Back to school!

Hi everyone!

The first week after autumn holiday just ended. I can say that for me and I think for the other Erasmus students, as well, was nice to come back to college after a long period of time spent it in different schools where we did our practice.
This week I started the program at the College so I met with my Danish colleagues from the Danish psychology class, and the German group. On Tuesday we attended at the Comparative Pedagogics class and we found out more about Danish, German, Hungarian and Romanian educational systems. It was an exchange of pieces of information, which gave us a perspective over other foreign education systems. Also on Wednesday we had the last lesson on weblogs and we were taught how to create labels for our blogs in order to make them look more pretty and organized. Something very interesting happened this week, we started the dance and drama course which takes place in Aabenraa. We enjoyed 2 hours of dancing and playing "icebreaker games" and doing massage to each other. The music was so great and we asked if it could be possibale to have it in the end of this course. Friday came and it seems that we missed the interaction with Danish students by the time we did our practice. Therefore me, Judit, a Romanian guy who we met here and some of the Germans went to "Fridaybar" to have some fun and to make some friends.
This is all for now!
I wish you a good week!

Autumn holiday!

Hi everyone!

Here I am with news from my holiday. I have not written for a while because it was a really busy week for me with full of trips but now I have some reflections and impressions collected and I would like to share them with you. So I started my hoilday with a trip to Copenhagen, which took 3 days from Monday until Wednesday. It was a great trip, we walked a lot through Copenhagen trying to see as many places as we could. We went to the Art Museum, the Rosenborg Castle, the Round Tower (from where we had a beautiful view over the whole city), and of course we couldn't miss the Nyhavn. On Wednesday Judit had her birthday. We started to celebrate her birthday on Tuesday night with a live guitar concert which took place in our hostel, afterwards we went to an English pub where we listened to another guitar concert and the singer sang Happy Birthday to Judit. This was a big surprise for her because she didn't know anything about this and suddenly an unknown person started to sing for her. I can tell that it was also an international night because we met with 3 Erasmus students(one boy and 2 girls). They study in Finland but they are from different parts of Europe; the boy is from England and the girls are from Portugal. They were also on holiday and they came to visit Denmark. I was so glad to met with them especially with the Portugese girls because I could practice a little bit my Spanish and also I could feel more my Erasmus experience;). I enjoyed a lot my time in Copenhagen but my curiosity to see Sweden (which is just for a half an hour by train to Copenhagen) pushed me to buy a ticket and went to Malmo for 40 minutes. Of course I didn't do this crazy think by myself I took my girlfriends with me Judit and Sarah. They had the same desire as I had. And we did it. We went to Malmo, took some photos with the center of the town and turned back to Copenhagen from where we continued our trip to Haderslev. When I arrived to Haderslev, Judit invited me for a dinner and we continued to celebrate her birthday with eating a delicious pizza.

On Thursday we finaly could rest and prepare for Friday when we went to Legoland in Bilund with Charlotte and her family. I had a lot of fun rideing almost all those funny things for children:). And I was also amazed on what I found there, I didn't imagine that people can build so many things from lego.












My week ended with a trip to Legoland. Next, the week end came and I spent it with an half danish and half romanian family which invited us (me an Judit) for a dinner on Saturday and on Sunday as well.I had the opportunity to speak romanian and to meet romanians because also in this week-end a romanian friend moved in Haderslev. So it was a romanian week end in Denmark:).
This was my busy but very nice week!
I wish you a good week!

06-10.10.2008 at Aabenraa...practice

Everything can be possible!!!

Yes, it is true. I have got this positive attitude after I spent a week in Aabenraa at a special school, a school with autistic children in a level of lower function. These children don't have language and sometimes they are aggressive with themselves, they are able to spend a whole day crying and screaming. But in spite of these facts, I saw them working, and taking lessons. How could it be possible? If they can't talk to you. I spoke with the teacher and she told me that she and her colleagues have started to work with them in August when they were very "small", beginners in their development. She said that it was a hard work to get them in this situation when they are able to work and to keep their attention awake for more than 10 minutes. And than she started to explain to me the program which they use in order to teach these children. The name of the program is "Board marker" and it is very useful because this programme is based on pictures. The teachers use only pictures which describe all the activities like the action of feeding, of playing, of working, etc. The pictures are showed by the teachers to the children and in this way they know what they have to do. For example they know that first of all they have to work and after they get reward with games or sweets, mostly with things on which they are interested. Using pictures is more easier for the teachers and for the parents to figure out the needs of their pupils/children. The children have the possibility to express their desires only by showing the pictures which have those meanings. Also they don't need to keep the eye contact if this hurts them because they can understand things without having the eye contact with people who are in contact with them. And they are free to decide when they are prepared to look into your eyes. But the school prepare them in this way by introducing in their schedule swimming lessons, where they are more close to the teachers who hold them and teach them how to swim. And then the relationship between children and teachers becomes more and more close. During the time, they work (do some puzzle, learn the name of animals, etc,) and of course they work separatly, each one in his own corner, they are listening to relaxing music which calm them and can reduce their possible crises.

For me this practice was wery useful, I have learned many new things. I have got a background of working with autistic children but I worked in a different way. And I am very pleased that I could work and experience new things at Aabenraa Fjordskolen .
So this was my story about my practice! (it was a really nice time:)).

Visiting...

Hello again!

What do you think about this title? :) ... is not that serious like the others, I am not doing only serious things in Denmark, I am having fun as well :), visiting beautiful places. The last weekend was really pretty. Me, my flatmate and our buddy went to Flensburg on Friday, we were lucky to have a nice weather, it was sunny all the time. We had a lot of fun, walking on the shopping street surrounded by big white houses which gave a shiny look to the city and gave us a positive feeling. Everyone was on the street because it was a holiday, they celebrated the union of West and East of Germany but unfortunately we didn't find any stores open, only the supermarkets were opened, which wasn't bad at all because we had the opportunity to buy cheap chocolates which we actually did ;).

On Saturday we went to Aalborg and again we were lucky to have a nice weather and we could walk through all the center of Aalborg . We have visited the Uzon Center, a cute building which has got an interesting design, very pretty. I could see the differences regarding the architecture of a big city and the architecture of a small city; the houses are more bigger but their designs have remained like in the old times, we could admire some narrow streets as well. It is a lovely city with an active students life. We saw the students house where they usually have party more often and in a cheaper way. :)

This is all about my trips for the time being! I am looking forward to my Copenhagen trip!:)

30.09.2008 - 01-02-03.10.2008 at Aabenraa

How did I spend the rest of the week in Aabenraa?
I have had a very nice time at Aabenraa to Fjordskolen. I have participated to all the activities that children should do every day at school. For some of the subjects like Danish or maths, the children work by themselves in their room, receiveing help individualy because they are sensitive to noices and they need their own space. But theier schedule is pretty nice, they start the day singing a song or walking in the forest after this they talk about the date of the day, the weather of the day and they also discuss about the activities they did the day before. After they have these discussions they begin to work on subjects like Danish, Maths, English, etc. Once a week they are taught how to cook. First of all the recipe divided in pictures which explains the things that should be made is given to them and after several times of repeating the children can use a normal recipe (without pictures), this being learnt by heart. It is really interesting because they learn to live a normal life, to do normal things. Some of the oldest children from school(15-16 years) are selling inside of school food like bakery cakes made by them, and others which are bought. The aim of this activity is to teach children to use money in order not to have problems in their own life when they go to shop. I noticed that teachers teach the children more how to behave normally (everything being based on practical activities), than delivering information. For me was a good experience to spend a week there because I could see how they work, which are their needs and what the teachers and psychologists should do in order to help them.I also could speak with some of the children who can speak English and I could work with them and play with them as well:). They tried to teach me danish and I could fell their enthusiasm and their emotions during our conversations, they were realy nice. Another good side of this experience is that I was permanentlly in contact with the psychologist of the school, she was doing some tests on pupils, and for one of the pupil I could help her because she was speaking English. But the most important thing was that I had the opportunity to talk with her more about the children from school, about their problemes and as well I found out more information about psychology tests, I have improved my knowledges about tests, about one of them which I didn't hear before. I can say that it was an interesting week because I did nice things, I have met nice people and I heard useful information. In the end of the week on Friday my last day at Fjordskolen I gave them a poster with some pictures and information about Romania, and I wrote the information in Danish in order to understand everyone what I wanted to transmit. And I gave them also some bracelets made by me in the summer, they were surprised and we enjoyed those moments:).
This is all from Fjordskolen! Tomorrow and the days after tomorrow I will go to another school which belongs to Fjordskolen as well but it is a different building with differnt children, more autistic children who are in a level of lower function.

I wish a good week!!!