Wintery weekend in Umeå

This weekend Nikole and I were able to experience some of Umeå's holiday traditions. Saturday, despite the enormous amount of snow, we ventured to a holiday bazaar. It was held at the Waldorf school near my school. The special ed teacher's child goes to this school and she helped organize the bazaar and helped us find our way around. There were lots of little buildings filled with handmade items (or handi krafts), and tons of baked goods. I also had my first taste of glogg, which is similar to mulled wine. It was of course nonalcoholic because we were at a school. The paths between the buildings were lit with candles in the snow. It was very picturesque and the perfect backdrop for a holiday event. Pretty, but cold and super snowy. We stayed for enough time to see everything but did not stay too long because of the cold. Sunday, we went downtown Umeå. The first Sunday after the 25th of November is a big day in Umeå, it marks a month until Christmas (Jul). It used to be that stores would cover their windows with paper and reveal their holiday wares on this weekend, but since everyone starts shopping in October (or earlier) that is no longer the tradition. There were local organizations (Boy Scouts and Lions Club, among others) selling baked goods. Other vendors were selling warm food, glogg and handi krafts. The stores are open longer (from their regular 3pm Sunday closing time) and children and parents were lined up to talk and get pictures with Santa. Again, we stayed long enough to experience, buy some Saint Lucia bread, and enjoy it, but not too long. It was about -15˚F, so it was hard staying outside too long.

24.11-10

Today is a very snowy day here in Umeå, but it is not as cold (around 20˚F). I just wanted to put up some pictures from my walk/bus ride to school this morning. As you can see, the moon is still completely up as I am walking into school.

Elk Farm

On Saturday, Nikole and I went to the Elk Farm or Ålgens Hus in Bjurholm. We were able to go with the Umeå Exchange student group, which is awesome because we originally planned to rent a car and drive ourselves. There was a bus that picked us up on campus at 10:30 and drove the hour ride to Bjurholm. Along the way we looked out the window enjoying the beautiful scenery. It had been awhile since we've seen anything besides the city of Umeå. The countryside was very picturesque with all the farms and snow. However, it was not terribly different from the farms and rural areas in Wisconsin, aside from the hills/mountains in the background. The houses all also have the same texture on the outside. This link shows it up close and emphasizes that almost all houses are red, with a few yellow and other warms colors. http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Lifestyle/Art-architecture/Reading/Home-Swedes-Home/

Anyways...once we got to the Elk farm, we took pictures of the scenery and interesting fencing system surrounding the wire fences. We had a meal consisting of elk stew, potatoes, lingonberries, Wasa (hard bread), salad and lingonberry juice. After the meal we watched a film strip on elks had a nice tour of the 'museum'. The owner/guide had a lot of information on elks and taught me everything I ever wanted to know about them. Here are my highlights: there is evidence of elk in Sweden dating back to 2-3000BC, moose and elk are cousins - not the same, bull elks get new antlers every year, the Swedish record for biggest antler spread is 42pts., the wolf population of Sweden is kept around 200 for the Reindeer population, but the low number also helps elk. Once we finished the tour, it was finally time to go see the elks. They were huge, but very good around people, the only time they got spooked is when some of the girls were screaming/giggling. We got lots of fun pictures and it was a great day.

Sunday, Nikole's parents and sister came to visit. We showed them around town a bit and had an early dinner. I don't think they were expecting it to be so cold!

This week will be hard because of Thanksgiving coming up. It is difficult to be away when I know everyone back home is getting together. It does help a little that Thanksgiving is not celebrated over here, so it doesn't feel like something is happening as much. Nikole's family has been nice enough to invite me to dinners with them, including one on Thursday where we plan to have a nice dinner, maybe something close to turkey?

Random thoughts...

This week I have had my computer with me in the classroom and typing things I find interesting during breaks. This is what I've typed up this week.

16.11-10Communal learning, everyone starts at the same point and they are allowed to work at their own pace and ability. However, he doesn’t want there to be a huge discrepancy between where the students are in the geometry book. Students help each other rather than always asking the teacher.

17.11-10 Studying history today, they talked about Digerdöden Pesten or The Black Plague. In 1349 rats came into what is now Norge (Norway) on a ship from Great Britain. These rats carried the plague. A bite from the rats would leave a black mark on the person, which resulted in their death. Sweden’s population dropped from 3 million to 2 million. This was when Norway and Sweden were combined as one country. Today we again with were 6^th grade in the morning and at lunch. We followed them to music, where they practiced songs for a 13^th of December holiday in honor of, Santa Lucia or Saint Lucy, the symbol of light. Santa Lucia is an icon for the Advent season in Sweden. They will perform at the school, for different grades and at the nursing homes (“where old people sleep”). Next we followed them to art where they are working on mixing their colors, from primary to make secondary. 6^th grade only has class for 40 minutes once a week. This is not enough time to (according to both the art teacher and the 6^th grade teacher) to get anything started and finished. The projects are always so drawn out. I did see a Dali piece I recognized and asked the teacher what they did with it. She said they study famous artists in the upper grades and make their own piece based off the original. They are opening up more with their English, especially during lunch. They told me some 'old wives tales' and just their thoughts about the differences between Sweden and America.

While talking with Lena, a speech and language specialist, in class assistant, we found out a lot about Västangårds. This is the only school in Umeå that has a speech and language program. She was unsure why other schools do not have a S&L program. This is the reason some of the students in our classroom attend this school, rather than their neighborhood school. They have received a diagnosis of a language learning disability from the hospital (a requirement to be transferred from their neighborhood school to Västangårds). Also, like I have mentioned before, the schools here have a strong belief in knowing one’s ‘mother language.’ There is a boy in our classroom with a severe language learning disability, in both his mother language of Somalian and in Swedish. He gets support from Lena and others during the day in Swedish. He also gets support from a man whose native language is also Somalian. The school sought out this man to help the student with his speech and language comprehension in his mother language. He comes to work with the student on Fridays. I think this is a wonderful idea. It rules out the possibility that he just doesn’t understand Swedish and confirms that it is a true language learning disability because he has the same problems with his mother language. He does have a computer with his daily schedule and it speaks to him in either Swedish or English. He does mostly the same work as the other students, just at his own pace and occasionally at different times.

Class pictures came in today. Above is a picture of the picture, yes its fuzzy. This is grades 4 and 5. The class sizes is so small because there are multiple schools in Umeå and students attend the school in their neighborhood from grades K-9. From what I understand they come together for Upper Secondary school (grades 10-12).

18.11 A new student came to the 4-5 grade class today. He comes from an area of the former Soviet Union. The area is at war and his father died fighting. He seems to have some anger/behavioral issues. It will be interesting to see how that works in this classroom dynamic.

Today - Friday, 19th of November, it is very cold -13˚C, which is roughly 8˚F. We had our Walk of Life this morning and the students walked faster than ever to get back inside. Micael said when it is -15˚ the students cannot go outside for breaks because it is too cold.

This past week was International Students week on campus. We, however, missed most of the speakers and events because we have been teaching during the times. Nikole and I are taking part in a 'field trip' to Bjurholm to visit an elk farm! I know this sounds funny, but I think it will be interesting. We will take a bus to the farm pet the animals, (if we're lucky ride the elk), tour the museum and at the end-have a nice elk lunch! I plan on taking plenty of pictures, especially if we get to ride them!

The rest of the week at my school was equally as educational and inspiring as the days before them. It has been hard to keep up on the blog because my sleep schedule is so bothered by the lack of daylight. On average, the sun comes up a little before 8am and sets before 3pm, today it is sunny but scheduled to set at 2:42pm. Those are the days the sun actually comes out, there are days when it is just cloudy and overcast until 3 then it goes completely dark. I knew this would be a hard adjustment for me. I On Wednesday we got about 5 inches of snow, but it really did not phase daily life here in Umeå. We also found out that they never cancel school for the weather here (not like 5” would have done it in Wisconsin either). There are so many small schools right in the students’ neighborhoods that they all usually only have a 3 -5 minute walk. Those students that doe come from further distances because of special needs get taxied in, so there is no reason to be late or absent from school.

I am really liking everything about my school and it’s faculty. Most are so helpful and happy to share the history of Sweden and their perspective on education. Those that aren’t as helpful is because they are not confident with their English, but everyone is very friendly. I am starting to make progress with my Swedish, more reading it than speaking (which is common for language learning). I, like my Swedish counterparts, am not confident in speaking. It is very hard to hear all the sounds in the words as Swedish people talk very quickly. Also certain syllables or sounds in a word are really emphasized without any indication why.

Weekends here are our down/boring time, opposite from back home. Everything here is too expensive to do; shopping eating out, going to pubs or nightclubs (bottle of Heineken beer is $7-$8),so expensive! So instead we stayed in and made travel plans and did some school work. This weekend Nikole and I planned out our weekends for the rest of the time we’re here. We rented a car, which is done at any gas stations, for next weekend. We plan to drive to an elk farm in a neighboring town. This is something Nikole has wanted to do since we arrived in Umeå. I think it will be fun, we just have to make reservations at the farm, which is difficult because everything is in Swedish. However, once we get there I think it will be fun, apparently guests are able to ride the elk. I promised my cooperating teacher here a video if that is the case! If you’re lucky I will post it here for everyone to enjoy.

Today after school Nikole and I are going to the train station to look into routes and information on our trip when we’re done teaching. We plan to get a Eurail pass to travel to southern Sweden (stops in Stockholm and Lund) and into northern Europe including stops in Munich, Paris and possibly Switzerland. It will be a lot of time on the train, but I think that in itself will be an adventure. Yesterday we researched the hotels and days we’ll be needing to stay in them, we found some for very cheap, but with shared bathroom. Haha, I guess that is all part of the experience. The only thing holding us from pulling the trigger on this adventure is again the ticket price. Because Nikole is 23, she is considered a student (anyone under 25) and her ticket is considerably less expensive than mine even though I am also a student. This is true for everything here, age 25 is the magic age to be. However, I think it will work out and we will get to explore Europe!

At school today, we got to teach with the 6^th grade class. It was really neat, because they all know English pretty well and were eager to impress us with their skills. However, they are at the age where they don’t want to seem too eager because they are cool. They were reading a passage from their ‘English’ books, it was about LA and New York City. The book talked about the awful pollution, gangs and Hollywood as well as beaches when talking about LA. For New York City it was focused more on the boroughs, the skyscrapers and the terrorist attacks. The stories really did not put either large city in the greatest light, but the students were interested and wanted to visit anyway. I know in the other school, the girls from UWW were getting asked if everyone carries guns in America. The TV shows they have to reference are COPS, Family Guy, My Super sweet Sixteen, among other gems. Knowing this, it makes more sense why they have these notions about America!

Random side note - I have not seen one single squirrel here. But, they do have these huge birds, I tried to take a picture of one, but it is somewhat camouflaged. Look on the right hand side of the tree picture. They are not afraid of people, just like the squirrels in Whitewater! They are called, Skata.

With eyes wide open

A quick post to reiterate how much I am loving my school and impressed with my teacher and students. Today I ate lunch with the students and they loved asking me for English words and telling me the Swedish words. They somewhat bombarded me with information, but I did learn all my days of the week and to day 'today is' and 'tomorrow' as well as a few other random words. I love their enthusiasm for English and wanting to get as much from me as possible. I was even able to help a student with a geometry question written in Swedish! I can't believe I get to spend four weeks with these kids. I am excited thinking about everything I will learn from them, and hopefully them from me.

Today we walked 700 meters to the gymnasium building. Normally the students walk this by themselves, with no adult supervision. It is their responsibility to pack their backpacks, walk to the gym, across a busy street, get themselves changed and be to class within 10-15 minutes. Although this doesn't sounds super impressive, remember these students are between 9-11 years old. Another major difference was the gym teacher wasn't popping in the locker room to tell them to hurry up every few minutes. I was obviously in the girls locker room and they changed and got ready without any prompts. Class did not start until everyone was ready and sitting in the circle, it was like the students dictated when class should start, not the teacher. They practiced their basketball skills, which was fun to watch.

During a break today, I was able to talk with the special education teacher for awhile. I learned some interesting information about their policies, especially regarding students that don't have Swedish as their first language. She believes (and cited research that supports) students need to first learn their 'mother' language otherwise they will never master a second language and if need be, be taught basics in their mother language until they are able to take on the second. She also told me that as of next year things in special ed will be changing in Sweden. Students will be staying in their regular classrooms as much as possible and the special ed teacher and regular ed teacher will have to work together to make the curriculum for the pupil. She even went on to say that it will be her responsibility to make sure the classroom environment is appropriate for the students with special needs. Students who must be pulled out for services will be done so as minimally as possible and only for the subjects in which they struggle. I am hoping she has break at the same time tomorrow so I can pick her brain some more! I tried to take a picture of her title, but its a too blurry, it says Specialpedagog. From my novice translating skills, that would be a specialist in the process of teaching. Google translator says Special Teacher which I think is true too :)

My eyes could not be open any wider to all the possibilities in teaching...

Vålkommen till Västangårds skola!

Today was the day I got to the Swedish schools. It was not an easy start to the day, leaving when it was dark and a windy -9C, catching 2 buses to ride across to get there before 7:55. I'm making it sound dramatic and bad, but it was all worth it! My school, Västangårds, is located right in the middle of the sculpture park! The teacher I'm working with, Micael, said the school used to be a 'crazy house' so nobody ever goes to the very top or basement floors. But there is plenty of space with what floors are used. The multiple buildings on campus holds either classes or gym or lunch. Each building has its own function or grade levels. The building where I am holds grades 2-6 and there are only (no more than) 28 students per grade. There are obviously many schools this size throughout the town.

Teacher lounges in Sweden are so nice. They are equipped with a full kitchen (as is our classroom) with multiple coffeepots, electric tea pots. Each teacher brings coffee to share with the group and everyone just drinks whatever is there. However, once a week, according to a schedule, two faculty members bring a treat for fika, which is their snack. It is always homemade, usually a cake. They have fika between breakfast and lunch. Faculty really use this area to break and enjoy the newspaper or just relax. As you can see it is a very relaxing environment.

The students were really excited to have REAL Americans there and asked us (me and another girl) any questions they wanted, either about ourselves or our country. It went really well, they asked quite intelligent questions for 9-11 year olds. Micael went between Swedish and English while he was teaching his lessons. I could go on and on about how great everyone was, but today I want to note the 'physical' or mechanical differences between this school and the elementary schools I've worked in Wisconsin. There are no bells or anyone telling the students to come to class. Before school they are inside playing games (table tennis is a favorite), or just visiting in the game room. Each classroom has their own game room space, which is also used for after school-type program. The students quietly come into their classrooms, get out a book and read. I knew the school had a rule that you could not wear your boots or outside shoes in the classroom. What I did not expect was for all the students to be in stocking feet. This was very much the tradition and norm for all primary students in the schools, only 2 students had on slippers! This is so different from Wisconsin schools where I've struggled to get a kindergarten student to put on his shoes so many times! The room also has a much more relaxed vibe. The teacher is the leader of the room, but its so much more casual. Students call their teachers by their first names. They had never heard 'Carly' before, so they all (including Micael) had a very hard time pronouncing it! Another unique thing about the school environment is that each teacher sets their own schedule, they must put in 40 hours a week, 34 of them must be at the school, the rest can be done at home. As a result our school week gets shorter and shorter. Today school went from 8-3, tomorrow will be a bit shorter and by Friday we will be done by 1pm. Micael, who has been teaching for 24 years, says he does this because he wants to enjoy his job and not feel like he HAS to be there until X o'clock. This is a common practice among teachers here, the other group of students from Whitewater's cooperating teacher doesn't start until 9:30 on Mondays. Seriously, how much more would you enjoy your time if you set the hours you got to work! Its not arbitrary, its set for the year, so parents can adjust accordingly.

Tomorrow grades 4,5&6 are starting a new program where they are going to walk briskly for 20 minutes outside before school starts! They've read the research that suggests a workout like that in the morning allows more oxygen to the brain, creating more brain power and less sleepiness among students. I am looking forward to this and seeing if it makes a difference in the students (and faculty!).

These are some pictures from inside the classroom :)

Rudolph, Class and Snow

It has been 3 days since my last post, who knew this would be so difficult to keep up?

On Wednesday, November 3rd, we took the bus Umeå Tourism Centre. We received a lot of great information about the city and the woman there was good at speaking English so she was able to give us lots of great tips and ideas. We just did some walking around and shopping for Reindeer bracelets, a request from a colleague who visited Umeå years ago. We only found one shop with these bracelets, but it costs over $80, yikes! After shopping for Reindeer, we went to a pub for dinner and ate it. We went to a pub that we had wanted to try earlier, but was too busy for us non-Swedish speakers so we went in for an earlier dinner when there weren't as many people around. Nikole and I ordered the reindeer and it was pretty good, check out the picture for details.

Thursday, November 4th, we had class from 10-3. It was great meeting with our Swedish supervisor and learning all about the school system here. There are so many differences in the schooling systems, I'm really glad we got a class to get us up to speed. Here are some of the major points I took away from the meeting...All schooling costs are free to the students' families, books, transportation, lunch, health care, all free. This is true from Preschool to Upper Secondary School. If a student chooses to attend a private of 'Independent' school the only cost charged to the family is finding transportation. All students (over 99%) graduate from Upper Secondary School, there are not dropouts. Students are able to choose an area to focus on in Upper Secondary School (grades 10-12). This helps the students choose classes they're interested in and stay in school. There are only three grades given MVG=pass with special distinction, VG=pass with distinction and G=pass. Students are expected to master 3 languages before graduation, Swedish, English and either French, German or Spanish. Can you image this being a requirement for US students? What a difference that would make! Most of us leave with a pretty good understanding of English and knowing some words in Spanish, French or German. In Sweden if you do not know 3 languages, you will not get into a good college, even if your grades are perfect, it is expected that you know these languages. We also learned about the classes we'll be teaching. Jess and I will be teaching at a school on the far end of town (45 minute bus ride). We'll be teaching grades 4&5, in one classroom. Although we're teaching in regular education rooms, there will be students at all different levels in the room. In the US students with learning disabilities (LD), emotional behavioral disorders (EBD) or cognitive disabilities (CD) may be pulled for some or all of their class, in Sweden these students are all in the regular education setting. I am so interested to see how this works! Also, each student has an individualized education plan (IEP) and students with special needs has a specialized IEP. How wonderful would it be if we took the time to coordinate a student's educational plan according to their strengths and weaknesses. However, there is a much smaller teacher to student ration than in the US. It was a really informational and interesting day of class. We got a break in the middle of the day to go walk around campus and take some pictures. I am so excited to go to the school on Monday! After a full day of classes, we grabbed a quick dinner and went to a club on campus. We happened to get there on Karaoke night! Most of the songs were American, so we knew all the words and could sing along. It was really interesting to hear the Swedish students singing in English. Although they know the language well, their pacing and pronunciation of words were interesting! We sang Aqua's Barbie Girl. It was entertaining to say the least and I was feeling no shame and did the Ken and Barbie voice just like Aqua does. I'll never see those people again so why not....Something else we found - drink at home! It was so expensive to drink at the club. So tonight as we're planning to go back to see a live band, we're drinking our box wine before!

Today we got up to find snow on the ground! It was so beautiful and was a great backdrop for the Sculpture Garden, Umedalen Skulptur we visited today. It was one of my favorite things we've done so far. There were modern art sculptures all throughout this park. I acted as tour guide with my pamphlet and we trudged around the park for a few hours looking at the many installations. (There are many more pictures of this on facebook.) It was interesting reading what the artists intentions were, some of them were quite clever. I had many favorites and enjoyed the way they made you think and experience the art to fully understand the meaning. It was a great way to spend the morning, however it made me realize I needed some warm boots! After the tour of the park Nikole and I had some amazing soup and coffee at a little cafe then went boot shopping. I was finally successful (this was my 3rd or 4th attempt!) While we were at the cafe we noticed a homeless woman come in shivering. The girls at the counter gave her a glass (not a to-go cup) of warm milk and honey for free. After giving her the drink, she went to a table where some people had left some uneaten food. She went to the table and ate their leftovers. NObody there seemed to mind or really pay attention. The cafe was extremely busy and they did not ask her to leave or kick her out. They let her eat the scraps and drink her milk without disturbance, even though there were other paying customers who couldn't find a place to sit. I don't know how long she stayed, but she was still there when we left. Nikole and I commented on how that would never fly in the US, she would be kicked out, not allowed to sit at a table, use the bathroom if she were not a paying customer; what a difference in attitude. We also noticed on the bus that elderly people did not have to pay to use the bus, they just showed a special card and took their seat. I like the way Sweden takes care of each other.

Loving, learning and growing everyday :)

It has been two days since my last post and oh what a two days it has been.

On

Monday, November 1, we moved into our dorms. After a little confusion on how to get to the International Housing Office and the dorms, we made here. We unpacked and walked around campus to get our student IDs and get a lay of the land. It is a beautiful campus with lots of wooded areas, water and modern sculptures. That may sound like an odd mixture but it really works! The campus is really spread out, my dorm, STIPENDIEGRÄND is located in Ålidhem area of campus. This area alone has 2 grocery stores, a hair salon, a few restaurant and a computer parts store. Although these features are nice, it is about 1.5 miles or 2.4 kilometers away from the main part of campus. The dorms are different from those in America. First, they are not labeled well at all which makes it hard to find in the dark since all the buildings look alike. Next, like other big buildings here in Sweden, the hallways are very closed off (as you can see in the picture). This building has 8 rooms (view from my room) in each corridor with each having a private bath, but with a community kitchen and living room. There is a laundry room on the first floor that the whole building shares. It is free of charge, but you must be signed up to use the facilities. We didn't know we needed to sign up and last night Nikole and I luckily each snuck in a load of laundry. Lists, lines and things having a proper order seem to be common trends here.

Today, November 2 was a very cold, but sunny day. There was frost and ice all over outside when Nikole, Kaci and I ventured out. We were in search of the hospital because that is where bus passes are sold. From the maps we had and the directions we had been told, it should have been about 10-15 minute walk to find this said hospital. It took so much longer. After an hour of walking and asking many strangers for directions, we found it! Once in the building, we had to ask many more strangers where the bus station desk was located. You would never know it was a hospital from the outside, it was a white and green huge building, with no red cross symbol or name labeled anywhere. We got our passes and headed downtown for some shopping. We were all in search of warmer wears as the temperature is dropping and the snow is coming! Nikole, Kaci and I ate a French Hot Dog from a vendor on the square, which is a small loaf of french bread with a hole for the hotdog- condiments go in before the hotdog. It was great and reminded me of Grandpa Lund, so in his honor I had a fresh pastry from the grocery store for dessert. We had a successful day downtown and found our bus back home. It was confusing again to find which bus was headed back to our area. But we found out buses 5 and 8 go from campus to downtown and back, which will make our lives easier.

After we returned to our dorms, we ran into the same problem we've been having - nothing to do. I know this doesn't seem possible in a brand new city, in a brand new country. The sun goes down around 3:30-4pm, this makes it hard to explore a new area. Campus is nice and everyone seems really friendly and willing to help, but it's a little intimidating walking around in the dark through the woods and alley ways the campus is made up of. The people in my corridor seem nice, but really keep to themselves and in their own rooms. We have a meeting on Thursday for our program where we're hoping to meet more people and find out new things to do.

Loving every minute of it, taking it all in to try and grow and learn from each day's experience.