Week 9 18th -25th (Cultural)

Over the course of Erasmus, I learnt lots in terms of cultural development. Last week I learnt a lot about the political system of the Netherlands and this week each country was given the opportunity to do a presentation of the political system of their own country. I thought this was a useful activity as I had never given much thought to politics before and I even enjoyed learning more about the politics of Northern Ireland when we had to make our presentation.

The Dutch political system is based on the Trias Politica idea of Charles Montesqieu. The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state. The government of the Netherlands strives for broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. Therefore, the Netherlands is often described as a consociation state. Similar to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands also have their own Royal family. Queen Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, born 31 January 1938) is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  Queen Beatrix's official title is Her Majesty Beatrix, by the Grace of God, Queen of the Netherlands; Princess of Orange-Nassau. The queen herself has limited power in terms of political decisions. However, she is a very important body in the Netherlands and takes pride in many special appearances and opening of new buildings.

I found that the Belgium political system was perhaps the most interesting yet troubled political system. Interestingly, Belgium had a record breaking 535 days without government in the years 2010-2011. This is due to the difficulty of Belgium occupying three cultural communities, the Flemish Community, the French and German-speaking Community. Unlike the Netherlands, the Belgium government struggled to gain a consensus. In September 2011, the six main negotiating parties of Belgium achieved a breakthrough agreement on local government of an electoral district with a Francophone majority comprising both Brussels and parts of the surrounding Flemish region. The agreement was finalised in October 2011, with only the remaining hurdle of budget allocation among Belgium’s local regions. Finally, in November 2011 a new government with francophone Socialist Elio Di Rupo as Prime Minister was formed on December 5, 2011. I found this extremely interesting as our Erasmus group has people from each part of the Belgium communities and it was interesting to see the difference in opinion on this topic and how running without government for such a long period of time was such a struggle.

Our flat dinner

This week we had our second flat dinner, whereby each country was to make a dish to share. We decided to make Pavlova, of which I was extremely proud of. The rest of the flat also made lots of other dishes including cheese fondue, salmon canapés, homemade pizzas and a chicken dish, all of which were delicious. I am starting to really enjoy our monthly tradition of flat dinners. I love trying new food and getting new recipes and ideas for cooking. I have definitely become a lot more adventurous in my eating habits while I have been in the Netherlands, I like to try new things and when we treat ourselves to go out for dinner I always try and pick something new. One of my favourite dishes is moussaka, which I had never tried before coming to the Netherlands. A few weeks ago our Greek flatmate’s parents came to stay for a few days. They own a restaurant in Greece and they were very kind to us and made our whole flat a range of traditional Greek foods.

Our home-made Pavlova

Week 8 11th-18th March (Personal)

This week I taught my first Dutch class in Ulenhof College. I was given the opportunity to take two science classes. Luckily enough the classes are taught in English, therefore language will not be a problem. However, I was anxious about the experience as I was unsure if the pupils would find my accent hard to understand.  Yet, the main dilemma was that the classroom I was teaching in had no smart board. Reflecting on my previous experiences of teaching in Northern Ireland I have always had the luxury of a smart board and I would always create a PowerPoint for each lesson. The ‘no white board situation’ will be a challenge and it highlights the extent to which I have relied on technology in the past. Nonetheless, I think it will be a good experience to help me embrace activities that don’t rely on ICT. 

To begin the lesson I thought it would be worthwhile to introduce a few key points about Northern Ireland. The pupils really enjoyed the personal touch and got really involved asking more questions about Northern Ireland. One of my pictures of Northern Ireland was of Rory Mc Ilroy, I couldn’t believe that not one of the pupils in either of my classes, nor the teachers, knew who he was. Just shows that golf isn’t such a big sport in the Netherlands. Teaching in a Dutch classroom was quite similar to home; the pupils in my class are really well behaved which made the classes easier to teach. In the lessons, I taught three experiments that I had never done before. Luckily enough they were all a success and no one managed to set anyone on fire. Overall the classes went well and I received thumbs up from the teacher, so I was very pleased. Next week my class are on a school trip to London and therefore I do not to have any lessons next week. Yeah!!

Out for dinner with the flat mates

This week we had a flat dinner party in a lovely Italian restaurant in Nijmegen, I had lasagne washed down with some fine wine. It was good fun spending some time with all the flat mates. Over the past two months our flat has grown so close, we’re like a close-knit family now. I would never have expected to get so close to people from all different cultures. The experience is priceless and I know it’ll be hard saying bye to everyone at the end of this experience. We’ve already started planning summer visits to ensure we all keep in touch. Time is really flying here and I’m determined to make the most of it.

This week Rachel and I also joined the university gym. I’m proud to say that we’ve already been twice this week. However, I’m not so sure how long we’ll keep it up but if all else fails at least the cycling will keep us fit.

Celebrating St. Patrick's day with all our Erasmus friends

This Saturday it was St. Patrick’s Day. We decided to celebrate it in style by having a pub crawl around Nijmegen. We gathered up all our Erasmus friends and we went to a few famous pubs in Nijmegen. Typically we ended the pub crawl in the Irish pub, where we watched England play Ireland in the rugby. Unfortunately we lost 30 to 9; nonetheless we still had a great St. Patrick’s Day with all our Erasmus friends. 

Rachel and I with our Guinness hats.

At the second bar of the Pub Crawl.

Week 7 3rd-10th March (Professional/Cultural)

I found teaching placement interesting this week as I got the opportunity to observe class progress meetings. All the teachers that teach a specific class will gather and talk about the class and compare how the child is doing in one class in comparison to the other. Most of the meetings where in Dutch but they held one in English for my benefit. It was interesting watching the teachers work together and share ideas. I think meetings like this would be valuable for every school.

This week was the last class of the ‘Re-thinking education’ module. Our first task was to make a presentation on the re-former school that we had visited in week two. In my case, this was a Freinet School. The other groups had the opportunity to tell the group about their visits to other reformer schools. Having read about the other re-former Schools, I found it fascinating hearing the presentations and seeing the photos of what they are actually like. It was especially worthwhile hearing each groups opinion on the schools. I have learnt a lot from visiting the re-former schools, for example Experienced Based Learning (EBL), creativity and innovation are central to my lesson planning since starting the re-thinking education module. The entire module has opened my eyes and made me think of education in a different light. It has given me a lot of innovative ideas to bring home to classrooms in Northern Ireland.

Our second task was to design our ‘Ideal School’. Our group meet up on numerous occasions to discuss the main aspects that we wished to include in our ideal school. I found it interesting that each person in our group represented a different country with different educational systems and yet the group’s vision on our ‘Ideal school’ was very similar. We decided that our school would be centred on learning through discovery and experience based learning. We wanted our school to have a good sense of community with the younger and older students working together so they can learn from each other. Each class would be mixed age and ability, with a maximum of 20 people per class. We decided that we didn’t want our school to have an excess of rules and so we introduced one simple rule of ‘Respect the People and Respect the Environment’

I was pleased with the outcome of our ‘ideal School’. We spent the whole day sticking, painting, glueing and cutting materials to build our ‘ideal school’. The experience was fun and it brought all our new ideas about education together.

Our 'Ideal School'

Jonny came to visit this weekend, so I decided it would be interesting to explore a few towns in the Netherlands. We choose three cities; Delft, Hague and Amsterdam. Delft is a small city located in the west of the Netherlands about halfway between Rotterdam and The Hague. It is known to be one of the prettiest cities in Holland. Delft is probably best known for the blue and white porcelain and pottery that originates from the area known as Delftware. Dutch royal family also lives in Delft.

Delft

Hague is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government and parliament,  the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands which constitutionally is Amsterdam. All foreign embassies in the Netherlands and 150 international organisations are located in the city, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which makes Hague one of the major cities hosting the United Nations, along with New York, Vienna and Geneva.

Hague

Amsterdam

Week 6 26th Feb - 3rd March (Professional)

This week has been successful in terms of developing my professional experience as a training teacher. My placement school is called Ulenhof College. I have found a number of differences between the Ulenhof College and the typical Northern Irish School. Firstly Dutch schools generally start earlier, for example my placement school starts at 8:15 am, whereas schools at home would usually start around 9am. However, the schools finish around the same time, usually around 3:30pm. In addition, most pupils would cycle to school in the Netherlands instead of getting the bus to school. Therefore, I found it odd that my placement school does not have a bus park.

My placement school also holds meetings once a month about every class. For example all the teachers across all subjects will meet to discuss the progress of each pupil across each subject area. I found this extremely interesting as most schools at home would not do this. It is clear that there are valuable benefits from such meetings in terms of discovering areas where pupils are struggling or need extra help. It is also valuable as it allows time for teachers to work together and learn good practices from each other. Another difference I noticed was that my placement school has a cleaning rota. This is where a different form class is responsible for cleaning the halls and emptying the bins each week. Perhaps this is something that could be useful to implement in Northern Irish schools to help pupils respect their school.

 My placement school; Ulenhof College

This week, as part of the re-thinking education module, the whole class had a visit to a Waldorf (Steiner) school. Before the visit I read about the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner and how the Waldorf School was formed. I read about how the Waldorf approach emphasises the role of imagination in learning and focuses on developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytical component. The overall goal of the approach is to allow young people to develop into free, moral and integrated individuals.

The school we visited was called Rudolf Steiner School De Meander. Upon arrival we were greeted by the headmaster. He explained that the school wants the pupil to imitate what the teachers do, so if the teacher cooks then the child will also cook. Therefore, they treat the children like adults at such a young age. They also value the importance of children cleaning up after themselves. This helps each child maintain good habits, by showing respect to the environment and to each other. There are no plastic toys to be found in the school as they prefer to use objects from nature. This was visible when we visited the playground. Everything in the playground was made with wood and the basketball net was made with a basket with its bottom cut off.

 The school had no computers and no interactive whiteboards. The headmaster explained that they do not believe in using computers for teaching, as it is the virtual world and not real. I found this extremely odd as computers are such a big part of today’s society, it is strange that a school would not want to do this as surely the pupils will need to use computers in future life. Lacking ICT skills may have serious consequences in terms of employability.

In the Waldorf School the pupil’s relationship with the teacher is very important and teachers would shake hands with each pupil at the start and at the end of each class. The curriculum is based on learning about things in the real world and therefore creativity and music are very important. The first two hours of school from 8:30 to 10:30 is usually a lesson on math or language. It was interesting to find out that the school does not use text books. The class will have a plan of what they have to learn but the teacher and pupils together will decide how they will learn this.

 Rudolf Steiner School De Meander

The school promotes confidence in every child as they do not believe that anyone should tell you how you should live or behave. The headmaster explained that by the time each pupil is 18 years old they know their potential and know what they want from their life. They are equipped and ready to become a member of society. I found this point extremely interesting as I feel this is nearly opposite in Northern Ireland. From my experience, I feel that most people back home don’t recognise their full potential and a lot of students will leave school and university still feeling unsure of what career they wish to follow. I think the pupils are a lot more independent and confident in comparison to Northern Irish schools. I found it interesting that the headmaster explained how there is scientific research to explain how pupils who attend the Waldorf schools do not do as good in exams in comparison to a standard Dutch school child. However, he explained that research has also suggested that the pupils are more interested in continuing to learn, whereas at the end of school other pupils tend to be exhausted from learning. This is extremely interesting as it is clear that these pupils will have valuable skills in lifelong learning and will continue to learn more throughout their lives.

Below are a few photos of more exciting things we did this week

Dinnner party with our St.Marys and Spanish friends

 Us mature 21 year olds enjoying a game of hide and seek

Shopping visit to a local town Arnhem

Week 5 19th-26th Feb (Personal)

 Rachel, Daniel, Samantha and I, lost in Amsterdam.

This week was a public holiday in the Netherlands, therefore we had no classes. We thought we would begin our week off with a trip to Amsterdam. Samatha Jobb (a close friend from our class in Stranmillis) flew out to meet us in Amsterdam along with her fiancé. We had a ball of a weekend. We visited the Anne Frank museum which I found extremely interesting. We managed to get lost a number of times over the weekend, which was expected as over the first five weeks of our trip we’ve concluded that Rachel, Daniel and I all have a terrible sense of direction. However getting lost has lead us to rather interesting places for example the red light district. Interesting as it was, I can happily say I’d rather not visit that area ever again but it was an eye-opener for sure!

 Having fun in Amsterdam

When we arrived back at Nijmegen we had a couple more visitors at our door. Daniels cousin and her fiancé had arrived for a couple of days. We celebrated their arrival by making pancakes for pancake Tuesday. They landed in carnival week which was the perfect time to take them out and join in on the carnival celebrations in Nijmegen.

Rachel and I making pancakes, dressed as cats to celebrate Carnival.

Rachel and I had booked a trip to Milan from Wednesday to Saturday. Daniel decided not to join as his cousins where still visiting. We were worried that Daniel might starve when we where away as Daniel cooking skills are perhaps not the best. Daniel has even found difficulty when micro-waving beans. No doubt his diet over those few days would consist of rich tea with jam, an odd but strangely yummy food that we have grown to love in our time in Nijmegen.

Daniels cousin Victoria and her Fiancé come to visit

When we arrived in Milan the sun was blazing and the temperature was 17oC . It was lovely to soak up a few sun rays after the terrible snowy and cold weather we have had in Nijmegen over the last few weeks. We stayed in Hotel Amadeus which was a budget hotel. However, it was ideal and only 3 minute walk from the central station in Milan. Milan was amazing the architecture of the buildings was outstanding and the shopping (or window shopping in our case) was incredible. The amount of designer shops was indescribable. Italy is world famous for its ice-cream, and Milan boasts some of the most reputable ice cream parlours in the country with almost one in every corner. In addition, the pasta and pizza was unreal. Italian food is without a doubt my favourite type of food.  

Rachel and I standing infront of the Duomo Cathedral in Milan

We visited most of the main sites such as the Duomo Cathedral which dates back to the 14^th century and the Santa Maria delle Grazie Church where Da Vinci painted his masterpiece the ‘Last Supper’. We also visited the Naviglio della Martesana which is the canal area of Milan that was originally constructed with the chief purpose to provide the fields of the area with water. Later, it was also used as a method of transportation between Milan and Bergamo, Brescia, and the Adda Valley. However, nowadays it is lined with fine Italian restaurants and bars that were enjoyable to visit. We had a fantastic time in Milan and I would love to visit again, preferably next visit I will have more money so I can treat myself.

Having a splendid time window shopping in Milan.

Week 4 12th-19th Feb (Cultural)

This week I finally got the opportunity to visit my placement school for the first time. Luckily I was placed with another Dutch student. Hopefully, this will help with language and cultural differences. In addition, I was pleased to be placed with a Dutch student as I will hopefully gain a deeper understanding of the Dutch education system and he will be able to help with any difficulties that may arise within placement. My placement school is located within the town of Doetichem. It is a typical Dutch High school with a capacity of 1200 pupils. Unfortunately, the total journey time to the school is two and a half hours and the school starts at 8:15. As a result, I’ll be expecting early morning starts over the coming weeks. It is usual for the Dutch school to start around 8am and it is also normal for students to travel a distance to their placement school. Schools in the Netherlands do not readily take on student teachers in comparison to schools in Northern Ireland. If a school decides they will take a student, they will usually only take on one student. Therefore, there is a lot of competition to get a placement school that is close and in most cases students have to travel a fair distance to school. Travelling for two and a half hours wouldn’t be acceptable in Northern Ireland.

 The ethos of the school is very relaxed. It is similar to that of a local FE college in Northern Ireland . The school itself has superb facilities, with smart boards in most classrooms. The school had specifically requested for an English speaking Math and Science student and upon arrival I found out that there were a number of Math and Science classes in the school that are taught in English. I was pleased and privileged that they had asked for me and I am determined to make the most of this opportunity. I had a meeting with the head teacher tutor who arranged for our next visit when we will be able to observe classes for the first time. I am very excited to observe a Dutch class as I am intrigued to observe the difference in teaching styles and the relationship between teacher and pupil.

On Valentines night we decided to have an international flat dinner whereby everyone in the flat cooked a meal from their home country. We decorated the flat kitchen and Rachel, Daniel and I decided to make Sheppard’s Pie as our contribution to the meal. The two Spanish boys made Spanish Omelette, the Greek girls made a speciality Greek Salad and the Belgian girls made a Belgian Chocolate Mousse for dessert. The food was amazing and everyone enjoyed tasting food from all the representative countries. One of the advantages of living with a range of different cultures is getting to taste all their different foods, especially the Belgians as they always have a radiant supply of Belgian chocolates.

                                                            Our flat dinner party

This week was the beginning of the Carnival festivities. Carnival is a festive season which is celebrated in the Netherlands and it occurs immediately before Lent. The main events are usually during February. Carnival is a festival traditionally held in Catholic societies and the Protestant areas usually do not have Carnival celebrations. Therefore, Carnival is mainly celebrated in the southern parts of the Netherlands as these are the mainly Catholic areas. Carnival in the Netherlands is also called "Vastenavond" or "Vastelaovend". Dutch Carnival is officially celebrated on the Sunday through to Tuesday, preceding Ash Wednesday.

Carnival typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life. The bars in Nijmegen have already started the carnival parties this week and hopefully next week I will get the opportunity to visit a parade to celebrate Carnival.

Enjoying a Carnival night out with my Spanish, Greek and Belgium friends

Week 3 5th -12th February (Professional)

Our school placements still hadn’t been finalised yet, and therefore we had Monday free. Rachel, Daniel and I decided to visit the local town of Utrecht. This is the fourth biggest town in the Netherlands and it is located in the centre of the country. The town was beautiful and had stunning canals and a multitude of old historic buildings. Daniel described the town as similar to Amsterdam, so we are planning to visit it over the coming weeks. Utrecht had a substantial amount of shops, which as you can imagine kept Rachel and I busy all day, poor Daniel had to trail around girls’ shops for the majority of the day. It was a worthwhile trip to see another town of the Netherlands.

 Daniel and I in Utrecht

In classes this week, I learnt about the different types of schools in the Netherlands. The main four school types are the Freinet School, Dalton School, Jenaplan School and Montessori School. This week within the module of re-thinking education I was given the opportunity to visit a Freinet Primary School. I was extremely excited and anxious about the experience as it would be my first visit to a Dutch school. One of the main differences I have found is that there is commonly no school uniform in the Netherlands and the teachers themselves dress casually to work, many wearing jeans, which is something that is not common or seen as acceptable at home.

Photograph taken in the main hallway of the Freinet School

The visit to the Freinet School was an eye-opener. I have never seen so much confidence in children so young. The Freinet School is based around pupils deciding what they want to learn. The purpose of this is so that pupils are highly motivated as they about topics that they are interested in. The school values that pupils learn through experiences and interactions with other. I found it interesting that every classroom has a budget and the pupils themselves have to decide what it is spent on. Even as young as four, the pupils will decide what they want to buy for the classroom and then present their argument to the teacher in a group interview. Clearly there are substantial benefits that can be gained from such an activity such as numeracy skills, learning how to co-operate and make effective decisions. The Head Teacher explained that they have strategies for numeracy and literacy requirements, however everything else is what the pupils want to learn and each day the pupils have regular time to do their own learning, may this be reading a book or painting a picture. This allows the pupils to gain more independence in their learning and helps the pupils to use their own initiative. This type of school seemed very different to the typical ‘spoon feeding’ that happens in the Northern Irish school. However, I do question whether it is suitable to give so much independence to the pupils at such a young age.Hopefully, I will get a better insight into this area over the coming weeks.

On our last class of the week we had to give presentations on the education system in our country. I found this extremely interesting to hear more about the diverse structures of the education systems across countries. I was surprised to find that there the majority of educational systems were similar to our own. I am intrigued to learn more over the coming weeks.

On Friday evening Rachel and I got a visit from the boyfriends and we all went out along with Daniel and had a big yummy meal in Nijmegen. I was excited to show them our new home in Nijmegen and introduce them to all our new Erasmus friends. We had a great weekend and on Sunday it was time for the boys to catch the flight home.

                                                           The boyfriends come to visit