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The eightythird åsic- Uppe med tuppen!- Being an early bird!

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I have noticed that one good thing with travelling across time zones is that there is a good chance to change bad habits! 😀

I agree completely with the Swedish saying ”Morgonstund har guld i mund”

Generally I do get up in the morning and start my day, but I’m not really awake…Here, six hours after my regular time zone, I have decided to get up whenever I feel alert, although it’s not ”six o’clock” as usual… Today the hour I woke up was 5.30 and I didn’t mind!

 

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Yesterday night when I accidently woke up in the middle of the night, I got a snapchat from one of my daughters. I replied…although I was tired, saying ”it’s in the middle of the night!” HER snapchat was a very alert and neat pic of herself and her friend singing and playing the guitar at school and I thought: ”Oh, NO! Not NOW! I’m TIRED!” …but it also made me aware of the wonder of TIME.

I’d say TIME is a phenomenon human beings invented. My host HERE would say ”We (the AMERICANS) invented time!” … And honestly, since time flies, I don’t have time to do my homework and find out for real who ”invented” what we all refer to as time.

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I do however enjoy the many aspects of time that make a life worth living. What if we never had any sunsets? What if you couldn’t wake up an early morning in late May in Sweden go and get your Dalademokraten, and have a cup of coffee outdoors while letting the sun warm your face. What if you couldn’t catch a flight to the USA and try to leave the sunrise behind you? There is however one thing I don’t appreciate about the way WE adjust to time. I understand why we all need to do the daylights saving change of time but having said that, I must admit I’m probably the most tired person on earth when we change all our clocks in the spring. I am probably also the luckiest person next weekend when I get my reward for struggling every morning for several months. Kronblom might be TOO lazy, but he is for sure the caracter I think of, connected to the words ”lazy” or ”relax”.

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Here, during my visit in NJ, I have noticed that I do have a serious chance to give myself the treat of feeling alert at five in the morning! That’s amazing and I love the calm and relaxed morning I get in return for getting up early.

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The lunch break in Sweden is up, but here we haven’t yet started our day. When I get back from school this evening, my Swedish friends will be on their way to bed… I can now see why there is a slight problem finding decent hours to chat online with a person from another part of the world. Being here is being ”right in the middle of things” when it’s a decent hour on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean… I’d better keep that in mind when I get back home to Sweden again! It has been said many times in Latin, not quite as many in Swedish, but it is an important thing to remember:

Fånga dagen! 

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The eightysecond åsic- Second Day in an American Teacher’s Hectic World

At home I don’t teach English, but Swedish as a Second Language. This evening I had the great opportunity to visit an adult learner’s group in Spanish at a College not far from where I am. The students were all taking lessons in Spanish, but volunteered to talk to me about what the conditions are for adult learners at this level in the school system. I found our conversation most interesting and will share their viewpoint with both my students and my teaching friend at basic level of English.

Earlier today I first met with a few children with special needs. I shared with them a few thoughts on what it is like to live in a country where we have monopoly money and a” fairy-tale-like” reality with a king…

I also had a chance to contribute with Swedish words in grade six while they were taking a Spanish lesson about furniture in different rooms of a house. Then I discussed with a group of eightgraders why so many Swedes left Sweden a hundred years ago.

I then had a nice and long chat with one of the teachers who has been a resident of Pitman almost all her life, apart from a short period down south. She told me all there is to know about the little town and I was happy to learn all that first hand, rather than read about it.

On Friday a few of the teachers have planned for a Sweden day, where the students will be getting a whole lot of information about Sweden, but also try some typical Swedish activities. I will contribute with a slideshow about Sweden and explain why the Dala horse is a symbol for  Sweden. The collaboration with an art teacher at this school also led to an idea where we let the kids know a little about how one can paint a typical ”kurbits”.

Tomorrow we’re off to Atlantic City, my teaching friend and I. We will study ESL as the NJ authorities wants it to be. I look forward to that very much. I don’t need anyone to rock my cradle! I am exhausted, but I’m having so much fun! Teaching is my life! ❤

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The eightyfirst åsic- Learning Among Friends

My first minute at school in Pitman

 

Yesterday when I took a walk to the school where I will spend the coming two weeks, I was surprised to find a welcoming greeting outside school. This morning when I arrived for my first day there, I was even more surprised to find another sign welcoming me to my school visit. As if this wasn’t enough, I have felt overwhelmingly welcomed by each and every one of the people I have met in Pitman Middle School. Both students and teachers met me with warmth and generosity.

There are plenty of things I noticed that are different from what I am used to. Even if I now teach adult students, I can miss teaching younger students especially if I meet such nice kids as the ones I met today! Many of them were making impact just by being themselves in their regular surrounding. 

Both students and teachers I met today seemed eager to know more about Sweden and that made me happy. I had anticipated a more anonymous role in this school, but I am very, very happy that it turned out to be so interactive, because it makes it really interesting. I will thus have multiple chances to explore the very soul of this particular school and get a chance to understand the nature of the school system in NJ.  The many opportunities to share thoughts and reflections from my experience of teaching with my new friends in this school will be like a treasure to get back to later when there is more time. Now I merely need a good night’s sleep in order to be fit for what tomorrow may bring of new experiences.

Last time I visited a school in NJ I marvelled at the dress code. I then wrote in Swedish, but I have summoned up that text in English as well:

Miniåaseri – A slingback would kill me!

 

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The eightieth åsic- Sharing teaching experience with friends abroad or from abroad

The coming two weeks I have the opportunity to join an American teacher in her everyday teaching routines.  I look forward to my two weeks in the NJ schools. I learn a lot by sharing experiences, note what is similar and what is different. Teaching is not at all the same if compared between different countries, not even if compared between different classrooms!

Several of my adult students are teachers from the start and when they meet me in the classroom they notice that a lot of things in my classroom differs from what they are used to in their own countries. When that happens, I always listen eagerly to what differences the students have noticed and then the student and I discuss what the different school systems have in common, too. Usually we  find that just getting a glimpse of something is not enough to draw conclusions from .

By speaking to teachers from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, China, Iraq, Somalia, Ukraine, Latvia, Kirgizistan, Russia, UK and the USA, I have been trying to get a picture of in what way there might be a difference from the Swedish school system on one hand and that of those mentioned countries on the other hand. By experiencing a school system first hand I learn more than by speaking. I hope during my stay here in NJ, that I will not only get a chance for comparison between the two school systems in general, but also a chance to talk to teachers and administrators. Hopefully we will all share good examples of teaching and instruction.I look forward to meeting new teaching friends.   If you like to learn more, please learn more in following ”åsics”! You are of course also welcome to read some of the already published texts.

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The seventyninth åsic- Three different perspectives

Yesterday I spent eight hours between a young Indian woman and a middle-aged American man. The three of us were seated in the same row during a flight between London Heathrow and Newark, NJ, USA. We had very little in common, but made friends during the flight and talked about different aspects of life. Since we came from three different continents, three different societies, it was very interesting to share viewpoints and thoughts. We all had three different reasons to travel to the USA.

The young Indian woman was going to reunite with her husband after two months apart. The young couple were newly wed and had planned to start their life in the USA. Since they were both engineers and he already had a position in a company the three of us started to talk about HER options in her new country. The American man currently works as a lawyer in a big national bank on Manhattan and he travels frequently abroad to make agreements with other banks, companies or financial departments in countries worldwide. Me, the Swedish teacher, between the two of them, found it most interesting to learn more about possible futures for engineers in NJ or what bank lawyers think of life, at the same time as I was comparing their English accents. We were all three genuinly interested in each other’s stories, so it seemed anyway. Meeting people like that, sharing thoughts and ideas, is very rewarding, I think. It is a perfect way of learning, since you are doing it for fun and you are motivated, since you very much like to understand that other person. Sharing moments like that is important to me.

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One hundred and seventythird åsic-Does 101 Mean Worldwide?

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My readers live in 101 countries far away from each other.

Some read in Swedish and some read in English…

Thank you all! ❤

Bloggens läsare finns i 101 länder långt från varandra.

En del läser på svenska och andra på engelska.

Tack alla! ❤

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Det hundrade åseriet/The hundredth åsic- A Moment 22 for many teachers

In 1992, I started off as a class teacher of twelve-year-olds in grade six. My exam covered Swedish, English and the four different subjects that are called ”SO” in Swedish, i.e, Geography, Social Science, History, and Religion. I was supposed to teach grades 1-7 in the Swedish Compulsory School System.  In 1992, it wasn’t unusual for teachers to teach both subjects they were skilled for as well as subjects where they didn’t have any exams. In my case my first job as a teacher was a position as a ”class teacher” with both Math, Science and Art. You may think:

”So what? If you have graduated, it doesn’t matter what subject you teach!”

I strongly object to that point of view. It DOES matter! First of all you need more time to prepare lessons properly in subjects where you have no academical skills or grades. Secondly you may not find suitable examples for students to understand complex structures or important details. Students who need extra attention from the teacher in order to ”get it”, would be better off with a skilled teacher in Math, rather than a teacher in Swedish, who tries her very best.

A Moment 22

The subjects you love most of all, will be neglected since you need to make an effort and focus on subjects you didn’t even want to teach in the first place. The estimated time for planning of lessons will be up when you start planning for your own favourite subjects.

An ordinary day when you have planned all for today’s lessons and come to school early enough to have a cup of coffee with your teaching friends, you notice that your dear friend in the classroom next to yours is on sick-leave. You hope for her (it’s often a she!) soon being back, but you also realize that you will be the one to fill her position in class, ALTHOUGH you have a classroom filled with students, too… What can you do about it? Not much, really. Hmmmm… 55 kids instead of 27? What is my options for today’s teaching…? As I said, I had planned it all from the start, right? But NOW, I will have to just dump my own plan, and also probably dump my teaching friend’s plan, because I am ONE teacher with TWO classes… I HOPE that is history by now!!!

I taught in a school where our policy was to be our own ”subteachers” in a flexible system. Quality??? Excuse me… We didn’t discuss that topic much. It was more about money. But why wasn’t it just possible to find a teacher who would be in our regular staff as an extra resource? Money… Again… OK… Then if there is no way to hire a TEACHER…can’t we just find SOMEONE????

For way too long it has been possible for principals in Swedish schools to hire ”teachers” who lack the required qualifications for teaching. Qualified teachers have also for way too long been responsible for ”helping” those subteachers in their job, instead of  teaching their own students with high quality. But why complain? It can’t be that difficult to help a friend who know nothing about teaching, right? No, not if it would be ONCE or maybe TWICE, but if it’s the rule rather than an exception, then it’s not fair at all. It is unfair to the students, both in my class and in the class where the subteacher works. We are all losing focus from our ongoing learning proccess.

A possible scenario

You rush into your own classroom, inform the students that  you will have to start a lesson together with a subteacher in the nextdoor classroom and will be back soon. Then you help the subteacher to find books or material, tell the students to help the subteacher as much as possible, also inform the subteacher about students with special needs, such as diabetes or epilepsy. You also try to write a short list of important details, such as at what hour you take a break, when students leave for PE, or when lunch is served. In some schools there is a binder filled with ”all a subteacher needs to know”, but despite the binder, many subteachers may either not have time to read the information, or are completely new to teaching and have never been in this particular school. Sometimes they are 18 years old and lack every experience there is to ask for. You help this person the best you can anyway, because you know it will turn out for the worse if you do nothing at all. Luckily, many subteachers have been teaching for a long time and also know the students in a few schools in their local community quite well. Then the options for a win-win-situation is a lot better. OK…It’s time to rush back to your own class and start off what you had planned for! Guess what? The students haven’t started doing what you asked them to… Instead you need to re-start the activity and sometimes you will have a hard time getting every student’s attention again. When you finally think, ”Yes!” and your class seems to be focused again, you hear a knock on your classroom door… The subteacher needs more help…

The results for Swedish school children in PISA and other international tests have never been as poor as the last few years. In my opinion it is possible to explain the failure as a misuse of resources and a slow motion in change or maybe blame the many changes in our school system. When will there be time to focus on learning again?

I am happy to say that I rarely hear about problems like these nowadays. I am also happy to say that some of the subteachers I have been teaching side-by-side with were really nice persons who did a wonderful job. A certain blonde whom I tried to persuade to become a teacher, instead decided to become a nurse. The lucky patients know who I mean! 

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One hundred and seventysecond Asic- Being alive!

Last night a terrible fire ruined a house in our block. Luckily nobody died or ended up in hospital. I thought of how easily life can change in just a minute. In our block, most houses are built of wood and a fire would easily spread between houses, hadn’t the fire guards been there to fight the fire. Our life is depending on others in many ways…

Last year a major fire kept a region of Sweden in a constant terror for a couple of weeks. Some people lost their homes and had to flee for their lives. Others tried in vain to protect their homes, but in the end they had to obey authorities who demanded everyone in the area to evaquate. Now, a year after the fire, the landscape reminds me of scenes from Tolkien…

This year has been a year of migration and many people have moved on to a safer place. On TV we have followed dangerous voyages at sea, fights between guards and refugees, hungry children pleading for food and desperate parents fighting for their children’s right to a meal. We have also had a chance to watch border control preventing people from passing the border of Hungary and other European states. News on TV show interviews and reports from refugee camps all over Europe, try to show who that typical refugee may be…

 

I think of the many Swedes who only one hundred years ago, urged to leave our country because they had no chance to lead the life they wanted to. Most of them moved to the USA, some to South America and a few to Russia. This very moment, my two daughters watch ”Kristina från Duvelmåla” which is a musical by Bjorn and Benny (ABBA). The musical is based on a novel by the Swedish author Wilhelm Moberg, who wrote four novels about the Swedish emigration to America in the late 19th century. Moberg’s books are available in English and very interesting to read if you don’t know anything about the Swedish people who moved to mainly Minnesota in the USA. The musical however, is mainly dealing with a certain family and what happened to them during their struggle to find a new life ”over there”. The music is catching and the lyrics makes you want to sing along, but underneath is a message to everyone in this world; We only live once. If our lives aren’t good enough, we’re the ones who need to make that change!

I meet them every day in my professional life as a teacher of Swedish as a Second Language, the refugees… I don’t think there is any reason at all for us, you and me, to say no to those who leave wars and famine, poverty and lack of work in order to make a living here.

We ought to help out as much as we can. We need to turn to ourselves with the thought; wouldn’t we move if everything we cherished in life was taken away from us? Wouldn’t we move if our home wasn’t a safe place anymore? I think for myself that if I met a completely unfamiliar place where I knew nobody, a friend would be a welcomed feature in my new life. I try to be that friend and wish for myself that I never will have to leave everything behind for another country. Be the friend in someone’s life! ❤

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Etthundrasjuttioförsta åseriet- Polare

Polare! Vi två är polare… Polare! Vad kan va’ coolare?

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Ett nummer hämtat från musikalen Spök får sammanfatta känslan jag bar med mig ut från #Göta Lejon igår… Jag såg showen #Lite nu och då tillsammans med en polare… Precis hon och jag såg också Spök, då, för längesedan. Att en vänskap håller över tid är inte självklart, men när så är fallet så har man kanske också många gemensamma minnen, dråpliga situationer och liknande att återkomma till… Att också dela musiksmak eller humor är något alldeles extra! Jag och min polare skrattar åt samma saker och har en stor gemensam skatt av musikupplevelser…

Björn Skifs show igår var därför extra kul att uppleva med just denna polare! Tack #Björn Skifs och tack kära polare!

 

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Etthundrasjuttionde åseriet- Den som spar han har!

Den som spar han har...

Häromdagen hade jag förmånen att träffa både nya och gamla vänner i ett för mig nytt sammanhang. En god vän hörde av sig på försommaren med funderingar på att starta en bokcirkel. Nu är den igång och vi har träffats för första gången. Inte helt oväntat bestämde vi oss för att till nästa gång välja att läsa varsin bok av Henning Mankell.

Den gångna veckans fokus på Henning Mankell i och med hans bortgång har fått mig att inse att jag har läst ganska många av hans böcker och att de flesta av dem skulle skänka läsglädje även vid en omläsning, men mest spännande är det ju att läsa något för första gången. Vid en bokhyllesondering hittade jag fyra ännu olästa, varav en är en Wallanderdeckare. De övriga är nog ungdomsböcker. Min hamstermentalitet i bokvärlden, att alltid köpa böcker i tid och otid, visade sig alltså denna gång vara ett framgångskoncept, eftersom jag inte behövde gå längre än till bokhyllan för att hämta min läsläxa. Med nya glasögon kommer jag ju dessutom att se det jag läser! Lördagen är räddad!