Week 13 April 15th- 22nd Professional/Cultural

This week I have spent a considerable amount of time developing my professional competences as a training teacher. Luckily within my school placement I have been placed with a superb teacher who has gone out of his way numerous times to ensure I am making the most of my experience in Ulenhof College. The previous week, my teacher had video recorded my teaching. I was exceedingly anxious to watch the video back. This was the first time I had ever been recorded teaching. It was interesting watching the video as I could clearly distinguish my strengths and areas that needed improvement. I think I need to be more relaxed with the class as the teaching style in the Netherlands is slightly more casual than back home. I think it was good that I kept circulating around the classroom and checking pupils’ progress when completing the set exercises. By doing this I was able to tell who was working effectively. It also helped keep a good pace with the lesson. I have found learning the names of the pupils in my class quite problematic as they are not typical names from home and so I am worried of pronouncing the names incorrectly. However, my teacher has reassured me that I should give it a go and if I get the name wrong I should laugh it off and learn from the experience. I am thoroughly enjoying my time in Ulenhof College and already I can see that the experience has helped to develop towards becoming a better teacher.

Inside Ulenhof College

This week I had my first experience in a Dutch cinema. Surprisingly, the experience wasn’t a lot different from a cinema at home. It is interesting that all the films in the Netherlands are shown in English. In Belgium and France and other countries the films are changed, but in the Netherlands they leave them in English and just add the subtitles. Perhaps, this could be another reason why the Dutch speak such good English. Interestingly, the cinema sells alcohol. This is something that would never been seen at a cinema in Northern Ireland. Similarly, The Dutch ice-skating rink and bowling alley also have pubs in them.

This week the student union had planned a trip for the Erasmus group to visit a local Dutch brewery in Nijmegen. We learnt about the process of how beer is made and even got to taste a range of beers. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. However, I would have preferred if it had been wine tasting rather than beer as I am not a big beer fan. We also got to taste a few typical Dutch snacks which was the part of the tour that I found most interesting.

The Brewery in Nijmegen

Week 12 8th-15th April (Personal/Cultural)

Easter Sunday had finally arrived and after starving myself of chocolate for the past 40 days of Lent, I can happily say I was more than excited to see this day come. On Easter Sunday we had our flight home from Rome which flew into Dusseldorf airport, before we got the train back to Nijmegen we decided to eat in a local German Restaurant to celebrate the occasion. I have surprisingly become rather fond of the German cuisine. The next couple of days we relaxed back at Vossenveld while grazing on lots of chocolate. Classes started back on Wednesday with our new modules of Global citizenship and Social Responsibility. I found the new courses interesting and I am excited for the coming week’s lessons in these classes. On Friday it was our Greek flatmate’s birthday (Iro) and she decided to make us all some of her Greek speciality dishes with one of my favourites being Tzatziki. It is delicious. Tzatziki is made of strained yoghurt, mixed with cucumbers, carrot, garlic, salt, olive oil, and pepper. Tzatziki is served cold and is often served with bread (loaf or pita). 

 Iros Greek themed birthday party

On Saturday evening, our Eramus group had a cocktail party whereby each floor had to create their own cocktail and dress up like movie stars. Our floor decided to make a non-frozen version of a strawberry daiquiri and it was delicious. All in all we had had a great night, dancing, laughing, and drinking with all our Erasmus friends.

Having fun at the Erasmus cocktail party

This week we also booked our next trip away over the may vacation. May vacation in the Netherlands is from the 30^th April to 6^th May. The 30^th of April is Queen’s day in the Netherlands. It is a traditional celebratory day in the Netherlands. This day is also known as "Koninginnedag". Queens’s day is a national holiday in the Netherlands. It is celebrated in honour of the Queen's birthday which is the 30th of April. Interestingly, this day is not the birthday of Queen Beatrix (The current Queen of the Netherlands). It is the birthday of her mother, Queen Juliana. Queen Beatrix decided to keep this date, because her own birthday is the 31^st of January is in the winter. Queen's Day is also an occasion to showcase the world-famous ‘orange craze’. Therefore, it is normal for people to wear orange clothing and creative orange accessories on this day. The colour orange represents the name of the Dutch royal family and the House of Orange. In Amsterdam, on Queens’s day it is normal to see orange banners and orange coloured foods and drinks. I am excited to join in the orange craze in Amsterdam on Queens’s day this year.

Dutch people start celebrating Queen's Day on the evening of the day before. Usually the evening before, and this is called Koninginnenacht, Queen's Night. The clubs in Amsterdam organize special festivities and from what I have heard, for young people this is the night to be in Amsterdam. The atmosphere in the city is buzzing at this time and I also know that Amsterdam hotels book up early around this time.  Amsterdam is very busy on this night as many young people move from one party to another, while others prepare the next day market.

After celebrating Queen’s Day in Amsterdam we have planned to fly to Geneva the flowing day. We plan to stay in Geneva for two days and we have also booked a flight to Barcelona to follow this trip in hope that we will catch a few rays of sun. I am very excited about the weeks ahead.

Week 11 1st-8th April (Personal)

This week we had Easter break and what a week it was. We decided as we had time of we wanted to do a spot of travelling. Our trip of took us to Dusseldorf, Vienna and Rome.

Our flight to Vienna was booked to fly out of Dusseldorf airport and therefore we decided that it would be worthwhile to book a hotel for a night so that we could see the city of Dusseldorf. Dusseldorf is a modern and vibrant city although it has retained plenty of traditional character. The main tourist attractions in Dusseldorf include the Rheinufer Promenade which has beautiful riverside walking trails. On our second day in Dusseldorf there was a German market occupying miles of the promenade. Honestly, I have never experienced anything like it- the amount of different types of food, the array of people walking up and down the promenade while grabbing a bite to eat and enjoying a few beers. Needless to say the atmosphere was bustling. Now I can say I have experience a proper German market.

 German markets along the Promenade of Dusseldorf

Dinner in Dusseldorf; Enjoying some typical German food

Dusseldorf is also a popular city due to its good shopping which is mainly located on Konigsalle. It is also well known for its vibrant nightlife which is found in the Old town area-also known as the Alstradt district; which was one of my favourite highlights of Dusseldorf. The busy nightlife with many different types of busy bars making the whole atmosphere of the town beaming, not to mention the scrumptious strawberry daiquiris.

Our next part of the trip took us to Vienna. Luckily one of our friends (Laura) from our Erasmus group lives in Vienna and so she had asked us to stay with her. She lives in a beautiful apartment which is a 5 minute walk from the main shopping street.

 Rachel, Laura and I enjoying the view of Schloss Schönbrunn Palace.

Sightseeing in Vienna

Vienna is awesome and it was especially helpful having our own personal tour guide. We managed to see all the main attractions in Vienna including Schloss Schönbrunn Palace, St Stephens Cathedral which were two of my favourites. Vienna is a modern and extremely clean city, the architecture of the grand buildings where beautiful. It was nice not just being a tourist but also experiencing how Austrian people live. Laura and her friends took us to a local club and introduced us to all their friends. Everyone we met where lovely and Vienna is a truly beautiful city.

Rachel and I at the Trevi fountain

Our last stop was Rome. It would be hard to put into words how great Rome was. For this part of the trip Rachel’s boyfriend and my boyfriend came out to meet us. We had four full days in Rome and for most of it the weather was beautiful. We managed to see all the main attractions including the Colesseum, the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, The Vatican and many more. We took full advantage of trying out all the best Italian pasta and pizza dishes and tasting the best Italian wines. I am only home and already, I want to go back. Although I am glad to give my feet a rest after all the walking I have done this week! However, I cannot express enough what a fantastic week I have had.

 At the Collesseum in Rome

Robbie, Rachel, Jonny and I, Rome 2012.

Week 10 25th March- 1st April ( Cultural/Personal)

This week the weather in the Netherlands was beautiful, spring is well and truly here at last. I took full advantage of this blissful weather by sunbathing outside in the afternoons alongside the canal beside our student accommodation. Also, due to the lovely weather went exploring some of the beautiful parks in Nijmegen.

Exploring Nijmegen

On school placement this week I was given the opportunity to take three science lessons. Unfortunately, the class teacher was on a school trip to Italy and therefore I would be responsible to take the class on my own. I was slightly anxious about the experience but the teacher reassured me he had every confidence that the lessons would be a success. He decided that it would be worthwhile to video-record the lessons and therefore we could watch them back together and discuss my progress. Luckily, the lessons went well, the classes were well behaved and the pupils completed all the work I had planned for them. It will be interesting to see the videos back. I have never had my lessons videoed before so it will be a good experience and I am excited to see the footage. Hopefully, I will learn a lot from this experience and it will undoubtedly help my professional development as a training teacher.

 Old-fashioned windmills in the Open Air museum

This week within the module of 'Dutch culture and society' we had a trip to a museum. The museum we visited was the Open Air Museum in Arnhem which is the town located next to Nijmegen. The museum is similar to the Ulster Folk and transport museum back home. This year the museum was celebrating its 100^th anniversary. The museum boasts a range of Old Dutch farmhouse buildings, windmills, churches, schools and the museum also contains its own fully functional old-fashioned tram. It was interesting to see and hear how people in the Netherlands used to live and make and living. We also where shown how the Dutch used to make paper, milk, cheese and honey. There was a section in the museum that displayed old-style Dutch clothing and head wear. I found the headwear most interesting. In the Netherlands it was traditional for women to wear a Dutch cap or Dutch bonnet. It was usually made of white cotton or lace. However, it is interestingly characterized by triangular flaps or wings that turn up on either side. This can be seen in the photograph below.

       The Dutch cap or bonnet which is characterised by triangular flaps or wings.

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