It is hard to believe that today is my last day teaching in Umeå. The time has gone by unbelievably fast. I have learned many different ways of thinking and doing.
Last night we had dinner with Gun and the coordinator of international teaching students. We had a nice meal and talked a lot about education in Sweden versus in America. I really plan on using what I have learned and experienced here in Sweden when I return to America. I know not all of the ways of school life here will work in America. But I am going to do everything I can, at least within my classroom. The things that really have stuck out to me as being different are, the amount of responsibility the pupil has and the way discipline is handled. As I have stated before, the children here are given much more responsibilities and TRUST than our students in America. My suspicions were confirmed at dinner last night that this responsibility and trust translates into more responsible college students/young adults. They have had the confidence and experience of making decisions for themselves for years and know it is their consequence(s). There is a term here, 'curling' referencing the sport - when a teacher or parent work ahead to make everything smooth for the child. This idea is not favored here and they focus on the opposite idea. As far as discipline goes, it is dealt with and dropped a lot more quickly than back home. I have too often seen teachers hold on to a student's bad behavior. In Sweden, they deal with the issue right away, and do not bring it up repeatedly. They don't dwell on things so much, is what I'm getting at. I think the language learning emphasis in Sweden is really great. They begin teaching children English in grades 1 or 2 and really get into depth at the later grades. By grade 8, they are working on their third language. Learning new languages not only teaches the language, but makes the student more well rounded and opens their ways of thinking.
This past week we did some presentations on Swedish school and American schools' differences. The main things that the kids and teachers were interested in were: scheduling - America is so much more structured and rigid, classroom set up - Swedish schools are more streamlined and have less clutter and more efficient, the students were also very interested in the field trips American students take, field trips are not very common in Sweden, after school sports are not very common, they play mostly in club leagues. The teachers were interested in the cars/transportation in America. People in America own way more cars than people in Sweden - Swedish people are more environmentally conscious and maintenance for cars is very expensive. Each year people have to bring their cars to get checked to make sure everything works (not just emission testing), if there is any problems, they must get it fixed and bring the receipt back to the testing place to prove they've gotten the necessary repairs. Public transportation is available in almost every town/city in Sweden and is widely used.
My sister Tara's 5th grade art class made a video asking the Swedish students some questions. The students loved watching the video and were very excited to respond. I thought this would only take a few minutes. But the students are not so confident with their English, so it was very difficult to get them to give responses and ask questions on camera. However, I did get a lot of great shots and videos.
Stockholm tomorrow, then on to Lund and Copenhagen...to Munich and finally to Paris. It will a lot of traveling in a small amount of time, but I think we'll get to see everything we want. Right now I'm just thinking of things to do that will occupy all the hours on the train. :)
So excited for this next adventure!
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