Odense, Denmark

Yesterday morning in Odense we were picked up by some of the Danish principals, our professors friends, and they brought us onto a ferry which we took to a small island. This island has very old towns. We got a guided tour of one of the old towns which has many old buildings from the 1700's and 1800's with the oldest from around the year 1690. These buildings were all very small and when we went inside them most people had to duck their heads, some houses are shown in the picture on the left. We then drove through some countryside to get to a different part of the island. The town we went to was and still is a big sailing town. We toured a sailing museum where there were many old pictures of sailors and ships, model ships, and ships in bottles. We took a ferry to a different island and then returned to Odense by bridges. When we got back to Odense Olav brought us to a futbol (soccer) game. The teams playing were one step down from their top teams in Denmark. Olav bought all of us scarves with the team colors and logo. The team we were cheering for won one to nothing and there is a picture to the right.

Today we went on school visits! There were four schools to go to so we split in half and each of us only went to two schools. At the first school I went to I was able to observe a 7th grade physics lesson and then a 6th grade English lesson. One thing very interesting about the schools in Denmark is that the students call their teachers by theirs first names. Another thing that has been interesting is that students will stay with the same teacher for multiple years in a row and it used to be that they had the same teacher their entire schooling, which is only kindergarten to grade nine or ten for us. When I went to the second school our group split again and went into 7th grade English lessons. Dave, our professor, and I were in the same room and the students had prepared questions for us. In the schools we have visited the students begin English lessons in the third grade so the 7th graders were all able to speak English pretty well. We then were able to get into smaller groups and ask the students questions. The students that I was talking to were a majority non-native Danish. Denmark has received many immigrants and now some schools are a majority non-native Danish. They had many questions about the US and it was very fun to hear their English. After the school visits we went to a center that is full of educational resources for the teachers. They are able to get assistance with lesson plans and loan resources to use in their lessons with their students. One of the principals had all of us over for supper tonight. It was a very large meal but very very good! All six of the prinipals that we have met were there as well. Today was a long but very informational day.