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!