Kategoriarkiv: Experiences

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Twohundred and thirty-third Asic- London, always safe and secure!

I’ve been to London several times and it doesn’t really matter how often I visit this busy city of the world. There are always new things to see. The London fire in 1666 or the Blitz during the second world war are both examples of disasters from the past. Nowadays London may suffer from occasional terror attacks, but just like before London seems to be a city to trust… I always feel safe and secure when I walk the streets of London. I never worry. To me, the people I meet seem just as relaxed, too, as if there wasn’t anything to worry about. I do however notice that the huge trees in the parks do suffer… they seem to be victims of a no longer clean environment. Maybe the smog will win in the end?

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To me it seems as is the only serious threat London City may not cope with in the end IS environmental issues. This morning I watched the BBC for a weather forecast, but I also caught a glimpse of the news where a report of recent pollution was in focus. Obviously some parts of London deal with levels above what is recommended.

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When speaking about environment I have noticed that many things here are organised, such as the painted walls outside Royal Festival Hall. The minute before I noticed this ares, that may be a skateboard park, we had walked past a tunnel for pedestrians, right under Waterloo Bridge and I had noticed that there were almost no tags or grafitti on the walls. I guess the authorities have invited the grafitti-painters to share their artistery in a limited area…I enjoyed what I saw! ❤

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Twohundred and Sixteenth Asic- Snowzilla, Milk and Cookies!

The major storm Snowzilla has now started its journey through the twenty states on the east coast of the USA… It was in a way very interesting to watch TV from a completely empty Washington DC where the Swedish TV reporter seemed all alone in the streets, sharing his report with us… We have snow every winter, but according to the TV reporter from Swedish TV4, some of the states suffering from Snowzilla, hardly get any snow an ordinary winter and may have difficulties getting rid of it, once the storm has passed.

I have a few friends in the USA. They have one thing in common… They all share stories about what one would do if a storm of any kind is predicted… Obviously everyone go to the store, get loads of food in general, but milk and cookies in particular, in order not to ”starve”during the storm… I’m sure we go to the store, too, but I also notice that this desperate ”I HAVE to go to the store” doesn’t seem to be as common here as over there… Maybe we have a more ”longterm” idea for our grocery shopping than Americans do? Milk and cookies??? Meat and potatoes would be more of the Swedish way in that case… 😉

From my heart, I hope you all wake up to a wonderful white world where very little is damaged or ruined by the storm and the only remaining issue is the layer of beautiful snow everywhere…  I also hope you have your cameras ready to take photos, to share with the rest of us and with your grandchildren one day! Winter is an amazing season. Quiet, white and cold! Well… I understand the very storm isn’t quiet!!! Snowzilla is probably very loud! Light a candle and listen to her! It might be the storm of your life! Enjoy!!!

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For those of you who would like to know the sound of Swedish… and also follow the coverage in our biggest national Newspaper regarding the storm ”Jonas” I have now added a newspaper clip with a movie.  It’s Sunday evening; and a Swedish reporter doing his job interviewing people in NYC. According to the reporter, the film is from Saturday morning:

Peter Kadhammar interview’s NYC citizens

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Twohundred and eleventh asic- As cold as in ”To Build a Fire”, by Jack London?

Today we had round -20C in my town. The crisp air and the cold did not bother me, since I had planned my walk in the forest thoroughly and was dressed in warm winter clothes.

Many years ago I read the wonderful short story To Build a Fire by Jack London. If you haven’t read it, then DO! It is one of the best short stories I have ever read. Here’s a link to the full text:

To Build a Fire by Jack London

I learned from reading the story long ago that whatever we think we accomplish, we never win a competition with Nature! Jack London tells his story from the point of view of a man who decides to leave the main trail and seek another way, thinking maybe it will be a shortcut… London lets us know that the protagonist is new in the area. He has never spent a winter in Yukon Territory before. Then the author adds:

”The trouble with him was that he was without imagination.”

That is all information we need, really… We understand that he will not be fully prepared for what he will experience in this unfriendly and cold whiteness. When London describes the extreme cold, we understand the danger, but does the man?

”He knew that at fifty below spittle crackled on the snow, but this spittle had crackled in the air.”

The man does realize that it has to be below fifty, but that doesn’t lead him into the conclusion that he will not manage in this weather for long. Throughout the story several situations point out how unaware the man seems to be of the hidden dangers in the surrounding landscape. The man chews tobacco and his beard is filled with ice and along the telling of the story we notice how the beard is slowly built up like an ice-muzzle. If he will take a pause, he will not be able to eat or drink…

London describes many aspects of the Yukon winter that this man is not familiar with and as he paints the icecold scenario the reader slowly comes to the insight that this will lead to a disaster of some sort. The protagonist is followed by a dog, a native husky that knows enough of this weather as to wait for the man to soon build a fire… but the man does not stop to build a fire… As the dog once breaks through and wets his forelegs when being forced by the man to cross over at a hidden creek, the man first admires the dog’s instinct to quickly get rid of the wet and ice, then he foolishly removes his own gloves to help the dog…unaware of the risk for his own sake. His fingers instantly turn numb and that is in a way the beginning of the end…

When I took a walk today, I was taking one single step aside of the track, because I was searching for a better angle for my photo… Afterwards, my boots were filled with snow that first melted for a while, then re-froze and from being perfectly comfortable with my situation I was now slowly getting more and more cold. I was however lucky to know I was only fifteen minutes from home. I didn’t even need to think of building a fire… Instead I went indoors, thinking I was lucky who lived in the middle of a town and not in Yukon Territory, but also remembering this wonderful short story by Jack London with warmth. What a great piece of literature that is!

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Twohundred and Third Asic- Warm or Cold is a Matter of Where…

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January is one of the nicest months in my opinion. The only truly competing month is February… I enjoy the crisp air and relative chill outdoors, as long as I am properly dressed. As a child I had great fun playing in the snow or going skiing or skating, but nowadays I think a walk is enough to get that wonderful feeling of winter that I enjoy so much.

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The other day I went for a walk to a nearby lake, where I stopped to take some photos. Two of the photos were taken from the very same spot, although in different directions. Those photos prove that it’s a matter of angle…;)

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Blue and white when the sun is behind me!

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…but when facing the sun, she sky seems to be on fire!

I rememeber when I was a child that we always played outdoors, both during breaks at school, but also in the afternoons when we were at home. One of the repeated instructions from every adult around us kids was; Don’t ever lick on metal! You can tell why, huh?

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The rewarding moment comes as you go back indoors. That’s when you either have a cup of cocoa or tea… The Swedish winter is as coldest in January and we also tend to have a lot of snow this time of the year, however this time I don’t think it’s very cold, only about -8C and only a few centimeters of snow on the ground, too… Perhaps I ought to be quiet… Who knows, I might be cursed with three weeks of Siberian chill!

 

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One Hundred and Eightysixth Asic- My lack of Star Wars Experiences

I might be the only one who has never watched a Star Wars Movie… First of all, I haven’t even got a clue what the movies are all about, apart from a few caracters I couldn’t help but notice when they appeared in newspapers or on TV. Secondly, I don’t know how many movies there are, what the story is all about and what might be the over all idea. I think I owe it to my lack of interest. I’m sorry about that. I guess some of you could die for a Darth Vader dress. I notice nowadays that there must have been a release of a new Star Wars Movie, but I don’t plan to go to the movies now either…

I remember long ago when I was in Stockholm for a few days during my summer vacation. I was all alone in my brother’s flat and he said that since he didn’t have a TV at the time, I could use his computer to watch movies if I liked to. He had Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings.  That was history by now and I was trying to find something to do. The first evening I started off with Star Wars. It was not my cup of tea, but at least I tried… Luckily I had brought a book. I don’t remember what book in particular, but I am certain it was not The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. I remember I had gotten The Lord of the Rings for my birthday a few years earlier (the BOOK, I mean), but when the giver shared the story in brief with me, I decided to let it wait until I suddenly feel an urge to know what will happen in a fantasy world… That urge is still nowhere to be found… Anyone who’d like to buy a copy of Lord of the Rings in Swedish?

Next evening I thought I’d maybe give the Lord of the Rings a chance… Honestly, what is it that people like with this movie??? I pushed the ”fast forward” and stopped here and there, but nothing in particular caught my attention for real. It must have been a rainy summer, since I didn’t just go outside to stroll down the beautiful streets of Stockholm.

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I’m very happy that we all have a choice. Those of you who love Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, keep watching for as long as you don’t try to persuade ME. I guess I’ll stick to When Harry Met Sally!

 

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The ninetyfirst åsic- To help students understand and find connections is what teaching’s all about!

For two weeks I have had the wonderful opportunity to be among students and teachers at #Pitman Middle School in #New Jersey, #USA. I have been monitoring instruction in many different classes and seen many very good examples of teaching. My main focus has been ESL-teaching and I have seen examples of that both in primary schools and in adult classes of different kinds. Some of the adult students were part of a program for parents and were taught in classes with students from many different countries. They were preparing for a test and if they’d pass the test that would help them qualify for being American citizens. Other adults I met learned language for their own good, so to speak. They had different private reasons for taking the course and were taught in a smaller group within a local college. In every one of these differents setting and with every single teacher I have noticed high quality and a good knowledge both in what an ESL student needs and also teaching and instruction in general. When in class, I can see that many of the teachers have the same idea as I have, i.e to teach through themes or concepts rather than details. Today, since it is Halloween here, I have noticed that younger kids in primary schools here learn about the local legend #The New Jersey Devil. According to the legend he was the thirteenth child of a worn out woman who didn’t want her child. She cursed him and said ”to the devil with him!” and since then he is haunting #the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. The story is told this day since this is his birthday.

All teachers and students seem very into the idea of Halloween, even if not all schools celebrate with costumes and dresses. One of the classrooms I visited today, a classroom where Spanish is the main subject, focused on the differences between Halloween and the Mexican tradition for Dia de las Muertas  (the Day of  the Dead). The American kids get a chance to comment on what is similar or different when they compare these two holidays. The teacher help them along the way and try to get them to precise what they mean. She asks questions like ”How do you mean?”  ”What would you have thought if a loved one came back to life?” The point for the teacher is to explain that the Mexican Holiday is not at all scary or horrific, but rather a nice way of remembering your loved ones who passed away. The teacher then connects to the American people’s connections to the date 9/11 and the kids all get a chance to share the stories their parents have told them about 9/11. The idea is to show the kids that by remembering and talking about sad or scary memories, those memories get a little easier to talk about each time. Then she wraps it all up by saying THAT is what the Mexicans do when they celebrate THEIR holiday. They stick to the nice memories of a person and cherish those memories in a more happy manner, although they are dressed or disguised into skeletons etc. I was very happy to get the chance to see this lovely explanation of what the different festivities are all about. To help students understand and find connections is what teaching’s all about! I have written in Swedish about the importance of this in my tenth åsic and in my seventyeighth åsic. Those of you who read Swedish are of course welcome to read and for my English readers I plan to translate my blogposts gradually when I find time to do so.

Thank You and Farewell #Pitman Middle School

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The ninetieth åsic- My New Favourite Tree

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For a couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to experience a very mild and nice autumn here in Pitman, NJ. One of the days we had +28C which is not at all like the temperature for October in Sweden. In my 71st åsic(#Sjuttioförsta åseriet), I wrote about the maples in Sweden and how I used to collect the colourful leaves in the autumn. I have always loved trees and since I live in a part of Sweden where forests are a part of the nice scenery, I always find a walk in the forest very soothing if I need to relax or find new energy. I have walked along nice streets here in Pitman, where mainly tall maples and oaks give gardens their share of fallen leaves. One kind of the tree was unfamiliar to me, but I could tell from what it looked like that it had to be a maple or an oak, so I picked up a leaf and brought it with me to #Pitman Middle School, where I asked everyone I met: ”Is this a maple or an oak?”. Most people said: ”I don’t know but I think it is…” and then two people very quickly said: ”It’s an oak, no doubt!” Now I KNOW it is an oak, since I have done what most people do nowadays… I googled it… It turned out to be a red oak.

The fallen red oak leaves has the same SOUND as the fallen Swedish maple leaves when you walk through them… The other day I took a shortcut home and ended up very far away from home in an empty yard…learning that just as ”genvägar är senvägar” , shortcuts tend to be longcuts…

One good thing by taking the ”shortcut” was that I had to walk on a narrow path in a little forest, passing a railroad to get back home. The fallen leaves in a thick layer sounded like the maple leaves from my childhood and around me both squirrels and chipmunks ran about. I knew I was very close to houses, but the trees and animals made me fly away in thoughts for a while. The beauty of coloured leaves is still the same, no matter where I am. It gives me a feeling of gratefulness to see all the colours, hear the dry sound of the leaves as I walk through them. The sunrays hardly pass through to the ground and there are merely dark soil and old leaves for the squirrels to run about in. In its lack of colours, the ground already seems ready to meet the winter. In my lack of inner compass, I also seemed ready to meet the winter… Luckily I made a correct guess and soon found my way back to Broadway again…

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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! ❤