Practice and Semester Start!

So now i have started the courses at ph zürich and also finished 1 weak of practice at my school in place called Witikon. The plan was to have 2 weeks of practice before semester start, but a bad planning from our mentor gave us one weak off because the schools had 2 weeks of winter holiday after our first practice weak. We were stilling having the evening courses in german langauge at a langauge school which we have two days per weak.

My first weak of practice went excellent. My practice teacher Ursula Meier was ill the two first days so i was together with another teacher (Gunar) who has a 6th grade. But the first we were going together with Ursula's 3th grade to the forest where the pupils did some several things connected to the theme of being in the forest and the nature. A nice experience where i got a good first impression of the children and Gunar, who was very kind to me. I thought that the teachers had a way of letting the children being active in the their way of learning and communicating. But that wasn't so. After the forest trip i was in the 6th grade with Gunar where i introduced myself to the pupils and their english was a lot better than in the 3th grade which isn't suprising of course.
Tuesday i was with Gunar the whole day in the 6th grade. They had a english lesson and i was suprised, though the pupils are at a proper level in english, the teacher wasn't able to keep English as a CL. He used german a lot and this was going to be a big challenge for me both in the 3th grade and in the 6th grade to teach them in english, but i was looking forward and my plan is to have English as a CL as much as possible.
I had my first lesson this day in sports where i was allowed to take the first of the two lessons in sports. I did warm up with them and some various football training activities and finished with playing matches against each other. It was a nice experience!
The day after Ursula came and the last days of experience i observed and got to know the pupils better. But i need to be very critical to the teacher. They are great teachers and the pupils are very skilled in every subject, but the amount of activity in the classroom is to low or really there isn't any. PLEASE TIME FOR MOVEMENT! My first english lesson came in the 3th grade where i started very easy on the pupils and had the topic presentation(how to present yourself) focusing on to get the children to communicate in english with each other. I did the activity stand up-hand up-share. The pupils, Gunar and Ursala liked the activity and the teachers praised me by telling that the pupils manage to keep english as the spoken langauge in the activity and they were very suprised.
To sum up my first weak of practice: Good first impression and i'm looking forward to teaching more and giving the children another way of learning. It is going to be a good experience and a challenge. The teachers at the school are very kind also so i'm very glad to be at this school. As my semester starts, we will have practice one day per weak (Tuesday)

My semester started monday and we have a looooooooot of courses. But still very exciting courses and they are in english, ecxept for one.
A list of the courses i attend.

• Other worlds (Monday)

This cource has a lot of cultural aspects in it. It is in the word "Other" where we are going to focus on different literature which focus on something that is different and "other" from what you know.
We had a lot of administration to start with and what the course was going to be about. There are going to be presentation from us students. And we got a impression about the course by analyzing some texts. Looking forward to next session in this course which is very exciting!
This course will focus on fictional texts of different genres and periods which revolve around the pervasive theme of "Other Worlds."

• Family Conflicts in English Literature (Monday)

 The course is also literature and it is focusing on British, Irish and American literary texts of different genres which revolve around the pervasive theme of 'family conflicts. It is exciting because you as a teacher are going to experience conflicts in a pupil's family and this course will focus on texts touches this theme and trough literature we are going to learn how this conflicts start and what the purpose is of them.

• Learning Strategies (Wednesday)

This course is the one i like most. The content is something we had before but it is still exciting to work with it again and with other students. It is focusing on the different learning strategies in langauge teaching and how it functions and how you as a teacher create an ideal learning environment.

• English Linguistics (Wednesday

In this course we will learn about central aspects of the structure of English and will be given an overview of the history of English. the course will heighten our language awareness, i.e. deepen our understanding of the language we will teach. We learn about the the following aspects of the structure of language in general and of English in particular: the properties of human language and models of language, phonetics/phonology, sound and spelling, morphology, syntax/grammar, lexicology, pragmatics.

• English Literature (Wednesday)

This course is about the english literature and the historical background about the English Literature and how it has developed and about the authors who had a big impact and influence on it. Learn about shakespeare and the literature in the old old old days. A good course if you are planning to study english  after the teachers education

• Langauge Chance (Thursday)

This is a linguistic course which focuses on the developments in the English langauge and we are going to look on the differences and changes all the way back from Old English! We got a taste of the langauge in that period and what a difference!

• Multilingualism (Thurday)

Also a lingustic course which focuses on multilingualism. Going to work with different aspects of multilingualism and give presentations about practical examples of multilingualism as a society and families.

• Children's Literature (Friday)

 This course is one of the best as well. It focuses on literature that is written for children. Reading books is what we are going to work with and how the children can pick the right books and why children books are so important for a childs learning development.

• Switzerland - Nature, Culture and Society (Friday)

This course is in german and about Switzerland, We though have a translater in form of a teacher student who is talking to a microfon. Me, Sami and an American student are listening trough headphones. A little bit funny, but that was the best option and the course is in german. But exciting course where we are going to learn about the nature, culture and society in Switzerland.

Then there is also the german course, but not important to mention, as we are only learning the german langauge. BOOOORING! :)

That's all from me now!

The first days in Zürich

Me and Sami arrived at Zürich airport Tuesday at 22:30. We took a cab to our residence and payed about 300 kr. As we didn't have time to buy food and it was to late for that we tried to order pizza, because we were very hungry. We were shocked when we heard that a pizza was double price as in Denmark.

Next morning we went to the centrum of Zürich to buy monthly cards for bus and for "sporvogn". The place where we were living couldn't supply us with kitchen tools so we went to Ikea, which was just outside the Zürich. Here we got our first official meal! IKEA food is good and very cheap :-) Afterwards we went home to relax. In our residence there are a lot of people living with different cultural backgrounds. From turkish to chinese people. Funny thing to mention is that there were about 20 chinese people celebrating the Chinese new year with dinner and alcohol. We have communicated with a lot of people here in the residence and it's a good thing because we speak english all the time. Who said Zürich wasn't the perfect place to increase your linguistic competence? :) Also a thing to mention is that almost everybody speak English here in Zürich so it is a big advantage.


We've also been to a meeting on PH Zürich(Our school) with our Mentor Kathleyn Gallagher and Danielle Meier, who is in charge of students coming abroad. A good meeting where we got a lot of practical information and information about our practice school and about our courses in the school. It looks like they know what they are doing and they are well-prepared.
One negative thing to mention is that my practice school, as well as Sami's, is 20 minutes with train from Zürich Trainstation. So we need to spend about 1 hour to get to our practice school. But they couldn't find anything better.

Our semester starts the 21st of February and from Monday we are starting with two weeks of practice placement and German beginner course Tuesday and Friday Afternoon every weak. When the semester starts we will do practice in the same schools on time per weak. I had a contact with my practice teacher and another teacher from the school and they sound very nice, so i'm looking forward meeting them and the pupils! It's going to be a big challenge as it's a 3rd grade class and i don't their level is high. But it is excisting!

All from me by now.


Alen Mandzo