Now, one of the moments you've been waiting for... My class!
The Class
I am in a 2nd grade class at the ISGR school. Since the whole school is mostly international, there is a diverse number of languages spoken in the school. However, English is the only language that the teachers and students are allowed to speak in, unless they are on their own break time. This way, everyone can feel connected through a language and no one will feel left out or worried that another group of peers was talking about you.
This is my first time in an ESL classroom. In fact, at the school, they do not even call it ESL. They call it EAL (English as an Additional Language). This is because most of the children are not only bilingual, but multilingual. My class is made up of students from Italy, Greece, France,Denmark, Poland, Russia, China, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, India, and a few more countries! Many of my students can speak more languages than English and English is not necessarily their second language. Some of my students can speak Swedish, French, Russian, Italian, etc. I am quite jealous that European countries teach young children multiple languages from an early age. I would've loved to be able to speak another language fluently by my 20s. The children are only 7 and 8 years old and they can speak multiple languages fluently!
My students are very proficient in English and can read, write, speak, and understand it very well! Their writing impressed me beyond belief when they were writing stories about dragons. Some are also reading chapter books, in English, in 2nd grade.
This is also my first time in a 2nd grade class. I have previously worked with 4th grade, kindergarten, 3rd grade (a lot), and 5th grade slightly. I guess working with 1st and 2nd level at SP counts, but in a public general education classroom, I have not worked with 1st or 2nd grade. I really do enjoy the age group because they still enjoy doing the fun activities and love learning. They do not rebel as much as the older students and they still like their teacher no matter what. I also noticed here that students are very independent. They do not need as much help completing assignments, walking to and from specials, going outside, following directions, etc. Oftentimes, I feel like children in America are used to adults constantly helping them out that they lose independence and rely on adults for help and attention. It is good that children are independent because they are held accountable for their actions and work. This is a life long skill.
From working with 2nd and 4th, I have found that I really like both and could teach anything in between 2nd-5th at the moment. I'm becoming more flexible in the ages I like.
There are 26, soon to be 27 students in my class. About 11 of them are boys and about 15 are girls. Since it is an international school, there is a higher mobility rate with students. Sometimes, their parents move around for work so they leave the school or come into the school. It is a rigorous process to be accepted into the school, even though it is public. There are requirements such as parents showing proof of residence and work.
My teacher is from England and she's the sweetest person. She has a kind heart for the kids and the students love her! It is also her first time with a TCU student teacher, so she's learning from me and teaching me. My class, and all the other students in the school, address her by her first name. It is part of the culture at the school to call teachers by their first names.
Ice Skating at Ruddalen
On Wednesday we went ice skating! The WHOLE school (grades K-5) went! It was my first time in an outdoor ice rink. When I say outdoor, I mean no side barriers, real water frozen on the ground where snow can fall. It is called Ruddalen. It wasn't until I got home and looked the rink up that I realized it was actually at a large sports facility. The outside skating rink was a football (soccer to them) turf. They must've covered it with water and let it freeze. The indoor rink was for the younger children. There was a barrier inside there. However, it had a race track along the outside for speed skating when not iced and the inside of the rink had a roller hockey rink and soccer turf. It's great how they can transform it so easily depending on the seasons.
I had to make sure to dress extra warm. Luckily I ordered snow pants a few days before the trip that came in handy. I only fell 3 times which was impressive. Once was because I got pulled down by someone else, the second time was because I fell getting onto the rink, and the third was just me being careless. I also had to use hockey skates (black) instead of figure skates (white) because they were out of figure skates. The hockey ones are technically harder since there is no break spikes in the front. Refer to image below of Madilyne's and my skates... My feet look like a child's.
It was great to help the kids learn to skate! A lot of them have only been once or twice before. Watching the progress of them using the walker and progressing to skating alone was heartwarming. It also started snowing a lot, so the rink started getting really snowy. It was such a beautiful sight to see the snow fall on the open rink.
It was also interesting to see that when students go on field trips here, they take the public transit trams and buses. By this, I mean like the ones that regular adults get on, not a yellow school bus (which don't exist here). Luckily there were parents and there has to be a certain amount of parents going. They put the children's backpacks with their skating gear and lunches in their car to drive over. Then, the classes, teachers, a few other parents, and I went to the tram stop and squished all on a tram car. Imagine trying to fit 3 of each grade into public transportation. Thankfully, they staggered it out and each class fit onto a different tram car.
My friends and I were thinking how much of a liability public transportation would be in America if the kids rode it with other strangers and could easily get lost or taken. Sweden is a very safe country where the people do not have to worry about turning their back every few seconds in fear of someone doing harm to them (not to say it's the safest place on earth, every place will have some degree of insecurity). Also, side note, children do ride the tram from an early age, without a parent! Talk about independence. We did not lose any children and we did not have to count them as often as you'd think... Plus, when we were at the rink, they could wander between both inside and outside rink without having an adult walk them back and forth.
