juni 10, 2016 av asaole

Turist i USA- Musikminnen och Monterey Bay Aquarium

”It was a morning in May, on a beach outside Monterey… She walked alone in the sand, had her shoes in her hand, let her mind go astray… He was a Santa Cruz boy, held his head up with pride and joy. He was riding the surf to where the sea meets the turf and every wave was his toy” (från sången Angelica and Ramone)

Vi var tre tjejer som satt i ett flickrum och spelade kassettband och sjöng med… Det var Björn Skifs som framförde en Secret Service-låt som heter Angelica and Ramone och det var en jättefin sång, tyckte vi… Så som det var på den tiden, hände det ju att man hade spelat in kassettbandet, så att inte riktigt hela låten kom med på första sidan… Musiken tystnade mitt i en låt för att kassettbandet tog slut där… Precis så var det med det kassettband vi brukade lyssna på och sjunga till just den här låten… Vad hände då? Vi sjöng vidare en halv strof utan Björn Skifs…varje gång…för att vi ständigt glömde bort att bandet tog slut just DÄR och för att vi kunde låten så väl att det gick av bara farten att sjunga vidare, utan att fästa avseende vid sådana petitesser som tekniska missöden…

Hursomhelst… Monterey… Redan då, på sjuttiotalet, undrade jag var den platsen låg… Jag kunde inte alla orden i låten, men lärde mig uttala dem genom att sjunga med. Namnen på platser kunde man väl googla, tänker du? Nja… Nu är ju jag lite ÄLDRE än själva Google… I mitt fall blev det så att jag fick slå upp platsnamnet i en atlas och för att klara av att hitta platsen, behövde jag förstå det där systemet med både siffror och bokstäver som man vanligtvis hittar i ett register i en atlas; s 162 F3, t ex. Det var ju inte så svårt när man fick kläm på det, men i dagens läge kan säkert inte alla skolelever DET, men i stället kan de utan minsta problem hitta en liten stad i västra USA på fem sekunder, alltså snabbare än vad man hittar en nål i en höstack…Google, denna vän i nöden… Monterey är en liten stad som ligger vid Stilla havskusten i Kalifornien, USA. Enligt Google (2016) finns där ca 28 000 invånare, med en befolkningstäthet på 1290 invånare per kvadratkilometer. I min hemstad är vi sjutton invånare per kvadratkilometer och håller till på en yta som är femtiofyra gånger större än den som man delar på i Monterey…

Men skillnaden i yta och befolkningstäthet är inte det viktigaste för mig vid mitt förestående besök i Monterey. Betydligt mer intressant är stadens akvarium, där ett stort antal sjölevande däggdjur och fiskar finns representerade. Med den fantastiska placeringen alldeles vid havet, får man redan innan man går in i byggnaden en maritim känsla. Monterey Bay Aquarium är det tionde största akvariet i sitt slag i världen. De bedriver forskning på plats och har en mängd olika program på gång för att bevara sällsynta arter och deras möjlighet att klara sig i naturliga miljöer. De förklarar sitt arbete och engagemang genom denna video:

Om Monterey Bay Aquarium

Det blir intressant att uppdatera denna bloggpost senare i sommar när jag har varit på plats i Monterey och sett akvariet med egna ögon, men så länge nöjer jag mig med att glädja mig i förväg! Förutom just Monterey, kommer jag att skriva om vanliga turistorter som Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles och Philadelphia och självfallet även om övriga turistmål som vi passerar på vår resa. Följ min blogg i sommar, där jag delar mina intryck från resan med dig. För mig är bloggen som en form av dagbok, men i efterhand, när jag kommer hem, skriver jag säkert om andra reflektioner jag fått under resan. Håll till godo! 🙂

#Turist i USA, #asaole

maj 24, 2016 av asaole

Twohundred and Seventy-Eighth Asic- Anticipating Summer Vacation makes the Month of May seemingly Endless…

It’s not over yet, one more week to go before the Month of May has come to an end… It’s funny how this month is connected with an everlasting workload at work and a fantastic bloom everywhere I lay my eyes… Apple blossom, flowers, the scent of Lily of the Valley when I pass my neighbor’s garden…

In Sweden where I live, we have the wonderful Nordic Light to support us when we feel tired this time of the year. Somehow I don’t really get tired, but a workload of grading at school makes me exhausted to the limit of what I can take in my profession. I have however noticed as years pass by, that I always manage to hand in all the grades in time, send out the papers to the students and clean my desk at work before I leave for summer vacation.

Added this year is our moving to another building. The four teachers in my staff room are now packing up our things and that is a bit sad. We have had a nice time together. Personally, I have enjoyed my current position and classroom, too. But honestly, I know that wherever I move with my teaching, I have always enjoyed it, once I’m settled in the new place. What I DO mind a bit is the disorganized chaos before everything is set…but I guess I’ll have to live with that for the time being. It’s just a matter of days…:)

One month from now, I’m already on summer vacation, thinking of the past school year, hopefully with both satisfaction and a bit of loss, just as always on a sunny summer’s day!

maj 12, 2016 av asaole

Two Hundred and Seventy-First Asic- If you give a Magpie a Cookie…

Years ago when my oldest daughter was a couple of years old, she got this little book as a gift from one of my dearest friends in the USA. I was told by him that the story was very much appreciated by young children and along with the book my daughter also got a little stuffed animal in the shape of a mouse, dressed like the mouse on the cover of the book. The book is the kind of repeating story that children love to listen to and there are many other books similar to this in many other countries, for instance in Sweden where I live. We learn to love the stories, although adults tend to love the first few times we read them, while children seem to like them although it may be the hundredth time its read to them…

I was thinking of this book today, because the story about the little mouse who is likely to want more and more from the boy in the book, is acting like the magpie in my garden. I was sitting in my garden today, together with one of my friends. It was lovely weather and we enjoyed the sunshine after a days work. We were first right under the oak tree, but after a while when the sun was moving, we moved, too, since our bench was now in the shade. We left the set table with cookies and tea under the oak tree…but moved the bench to a spot where the sun was still warming. Suddenly my friend said: ”Look! The magpie is stealing something from the table!”

To her surprise I was merely saying ”Oh!” in the same kind of voice we use for cute little animals we love, or for little children… I had to tell her that this was most likely ”my” magpie from the birds nest in my apple tree on the other side of our house… And my friend looked as if the next thing to say would be ”So?!” It turned out that we had different experiences from magpies and their behavior, but shared the point of view that they are pretty smart. I decided to give the magpie a cookie. But I didn’t act at once. Instead we chatted on and after a while the magpie returned for another try at the table… My friend commented that maybe It would be TOO much of an offer to give the magpie ALL my cookies, so then I clapped my hands and the magpie flew off again… After it was gone, I removed every cookie except one. I left it on the chair and my friend and I got back to our bench a few meters away to wait and see whether the magpie would dare to try and get the cookie… She did!
My only disappointment was that the magpie flew off to a garden two houses off from mine…

Really?! I couldn’t believe I was feeding the wrong magpie!!!…and with freshly baked cookies, too!!

Now I only dread the rest of the story, because if you give a magpie a cookie, she will most certainly come back for a glass of milk…but when I give her the milk, she will ask for a straw…

More about my magpie experiences are found in this link:

http://wp.me/p4uFqc-1e

maj 4, 2016 av asaole

Twohundred and Sixty-Fifth Asic- Fifteen Thousand Views

Today this blog reached 15,000 views!

Thanks for reading!

april 30, 2016 av asaole

Two Hundred and Sixty-Forth Asic- School Smart with Smart Phones?

A lot of facts can nowadays be easily found on the internet. Rote learning as it was when I went to school, will soon be forgotten and a five-year-old can google just about anything with no help from an adult. I sometimes feel old when I notice how my kids know things I spent a lot of time learning. I do however think that the young generation of today are lucky to be able to browse all these facts and photos and movies and easily finding out about things that took a very long time when I was a child. They can even find friends abroad and getting to know a person on the other side of an ocean, speaking with that person in real time through computers and smart phones and I can’t help remembering my pen-pals in other countries and how I used to wait for days and weeks for their letters back to me… 🙂

All the kids nowadays need to do is Google… At work I notice that the gap between those who know how to handle IT and those who do not is increasing. There will be no equality unless students get their computers thru school and also good instruction from skilled teachers. There will always be students with parents who either cannot afford a new computer, or maybe don’t understand to what extent their kid will be left out in school if they cannot be online and use internet as the rest of the kids. Being curious is a good start!

Even if we may think some things were better THEN than they are NOW, we need to at least try to go with the flow…

Otherwise we, the teachers, would soon be relics, too… Stored and filed side by side with flanellografs,

chalkboards and sandpits with sticks…

griffeltavla.jpg (637×510)

In subjects where a smartphone is a rich resource I don’t fully understand why schools still say students cannot use their phones in class, but I assume it’s a matter of students’ age. The teacher has a great opportunity getting things done a lot more easy by accepting the use of smart phones when it IS smart to use them. If I would stick to the rules of many classrooms today and say ”Don’t use your smart phone in class!” my students would have a tougher time learning Swedish. I do however need to stress that one of the reasons for smart phones to be a good alternative in my classroom is the fact that I teach adults. My subject is Swedish as a Second Language.

I have experience from working with teenagers or younger and having to address several situations each day where students have passed rules for the usage of their smart phones. Not all students respect rules and when students end up in recordings or photos that are posted on the internet that is a problem that takes a lot of important time off from the learning process in class. One way of dealing with problems such as that, is to remove the actual smart phone from the classroom situation. In many Swedish schools teachers collect the students’ phones before each lesson, in order for students not to use them in class. Thus the students are more focused on what their teachers say and what the lesson is all about, which is of course very important. I do however think that it is sad that such an extraordinary tool as the smart phone cannot be effectively used for learning purposes. If it’s a matter of disciplin, then the actual disciplin problem needs to be addressed. From here and on, this blog post is focusing on some of the benefits of using smart phones in learning situations.

Let me share a few examples from my own classroom, which is a language learning classroom with Swedish as a Second Language as the one and only subject. When we don’t find the solutions to meanings of words, the smart phones serve as dictionaries and saves a lot of time, compared to finding out by a visit at the local library, but that is not the only way to save time with a smart phone in a classroom! The students and I talk a lot about things we read, listen to or watch. I always try to help them by writing additional examples on my white board. This is however not a classroom with a SMART BOARD, but just an ordinary poorly equipped in-the-basement-classroom. When the white board is completely filled with comments, words and phrases connected to the topic we discuss, I ask the students to simply use their smart phones and take a photo of my notes. That’s quick and easy and also a SMART way to use PHONES, although in the future, I hope to be among the lucky ones who have smart boards in their classrooms.

Another thing with language learning is to use the phone for pronunciation. Many students in my classroom merely meet one person who speaks Swedish and I am that person. Although I try to give them several suggestions to where they can listen to Swedish, or perhaps meet Swedish people and talk to them, it is very difficult for some of them. Their smart phones is thus an excellent way to help them out with at least pronunciation of difficult words or phrases. More than anything else, the quality of the sounds of the nine Swedish vowels, when put in different positions of words or phrases are easy to repeat when students get back home, if they have recorded different examples in class. When students record my pronunciation and go back home and listen and repeat, their own pronunciation improves rapidly.

Ines Uusmann, Minister for Infrastructure, seemed to believe that the internet would be forgotten after a few years, although it is said that the reason why everyone remembers, is that the headline for the article was a fake quote. This is in fact (in Swedish, though…) what she said:

”Jag vågar inte ha någon alldeles bestämd uppfattning men jag tror inte att folk i längden kommer att vilja ägna så mycket tid, som det faktiskt tar, åt att surfa på nätet. […] Att sitta och surfa på nätet tar en himla massa tid. Vad är det bra för? […] Det kanske är så att det är något som vuxit upp nu. Alla pratar om internet men kanske är det övergående och sedan blir inriktningen mer specificerad”

Ines Uusmann citerad i Svenska Dagbladet, 12 maj 1996.

Källa: Rydén, Daniel, ”Dimmor på nätet”, Sydsvenskan, 4 mars 2007.

april 28, 2016 av asaole

Twohundred and sixty-first asic- Let’s Make a Rock Carving!

Many years ago I went on an excursion in the village Nyberget, Stora Skedvi, where my mum grew up. We climbed a mountain just outside the village and the view was magnificent. The striking view was however not the purpose of this excursion, but instead we had all come to see for ourselves how young people from way back when had found a lot more important things to do on Midsummer’s Eve than to sing ”Små grodorna” and dance round the May Pole…

The lecturer, Stig Welinder, a well-known archeologist who at that time lived in the village, shared both details about many of the couples and facts found in the many church archives from the actual time. In Sweden it is possible to track our ancestors several hundred years back in time and this was also what the archeologist had done, in detail. He could tell stories of families with happy or sad moments in their lives, all facts verified and found in public archives where anyone could have found pretty much the same information if only we had spent that time. Many of the young couples in the local area had climbed this very mountain on Midsummer’s Eve to enjoy the sunset together. To remember the day, they carved their names in the rocks on top of the mountain and also planned for a future life together. The place was well-known in the nearby villages as ”Skrivarhällen”(Welinder, 1992) and not just the teenagers from one of the villages climbed the mountain, but also those who lived on the other side of the mountain, a bit further away.

The rock carvings can still be found, if you first climb the mountain! 😀

Among other things that Welinder shared with us in his lecture, was the nature of names in Dalarna at the time when the rock carvings were made. But there were just a few different names that seemed to be popular, and a few names were just the same, so in order to know who was who, you needed to add the name of the farm, or place, such as Petter Danielson, On the Hill. His son would be named after his father, Daniel Pettersson + On the Hill, and his son in turn, would most likely be called Petter Danielsson+ On the Hill… For women, the use of daughter would be used instead of son.

I would, for instance, have had the family name Dalkesdotter, since I am the daughter of Dalke. My brother would acoordingly have been called Dalkesson. During the 23 years I have been teaching I have noticed the change in naming. When I graduated in 1991, many of my first students had names that have been used in our country for generations. Boys names like Daniel, Peter, Mikael, Anders and girls names like Anna, Maria, Kristina, Helena, Ylva etc. But after a few years of teaching I noticed that many of the boys now rather had names like, Kevin, Justin, Jim, Tim, Tom and girls had names like Natalie, Felicia, Caroline, Nellie etc. Nowadays we find a lot of different names, a variation that can be connected to our complex world with input from not just the local area, but from other parts of the world.

namnbild.jpg (672×361)

My own name, Åsa, is from the time before Sweden was Christened and means ”goddess”. Very few little Åsa’s are to be found nowadays, but instead some of the names that I would connect to old relatives are coming up as new favourite names for kids. It’s funny how one sometimes hear parents call for their little ones and you expect a person in their seventies to approach behind a tree in the park, but instead a little toddler, called Bosse or Leif, will meet his Mom with a lovely smile!

toddlerRoundup-14.jpg (600×503)

My friend the archeologist from the mountain top is a very good example of being modern at the same time as he cherishes the value of how our ancestors chose to live their lives. What footprints or fingerprints will our generation leave? No mountains will be filled with names, but maybe we will share something else that is just as interesting and important? Let’s hope so!

Welinder, S (1992) on Skrivarhällen i southern Dalarna, Bergslagen, Sweden

april 19, 2016 av asaole

Twohundred and fifty-seventh asic- A Swedish ”hen” is born!

The Swedish Royal Family is always in focus in one way or the other. This time for the reason of a little newborn, that we so far do not know much about. According to the press release a child is born… Not a girl or boy, but a child.

Swedish is a german language and generally we would use the pronouns he, she or it, to refer to anyone or anything, but a few years ago, a new pronoun was introduced, HEN, pronounced exactly as one would pronounce the feathered mother of a chicken…

For a few more minutes now, we still don’t know whether the new little ”hen” is a he or a she. What we DO know is how much attention Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip received by keeping the sex of the child a secret like this.

mars 11, 2016 av asaole

Twohundred and fortieth asic- Had The Beatles been the same without George Martin?

Generally speaking one might assume that producers make an impact far beyond their actual work on a daily basis… I think of famous producers like for instance Stikkan Andersson for ABBA or George Martin for the Beatles. When I heard the other day that George Martin had passed away, I simply thought that such a musician must have been a very important person for the Beatles although we all know that both John Lennon and Paul McCartney specifically are known for being just the same… I can’t help thinking that there might have been other things but musical arrangements that could have lead the Beatles in one direction or the other.

So many of the Beatles’ tunes are very different from all other current music. They were one of a kind and I’m sure you all agree… My listening starting the day when they reported on TV about the murder of John Lennon in NYC in 1980. I hadn’t even heard about the Beatles before that date. A few years earlier I had the same experience with Elvis Presley… I asked: ”who is he?” just like I did with John Lennon…

I started of a constant listening and a year or so later I had a pretty good idea of the music of the Beatles. I had also had a chance to sing-along in school, just like I guess many other youth at that time. My music teacher at school was a devoted Beatles fan who let us all sing the Beatles almost every music lesson… We also watched the movie ”Help!” and I found out more about Indian religion and all of a sudden I knew who Kali was… The very same way I learnt what the French national anthem sounded like…since that’s possible to hear in the end of All you need is love…

All you need is love

I think music is like that always… I learn completely different things but just the music when I listen to music. I also notice that we are all different… I remember when comparing with some of my friends who focused on the tune, the music, I would more likely focus on the lyrics… Having said that I can make a long list of really good Beatles lyrics that all make a difference for everyone who take the time to listen carefully. My music teacher not only shared his favorite tunes by Beatles, but also his knowledge packed in a youth-friendly way… one detail at the time… We listened to ”Julia” while learning that John Lennon’s mother was the motive for this song.

Yellow submarine

We listened to Yellow submarine and learnt the word submarine meant ”u-båt” in Swedish… Learning languages through music is such a smart thing to do, really… Every language learner knows that it may be very tricky to know what idioms to translate and use, and what idioms not to use because they don’t make sense in the other language, however sleeping like a log DID… In Swedish a line like ”Sleeping like a log” is ”sova som en stock”. By singing Beatles songs I had found a new and much more fun way of learning, than by reading boring school books… 🙂

Hey Jude… starts off in a very kind and cautious way, but musical instruments are added one on top of the other and finally a whole orchestra plays along with Paul McCartney… The chords and the lyrics, the choir and the way Paul uses his imagination to make variations of the tune, makes this song one of my absolut favorites. At the very end they sing their catchy ”da da da da, Hey Jude!” and you just have to join them…

But interestingly enough as time pass I digged deeper into the music of the Beatles. From just listening just to the most common tunes, such as ”She loves you”, ”Help” and a ”I want to hold your hand” I started to listen to other tunes, not that common. I also decided not just to listen to their ”Greatest hits” however at that time, music was more difficult to access than now. No spotify and no iTunes would be possible for us to use… Instead we had to buy the music on EP:s or LP:s and so I bought ”Abbey Road” since I had completely fallen in love with ”Here Comes the Sun”… It’s such a beautiful tune! I bought the LP for that very tune, just as we had to, back then, but being economically wise…I of course listened to all the other songs on that LP and found new favorites among the other tunes as well.

One of the surprising tunes is the 26 seconds long ”Her Majesty”, that is very interesting since it has a point, at least in my opinion… really, what DO we know about the Queen of England…?

Her Majesty

I think there are tunes we need to listen to over and over again, and yet others that we can follow easily right away. With most of the Beatles’ music, they are of the second kind. You don’t just learn the lyrics, but also the catchy melodies and their treasure of songs thus belongs to all of us. Arrangements are more important than one may think… To conclude this blogpost I’d like to add my assumption that George Martin was one of the most important reasons why the Beatleas actually produced so much music of high quality. I think these young boys needed a person that weren’t just ”one of them” to tell them what to do and how… Am I wrong? Maybe, then so be it… but please allow me to send a thought to the memory of George Martin and thank him for what he did for my many joyful moments when consuming music by the Beatles.

One of the most lovely songs in my opinion, was , as I am told, a kind of answer to the huge impact of ”Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Paul Simon… The Beatles wanted to prove that they were still the best:

Let it Be

At Skavlan the other day, the famous pianist Lang Lang was asked to perform something by Beatles to honor George Martin. He played Blackbird. I enjoyed his version very much and thought about what impact the Beatles still have.

mars 2, 2016 av asaole

Twohundred and thirty-fifth Asic- Billy Elliot- The Musical

Yesterday I was at Victoria Palace Theatre watching an incredibly well directed and well performed show. The Musical Billy Elliot is about a young boy from the mine districts in England, who is pushed by his father to join the local boxing club, but instead ends up taking ballet lessons. The musical has two different stories in one, as the setting is the miner’s strike from 1985 and Billy’s father is active in the strike.

Apart from a lot of singing and dancing on a magnificant level, the overall impression is that the two main characters, two young boys are extraordinary in their performances respectively. Talent and hard work may be the answer to why these two young boys show such high standard in both singing, dancing and performing in their speaking acts. Being a teacher, I can’t help but wondering how they manage their schooldays and what kind of lives they lead if they are up late every evening performing! The musical is amazing. There are so many acts that are beyond every expectation. The whole ensemble are very well rehearsed together and there are no mistakes made whatsoever. Every line is set, every song they sing are in tune and not just that, but amazingly well sung! I’m so impressed! ❤

Billy Elliot the show

mars 2, 2016 av asaole

Two hundred and thirty-fourth Asic- Long walks in London

Taking a walk in the forest leaves a certain feeling, as do a walk in a city like London. Oh how many things there are to see! There are of course a lot of things we would like to do quickly and then we’d most likely choose to catch a bus or maybe go by underground from one end of the city to the other. I do however prefer the long walks in London since they offer an experience where you actually get to see more of the city. Walking through Hyde Park an early morning gives an idea of London in earlier days when British society was different from what it is today. I mean, who would arrange such a lovely park nowadays? We all seem captured in the rapid life of IT and reluctant to go out IRL.

However taking that walk a very rainy day can be a true challenge. I bought a rain cap for my trip, knowing I might need to use it, but hoping for good luck with the London weather… träd 3 I was however in a situation where the option was to end up soaking wet, or use the silly looking rain cap… so I used it…and I was happily dry after the rain… The walk past Albert Memorial on our way to Natural Science Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum was a nice stop, although the rain was pouring.

Hyde Park shows a variety of trees and bushes and trees in bloom. To come from the wintery Sweden and find magnolia in bloom is a great reward! I didn’t even mind the rain that moment!

After spotting Albert Hall, we had just about ten minutes walk left until we could hide from the rain in Natural History Museum.

The visit at the Museum was long enough for the rain to hold for a few minutes when we walked on to Victoria & Albert Museum. Both museums were interesting in many different ways and I guess I will need weeks to sort all my impressions from both visits. After a delicious lunch in Victoria & Albert Museum, we walked to Harrod’s to make sure the luxurious store was still standing… Honestly, after two Museums, a walk in the store and the rain…all together made my day and as early as seven o’clock we had our dinner and then returned to the hotel to relax. Walking is fun and you get to see a lot, but it’s also exhausting… I’ll share more pix here later when I get home and sort my photos properly.