Week 17 – Proffesional and Personal Development ( Trip to Lisberg and Gail comes to visit ) 05/05/12 - 11/05/12

The Staff of Fridaskolan kindly invited Emma and myself to the staff day out to play golf. Onsjö golfklubb was situated on the beautiful lake in Vansburg and we spent the evening learning to golf in groups. We practiced putting, chipping and also long drives on the driving range. The sun was shining and it was lots of fun. As well as getting time to speak to the staff of the school we had some tea and buns and relaxed.

 

The International Office at University West organized a free trip for the Erasmus group to Lisberg which is Scandinavians largest theme park located in Goteborg. The admission was free which was a good thing as the rides were very expensive but extremely fun. One ride in particular which we really enjoyed was the Balder a wooden roller coaster. We laughed a lot when we seen the picture of us appear on the screen after. The theme park had lots of nice buildings and a park which we explored and enjoyed in the sun.

 We have had a lot of work for our Education Module this week as we have to hand in an evaluation  report and also present an evaluation of a lesson to the rest of the group including our surprise visitor Gail Eason. It was strange to hear the Northern Irish accent for the first time in a few months and I could understand why the Erasmus students may have had trouble with our accents. We had the opportunity to have lunch with Gail and discuss our time and experiences here in Sweden which allowed me to reflect on how much more independent I have become whilst living in Sweden. Unfortunately this week was very rainy and Gail had packed a suitcase for sunny weather.

We visited our last school in Trollhattan this week called the Kronan school as part of our Education module. This school is a multicultural school where 98% of the pupils are immigrants and only 2% are Swedish due to the location. Due to the fact that I live in this area  I was aware that the majority of the inhabitants were immigrants however, I found it very interesting that only 2% of this school consisted of Swedes. Due to the increase in the number of EAL pupils now in Northern Ireland I have encountered many classes containing a few pupils from other countries but this was my first experience in a predominantly multicultural school. I thought the school was very modern and the resources and facilities were impressive. When we arrived we spoke to the English teacher who told us that before they moved to this area the students thought that it was a bad idea as they believed it would be destroyed. I thought it was quite sad that they did not want the school to be in the area where they lived but she said it has had a very positive effect on the pupils since moving there. The school offers lots of after school activities where the children feel save and it keeps them of the street.

I said goodbye to some good friends this week and I can’t believe that it will be me leaving this time next week.