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.