Last Lecture at Ǻs

On May 12th, 2009, I visited Ǻs Ungdomsskole for the last time. Renate scheduled me to visit her 10th grade English class and one other 10th grade English class to do the US Schools presentation and then a 10th grade in depth English class for the text set presentation.

The first class is Renate's 10th grade class and they were awesome (as always). They did a fabulous job (actually one of the most well behaved and motivated 10th grade classes I have seen) and were just super sweet. The second class was another 10th grade class and they did a really nice job as well. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of what they did or said. Here is a sampling of their work:

And in case you think this is a Stepford class, I did get a few like the one below:




The last actual presentation was for a 10th grade in-depth English class. So this is a class of students who often struggle in English, though sprinkled in are ones who are really strong (like the student who is half Canadian). I did the text set with this group since it went over well with the 8th grade in-depth English and the teacher rightly requested something hands-on. The class could be split completely in half in terms of how serious they took the presentation. But they did a fairly decent job considering the amount of coaxing needed to do something... anything! :) The first two did a nice job. The third one struggled with the idea of a graffiti, but did read the books and attempt to put words and pictures on the paper. The last two were trying to be funny (I was not laughing). Here are there graffiti boards:

The students in 10-2-2 (Renate's 10th grade English class) then threw a party for my last visit. Two girls made brownies and cut up fresh fruit for a fruit salad, two boys presented a PowerPoint presentation on a hike they went on over the weekend, and then a former student of Renate's came in to share with us her role in one of Ellen Degeneres' shows. I provided the clip below. It is entitled Norwegian Nosedive:

The students then played. Apparently this is a fairly common game for kids to do here and it was thoroughly entertaining watching. Below are some of the students playing Norwegian Nosedive (which goes by a different name in Norway!).



The students ended the party by giving a short speech to say thank you and presenting me with a card and a gift. The card read as follows:

Dear Jennifer.

We hope you have had a good time in Norway and with us. You are more than welcom to come back and visit us. We all hope to see you soon. We have enjoyed having you in our class and at our school. Have great trip home!

Don't forget the coolest Norwegian class you've ever had :)

Love 10-2-2 [the name of their class]

The gift was a traditional Norwegian cheese slicer (one of the main things Norway is known for), a wooden cutting board, and Norwegian lunch box (which is designed for open faced sandwiches and nothing unhealthy!). It was all very bittersweet. It was a nice way to end my time here in Norway. Renate is an excellent teacher and an excellent host (now I am trying to convince her to come to the states and get her PhD at USC!!).

After the party, I spoke with the principal for a bit and he, too, gave me a gift, a bottle of wine, to say thank you for the visit. He even mentioned to Renate that he would hire me as an English teacher for their opening next year. That has to be one of the biggest compliments I have been paid!

Overall, I had a wonderful time at Ǻs Ungdomsskole!