Dinner for 4

In class, we have different dinner groups. I think this was a chance to invite our friends and to know them closely.
I was in the same dinner group with Christiane, Lasse and Laura P.  And these pictures were taken in our dinner ;) I cooked for them "et sote", in English it is sauteed meat, rice and carrot salad. I guess they liked dinner but who knows the truth :)))
It was very good evening. We ate, talked about school, lessons, our culture, our friends etc... We took a few photos and sent them to our teachers and they printed and posted them.
Thanks guys for coming, we had a nice evening. I always remember that night ;)

Practical Visits

In September, we went some places. The purpose of these visits is to give us an impression of Danish professional work in practise.
Our teachers splited into a few groups and each group had to go two places. Groups must go to one of these places in the morning and for the other, they must go afternoon.
My group friends are Kinnie, Paula, Laia, Tanja and Giovanna. Our practical visits places are  a nursery and a children's home.
Firstly, we went to nursery. The place is very close to our school and thanks to Tanja and Kinnie, we could find it easily. The place is small and very nice. There is two rooms and each of one has eleven children. In each room, there are two pedagogs and an assistant. It is normal because four kids need one pedagog. The place is not private. Children's age is changing between ten months and two years old. There is no special plan what children will do. Generally, kids do what they want to do. If they want to play, they play; if they want to sleep, they sleep and so on... Sometimes children do not want to be interested in someting so pedagogs help them in these situations. The nursery open at 07:00 o'clock and close at 17:00 o'clock. Parents come for their children between 14:00 and 17:00 o'clock. During the day, kids have breakfast, lunch and also snacks. There is sleep time and time can be different for each child. Neighbourd of nursery is ver good place and there are educated and rich people.
Children learn a lot of things here such as how to be social, how to behave to their friends etc... Normally nursery can be more crowded but this place is not and it is an advantage for pedagogs. Because if the nursery is too crowded, pedagogs can not be interested in all children very well.

Secondly, we went to children's home. In there, there are 12 kids. Normally, this number can be changed between 8-14. Till 18 years old, children can stay here. Every kid has own room and the place looks like a "normal" house with its kitchen, bathroom, living room etc... Children can go to their parents' houses at the weekends. Children know this house is only for them, this place is their second home and they have two family. Breakfast time depends on school time and most of them go to the normal school but some of them go to the special school. Older children go to school by bike or by bus but youngers go with an adult. At 17:30 all children have to be at home. After dinner time, kids must do homework. Normally two pedagogs work together but if they need, more than two can work. There is a tea time in the afternoon (after coming from school) and children and pedagogs talk about day. Pedagogs, teachers never talk about their families because children can think if I tell something about my parents, they will do bad things to them so in order to prevent this, pedagogs never talk about parents but of course a kid wants to talk, they can talk privately. All children have a diary and they write their life on it. The time how many years children stay there changes from one to the other. Some of them stay there one year, some of them stay there ten years. Pedagogs never send a child from children's home, firstly they find a new place to stay and then child leave there.

According to plan, after we visited these places, we must prepare a presentation about them and  also write an assignment from each visit.

When I compare these applications to my country, I can see lots of differentness. In Turkey we do not have nursery. Generally a person from family for instance grandmother takes care of child. And some of parents look for care worker. On the other hand some mothers do not prefer to work untill their child goes to the kindergarden.
We have children's home in Turkey, too however in Turkey, working of these houses is ver different. In Denmark these homes work like a "normal" home but in Turkey, these houses are like a dormitory and a lot of children leave together so, unfourtunately, they can not feel these house like a real home.

Next time, we will go practical visits again and I think they will be good for us. I liked to see them before and now I am sure to be glad again ;)

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet...

When I came to Denmark, I decided to write my experiences in a blog like a diary. I only thought it will be cool :) and I did not know that we will prepare a blog yet. Then I wrote this opinion on my twitter account. One of my friends from Turkey replied me with a little jealous message :) But after this day our teachers said us you must prepare a blog and write your opinions and experiences in Denmark, it was a surprise for me because me and my "jealous" frined talked it about a lot and he said I wish there was a problem with your blog [of course this is a joke between him and me :))] Therefore when I heard this blog homework, I thought that "Yes, he got what he wants" because if something is compulsory for students, it is hard to do it :)) It is students' rule :-P And then of course, I couldn't write as I want. I thougt I can write on my blog every day but I learned it is impossible :) because I am trying to get used to Denmark, I am trying to learn culture of Denmark, to meet new people, to see new places and so on...

I think this blog will be a great remembrance for me because sometimes we can forget some details, some nice time but thanks to blog, even if I forget some of them, I will remember again when I read here.

Anddd if you want to follow me on twitter, this is my account:

My Twitter Account

http://twitter.com/#!/_LaLe_

Project: Drop Outs

Our group for this project is Gaelle, Jaap, Kat and me. Firstly, I want to thanks my group not only for project but also for all good time. [thank you, guysss!!! :))]

The project lesson is "Professional Work with Children and Young People in a European Perspective".  Before we started the project, teachers wanted us to write our wishlists in order to know our interests. Then groups were constituted by teachers.

In our first meeting, we tried to decide our focus and although our wishlists were very different from each other, we could decide subject easily. Then we prepared our contract. According to our contract, if someone doesn't come to meeting or does any fecklessness about process, he or she will make cake :) Unfourtunately, we finished our project without having to cake :-P

After we determined the subject, we searched resources about our focus by alone. Because beginning of the project, we need to find all stuff and then we need to put them together.

Our subject was "school drop-outs, in a comparative study between Mauritius, the Netherlands and Turkey".  By drop-out we mean the children have skipped classes to such a degree that the school had officially deleted them from their register, and no other school or equal establishment has taken them in. And we chose Mauritius, the Netherlands and Turkey for comparison because three country was enough to comparative.

In second meeting, we met our tutor and he said yes to our subject and also what we did so the process of project was started and lasted on 15/10. We had to give our project this day. The project took four weeks.

We restricted our subject with the basic of the education system, statistics of drop-out, reasons for drop outs and whose responsibility. Our findings were very interesting and also too much but we had to sum up them because of limit on pages. In order to do this, we really studied hard and it was not easy :) We tried to focus on basic and important things.

I think my group is really empathetic because in every meeting we shared our all findings and then decided what we will do till next meeting and then we left. Our project was came up step by step in each meeting and I think we studied regularly and well-disciplined.

We also prepared a presentation about drop-out and presented it to the class. According to plan, we presented it to four groups and also teachers. We were the last group however the day was really good despite being a long day :) I really enjoyed all presentation and of course ours :)

Finally I want to share some information about drop-outs. In all three countries, this disipline punishment is implemented but statistics of it are different and it depends on lots of reasons such as environmental factors, socio-economically disadvantadeg families, language barriers etc... End of the project, we discussed this application and we decided that drop-out is not a solution to get through problems on schools. Instead of this, school administration should take preventative measures to end problems. This can be better than drop-out.

Yeah, that's it however these words can not be described our process, you shoul live it to see what happened :)

Thanks all my frineds ;)

Guest Teachers

Till now, we met six guest teachers;

• Ib Andersen "A Very Brief History of Denmark"
• Anne Mette Danielsen "A Right Based Approach"
• Richard Lee Stevens "Social Policy and Social Work Practice in Europe"
• Marcus Breuer "Gipsy"
• Tim Gully "Angels and Demons"
• Bill Cleary "How Religious Values Have Influenced Thinking and Practice in Ireland and Denmark -a historic view" and "Are Religious Values Relevant for the Educaiton of Teacher/Social Worker/Professionals in Post Modern Society" 

In Turkey, we do not have this system so this is also a new thing for me. I like this system because thanks to this, we can learn different subjects from different teachers and all of them are successful in their own subject.


In first guest teacher's lesson, our subject is "history of Denmark" I really liked the subject and also Mr. Andersen, in my opinion, is very good teacher. I enjoyed during the lesson, never bored :)

Before that lesson, I hadn't known anything about history of Denmark. After this lesson, I learned Viking is ancestor of Denmark and also I know the history of Little Mermaid. Now, with my experiences, I can say I know enough information about Denmark ;)

Our second guest teacher's subject is "a right based on approach". I thought we learned children's right but teacher taught "right" in general. The lesson was a little boring :D because during the lesson, we wandered off lots of time. :-/ The beginning of the sentence, we heard human's right but then end of it we heard child's right so it was a little confused for me. Mrs. Danielsen handed out articles about Convention on the Rights of the Child and we talked about "article 28 and 29" These articles mentioned education right of children. All of us discussed what our governments do for their education and most of them have similar studying.

Mr. Stevens who is our third guest teacher gave us homework before our lessons and we studied them before we came class. Then in the class we replied the questions.

Subject is social policy and social work practice in Europe. Actually problems about this issue are really interesting because these subjects concern our future jobs and on the other hand, problems of youth are also the other interesting thing for us. Mr. Stevens talked about dilemmas on goverment and youth. For instance; young people want to listen hip-hop, rock... briefly they want to enjoy their lives but goverment says them they must study and work. This is a dilemma for youth.

When I think about this dilemma, I thought it is a real dilemma, the life is our but despite this, lots of things control our life and this cannot be easy.

Then we talked to Mr. Stevens about social policy. He said a sentence which is if you do not learn your limits, values, experiences of life etc.., you can not be a social person; you can be lost in life and I really liked it. One sentence explain lots of things.

Gipsy is the fourth guest teacher's subject and it is very interesting. And also Mr. Breuer is very good teacher.

We prepared a project about "community gardens". Our time is too short but I think we were prepared very well :) Our group (Gaelle, Abi, Arianna and Me) did a brochure and its name was "Green Fingers". We drew shaking hands and painted it with green leaves. In my opinion, it looked beautiful :) And we wrote on it that "Everybody can come and join our garden. Every person can grow own vegetables, fruits etc... You will meet mew people" So end of the project, we presented it. It was funny.

After this, teacher talked abour Rroma, their language, culture, place where they live and their population. We watched some videos about them.

According to timetable, we must end the lesson at 15:45 and Mr. Breuer complied it exactly :)) It was a little hard because during all day, we had to be in the class and we were tired. Despite this fatigue, I wanted to concentrate the lesson and learn it so now I still remember all things that we talked in the class. I guess I'm really liked the subject :))

"Are they angel or demonds?"

This subject was crowd-pulling. After the lessons, most of my friends said same thing. Mr. Grully gave this subject over on powerpoint and every slide had lost of information. I couldn't think a child as a killer but I heard some news about them and also Mr. Gully told us a few examples and then I was really suprised because for me, all children are like an angel but when you heard these news, you started to think on it again. Are they really angel or a real demonds? Ohh God, it is really terrible!!! During the presentation, we talked about our countries and learned in which countries at what age persons are responsible for theis behaviours. In Turkey, the age limit is 18 and also in Denmark it is the same but in some countries, this limit can be 15, 12 and so on... I thought but they are still child but the answer can be "so...?" This subject is really interesting and maybe some day, I can research this issue for my professional study.

The last one was about religios and it was a comparison study between Denmark and Ireland.

We talked about influences of religion on professional thinking and it was very good. Then we talked about description of social worker not only for Denmark but also for Ireland. There were a few historical explanation of it. And then we looked today's explanations.

We watched a few videos about Denmark. In the video, presenter tried to understand why people from Danish drink a lot and tried to find answer of this question. Video was really funny.

When I came to Denmark, I realized that and I was surprised because I thought how these people can not be drunk :)) Now I guess that they got used to drink so much :))

To sum up, I liked all lessons and all teachers. Of course some of them are a little boring :)) but I will remember all of these days with smiling ;)

Camping Time :)

I have never forgotten camping because everthing is so good, actually not good, perfect :)
Before we went camp, I was a little nervous because I did not know friends, teachers and it was the first time that all of us were together so it was not easy in the beginning for me but after we went to go there, everything was changed :) Because my friends and my teachers are very kind, the plan of camping was very good, the place is really beautiful therefore I did not have any difficulty.
Besides that, we had an international meeting. everyone cooked traditional dinner. Derya, I and Elif cooked "türlü". It is a common food in Turkey. It is cooked with aubergine, courgette, tomato, potato, onion and chicken or meat.

Can we do this again? :-P

Of course we did lessons during these three days. On 01/09, we talked about cultere, cultural identity and etnographic perspective and cultural studied. Culture and cultural identity were defined belong to text and also we used our own definitions. After that we did second part of text and it was about ethnographic perspective and cultural studied. We wrote differences between them, such as ethnographic perspective requires living with the culture that we are studying but cultural studies requires only information about the culture. On 02/09, we talked about different text and the subject was Lia's family who are Hmong and American doctor. Our discuss group decided that the problem between them depended on religion and social context. And then we talked about our culture and explained it with some examples.

These three days can be thought enough but after the camp, I thought days passed quickly. I really liked every minutes. Thanks all of you!!! :)

My Expectations From International Course

Before I went to university I thought I should certainly attend Erasmus because I really wanted to meet new people and see new places.
When I heard to agreement of Erasmus between Turkey and Denmark firstly, I was very happy due to the fact that my dreams would be real :)
Thanks to international course, I think I will have more experiences about pedagogical study and also about my department. Then I want to have new and comparative perspectives. I wanted to learn how education is in other countries. Now I know this and there are lots of differences in education system. In addition to these, I have lots of friends now and absolutely this is the best part of Erasmus :)
Thanks everyone, I really like all of you and everything is really good experiences all of us. :)