december 21, 2014 av asaole

One hundred and thirtysecond åsic- All Inspired by the Early Mornin´Rain

Earlier today I wrote a blogpost in Swedish about the colours of Christmas. To give a few examples of that I added a song we all know, i.e Blue Christmas with Elvis Presley. I didn’ t plan to actually play it myself, just to add it to the blog post. But accidentally I turned on the player and then I was hooked… So from then on I have been walking in memory lane with one of the most wonderful voices ever. Over the years I cannot say I have been listening all the time to Elvis Presley, but I would be true if I’d say I never lost the feeling for some of the songs either. When I was ten years old and Elvis died, I asked my Dad for an album with Elvis for Christmas. He bought the Golden record from a concert in Canada. My fave song was this one, although here I found the Nashville edition:

in October 2014 I had the opportunity to find out what it might be like to be very close to Elvis, in Nashville, because one of my teaching friends in NJ talked about how she left NJ for Nashville. We spoke for a long time about Elvis’ music and about our favourite songs. We had one thing in common. We both enjoyed the gospel songs and also the latest recordings. How Great Thou Art is originally written as a Swedish hymn and it is often sung in funerals, Oh Store Gud. It is recorded many times, but one of the best is this one, in my opinion, mainly because the singer Christer Sjögren admires Elvis Presley and thus is a great performer of his songs in general. This time however, it is the Swedish version. Can you speak Swedish? If not… what if you can sing it??? 😉

But whatever Elvis did, he was copied by others and some of them are very nice singers, too, one of them is again a Swedish man, called Henrik Åberg who has admired Elvis Presley for a long time and manages very well to get close to Elvis’ sound:

But it doesn’t necessarily need to be a man, to sing Elvis songs. Carola is one of few Swedish female singers who keep coming back to old Elvis songs particularly because she loves them, but also because Elvis was her late father’s most appreciated choice of music. I think many of her recordings of Elvis’songs are very well performed and can stand the comparison with other wellknown singers worldwide. Do you agree?

november 14, 2014 av asaole

One hundred and fourth åsic- To choose or not to choose is the question

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When I was in NJ a couple of weeks ago I noticed that I am not very good at choosing and find myself ambivalent and indecisive, If there are a lot of options. At least when it comes to choosing food from a menu… 😀

I wonder if I possibly have inherited this from my daughter? We are just the same when we are in a situation of choice. If we get stuck, we do however have different solutions to our problem. My daughter would most likely go for a choice similar to some of her friends, and thus avoid the risk of feeling her own choice was in any way bad. I, myself, on the other hand, sometimes want to follow the stream, not be the one to be a nuisance to others. SO although we both may do as others do, we seem to do so for completely different reasons. We also both tend to pick ”both” when it may be difficult to pick ”either…or”…

One of my friends have decided for herself to give herself a kind of punishment if she cannot make a decision when she is picking something for her (fika)coffee. If she cannot make up her mind about what nice pastry to choose, she simply says: ”En kanelbulle, tack!” (A cinnamon bun, please!). I remember many different situations when this friend and I have lined up to buy a cup of coffee and she and I both try hard to make a decision, but when it’s our turn at the check-out, we realize that it’s impossible… Luckily a cinnamon bun is a great treat along with a cup of coffee!

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But…what if my reluctance to make a choice is the very reason why I find it so difficult to be decisive in my classroom, too? The Swedish School System allows a lot of democratic processes for students to be involved in. We are supposed to engage our students in decision-making and students have a right to make an impact and be active in evaluating their school situation from many different perspectives. I don’t mind that situation at all… In fact I enjoy being interactive with my students in order to develop the learning process from year to year. Having said that, I also notice that Swedish students tend to be used to this collaboration with their teachers and they are also interested in sharing their opinion, suggest possible improvements to instruction or lessons, but my current students from different parts of the world seem more or less new to the idea of sharing their ideas and views.

I remember a lesson I had planned for a group of SVA3, where the students were all supposed to act and also to reveal a certain personality in a dialogue with friends. I had hoped for the group to pick a card with a personality and then ”go for it”, but obviously they were all worried about the situation and thought it was a better idea if I handed out the cards and thus made the choice more of a ”random” situation. After the activity I asked the students why they didn’t want to take part in the process of choice and they all said that they thought it was scary and unusual to decide for themselves in a school situation. It didn’t matter that they were all adults. They were all facing their old school situations where teachers make decisions and students do as they are told.

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Is there a difference between situations where one wants to choose or not? I don’t know if that would be universal, but I think from my point of view that when the decision is important to me FOR REAL, then I don’t give away my chance to choose voluntarily, but if there is no real and deep meaning to me personally, then I don’t mind letting someone else pick a choice of their taste. That is also why I completely trusted my friends when we decided what food to buy when I was in the US a couple of weeks ago. I trusted their taste and I didn’t want to be a pain…so instead of making a decision they wouldn’t appreciate, I’d rather let them choose. I guess we are all different. I notice that I am a person with a ”decision disorder” 😀

So… To choose or not to choose, will also in the future be the most important question, in every situation there is.

oktober 1, 2014 av asaole

Sjuttionde åseriet- The seventieth åseri- Less than three weeks left

Earlier this year I received a Pedagogical Award of 10 000 SEK from my employer VBU, to spend on a course or experience that would develop my teaching. I decided to check whether it would be possible to visit a teacher doing almost the same thing as I do myself, but in another language. It is now less than three weeks left before I leave for my visit in a school district in NJ, USA. The teaching of English as a Second Language will be my main focus and it will be interesting to experience what it is like, compared to teaching Swedish as a Second Language.