Sometimes there are such stupid political decisions like these ones...

I just read a news paper article about a federal state (Baden Würtemberg) that has prohibited its teachers to use social networks in school... because of data protection reasons. Another federal state (Schleswig-Holstein), the South Baltic area in which I was born and grown up, is thinking about prohibiting social networks for teachers as well.

I am really really angry about this... What do you think about that??? - If every federal state in Germany would not allow to use these social media in the daily routine of a school? 

We are thinking and talking in our project of how to use Web 2.0 tools to create lessons. 'cause we are living in the 21st century and damn god we have to go with this time - especially in school! All the possibilities we were talking about - gone! Maybe we should stop talking about every single tool in our study visits and virtual meetings, he?! - we don't have this future in common! On top of this I don't know how we shall teach the children and young adults to use social networking in a secure and careful way or how to talk the "right language online" or why there are risks and how they look like or why everybody should know about the quality of information for business and political processes... and so on and on, IF WE DON'T PRACTICE with them instead of talking to them.... Arrrrgh.

But German "responsible" politicians just think: hey there are some risks, we need to keep this out of school. !?!? 

A very funny thing is said in the end of this article (i tried to translate): "If any teacher likes to send his or her students a message (also his or her drama group participants or s.th. like this), he or she doesn't need to give up sending a message. There are already some ways of communication - like the conventional correspondence." Hahahhaahaaa.^^ The old fashioned, traditional Germans... UNBELIEVABLE. This explains everything.

Reflection from Cohab white, group 5 on our study visits 9th oct 2013

On the 9th of october we were going on study visits to see different schools and educations, we divided to group into two groups so we all get the most out of it. The Danish and the Lithuanian visit 2 different boarding schools and the Swedish and the German visit one gymnasium and 2 different vocational schools. After that we had some spare time for  shopping and culture and then we visit Gunslevholm.

At first the Swedish and German group visited the CELF Business school. There we met Peter (not P.Diddy!), a very dedicated CELF teacher who introduced us into the Danish vocational school system and the CELF organisation and philosophy. It was very interesting, so much new and we had a lot of questions, that we’d rather had have more time to talk to Peter. But some of us met other vocational teachers to interview them. Jockum, Ann-Christin an me we met Betina. She is a teacher at this Business school only for German. She did another job in former times, but she had to change her job that she was able to spend more time at home. And she had already a lot of experiences with the German language, she still has a lot of German friends. So she preferred to make the interview in German because she is not as good in English as in German. Ann-Christin and me would have loved to do that, but we liked to be polite to Jockum, so that is was also able to follow the conversation ;-) And furthermore we would have to translate more than 30 minutes for the transcription… It was a good decision. And it was a really good talk to Betina, not really an interview, but very interesting. (You may read more in our interview transcription!)

Written by: Janine

After the first CELF school we visit another CELF and had a tour around the school looking at all different educations and all their equipment. It was really a nice school and very well equipped in all different subjects. I was impressed and the climate seemed very organized. I had the opportunity to interview a bakery teacher about the school, the job, their education plan and about their students. Interesting and he was very polite and briefed. The interview was 20 minutes long and I will transcribe that and share what he told me! They had shops in the school and sold their bakery and cakes they had created. I think their education system was very good and they also had social office at the school so they could help right there and when the students needed help. Also an office for work seekers so they could get job and help with their internship. I think they had prepared well for our visits and we feel very welcome. We got some lunch and then of to a gymnasium, Trines old gymnasium! I think that looked like our gymnasium in Sweden, the same boring old traditional classroom, it felt like they were not really prepared for our visit. We looked around a little and got some coffee and cake. But not so stimulating. But I think all the visits was new experience and very good planning from the Danish team. Thanks to them!

Written by: Sara.

Also, Lithuanian and a few Danish students visited two primary schools in Nykøbing. It was nice, that we could visit different types of schools - private primary Sct. Josef school and public primary school Lindeskovskolen. Both visits were very nice and warm. However, it was easy to find differences.

First of all, in private school we saw newer building inside. As well as, all classes had smartboards, students had iPads. In public school buildings were not so new, but still cosy. Also there was lack of ICT. By the way, in Lindeskovskolen were 40 % of foreign students. But children are friendly and tolerant to each other. Director said, that some parents are unhappy for this situation and they are considering about oppurtunity to change the school.

Next point what I observed was lessons. In private schools teacher didn’t introduce or explain widely. She only said what will be the lesson and the grade. So we just stood in the class, observed working students in the groups and thats all. In public school teacher were prepared children to sing a song and they done it. Teacher included to the aong and lesson us too. We felt warmth from all and we were glad for that. We were playing with children, helped to do the tasks.

What I want to say more, that I’m happy for these visits, because now I can compare Lithuanian and Danish school systems. It was good experience not only for me, but for all students.

Written by Greta.

We were seeing a danish Boarding School or efterskole as it name in danish. The school called Gunslevholm Idrætsefterskole is a sports school for kids who have finished the primary school, and want to learn more about themselves and sports. The school have 4 different subjects the students can choose; football, handball, spring gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. One of the things that are were important for the school is that they don’t want to make a elite school, but a school where you can learn something new about yourself. One of the things that I found really interesting was that they looked at all the things that I student can, not only the sports thing. If a student can play an instrument, he will be pick for the school and the good football player will not. Another thing that was good was the money. If you have some problems by paying the school you will get some help from the school, the school are interested in a school with student who can learn from the other students. And you can learn if you are different from each other.

It was very interesting to visit this kind of school, that we only got in Denmark, and especially a sports school, that we in Denmark often have a lot of sports in our spare time. You can find very different kind of efterskoler in Denmark, each with their own theme and subjects. It’s a good way to give the students a possibility to choose the subjects they find interesting.

Written by: Martin

At the end of this day: We can tell you, that we are really impressed by the Danish schools, the Danish way of thinking and living. And we seriously considering to work for some time as a vocational teacher in Denmark…:-)

Google Hangouts :)

Had a good chat wit our team members but of course we missed Greta :(

Next time we are all in :)

Future school

“Innovation” (in a pedagogical context)

This word you may hear all the time if you wanna reach more than the others or than there was before you try to change something. So is this all about competition? – To compete with yourself or with other countries? It might be if we look at some researches like PISA and so on. But what is innovation about? If we look at the word itself, we discover that it has its origin in the Latin word “innovare” and means something like to renew, to remake or to modernize something. So we can say that “innovation” is a really dynamic word: it describes a process of building something new. But if you wanna rebuild something you have to know about the roots, the actual situation, so that you know about your base from what you are going to start the changing process.

Our university has a really nice slogan in the following logo à http://www.uni-rostock.de/en/ (I didn’t know if I am allowed to copy the logo because of copy rights…so I rather copied the link of our homepage… :-P) There you can read the slogan: “Traditio et Innovatio”. This is also Latin and means tradition and innovation. (Hahaha :-D …that was really hard to translate, wasn’t it?!) So our university also knows about the benefit of combining these both. Without knowing your traditions (your roots) you are not able to renew anything. And Innovation never means that everything was bad in the past, it just means that you need to know what was good and what was bad. So that you are able to evaluate which parts of the past need an innovation to go with the time for example. 

So what about the question “What characterises an innovative teacher, learner and/or educational setting”? The teacher needs to know about his/her own education, why he/her learned in the university or by some mentors or some earlier experiences what he/she has learned. Only then he/she is able to be innovative, because he/she is able to evaluate which method needs to be rebuilt that it finally fits to a class or what kind of Web 2.0 tool would be great to be adapted for the own teaching lessons in future. (just to give some examples) An innovative learner has to be convinced, that learning is a process that happens everywhere, in groups or on your own, with or without any supporting learning tool. And therefore he/she mustn’t be closed for the fact that one learning (or educational) setting is not like the other.  A learning setting can be prepared like it is in a classroom. Then the teacher need to think about where the starting point (base) of the pupils are and how the learning process might be innovated that every pupil is best individually supported in their learning process by the learning arrangements of the teacher. 

To summarize innovative teaching I would say it has to do a lot with being open for changes and not being afraid of renew some good old traditions or even substitute them. Innovation is everywhere and it is also what our journey of the COHAB-programme is all about: First of all we need to know where this journey starts from before we’ll be able to travel. And the thing about innovation is that you’ll never know before the process started whether it will develop in a good way. You need to risk something to have a shot at winning something...

Innovative teacher!

I think the most important to be an innovative teacher and learner is to have a genuine intrest for the subject. To really feel for the youngster and the kids and have a will to teach. As a vocational teacher I also think it´s important to keep up with all new trends, techniques. If you "just" work as a teacher it´s ´difficult to know what actually happends in the labor market. If you have some influence from the real working life you can prepare the students for the real world! You have to have the knowledge about diffrent kind of learning situations to face all kind of different student with diffrent abilitys to the learning situations or may have some kind of diagnosis. I also think a huge problem as a teacher is the lack of time. You always have to much to do and soooo little time. All the planning for the different courses (I have 4 different courses and 5 different groups this term) all the students and their problems, try to teach as the same time as you need to be a therapist, to grad all their work, do tests, correct them, write all opinion halfterm and also after the term at the same time as you should put together everything they have performed during the term and grade them. Then we also have a lot of side activitys we need to fix and arrange. I think as long as you yourself is openminded and eager to learn more, and devolop yourself, you are going to be an innovative teacher!

Nationalmuseum :)

Hello, Hi Blogg!

                                                  Of course, we find...The mouse

The cat...

The dragon...

The man on the roof...Batman ;)

And the real man of the roof :)

We spent some time finding this creatures and afterward we was tired and had to go for a glass of wine!

Sleep tight, Good night!

Hello, Hi Blogg!

We don´t remember anything from yesterday, because we had a really nice fantasy trip in the evening. But actually we got a little closer to the nurse team during the night! Greta and Niclas with an C also had an intresting night wander around the streets of Klaipeda looking for the missing Peter. They discovered him in the hotel reception after 1 hours searching, covered with candies all over his body speaking in his cellphone laughing out high! We also learned drinking specialities from the different countries, special dance and Me, myself was a copy of Loreen.

Janine had a slightly memory about some interwies, but we don't know if that was for real or just in her sleep?!? But on sept 15 th we will find out!

For now, we continue packing our bags and headed of for the next fantasy trip!

Sleep tight, Good night (for most of us this will happen in the bus)

Sara, Janine, Greta and Martin

Wednesday 130821

Hello Blogg!

First of all we want to thank our readers for the support and your feedback on our fantastic blogg :)
We had a hard time and spent many hours to describe and come up with all our experiences on the first post!

Tuesday midnight Janine talked to her pillow about packing her bag pack because she still struggles with the method to get to know eachother. Martin has the same problem (talking in his sleep) and we realized that on the next trip Martin and Janine needs to share room so they have someone to talk to, Martin actually told us that Niklas with a K doesn´t answer when he´s sleeping. Greta is worried why she hasn´t been invited yet, because she wants to join in their fantasy trip! Martin right now (sitting beside me) has a big smile over his face, thinking about sharing room with 2 girls! Me, myself is still working with the smart board presentation, because I´m blond and didn´t understand what we were supposed to do and I still don't understand... I´t will be a long night for me as well.

We also feels sorry for the ugly duckling and we don´t know how to handle these feelings, probably we are going to write a story about that. Janine, Greta and Martin will surely handle this problem in their sleep using the dialogue method and I probably will make a presentation in smart board!

Sleep tight, Good night

Sara, Greta, Janine and Martin

Hi blogg :)

Our first day was interesting and we look forward to tomorrow :)

Sleep tight, Good night
Sara, Greta, Janine, Martin