Skåredalen Skule

On March 30, 2009, I visited the town of Haugesund on the western coast of Norway. I visited three 10th grade classes at Skåredalen Skule. The school is a 1st-10th grade and has about 500 students.

I taught the same lesson to all three classes and all three were great groups of students. The first class was a bit quiet, the second class had a group of boys who were really not into participating, and the third group participated so much and had so many questions I didn't have time to get through 2 of the engagements. Yet all three groups were really strong in English, had questions, and seemed interested (even the 2nd group with the boys... though they would not participate in writing anything down, I did notice they were looking at all the pictures and talking amongst themselves about the images.)

Only one class was able to get to the part where I had them tell me what US schools should learn from Norwegian schools and vice versa. Here are some of their comments:

• Norwegians shold learn from Americans: yellow school buses.
• They can lurn us to work more... [sic]
• Maybe schools in Norway should be stricter.
• People [students in the US] should be allowd to dress however they like [sic]
• The US school should learn fro the norwegian school to have mor playtime [sic]
• [Norway can learn from the US to be more like] the typical American school is that the school are more involved in your life, that they care more for you.
• Norwegian chool should learn from the US schools is to do more sports [sic]

I had two things I wanted to write about and unfortunately I can only remember one (the most insignificant of the two). I try to jot a note for myself while I am teaching if a student says something witty or I notice something on the wall. But this time, I didn't and therefore I lost it. :( Hopefully I will be reminded of it later. The insignificant thing was that I saw the students playing hangman. I just thought it was an interesting cross cultural connection.

Here are my thoughts on the lessons I would create now that I have been here for a year: 1) media literacy: looking at how to be critical of television--like maybe show how CNN and BBC cover the same topic and then look at how South Park covers it and help the students understand how to be a more critical media consumer. 2) immigration: I would do a whole lesson focusing on issues of immigrants in the US and try to help the Norwegians students see how those issues apply to their own country, 3) I would have one that focused on a typical day in the life of a teenager-including things like popular trends, clothes, food, etc. and 4) then a couple that I have done like US schools and the short stories. Hmmm.... maybe I should pass this on to the new Roving Scholars!

Berg Ungdomsskole

On March 19, 2009, I visted Berg Ungdomsskole in Lyngdal. The town has a population of around 7,000 and is in the southernmostpart of Norway. The school has around 150-200 students from grades 8-10th with around 25 teachers.

I visited 3 classes of 10th graders and 2 classes of 9th graders. And as you can tell from the picture above, it was a beautiful spring day. So the students were not overly excited about sitting in a dark auditorium for a lecture when they had just come in from running around outside in the spring-like weather (mind you it is still very cold... but with the sun, it feels like spring).

All the lessons were around 45 minutes and for the 10th graders I did the election lesson which consisted mainly of the agree/disagree activity and then sharing some examples of media due to time. The three classes got progressivelybetter. The first two classes were a little unruly, but I attribute much of that to the fact that the teacher who was in the room with me was not their normal teacher. This happens a lot (though it is not suggested by Fulbright for several reasons) and I always wonder why, but I have never asked. The last 10th grade class had their English teacher with them and they were well behaved and engaged well. I think it has something to do with the idea of a sub and then mix in the fact that I have them moving around. It might just be too much for them on a beautiful spring day.

The last two lessons I did were with the 9th grade. The first one had their teacher with them and the second one did not. Both did okay on the book-in-a-day engagement (with Seedfolks this time), though we ran out of time on the first class and didn't even get time to have them finish telling about their section of the book. The second class we got through it and even made it to the point where they drew some conclusions about immigration in the US. Here are some of their comments:

• it is hard [for immigrants] to find a job. [sic]
• It seems to be really hard to be an immigrant in Amerika. [sic]
• It is hard for immigrants in america because they couldn't the language [sic]
• Many different culture with different hopes
• It's very many different types of imegrants [sic]
• There is many difrent contreys repersented in Ameraican [sic]

You can tell from these comments that it was obvious they were able to pull some conclusions from the text, but they were not as sophisticated as some of the other classes have been. This could be due to the lack of time, the structure of the lesson (I had to shorten some things to fit it into the 45 minute slot), the setting (the auditorium which made sitting on top of each other and poking each other much more viable), or the lack of their normal English teacher (so they had sub-mentality).

Longyearbyen Skole

On March 11 and 12, 2009, I visited Longyearbyen Skole in Svalbard. Svalbard is an arctic island that lies at 78 degrees north latitude. There are about 2000 permanent residents of Longyearbyen and then about 150 university students. The school had around 350 students fro grades 1-13 and since it is in such an exotic place the schools receives around 400 applications a year from teachers who are interested in working at the school. Needless to say the teachers are excellent and the students' English was remarkable. Many of the students have parents who teach in the sciences at the local university which is always called by its acronym, UNIS.
The school itself was beautiful. There was a large music room and a strong art department with students' artwork displayed all over. The cantina for the students even had their own fire place.


Like everywhere in Svalbard, the students and teachers all took off their shoes upon entering the school. Since I did not bring a second pair of shoes that meant I taught in my socks. This was strange at first because when I am in my socks I have a higher tendency to want to stand in tree pose while I am talking to the class. Several times I had to remind myself to stand straight. I also had to walk to this particular school which was about 2 km away from the hotel in the arctic cold...needless to say I also taught in long johns and fleece. The students are sent outside for all their breaks. The only time the teachers consider keeping the students in for their 15 minute breaks is if the wind-chill is around -30 degrees Celsius, which is approximately-22 degrees Fahrenheit. There are no public buses in the town most people either walk, ski, or ride their snowmobiles. So the students all walk to school. However, during the winter months when there is no sunlight, there is a school bus for the students who wish to take it. Several students do ride their spark to school.

I taught three lessons, one to the 8th, 9th, and 10th grade students. This was the first time I did the short story lesson with a group of 8th graders and it went fairly well. There responses were not as sophisticated as some of the older students, but they read well and enjoyed the activity. The best products came from two groups of boys:

One group did a fun little flip, but didn't dig too deep into the story:

(it makes a heart in case you didn't notice it)

And then my other two were a little less sophisticated in terms of English and getting the theme, but they did try really hard during the class. I think it was just a struggle to think critically in a foreign language at the level they were at:

For the 9th and 10th grade classes, I did the book-in-a-day lesson. For both classes I did The Jacket by Andrew Clements. I added an interesting component to this in that at the beginning of the lesson, I do the four corners activity and use comments that tie to the theme of the book. I decided to add one more comment to get kids connecting the book to their own experiences in Norway. I added the line, "Racism is an issue in Norway." Wow... I hit a nerve with that one. It's the last one I put up and the students get really passionate about this since Norway is dealing with a massive influx of immigrants and they are struggling with how best to accommodate these newcomers to their country. Interestingly enough, Longyearbyen has quite a few Thai families in residence so this has some significance. Ironically, most of the students who agreed with the statement were immigrants and most who disagreed were ethnic Norwegians. And of course they did admit that this might be a bigger problem in mainland Norway, but surely not in Longyearbyen.

After reading the book, the students worked in pairs to come up with some questions to discuss with one another about the book. For the 10th grade class this was difficult because they were not strong in discussing (they were strong in English, just not big talkers). Some of the questions they came up with included:

• Why is the father racist?
• Why is Daniel angry?
• What happens next?
• Why is Phil racist?
• Why did Phil not have the money Daniel offered him?
• Why did Phil take the jacket?
• Why does Daniel get upset when Phil gives him the jacket back?
• How does Phil feel about Daniel's grandma cleaning his house? (having someone clean your house is an odd concept for Norwegians because they don't have this in Norway. You clean your own house.)

I found it interesting that ALL the questions the students came up with (and the ones that I did not include here were all questions about sections of the plot that were confusing to the students), were directly tied to the text. None of the questions moved beyond the text to question neither cultural aspects of the US nor Norway. I don't know if this is because it is something they are not used to doing or if they were confused by my directions (I didn't ask for them to do this, I just asked them to think of 3 questions they would like to spend more time thinking and talking about).

At the end, I have them talk with their group to develop 2-3 conclusions they can draw about American culture based off this book. Here are some of the more interesting responses:

• American people like justice.
• Many Americans are racist.
• If something has been stolen or something happened, white people are always judging black people even if it's not their fault.
• The effects of slavery are still present.
• Many American people still judge by appearances.
• Racism is still a problem in US. [sic]
• The white always think the worst about the black, and the opposite. [sic]
• Americans can be very aggressive.
• The sport is an important part of the school. [sic]
• Some white people don't get so well along with black people. [sic]

Bjørnholt Skole

On March 4, 2009, I visited Bjørnholt Skole on the east side of Oslo. On the 4th, I also returned to the Bjørnholt Videregående Skole for two more lessons. Bjørnholt Skole is an ungdomsskole (grades 8-10) of around 350 students and over 30 different nationalities represented at the school. It is one of the first ungdomsskoler to be built next to a videregående, though the teachers feel like this may be a new trend for Norway.

I began the day in the videregående with a year two (aka 12th grade) academic tract class. This class had approximately 20 students in it and we discussed the 2008 Presidential Election. I was rather nervous about teaching this class because I had heard stories from the videregående roving scholar about how these kids are really bright and have challenged her on several of her presentations. I found that yes these students were incredibly bright, well read on foreign issues, and fairly up to date on US policy. I did adjust my lesson. I did not have the students go to the four corners, but put up the statement and we discussed their views and those of the US Presidential candidates. I also didn’t have the students go to the stations, but that was because we had such a rich discussion going that we didn’t have time. I even ran over, of which the students asked to skip their break so we could continue to talk. They asked great questions and brought up interesting points. However, nothing was anything I haven’t heard from Norwegians in the past. I did find that they were much more cynical about Obama than the younger students (which I think I reported already in my previous entry), but they don’t seem to have as high of expectations as the ungdomsskole students. I began my presentation explaining to the students that I am not a professor in political science and that what they were going to get is one American (granted a well read and fairly well informed American) citizen’s perspective of the US election. I tried to offer an alternative to what they see on the news by sharing some of the views that are prevalent in areas like South Carolina and Missouri, telling anecdotes about my family and comments heard from people in SC. This caveat seemed to help in that they were not expecting me to be the expert and therefore we were able to have a rich discussion. So though I was nervous that I would be challenged intellectually and found lacking, I was happy to know that I can hold my own with 17 and 18 year old Norwegians students on US politics.

After this class, I went over to the ungdomsskole and taught two classes of approximately 30 eighth graders. I did the US Schools presentation and it worked very well. Though the students were lively and talkative, they were very well behaved and really quite a fun group. It was nice to have such a wide diversity in the classroom and to see it work so well. Though the work is similar as you can see below, the class dynamics were a bit different. Both 8th grade classes asked a lot of questions and not just about the US, but as I was walking around they would say, “Jennifer, what is this called?” or “How do you spell this?” This doesn’t happen often in classes. I love it when they do this, but often the students are much shyer. I also thought the teachers here were great. They had such a healthy respect for the diversity of their students and truly saw it as a resource not a deficit. One teacher said to me, “Because we have many immigrant students at the school we get more government funding. So we have much more resources than neighboring schools. Yet, I feel like just by having all these different nationalities together is a great resource so I am not sure it is fair.” The teachers were also very strong in English. They spoke only English when I was teaching, even when students needed clarification they gave it in English (and let the other students provide the clarification in Norwegian if needed). They even spelled words in English, which I rarely see but think is an excellent way to get students comfortable with the alphabet.

Here is another example of the little notes I talked about earlier that students write at the bottom of their papers.

I included this one because these two boys were all about getting cheerleaders at Norwegian middle schools, but the cheerleader they drew is a bit scary looking!! :)

The last class I taught was an extra English class held after school for 10th grade students who are strong in English. They come one day a week after school and take an advanced English class. They can then choose to not take an English class when they get to videregående the following year. These students came from ungdomsskoler in the area and all of them had been to the US at least once. One girl lived there for a short time and one girl lived in New Zealand for seven years (and had a cute Kiwi accent). There were five students and all of them were hand chosen by their teachers. The host teacher, Nina, explained that there were more when the class first started; but due to after school activities, several had to quit the class. This class was really pleasant and once again it ended up being a discussion rather than a lesson. The students asked about US schools, but also discussed cultural differences between the US and Norway and their own experiences interacting with Americans. Once again, the discussion was going so well that I ended up over my time.

The whole day was really great. The students were interesting and fun to talk with, the facilities were amazing, and the teachers were great. In Oslo there is a big distinction between the east and the west side of the city. I live on the west side and it is considered to be the wealthier part of town. Most of the immigrants live on the east side (which means they often have much better restaurants if you are looking for good ethnic food!). There are some issues between the two areas. As the students told me, “The west side thinks that we are all gangsters over here, but we’re not.” More slang is used on the east side and words are spoken differently on the east side. But I found the east side more comfortable and I think it is because it seemed more real. I often think that Norway seems a little “too Norwegian” at times and it was nice to see the diversity on the east side. The kids were really fun and I had a great two days.

Bjørnholt Videregående Skole

On March 3, 2009, I visited Bjørnholt Videregående Skole in Oslo. The school has approximately 1,000 students from grades 11-13 (aka year 1-3). This was my first videregående skole, as there is another roving scholar who usually does this. However, the upper secondary roving scholar is booked for the rest of the year and the teacher who invited me teaches at the ungdomsskole (which I visited the next day) as well. So I got to experience the older kids.

The school was recently built and looks more like a college campus which makes sense as videregående skole mirrors our university a bit. The students apply to get in, are given scholarships to go to schools that may not be close by, and they focus on a particular “major.” So on this day, I worked with those students who are interested in construction. This means that in the class there could be both students who want to be carpenters and those who want to be engineers. On the campus, there is a cantina, a library, a sports hall (all of which are shared with the adjacent ungdomsskole), large lecture rooms, and small meeting rooms around the school.

I had two classes of about an hour and 15 minutes each. Both groups requested the Obama lesson. The first group consisted of about 25 Year Two (12th graders) students (only 2 of which were girls). Because of the lecture hall set up, it was very difficult to have the students move from station to station. We made it work, but it was a bit chaotic at first. The teachers later said that though the new school is nice, it is very difficult to do some of the pedagogy that they knew is effective for this age group due to the space.

My theory has held so far in that the older the students get the less they write on their note sheets. However with that said, I could see a more complex understanding of the concepts and of English in their work. For example in the following examples you can see that some have gone beyond the typical basketball, palm tree, and superman depiction of Obama (though some of it still exists):

This one, though it doesn't look particularly impressive, it actually has more to it than at first look. The students when they described it said it was meant to be "ironic." They explained how Obama was in a wheelchair because he works out everyday and the person behind him with the knife is a person who Obama let out of Guantanamo Bay and is now trying to kill him.

The second group consisted of about 55 (all boys) Year One (11th graders) students. I immediately switched up what I did knowing that moving 55 boys around an auditorium was asking for trouble. I am not sure why they put this group all together. But the teachers did bring in two additional male teachers to “help keep things calm.” Considering what could have occurred, I was impressed with this group. Yes, almost 20 showed up late. And yes, I had about five who put their head down and did not participate (though I made sure they spoke at least once in the class). But considering the chaos that could have occurred, it wasn’t too bad. The students’ work in this group was not as in-depth, but I decided to give them only one station to report on so they did not have as much to draw from. Here is some of the work they submitted:

I included this one because I learned some Norwegian slang from it. Apparently if you add skå to the end of someone's name it "gives it some bounce." So, if I wanted to be down with the Norsk homeboys I would be called Jennifer-skå. Doesn't really work with my full name... so maybe Jenskå. I kinda like it!

This one I thought was interesting because they put a mask on Obama's face to show the fact that we don't really know who he is. They added a paper that says "change?" to highlight the fact that we will have to wait and see what he does. I like the skepticism of the older students rather than the unquestionable adoration of the younger ones.

This group asked some excellent questions at the end of the presentation:

• What do you think about Obama’s economic plan?
• Will Obama really take the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan?
• Is Obama a friend of Palestine or will he only support Israel?
• Why did Obama bomb Pakistan?

And then in case you really thought seventeen year old boys were this up on foreign affairs, I also got:

• Have you ever met Obama?
• Is Obama’s brother a drug addict?

In spending the morning with a bunch of seven and eighteen year old boys, I noticed a couple of things. First, they touch each other so much. I have never seen so much wrestling, grabbing at one another, stealing hats, etc. Even one of the male teachers, grabbed a kid around the waist with fairly good tackle technique and wrestled with one of the students. It was a very physical group. From the graphic images above, I noticed there is also definitely a difference in the type of portraits. All the other groups I have worked with have been co-ed and both of these groups were basically single gender. But there were more stick figures than caricatures. I wonder if it is the age or the gender?

The other thing I find interesting is that no matter what school I go to, the teachers seem similar in that we never go to the classroom until the start of the class. This is problematic as it usually takes at least five minutes to get set up with the computer, the projector, and making sure we have everything. This I find a bit stressful, yet I think they do it to reduce stress. When I get to a school I am almost always ushered into the faculty lounge for coffee. We then sit and talk until class starts and then we go to the classroom. Often times the teachers don’t even leave the lounge until class has already been in session for a couple of minutes. My teaching experience in the US has not been like this. We assume that when class starts, everything needs to be ready. I am getting better about asking if it is okay for me to go and set up prior to starting, but this doesn’t always work especially if I am changing classrooms. I actually feel bad sometimes asking because I am taking the teachers’ time away from their coffee break. I do like the laid back atmosphere of the schools and think US teachers can take a little lead from that, but I have too many years in US schools to feel calm drinking coffee when my classroom is not set up!

I did love the break between the two classes. I sat and talked with three videregående teachers who taught the class I just worked with. They had interesting conversation about pedagogy (specially about working with students who struggle) and the English language. I could tell these teachers were bright and interested in continually learning. I would love to spend more time with them and listen to them about their views on education.

Sør-Roan Skole

On February 26th, 2009, I visited Sør-Roan Skole. This school was a 1st-10th grade school of approximately 90 students. I visited the 7th, 8th, and 10th grade classes (the 9th graders were out on a field trip the day they scheduled me). My classes were extremely small with the 7th grade being the smallest of all of eight students!

For the seventh grade class I did the US schools presentation. I LOVE working with the 7th grade because they are always so good. They work really hard (as they still want to please). So even though their language skills are not as strong, they usually do a much better job. The following examples are from the 7th grade class. We didn't have colored pencils for this first lesson so they did a more sketching than drawing (which is what I originally thought all the students would do, but learned quickly that many Norwegian students rarely sketch an image. They often turn it into an art project!):

(student with special needs who really struggled with English)

The 8th grade class was very typical of the others I have worked with. I did the US schools lesson with this group. They were more motivated than many groups because one of the boys in the class was moving to the US to do high school. He has 3 older brothers who were already living in the states and he would be joining them. All four boys attended Norwegian schools until 9th grade. Since everyone in his family except his dad lives outside of Boston, it was cute to hear his Boston accent when he spoke English. His English was exceptional (even helping the teacher on some English words) and he was adorable. So I know he will have a very good time in the US schools. I included his work below, mostly because he offered something different for US schools to learn from Norwegian schools (Waffle Fridays!):

I did the Obama lesson with the 10th grade students. And from the results, I realized that my directions must be much clearer. You can tell from the examples below that the students are getting my idea a bit better. It just goes to show that my former principal, Tom Green, was right, "Children don't fail; teachers fail children.":

It was interesting going from 1st graders to 10th graders. I forgot the 1st graders hug and there were a few awkward moments where I wasn't sure what the child was trying to do before I realized that it was a hug she wanted! I do feel more comfortable in a 10th grade class. I got a chuckle out of this one student who I quickly learned his name because the teacher called his name so frequently. But everything he said was funny (probably inappropriate, but funny). For example, halfway through my lesson he interrupts to ask, "So Jennifer.... is there a Mr. Wilson?" When I said, "No" He just raised his eyebrows in a suggestive way. I burst out laughing but the teacher just rolled her eyes. Another time, this same student was describing the picture he and his partner drew of Obama. As the student was talking he switched he and she accidentally. The teacher corrected him, and the student's response was, "Oh yeah, he has a dick. HE." Once again, I chuckled and the teacher didn't find it so funny (though she WAS taking it all in stride!).

One of the things I thought was a great idea was that the school was having the 10th grade students write up the news article about my visit. One of the teachers took a bunch of pictures, but made it a requirement for the 10th grade to write it up for publication in the community magazine. I asked for them to send me a copy of the article. Let's hope they do. I would love to see the students' take on the visit!

The other nice thing about this visit was the hot soup I got for lunch. Some of the female teachers were on a diet so they made this tomato, celery, carrot, onion soup that was delicious! It was nice to have something other than cold sandwiches!