Preperation
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- Created on Thursday, 17 November 2016 09:33
- Written by Super User
Small Towns in Europe; Sharing Innovative Practices
Erasmus+ Partnership meeting in Høyanger, Norway
26th os Sept – 1st of Oct 2016
Why do I go to school?
…from education to work life…
//do I know what I want from my future//should I study more//do I need to study//what will tomorrow’s job marked look like//which qualifications
areneeded//what will be expected from me//how can my school help me be prepared
for my future work//what is my future work//why are students dropping
out from school//what motivates me//
what are my strengths//
The fourth partnership meeting in our project took place in Høyanger, Norway, at Høyanger Vidaregåande Skule (Høyanger Upper Secondary School). 25 visiting students together with 9 teachers meeting up with our 18 host students and the staff at school; to discuss, debate, write and listen to the theme “Why do I go to school?”
Background
The entire 3 years project aims to build a more sustainable future for young generations of students, mostly located in small towns, and share innovative practices among the 9 partner schools so as to help improve the quality of education, lifestyles and uture working opportunities for our students. The different concrete objectives of the project lays the foundation for the meeting in Høyanger. Some of these objectives are;
ü Promote entrepreneurship
ü Reinforce links between education, youth and the world of work
ü Promote professional development of staff
ü Strengthen students’ confidence
ü Reduce number of dropouts
ü Foster equity and inclusion in education, and promote cooperation an dinteraction between students, teachers and schools across Europe
Our project “Small Towns in Europe; Sharing Innovative Practices” aims to increase the students’ self-awareness on their own future and how they are all citizens of a common Europe. The teachers are also challenged on their roles as teachers in a changing Europe and a constantly redefined take on knowledge, skills and learning. Through lectures, visits to businesses and innovative companies, cultural events, debates, discussions and workshops the theme at each meeting is carefully studied – so also in Høyanger.
Preperation
Pre-work
Before the meeting all involved students were asked to prepare for the theme/topic. Through prework we wanted the students to have done some thinking and contemplating prior to the meeting. As mentioned the heading for the meeting was “Why do I go to school?”, and the angle was the transition from education to work life. This again seen through the filters of; what will tomorrow’s job marked look like, which qualifications are needed, what will be expected from me and how can my school help me be prepared for my future work. Most students chose to write essays, individually or in groups, and some did questionaires and interviews. Their products were uploaded to the project website prior to the meeting.
Brief sum ups from some texts
Some angles and questions the students discussed in their pre-work are seen in the subheading of this chapter, do I know what I want from my future, should I study more, do I need to study, what will tomorrow’s job marked look like, which qualifications are needed (…). The following are extracts from some of the essays written by the students;
A) My intention of going to school is to gain my aims. I don’t want to be bound to someone else. Especially not to a man, who has a higher salary than I have. Even nowadays it is hard to be independent and to have a raised standard of living as a woman. But hard does not mean impossible, therefore achieving what I seek might need a lot of hard work. The base of that, is a high education.
With a university degree, the salary you get, when you start to work, is much higher than the salary a person with a high school diploma gets. However, that is just one advantage of having a high education. So my intention of going to school is to be prosperous one day. Going to school and getting a high education helps me acquiring what I want. But not everyone has the same intention of going to school as I have.
B) Schools give us a widespread basic knowledge. Even if we do not know everything about a subject, having some knowledge helps to be able to talk others, as they most likely not all have the same interests. Learning about many different subjects expands your vocabulary and makes it easier to link between different matters. There is also a chance that if the subjects are chosen right from the beginning, we might miss things we did not know we needed. For example, topography is not the most fun to learn, for most of us that is, but without it we would not even know what our neighbouring countries are.
Altogether, I do not think it is completely fair to say we will need everything we learn for our future, however we do need it now, to discover our interests, our likes and dislikes and to build up some basic knowledge. As is said ‘The future lies in the hands of the children’, I think this future is better off in the hands of children who know what to do with it, and in order to achieve this, yes, we do really need schools.
C) Since I was little I have been totally sure that when I finish my studies I will work as a teacher. When I was 5-6 years old and I was at school I like so much going there. Every day I learnt new things, and because of this I started to think about how fantastic it could be being a teacher. During primary school I had some doubts about being veterinarian, but finally as always I decided that I wanted to work as a teacher in the future.
In secondary school I realized that my ideas were clear. The teachers suggested to us a new way to work: work in groups. At the beginning I didn´t like it, because I thought that my marks could get worse. Apart from that it seemed that my peers made use of my work, and in my opinion it was a waste of time. After a few months, the situation changed. I tried to change my ideas, as it was necessary to get better results. I started helping my peers understanding the theory that teachers had explained. I realized that every times they understood it I felt very well, so maybe I wasn’t wrong and teaching would be my work. At the last course of secondary school, I concluded that teaching is an amazing job to help people prepare for the future and also in their daily lives.
Last summer I have worked as a monitor with Sahrawi children. I taught them a lot of things, but during this week, they weren’t the only ones who learned something. Because of them I learnt to be more responsible, appreciate more what I have and enjoy every moments. To my mind, all of them are necessary things that we should remember always.
After having the experience working as a monitor, I decided that firstly I would like to study for early childhood education and then I will specialize in social education. A lot of people told me that working with children that have problems or diseases is not easy and that sometimes is hard. Although I know that this is true, I give more importance to the happiness that probably I will feel helping to these children having a normal or better childhood.
D) One reason why young people drop out of Secondary School could be that there is too much work and they can’t deal with. One other reason might be the long school days and that the teachers sometimes make the lessons uninteresting, some students may fall asleep because the teacher is just talking for hours. These things can make the students tired of school so they leave and maybe take a year or two off.
One reason why they drop out of school could be the wrong choice may be due to the influence of the parents and friends. The parents might think that you would study the same things that they did when they were younger but you want to study something else and you chose what your parents said because you want them to be proud of you. Can also be own fault, if you decide to follow him just because you are best friends and after some weeks/months you realise that you don’t like this education and just drop out because you are so tired and bored of school.
Teachers were also asked to prepare for the meeting through reflection on their own practice. They were not asked to complete a product to be uploaded, but to discuss with their colleagues at home and contemplate on their own practice over the same questions as the students; but from a teacher’s perspective.
ü Why do our students go to school?
ü What will tomorrow’s job marked look like in Europe?
ü How do we prepare our youth for their future?
ü How do I as a teacher enable my students to make the right choices?
Participating students and teachers
Country |
Student |
Teacher |
Austria |
Mayrhofer Kristina Strasser Lukas Stockner Haanna |
Peter Beham Johann Söllwagner
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Poland |
1. Natalia Rymar 2. Angelika Wężyk 3. Daniel Mątwicki |
Agnieszka Brons
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Germany |
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ROLAND CASPAR
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Denmark |
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Birgit Heinskou
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Sweden |
Viktor Johansson Moa Lindskog Oskar Koskela |
Ulf-Peter Johansson
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Netherlands |
Nicky Voorneveld Jochem van Klooster Jasper de Jong |
Jan de Heer
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Basque country |
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Idoia Pujana
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Italy |
Acampora Annalisa Callegaro Egle Previato Ester |
Francesca Puchetti
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NORWAY |
Susanne Nilsen Aardal Jon Ivar Davenport Viktoria H Molvik Lena W Nedberge Jarle A Olsen Thomas M Ruskedal Tina Sleire Sandvik Amalie R Selnes Malin Leirnes Magnus Frøyen Frivik Ullebø, Ola Skår, Kathrine Bondevik Guro Austreim Irmelin Gangeskar Andrine Blikken Haukøy Julie Vedvik Moen Hanna Dåvøy Rørtveit Kristense Bjørkhaug Bergseth |
Erlend Skreien Torill Thorbjørnsen Kristin S. Råsberg Jardar Trollebø Bjarte Johansen Daniel Longfellow Lidvar Berge
…rest of the staff
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Programme for the meeting
Monday 26th of Sept |
Tuesday 27th of Sept |
Wednesday 28th of Sept |
Thursday 29th of Sept |
Friday 30th of Sept |
Saturday 1 of Oct |
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Students |
Teachers |
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Students/Teachers |
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08:30 Official welcome at school ..and info about the week |
Local bus from Høyanger 08:35 09:00 Innovation Camp
Arranged by JA Guests: HYDRO and HAVYARD
PS: Place; SIVA building (unused factory building at Kyrkjebø)
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Local bus from Høyanger 08:35 09:00 Lecture “The school of tomorrow”
Lecture holder: Knut Roald (University College of Sogn&Fjordane)
Lecture + groups
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08:30 At school – attending classes (check list)
Some of you will follow your hosts, others will not (but your hosts will help you get to the right classroom) |
At school 08:45
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08:30 Auditorium Lecture Innovation Norway (w/Kristine Kopperud Timberlid)
09:25 Groupwork (same groups as Tuesday) 10:20 Sum up groupwork results (auditorium)
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08:30 Auditorium Lecture Innovation Norway (w/Kristine Kopperud Timberlid)
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Departure day
Host families bring their students to Nordeide in time for the boat.
The express boat leaves 08:50
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Getting to know each other better |
Tour of the school |
Coordinator meeting |
Visiting local business;
St Jean Wheels 09.15-10.00 (walking distance) |
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Tour of the school w/students |
Short meeting about the week |
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11:00 Meet and Eat – w/Mayor at Community Hall |
11:00Meet and Eat – w/Mayor at Community Hall |
Ca 11:00 Served lunch at Kyrkjebø (made and presented by residents at Høyanger Center for Asylum seekers) |
11:05 At school – bring your own trad. Norwegian “matpakke” |
11:05 Lunch at school cafeteria or bring your own trad. Norwegian “matpakke” |
11:05 Lunch at school cafeteria or bring your own trad. Norwegian “matpakke” |
11:05 Lunch at school cafeteria or bring your own trad. Norwegian “matpakke” |
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Ca 12:00 Høyanger Industrial Museum Walk&Talk …a walk around Høyanger while discussing the topic (TASK1) …return to school 14:45 and write down thoughts and ideas from W&T End: 15:00/15:15
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12:00 Høyanger Industrial Museum (w/guided walk . if weather is OK) |
Innovation Camp cont.
Ends around 15:00 (return to Høyanger by local bus, dept app 15:40) |
Joining the Innov.Camp
(and/or)
Coordinatormeeting Making summaries from webpage into pdf
Ends around 15:00 (return to Høyanger by local bus, dept app 15.40) |
Mountain? - weather depending
Bad weather; attending classes and/or working on written product
Norwegian students: school as normal if mountaintrip
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Mountain? - weather depending
Bad weather; coordinator meeting and attending classes
Coordinatormeeting Making summaries from webpage into pdf
Ends around 14:00
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11:25 summing up the theme and thoughts on what tomorrow will bring (K.K. Timberlid)
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11:25 summing up the theme and thoughts on what tomorrow will bring (K.K. Timberlid)
12:00 Summing up the week – helping the students with their finishing groupwork
End 14:00 (…IF work is finished)
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Ca 12:00 Summing up the week – groupwork (written product)
End 14:00 (…IF…work is finished!) |
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Meeting at school –
Making summaries from webpage into pdf
End: 15:00/15:30
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Mountain trip? Depending on weather |
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15:30 By buss to nearby town FØRDE (eating, socializing and maybe bowling)
Return around 22:00 PS: long day! |
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Evening; boardgame and movienight at school
(getting together) |
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TBA (to be announced) |
Leaving Hotel 15:15 by bus 16.00 To local village of Lavik (guided tour, visiting a blacksmith and dinner)
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TBA (to be announced) |
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19:30 Arrival Nordeide
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Families picking up + HVGS staff picking up teachers |
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20:00 Potluck at school
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19:00 Dinner Kaffe-telegrafen |
19:00 Dinner Høyanger Hotel |
Dinner Lavik Fjordhotel |
1900: Dinner Øren Hotel |
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Students/families bring food |
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Return ca 21.45 |
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