Wrapping it all up

And then it was over... Sunday came too fast and none of us wanted to leave - we've had such an amazing time. Since I haven't blogged since last Wednesday, I feel I have to share with you the experiences I had the last days of our trip as well - so, enjoy:)

School library



Hammond from the outside

Well, Thursday we visited Hammond, which was an interesting experience. This school has approximately 900 students, from Pre-Kindergarten (age 4) to Grade 12 (age 18). Hammond is a private school, which means that you have to pay money to be able to become a student. The tuition varies between the age groups, but a high school student would have to pay ca 15,000$ a year. This of course means that the student body is different from the one at e.g. Dreher, which is a public school. Hammond has one teacher for every eighth student which means the student groups are often quite small. One of the classes I observed, which was an English literature course, had six students - and this was not uncommon... My impression of Hammond was that this was a school I would love to send my kids to. The surroundings were beautiful, the classrooms were filled with resources, there are hardly any disciplinary problems, the teachers seemed inspired, the school lunch was healthy (prepared by the school's own chef)... It really seems like a dream school - of course, if you have the money - which is my main issue about this school (and all other private schools). Hammond has a 0% drop-out rate. But of course, rather than having students drop out, they get rid of them by throwing them out of school. What we got to see was a shiny, glossy image of a pretty much perfect place for learning, but I still left with a bad taste in my mouth and a notion that we hadn't really seen it all.



The 5th graders at Hammond



Hammond focuses on Norway this year!

What was really good at Hammond, was that we got to actually talk with the students. At Dreher we missed this and we would have liked to get to interact with the students. At Hammond we spent a lot of time doing this and that was great. I started off in 5th grade, and these students were so good at asking questions! They wondered mostly about what it is like to be a 5th grader in Norway. They were stunned that Norwegian students are not offered cookies for lunch and they were shocked that Lady Gaga had actually been to Oslo. They could not believe that we actually listen to American music and watch American TV-series and movies all the time.

High school students in the auditorium

Our focus when talking to the high school students, however, had to do with equality. These students are used to competing for everything. The school gives out awards for everything - best academic achievement, best athlete, best anything - all the time. This is very different from in Norway, where we don't want to single students out - neither weak nor strong. But perhaps we should put good achievements in the spotlight more often? We should perhaps dare to praise our good students more to create an environment in which it is actually positive to do well in school? The high school students were also surprised at how liberal we are in Norway. The fact that boys and girls get to hang out without adult supervision sounded astonishing to these students. And imagine the school nurse handing out free condoms?!?

Rainbow Street

Shrimp and grits

On Friday we headed out for Charleston, which swept us off our feet. Wonderful weather and 25C - it couldn't have been better. Charleston is a really beautiful city with a lot of history. Fort Sumter, where the Civil War started, lies just outside its shore. We had lunch at the Dixie Cafe, where we were introduced to a classic Southern dish: Shrimp and grits. Well... I have not become a great fan... Grits is a porridge-like thing made of something similar to polenta - not my favorite. We spent the day wandering around the city, and we actually got to do some shopping as well :)

Plantation House

Plantation Garden

Just 45 minutes outside of Charleston lies Magnolia Plantation, which we visited on Saturday. It was like cut out from the TV-series "North and South". A guide told us about plantation life from the early days and how it developed through times. A common myth is that all plantations in the South were cotton plantations. But actually no plantations grew cotton before after the industrial revolution. The Southern plantations produced indigo and rice, and Magnolia Plantation was a rice plantation. The rice was brought by the slaves from West Africa and grown in large quantities on many plantations. However, most of the rice was then exported to Europe. Magnolia was (and still is) owned by the Drayton family and the plantation employed 47 slaves in its heydays. Read more about Magnolia Plantation here.

Slave Cabin

Saturday evening we went to potluck dinner at Dr Brown's house. A potluck dinner is a dinner where all the guests bring food and have a good meal together. We got to meet Dr Brown's family and friends and we had interesting conversations with some of her fellow professors at the university. This was an excellent way of ending our trip to South Carolina, even though we all felt like we were just getting started.

So, today is Wednesday and I have been home for two days - jet lagged, but so glad I got to go on this trip. I have learned so much and experienced things I would never have gotten to otherwise, and I am forever grateful that I was one of the nine teachers that were given this unique opportunity. I am now looking forward to sharing my adventure with my students and colleagues at Rælingen, and I hope that I have been able to convey some of my experiences through my blog. So long, folks!

By golly! How about that?

Well, we have almost finished our fourth day here in South Carolina, and it has been another day of many impressions. As on Monday, we spent most of our day at USC for lectures. Today's topics were writing and politics.

So, for our first session we had the pleasure of getting to know Dr Victoria Oglan, who gave us a very interesting lecture on writing. She has been a teacher for 40 (!!!) years, and she has a great passion for getting students to write more. The way she has made her students more interested in writing is by using a workshop method. This is a bit complicated to explain in a blog, but one of the things she introduced to us was the "Writer's Notebook". A "Writer's Notebook" is simply a plain notebook that eventually becomes a collection of different texts produced by its owner. The way she uses this notebook is to give her students 15 minutes of each class to write something spontaneously. They are not to focus on spelling or grammar - just to get thoughts on paper. Here are some examples of tasks she would give her students:

- "Write down a list of things you might want to think about later"

- "Play with words you like!"
- "Familiy stories that you know orally - write them down!"
- "Write down snippets of interesting dialogue that you have eavesdropped on"

Dr Oglan's lecture was very inspiring and I really liked her motto: "Learners are teachers and teachers are learners". It will be my goal to remember this and try to live by it when I teach.

After lunch today we had a fascinating lecture on "Politics of the South" by Dr Smoak. She is a "native" South Carolinian, and gave us a very candid update on some of the background for the political situation in the southern USA today. We all know that this part of the country is ultra-conservative, and after today's lesson I can better see how it has become so. This has to do with the geography and the colonial traditions in the South, the agricultural economy, racial issues (slavery), religious traditions and single party loyalty. Dr Smoak's main concern, however, is that things aren't moving forward in the tempo that they should. There is still too much racism and discrimination going on. It is still "The Good Old Boys" who have the power...

Due to the content of Dr Smoak's lecture it was extra interesting to listen to our next visitor, namely a local politician called Shell Suber. Mr Suber works as a professional lobbyist, and he also works as a campaign manager for some of the Republican candidates, for example John McCain in the last presidential election. To get his view on politics in the South was of course very interesting after our previous lecturer, and I would have to say he made a pretty good impression. He had nuanced opinions, and was less one-sided than I had expected. We didn't go too deep into e.g. the race discussion, but he seemed to be a fairly liberal republican. (I wasn't entirely sold after his visit... I know too many people of his kind to believe him 100%.)

When we were finished at USC we went to a store called "Educational Wonderland"', which is a huge store with lots of pedagogical teaching material. Most of it was elementary and middle level, but I found some things that I am really looking forward to using. From now on I am not going to grade my students' papers - they will now only get stickers that say "Way to Go!", "Admirable", "Awesome Work"¨and "Extra Special" :)

We also managed to stop by Barnes & Noble (bookstore) on our way back, and I got several books for Fredrik and Ingrid. They had these great books for children with lots of pictures and large sized letters. I also got a couple for my niece since she according to my sister "hates" English - so, Trine, the help is on its way to Kongsberg!

So this is it for today... If you are wondering about the blog title, it has to do with the language here. I constantly pick up on phrases and pronunciation that I love, and so today's absolute favorite expression is of course "by golly". Used for example like this: "Where're y'all from?" "We're from Norway." "By golly! Now, how 'bout that! Isn't that wonderful!" (Just to give you an idea:))

I might not be able to write tomorrow, since we are going to Hammond to give our presentations on Norway (really excited about that), and then we are heading off for the theater in the evening. But I will be back with another update as soon as I can. (By the way I have changed the settings, so that it should now be possible to comment on my blog entries.)

Dreher High School

The gym at Dreher High School

So, today has been an adventurous day! We've been to Dreher High School, which is a high school with approximately 1150 students and 70 teachers (that's half the amount of teachers we've got in a school the same size!).  The school has approximately 58 % black students - I don't like to refer to groups of people as "blacks" and "whites", but they do that all the time here. It has been a day of many reflections, but all in all I would have to say that a 17-year old in DHS is not that different from a 17-year old in Rælingen vgs :) However, there are things that I have seen today that I think are really great, and that I would like to try out at home, and then there are things that I find strange and also a bit saddening.

A big difference between high school and videregående skole is of course the fact that the high school students are divided into classes based on academic achievement. We've had discussions about whether or not this is a good thing in Norway as well, so it was quite interesting to experience it in real life. And I would have to say that there are pros, but there are definitely cons as well. What is good about organizing classes this way is of course that you get to adapt the level of what you are teaching to a more academically homogenous group. However, after having attended both AP English (Advanced Placement - the highest level), English Honors (the middle level) and English CP (College Preparatory - the lowest level), I would have to say that this seems to be a system that gives lots of opportunities to the students with the best academic achievements, but which puts students into categories that I'm not comfortable with. My observations today are not, however, completely transferable to Norway. The main reason for this is that South Carolina still struggles with huge inequalities between "blacks" and "whites".

So, for our first class today we had AP English - 18 students, 1 African-American! Second class was English Honours - approximately 50/50 "blacks" and "whites". Last class was English CP - 19 students, 1 white! Just to give you an example of difference in academic level: In the first class the students started off with a test. This test was a mix of both very advanced vocabulary and writing an argumentative essay - all in 40 minutes. Their homework for next class was to read 7 (!) essays and analyze them. (I hope some of my students are reading this...:)) However, in the English CP class they started off learning how to make correct sentences by adding capital letters, commas and full stops... 

The class I felt most at home in was the English Honours class. The teacher in this class had the students work much the same way that I do. They did different things, but what I really enjoyed were oral presentations on literary analysis held by the students. These students are continuously reading books and the teacher told me that she required her students to read at least 75 pages of a book a week. Imagine!!! I am grateful if I can get my students to read one book per year!!! (Not talking about school books here...)

At lunch. I felt I was in "da hood":)

Another thing that is an obivous difference between Norway and the US is the fact that the teachers have their own classroom here. This means that when the students enter a classroom, he/she steps into the teacher's area and is his/her "guest". Once again, there are pros and cons, but the idea of having my own classroom where I could keep all my stuff and not having to drag everything all across the school is very alluring. The assistant principal, however, pointed out to us that there are great challenges connected to having all the students changing classrooms at the same time because unwanted situations escalate easier. But this is not an unknown problem in many Norwegian schools either... Another downside of this "teacher's classroom"-organization is of course the lack of cooperation between the teachers. There didn't really seem to be any arenas suitable for teacher cooperation and interaction. However, this is the land of individuality, so I'm not very surprised by that.

There is so much more I could say about what I've seen today, but I'm going to stop here. I have to prepare my presentation for Hammond on Thursday. Tomorrow will be packed with lectures at USC, and I am sure that is going to be really interesting.

Hi, y'all!

Today has been so packed with activities I don't even know where to begin... Most of the day has been spent at the university, but we've also been to the State House for a tour there.

We started off at USC with a lecture on Civil Rights and Education, which was really, really interesting. Dr Kara Brown gave a lecture that made us understand how the US education system has contributed to maintaining racial inequality.We also watched a documentary called "The Corridor of Shame" which literally left me with tears in my eyes - and this is the situation today!!! Worn down schools with basically no facilities at all and where no teachers want to work... What happens to these children? The American Dream based on the vision of "it doesn't matter where you come from, as long as you work hard enough you can reach the stars" does not apply to this group of people. The road is just too long and too hard... The illiteracy rate is high and the living conditions are very poor.

For our next session today we met two very inspiring African-Americans, Gloria Boutte and George Johnson. They told us about "Culturally Relevant Pedagogy", which we could actually relate to our own daily practice as teachers. This type of pedagogy has to do with putting learning into a context that is meaningful to the group of students you are trying to teach. It emphasizes that a teacher must not only have deep content knowledge and a strong pedagogical knowledge, but he / she must also have cultural awareness. The lack of such awareness and ignorance will often lead to students being misinterpreted and misunderstood, which has been the case with many African-American children who have been put through a system created by white people for white people.

We rounded off our day at USC with a lecture on Southern Literature with Dr Jewett. She gave us some ideas on how to introduce different topics by using children's literature. We also discussed Pat Conroy's "The Water is Wide", which is actually compulsory reading for American students. Dr Jewett showed us a method she uses with her own students when she wants them to analyze literature. 



Wenche, Nina and Ann-Toril are working on their "story web".



The day was completed with a tour of the State House. This building is the seat of South Carolina's executive and legislative branches of government, i.e. the Senate and the House of Representatives. We were guided by a very patriotic and very southern man who was eager to share with us all his knowledge about this particular building.

 

Today has been really educating and eye-opening, but I am really looking forward to tomorrow. We are visiting Dreher High School, which is a public high school just on the outskirts of Columbia. See y'all!

We're here!!!

It has been a glorious day so far! The sun has been shining from a clear blue sky and we have been doing lots of walking around in Columbia. We started off after breakfast (which was big!) for a historic walking tour guided by a very sweet, old man called Robert. He had the cutest southern accent and really gave us a lot of information on the city. There is lots of American history right here and the Civil War is a central part of this area's past.

Being in the South is very interesting. The heritage of the slavery is a heavy one, and it is quite shocking to see that prejudice against coloured people is still so very much alive. South Carolina is one of the most conservative states in this country, and this shows in many ways. Since it is Sunday today, we could observe herds of people going to church for Sunday service - and they weren't exactly wearing jeans!!! Mothers in the highest heels, kids dressed up to their teeth and fathers in black suits  - they looked like they were all going to weddings. This is very different from in Norway where very few people actually go to church on a regular basis, and if they do it is quite informal.

Well, we are off to get some dinner, but we will have an early night because tomorrow is stuffed with lectures on Southern literature, history and politics. I'm looking forward to really get going!

How to present Norway?

One of the things that we have planned for our trip to South Carolina is high school visits. On Tuesday we are going to Dreher High School which is a public high school, and on Thursday we will visit Hammond High School which is a private school (see links to the schools on this site). Dreher High School is focusing on Norway this year (!!!) and has asked us to share a bit about our country and culture with their students. And so I am working on a presentation for them - but what would they find interesting to know? I could of course present all the stereotypical things with the fjords and the trolls, but is that really valuable knowledge?

So, I struggle a bit to find out what to present to these students. Usually I teach my own students something that has to do with the English speaking world, but this time I am going to teach American youth about Norway, which will absolutely be a challenge for me. I have to admit that I am somewhat nervous about this, but at the same time I'm sure it will be a really cool experience. I wonder if the American students are very different from my own students?

Just a couple of days left...

In just a few days I am heading out for Columbia, South Carolina, USA, together with eight other English teachers from high schools all over Romerike. Together we are participating on a Southern Heritage Study Tour organized for us by The University of South Carolina. This university is located in Columbia, which is the state capital of South Carolina, and will be our home away from home while we are on this trip. We have several exciting activities planned, e.g. university lectures, high school visits, trip to Charleston and a plantation visit, and I will keep y'all posted while I am away :)