Nannestad

On May 20th and 21st, 2009, I visited Nannestad Ungdomsskole. This was an 8-10th grade school in a town of approximately 10,000 people. The school housed around 470 students and was built back in the 60's. It was small and a bit older than the other schools, but kept up very well and the inside did not appear old at all.

I had 6 presentations for students (one for each 10th grade class) and then one presentation for the teachers. All of them requested the "Who is Barack Obama?" presentation. The students were all incredibly well behaved and excited about the lessons. I had an enjoyable time and several students told their teacher they wished I could stay longer (they always say this, but had I stayed longer they would probably want me to leave sooner!!). The time for the presentations was short so the students did not have a lot of time to work on their poster. None of the posters were bad. They all did what I asked (highlight 3-4 facts you learned about Obama). Though some were definitely more creative than others. Here are a few examples of what the students created:

There were several interruptions on the second day during my lessons as students were coming and going from graduation practice and other end-of-the-year activities. It seems that no matter what country you are in, the last few weeks of school is always hectic!

I did not collect the teachers' work (mainly because I did not want them to feel like I was evaluating them). But in generally they were all really willing to participate in the engagement. They didn't ask any questions (which is fairly typical I am finding when I present to teachers), but they did participate readily. In working with all these different schools I am learning a bit about the type of administration that also needs to be present. It was interesting that at this school they meet as a faculty every Monday and Wednesday. On Wednesdays they meet as a whole faculty and on Mondays they either meet in grade bands or content areas. I was invited to the Wednesday meeting. This is typical for them to have a professional development on these Wednesday meetings. I found it in contrast to the school in Flisa where none of the teachers showed up after school. Here the teachers came as part of what is expected of them and readily participated in the professional development. I think it goes to show that good administration is like good teaching. If the expectation is set high, often teacher will meet and/or exceed it.

The one negative part of working with the teachers (other than they don't ask questions which always is weird for me) is that there was an American in the group. And when I say an American, I can honestly say an stereotypical, conservative American. UGH! I was doing a presentation on Obama and this was a lover of not McCain, but Sarah Palin (I can't believe anyone would think that woman should be anywhere near the White House!). Needless to say we were so far apart on the issues and he was VERY worked up. Yet over and over again, I cannot reconcile the conservative Christian beliefs. I truly want someone who will make an argument that would help me see their point of view. But instead I see how often religion makes a person even more narrow minded and less loving of their neighbor. I am not saying I do not believe in spirituality, but I am starting to think religion itself leads to some not very nice things. This particular man would not accept that there were hard working people who suffer under the medical system (he kept talking about choices and I told him that the working poor didn't have these great choices he kept talking about and he said that just wasn't true, but he couldn't give me an example), he talked about how he gives x amount of money each year to his church to help the poor and that should be good enough. I just can't believe that people can be so unaware and careless about the poor in our country. It riled me up obviously and it did nothing to make my homecoming more attractive.