Day 9

They fixed the water last night, yay! Then they started closing the hole they made and stamping the ground with a soil compactor - I felt it laying in bed (3rd floor). But well, this morning I could take a (rather cold, because the hot water was not working properly..) shower \o/. 

This afternoon I read an e-mail from a fellow student stating that she reads my blog (hi Christa!), that's really nice to hear! If you also read my blog and would like to comment on something (or have any questions), feel free to do so in the dedicated space below!
On to my day today: 

I had a lesson to prepare today! Because tomorrow I'll teach my first lesson here! Yes, Exciting! 

Synaptic transmission will be the lesson's theme. I haven't taught the nervous system yet, but how hard can it be really. The IB book is _very_ clear, the IB syllabus states what the students need to know. But I wanted to make the lesson a bit more fun than having the students listen to me for 80 minutes and take notes (/read facebook, reddit, tumblr, whatnot). 

Upon reading the chapter, a flip book came to mind. Flip books are books with drawings that change slightly over consecutive pages, with your thumb you can let these pages slide fastly one after another to see an animation. As this topic is about nerve stimuli - impulses - and the students need to understand and know the different steps, I thought it might be fun for them to draw it in their own flip book. But.. how to measure how long it takes for someone to draw a 9 page flipbook.. yeah, just timing it myself seemed to be the most logical option. The answer was: about 40 minutes (but I already understand the process). The lesson will be 80 minutes. Since the students are motivated, I think they can do this task within an hour. To fill up the other 20 minutes, I found a youtube video of a doctor investigating a Parkinson patient and although he uses a lot of jargon, I think it will be interesting to use a medical perspective to make the synapses come to live. What better way to show than with an illustration of what happens when it does not work correctly. Additionally, in their IB books is a task about meds for Parkinson's disease, and how they affect the synaptic impulses. After viewing the video, they can do the task, we will then discuss the task on Thursday and move on. Lena seemed to be pleased with this idea too. 

In the afternoon, I observed Lena teaching her final year IB class (the one that could not get enough bio lessons before their exam). Today, fortunately I must say, they were a bit more talkative. The lesson started at 15.00 and went on till 16.15, I suppose the timing was not helping them concentrate. 

Also I was able to plan my first interview for my research today, we will do that tomorrow (planning that went ever so smoothly again). On Thursday there's a 'pythagoras quest', a kind of math olympiad that fits in with my research rather well. Lena asked the organiser if I would be welcome to have a look, we will see if that works out, should be interesting! 

Day 7 & 8

Yesterday, day 7, was spent indoors, finishing a study report. Therefore, nothing much to blog about.

So today, day 8, I will make up for that. I stood up at 8, had a shower, made breakfast, looked through the material for Wednesday's lesson (which I'll be teaching) and went to school. 

I started by observing a lesson with Cecilia (a q&a session before a test) and then had a meeting with Lena to discuss my lesson ideas for her IB class (I'll teach them Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and possibly next week). Also, I bought lunch tickets today, so now I can enjoy 10 lunch meals (which are excellent) and save me the trouble of cooking dinner. 

In the afternoon I met up with Cecilia and another bio colleague to discuss next term's planning for their classes, I will be teaching one of her classes as well and now know what to prepare for Friday's lesson.

Having everything under controll and prepared, I left school again at around three. Winds are blowing tremendously over Malmö today, it was partly sunny and cloudy. I cycled home, but decided to keep on cycling and check out the coast. There is an amazing park close to the waterline stretching for kilometers. There are bike and walking lanes, there is a road for cars leading to a place with only parking places for disabled people. There are a couple of football fields, stretches of grassland and sand stretches for what I can only imagine to be dedicated for horseback riding. And then of course there are beaches. I took some pictures but the wind was blowing so uncomfortably hard that I quickly decided to go back home.

On returning, I remembered that when I had left this morning, the water was not working. I met Stella in the kitchen to tell me that it still was not working. They had found a major leak and were digging holes in the street to fix it, the whole street has got no water.

Stella and Soren went out to get some water later, actually, there is a pipe leaking fresh water in the streets and they were able to get some water there. For drinking we now have bottled water. Outside they are pulling an all-nighter to fix it, but nothing too quickly, as overtime is payed double. Let's see if we are able to have a shower in the morning.

Day 6

Well, apparently I was tired. I fell asleep at 23.15 last night and woke up at 11.11. Sleeping this long is very unusual for me, but today I didn't really mind. Half an hour passed before I was ready to get out of bed and fix some breakfast. Stella and Sören were already awake and we had an interesting chat about well.. a range of subjects actually.
The afternoon was spent browsing the web and walking through the neighbourhood, today's weather: sunshine & 17 degrees C, Swedes walking in T-shirts all over the place. I decided to go to Lidl, the one supermarket in the close proximity of the house that I did not yet visit. Ica, which is across the street, is like the Dutch Albert Heijn. Then there's Hemköp, which is more like Plus/Jumbo. And Coop, where I have not been this week, it's not too close to where I tend to come (Hemsköp is close to the school, Ica and Lidl are close to each other and close to the house).

Ica was the first grocery store I visited, the Monday night of my arrival. It was a rather fun experience. I walked into the store to find flowers, several fridges with dairy products, a back wall with butcher & cheese department and in the middle a couple of rows with freezers. Asking myself if this was really it, or if they closed down a part of the store because it was the second day of easter, I walked on to find a corridor with crisps and snacks. Deciding to take my chances and walk into the corridor, I found another department with non-food products (beauty stuff, postcards etc.) and another corridor. Following the path, another corridor, and another one, the fruits department, another corridor, holy.. another corridor.. rows and rows of packaged goods, pastas, rice, sauces, then came the bread, pastries, flour, this store did not come to an end.. Well ofcourse in the end it did. And then I had to walk the whole way back, as the pay desks were over at the fridge department.
On Tuesday and Friday I visited two different Hemsköp shops, both had a normal grocery build up. Lidl is not different from the ones in the Netherlands or Germany.

Price-wise I feel that I pay twice the amount in Ica and Hemsköp as what I would pay in the Netherlands. At Lidl I got more value for money so I guess they'll see me more often over there.

Tonight I worked on some study-stuff and when I pulled the plug, it rained! Apparently rain is also possible in Malmö! Now: another cup of tea and time to relax.

Day 5

Last day of the week already. Today I started at school at 8. 8. 8 is no time to start, I tell you. I was on time though, thanks to the bike my trip to school can now highly conveniently be done within 10 minutes. First off the first DP year (Diploma Program - 2 years in total) class with Lena (the one with the 9 students that sat down quietly and started writing) - exact copy of Wednesday's lesson, with a slightly different day theme ofcourse. I will be teaching this class next week, for 3x80 minutes in total, should be interesting as I plan to incorporate some active learning strategy instead of the passive ones I so far observed. Lena gave me the freedom to do whatever I like, as long as I stick to the syllabus (kind of the IBible) - willdo!
Then, I observed Cecilia's pre-IB class (which I'll probably be teaching next week or the week after as well). This class had been divided in groups and each group has been working on presentations about several diets (one diet per group), today was the day of their presentations and it was nice to see a very different type of lesson. Cecilia sat next to me in the back and graded the students during their presentations using a rubric, great idea.
When the lesson ended, Lena, Cecilia and I discussed what the following three weeks would look like and made some kind of schedule. We discussed my research project and I will dive into that next week as well. Also, I will be able to do a 'whatever I want' practical lesson (ofcourse it should be on topic..).. we'll see what that'll bring :D.

After this meeting it was time for lunch. The weather again was really nice today, everyone brought sandwiches to school but me, so I figured I'd go out for a walk and get myself a sandwich (at the same place where I got the kladdkaka... as that was very good and very close to school I thought I might as well go there...). Went to that place, ordered a tuna sandwich, payed 65 krona (DAFUQ *kuch*), waited.. and waited.. and waited.. did they still have to slaughter that tuna? still waiting.. and there it was. I thanked the lady and walked out the door with my package. There is no other word for it, it was a package. So, I walked back to school, to the teachers chamber, and started unpacking. Lo and behold, the most monstrous tuna sandwich I've ever seen. This was certainly not what I thought would happen upon ordering (maybe half a baguette with tuna, but not this..). If you've ever eaten at laplace, you know these panini sandwiches. This was 2 - 2.5 panini sandwich in one, with more toppings (I even found dille in there..). Well, Tuesday we already established that Lunch = Dinner here, so how could I possibly ever have expected something else. I dug in and managed to eat most of it and agreed never to order a sandwich in that place again (although it was nice). Unfortunately, I do not have a picture. It wouldn't have fit in one picture anyway.

The afternoonclass I got to observe was Lena's DP-year 2 class, they have their final exam in May and are in a series of revision lessons, today was about inheritance. It was nice to see her interaction with this class, they are very eager to obtain all information they can get, they want as many lessons as possible. The 80 minutes were interesting and over before I knew it. Then, weekend.

Sun was shining and I decided to cycle into town and walk around the other part of the city centre (the part I did not cover on Wednesday). Because they have so much space in Sweden, streets are broad. This prolongs a shopping trip as I zigzag through the streets. Then the shops are insanely stylish, in some shops I just want to buy everything. Luckily, my luggage has weight limitations, therefore, I did not buy anything (let's see how long that argument holds :)).

Day 4

Today, nothing much was going on at school, the one lesson I could go to was cancelled. So, I spent the day in my room resting & studying.
No long stories today, just a couple of pictures of the house I currently reside in.

Day 3

Or should I say, Day 1. 8:30 I was at the school, being picked up by my supervisor Lena in the central hall. Within half an hour, I had met the principal, the heads of the IB program, several science teachers, a school pass was organized, I knew where the coffee machines and the different classrooms were and I was ready for my first lesson observation. Are you still with me? Things tend to keep going _smoothly_ here.
First lesson observation: Cecilia taught a pre-IB class. It was early in the morning (9.05) and the students just have had Easter break, but wow.. what are these students quiet. When the teacher talks, you listen, and take notes. No disciplinary measurements needed from the teacher's side at all. I must say I was pretty amazed.
Second lesson observation: 10.15, Lena teaches an IB class muscle contraction & nervous cells (action potentials etc.). It is a class of 9, they sit down, open their notebooks/MacBooks, she starts writing on the whiteboard (seriously *writing* on the witeboard, using up all of it, and it is about 3 meters long, wiping parts and using the space again...) and the students take notes without comment. Learning as it seems, is the student's own responsibility, and they tend to take it very seriously. When Lena wants to check their understanding, she asks some questions, when students need something clarified, they raise their hand. It all runs so... smooth (I'm starting to see a pattern here).
After this lesson, there was a break, in which there was time for lunch. A school lunch: dinner. You can take as much as you like for one coupon. I noticed the students were not handing in any coupons and asked why: 'oh, the lunch is free for the students', free school, free lunch, why don't we have that.
I am for sure switching my dinner to lunch time, groceries are expensive and I really don't need two hot meals a day (and I really don't fancy cooking for myself that much).
Third lesson observation: 13.25, Cecilia teaches another pre-IB class and thank god, she asks me to sit in the back because these are a hand ful, according to her... So I took place in the back, and watched how she got the classes attention to start the lesson, within three words they were quiet (hand ful of whut?). She too taught using the whiteboard, and the students started taking notes.

The intrinsic motivation seems to be very high in these scholars. I have hardly seen any disciplinary measurements taken. The classes I observed today were all taught in more or less the same way, the teacher talks / explains using the whiteboards, students are quietly taking notes. Sometimes the teacher asks questions to check for understanding, then continues explaining the topic. I wonder if they ever use differentiation in their lessons (give different tasks to different levels) or how they cater for differences in needs of different students. This I hope to find out on Friday, as tomorrow there won't be any classes for me to observe!

After school today, I decided to have a walk around town. First, I fueled up at a coffee shop (systrar & bröder) with kladdkaka (it was VERY good) and cappuccino. Then, I started walking passing teaterparken, the opera, another park, into & through the triangeln shopping mall (nothing too special there), via Södra Förstadsgatan (one of the shopping streets) to the Regementsgatan. Currently I rent an appartment in one of the streets crossing the Regementsgatan, I only had to walk back to that street, 2 kms down the road. All in all a very nice stroll around town. When I came home, Stella proposed to go fetch a bike for me at her friends place (payed the rent with Dutch liquorice, awesome deal!) close to the turning torso.


So now that this day is over, I can really say that I am all set for the three weeks to come!

Day 2

"Inspirationsdag för lärare". My alarm woke me up at 6.25, I got up, made breakfast had a shower, and an hour later I was ready to leave for the bus. Fortunately I spent time yesterday evening to figure out the route to Lund (one change). The bus was on time, I changed at the other end of town to a bus that took me to Lund over the freeway. An hour later I arrived and met my supervisors at the bus stop. One thing I've noticed so far: everything goes _smoothly_ in Sweden. The meeting was friendly and fun, we walked to the university building where we were welcomed with a name tag, coffee and a sandwich. So far so good.
Half an hour later the Inspirationsdag started, completely in Swedish, this was going to be a challenge: four lectures on different topics all in the theme of evolution, followed by 4 group discussion moments to come up with lesson ideas for the different topics. Lecturers were researchers from different Swedish universities. Due to their powerpoints (visual support, \o/) and Cecilia who offered to translate words for me and answer questions if I just wrote them down on my notebook, I was able to understand about 50-80% of their talks. However, understanding the group discussions, let alone participating in them, proved to be impossible. I did not introduce myself as being non-Swedish to the groups (they were too large anyways) besides the little Swedish that I do understand when reading, the pronounciation is so very different from what I'm used to hearing. One of the groups was smaller and when they noticed I was unable to follow their discussion they very kindly chose to switch to English.

Other things I noticed/learned:

1. Swedes are strict with time, they will stop what they're doing if the schedule says it is time (even if the following program part is a 30 minute coffee break). 
2. It is frowned upon to pick up your phone during a lecture, and after 30 seconds you will be kindly requested to leave the room (WHUT!?! THROW THE GUY OUT *AHUM*). 
3. Lunch = dinner. 
4. The jojo card is WAY better than the OV-chip card, I don't know how it works, but it's easiness rocks.
5. Private schools are free (and booming) in Sweden (how.. I don't get it.. I'll try to figure out more.)
6. Next to the coffee belongs a pack of regular Mjolk. Just the way I like it. It's standard here :D. 

Tomorrow at 8.30 I'm expected at Malmö Borgarskola, a schedule for the rest of the month will be made then, exciting times!