Dissemination and Teacher Training: England

A full staff of almost 60 teachers, assistants, support staff and administrators met for 3 hours on Monday May 7th, to learn from 12 teachers who had been in England a couple of weeks earlier.

The travellers were full of impressions, and presented pictures, facts, ideas and observations of similarities and differences to the  rest of the staff. They also introduced the DVD "Track a child" and the Goody Bag from Bowes.

Later on we started planning the activity week "A taste of England",which the travellers had drafted when on tour. Everyone took their responsability seriously, and due to plans, the children can look forward to the upcoming week.Our pupils will for sure learn much about England in a fun way!

Staff benefits form this by widening their horizons, getting inspiration and through trigging their creativity! Also, working across classes, we get to know eachother better. Looking forward!

Teacher training

What has changed in our schools since we entered Comenius?
We have tried out many things and ideas from the schools we have visited.Some good ideas have been implemented in our teaching, and will be a part of our teaching in the future.

One good example is storytelling:  From Wales we had good ideas on how to work with language through storytelling. ADS inWales inspired us by working with Pie Corbetts ideas.  Link to Pie Corbetts' work. This is what we saw in ADS:

Our teachers found these ideas very helpful in teaching English to young children.
Here are some examples from Inger Lises' work with "Little Red Rinding Hood" in grde 3, (8-year old students.)

Of course, the pupils became experts in telling this story in English!And hey enjoyed very much working this way. Thank you Wales from all of us.

Daniels travel report: England April 2012.

Travel report
Svalbardsskoli  “ England and back,21.4. -28.4.2012.
I write this Travel report from the beginning of our trip to the end and from my point of view.
April 21st. We left Svalbard early in the morning and drove to Akureyri where we had a stop for lunch. We met Elfa´s daughter there and had nice chat over good lunch. Then we drove to Keflavik where we spent the night with relatives. The trip took about 10 hours so we were tired. It was interesting to see how we faced the spring more and more when we got further south. We left Svalbardsskoli in snow and no green colour and gradually entered into the summer when getting closer to Keflavik.

April 22dn. After long day we had a good sleep but had to wake up early as our flight to Glasgow was at 7:35.Flight was fine and as we landed in Glasgow we could feel the summer there. We took bus to city centre where we had to wait for a while for the train to Darlington. On the way we could see the wonderful landscape in Scotland and England where everything is green. In the afternoon we came to Darlington, nice town. Taxi drove us to Homelands, where we stayed the next 5 nights. This place is an excellent place for staying, nice people and everything done for the customers. When we came they welcomed us with a glass of cherry and that is what they did always when we came home. In the evening Sue picked us up for a nice meal at a local pub. There we had nice evening.

Myndir 241, 239, 237, 235.
April 23rd.After perfect breakfast Sue came and picked us up and drove us to a small school in the countryside, similar to our school, Forest in Teesdale School with 18 students. There we spent the whole day among staff and students in 120 years old building. There are many things that are similar to our Svalbardsskoli, all students come from farms and most of the students interests are about farming. It surprised us how small the building is and the garden around. There are not many possibilities of various way of teaching. Students seemed happy and smiling, very polite. We could feel how welcome we were there and we had a wonderful day. The head teacher took us for sightseeing tour where we saw the highest waterfall in England, High Froce. Sue picked us up after a nice day and drove us home where coffee and cherry waited us. In the evening we went to the Old Well for dinner. There we met all the other participants, all the good friends we have got the last two years. It was like meeting our family.

April 24th. Breakfast, as usual, good. We met other participants and went to the bus to Bowes School where we spent the day. We had a warm welcome there by students and staff. We went around the school and their garden. The school does not have much space so it was a good lesson for us to see how it is possible to use the buildings as well as possible. All is so neaty and clean there and well organized. Students seem to be happy and good atmosphere among staff and students. I got good feeling by entering this school, all relaxed and the staff seem to be doing good job. After being brought back home and coffee and cherry we went to look around, try to leave some money there. In the evening we had dinner at The George and Dragon. Good meal after a good day.

April 25th. After suggestion from Magda we had fish for breakfast, not the taste we like. The rest was good. We were picked up for tour to Wingate Nursery. That is an interesting institution, we could feel the warmness and respect for all at the first sight. After a short introduction from the head teacher we looked around. It surprised us how much of all kind things they have and use it in different way. Beside the nursery they run institution for parents and educators were people can get lectures about interesting issues in education. Also they provide teaching lessons for parents. This institution seems to be famous in the country as they get many visitors every year. We could see the work there, it seemed that the kids did not notice that there were many people around, it did not disturb them. I think it would be good for all educators to visit this place and get lot of good ideas. After the visit we went back home and had free afternoon for shopping and some work. In the evening we were taken to fine restaurant, Shoulder of Mutton. Most people had funny dresses on and all had lot of fun.

April 26th. After a normal breakfast we drove to York where we stayed most of the day walking around, shopping and enjoying the historical city. Good day except the rain. Late afternoon we went to the Black Sheep Brewer were we took a tour around it and after that we had a meal served in Bistro. It was an interesting visit. The Polish team had left and there was a time for others to say goodbye. Here was an end of good days with good friends. All was well organized except the weather, there was to much rain.

April 27th.We wake up early to go to Darlington where we took the train to Manchester Airport. There we had to wait for a while for out plane. After good flight we landed in Keflavik and drove to Reykjavik where we stayed over the night.

April 28th. Woke up early for 10 hours drive back home to Svalbard. We had short stop in Akureyri for shopping. It was nice to see how colours had changed the days we stayed abroad, most had become green until we came to Svalbard, there all was covered in snow.

These days were good, met good friends, learned a lot and saw new places. Most important of all this was an excellent educational tour which was well organized. Lot of thanks to England.

Daniel from Iceland