is was dark when I went to school and dark when I left. The picture above was taken at noon and was as light as it got in this area during the day.

The school has around 400 students from grades 8th-10th. I was supposed to visit on both Thursday and Friday, but when I arrived at the airport on Wednesday evening I found there was no bus to get to the town. I therefore had to find lodging and take a bus and a ferry the following day. I will reschedule and revisit this school in February.

So I had only one day at Sortland Ungdomsskole and I worked with only the 9th grade class. I did was the short stories lecture and the students did an excellent job reading and discussing the short stories. The students here were really interested in the US and asked so many questions that the lectures went into their free time and they were still wanting to talk to me. Their teacher told me it was because I was exotic (something I never thought of myself!!) because I sound like the people they see on TV!

This group was funny in that the boy in the picture below, came running in to show me his T-shirt. He was proud of it, but promised me he didn't wear it knowing I was going to be there. I told him I certainly wasn't offended:

Every Friday the students get off school at 12:30. So as I was leaving the school and walking back to the hotel, a small group of students walked with me talking and chatting the whole way. They were really excited and wanted to know all about America. I am really looking forward to visiting this school again!

Hisøy Skole

Hisøy Skule is a grade 1-10 school that I visited on January 13th and 14th, 2009. Hisøy Skule is in Arendal, which is one of the towns that I always rank in the top 5 favorite towns in Norway.

I did lectures of two classes of 10th, 9th, and 8th grade students. It was a bit strange as the school was built recently and the design was the open school design. In other words there are no classrooms and the whole area is open with a reading center as the core and the classroom space all around. The school had big open windows and skylights which gave the school a very open and airy feel. For the 10th grade students I did short stories, for the 9th grade I did a new presentation entitled “Who is Barak Obama?”, and for the 8th grade students I did another new presentation about US middle and high schools.

All three lessons went well, though I was not really excited about the Obama lesson in that I felt like it was a bit boring. I had the students watch a clip from South Park, then go visit stations that have artifacts about Obama (i.e. pictures, comics, magazine articles, websites, and video clips). Some of the comments the students wrote down from browsing the centers are:

• He loves his family.
• He believes in the American dream.
• He has attended Harvard Law School.
• His heroes are Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. [sic]
• That every whant to have him ass president. [sic]
• That he loves everyone no matter who, or how they look like. [sic]
• He just wan't to be president becaus, he wanted to help. [sic]
• He likes basketball.
• His favorite TV-program is sportscenter. [sic]
• He is in good shape for his age.
• He has a white mother and a black father.
• He got roots from Kenya. [sic]
• People seem to like Obama better than Bush.

None of the facts the students wrote down were wrong. But none were really insightful either. So I may just need to work on this lesson until I get something I like more in terms of sharing information about Obama.

After the stations, I showed the New Yorker controversial cover page and had the students create their own portrait of how they think Norwegians view Obama (see photos below):



The second group for the Obama lecture, I had the students create a portrait of Obama that reflects what they learned in the stations they visited (see photos below):

The short story lessons went really well in that the students did a nice job reading and thinking about the stories. However, I found it interesting that almost all of them made their thesis sentence more like a newspaper title or a magazine title. (see photos below):

The other new lesson I did was the lecture on what US middle and high schools are like. I made the mistake of sharing with the students that some middle and high schools offer fast food in their cafeterias like Pizza Hut pizza or McDonalds. They latched onto this idea and you can see in their student work that many of them would like to have hot food offered at lunch. In many Norwegian schools, students bring their lunch and there is no food served at school. Those schools who do serve food usually offer cold sandwiches and only rarely have I seen hot food offered in the cafeteria. After the introduction where I asked the students to tell me what they knew about the US schools (which mainly was that they often wear uniforms and they get hot food for lunch). I had the students do a text pass. In the text pass, I had photos (which worked the best), comics, and picture books. Here are some of the notes students made about US middle and high schools:

• They have school uniform. They have lackers. [sic]
• They have yellow school busses. [sic]
• long hallways and many peoples that's in their way to their classrooms. [sic]
• The teachers is a littel bitt like the norwegian teachers [sic]
• some classes a seportie boys/girls [sic]
• They have tests in first grade.
• more prosjekts with candy [sic]
• In the US they have letters insted of numbers in ther grades. [sic]
• They have warm good for lunch, cheerleading, and a flag.
• Candy in class, small classes, and TV's in the classroom.
• There are a lot of black kids in here [the classroom].
• They have their own desk.
• They can be expelled.
• Much work in groups.
• Detention is part of the system.
• The schools is often big old buildings.
• Different classrooms for each subject.
• They have a normal day at school.

After doing a text pass regarding what schools are like, I invited the students to create a poster that either encouraged US schools to adopt some Norwegian ideas or vice versa. Here are some of the posters the students created: