Apalløkka Skole

On April 21, 2009, I visited Apalløkka Skole on the east side of Oslo. It was an 8th-10th grade school of approximately 350 students. I visited four 10th grade classes and did the US High School presentation. This school was very diverse in terms of ethnicity and religions with many different nations represented in each class. When students enter this ungdomsskole, they choose one of four tracks to join: media and journalism, drama, sports, and/or technology and design. During each week the students have time to focus more intensely on these areas. For example the drama students use their time to practice and put on a play, the sports group actually goes on hikes and camping trips. This is a special aspect of this school as it was the first school I saw offer something close to our magnate programs in the US.

Since exams were coming up, the students were no longer studying in their tracts and instead could choose which classes they may need extra help in prior to the exams and the students were then getting rescheduled into additional English, math, social science, etc. classes. Though this was a scheduling nightmare for some of the teachers they seemed to find it a beneficial way to meet the needs of the students prior to the exam. I particularly liked how they allowed the students to choose which area he/she felt was in need of extra help.

Like I said previously I did the US High School presentation. Since the presentation was only 45 minutes long, I did not do the picture pass. Instead, I did the agree/disagree activity and showed the Oprah video. The students seemed to really enjoy the presentation and were engaged. Even the class I was warned about as being "quiet" participated and talked. This group of students was much more politically aware than many of the students I have met in the smaller and more rural communities. They had questions about racism in the US, Obama, and Israel. They noted that US students are not very savvy in terms of foreign affairs and wanted to know why. They were interested in knowing where particular ethnic minorities settled in the US and of course they wanted to know about the hot lunches in the schools!

In talking with the teachers during lunch, I found that they were also struggling with similar issues we do in terms of helping young adolescent immigrant and first generation Norwegian students in terms of identity construction. The teachers were saying that many of the foreign kids relate more to their home country but technically are not foreigners as they were born in Norway. The students will say, "I am a foreigner." This is often if the student looks different in terms of color of skin or religious garments. However, when this same group of students was taken out of the country for a school trip, the students told people they met, "I am from Norway." So I found that this difficulty of defining one's identity as a member of the immigrant population in Norway is very similar to that of US immigrant students.

Once again, I really enjoyed the east side schools, the students and the teachers. I think that if I were to stay in Norway and return to teaching, I would choose one of the schools with the high diversity.