sightseeing in stockholm

As I alluded to in my last post, I did finally have the opportunity to do some sightseeing in Stockholm!  Last weekend, Julia (another science teacher) and I made our way by bus across the country to explore the capital city.  You can find pictures of our adventures on Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/100364241331133834764/Stockholm#.

We arrived on Friday evening, staying the night at Långholmen, a jailhouse turned hostel. Our adventures began the following day as we wandered over to Gamla Stan, the old part of Stockholm.  This section of town houses many narrow, winding alleyways and quaint shops.  We arrived well before many of the shops had opened, so we had the streets to ourselves. 

After getting our fill of Gamla Stan, we moved on to Skansen, a 75 acre open-air museum that contains buildings dating back to the 19^th century.  While there, we enjoyed visiting a number of places like the bakery, printshop, general store, hardware store, schoolhouse and zoo. 

The Vasa Museum was next up.  The Vasa was a ship that sailed for a total of 25 minutes before a strong wind tipped her over.  Three hundred years after its sinking, an amateur archaeologist discovered it in Stockholm’s harbor.  It was surprisingly well-preserved because the cold water and lack of worms.  The statistics varied in the museum, but the ship is made of somewhere between 95 to 98% original wood.  It really was an impressive sight, but I found the story behind the ship to be a little silly.  What an engineering disaster!

After the Vasa Museum, Julia and I headed over the Swedish Palace where the king lives.  Upon arriving at the palace, we both had a bit of a laugh because we walked right past it earlier that day.  The building looks similar to many others in Stockholm, aside from the guards standing around it.  As the palace is situated on the edge of Gamla Stan, Julia and I returned to the old town to find a nice café. 

The following day, we continued our adventures in Stockholm at the Nordic Museum.  In the museum, we enjoyed seeing a variety of displays about Swedish textile, Swedish housing, Swedish apples, Swedish weaving, and Swedish traditions.  (Perhaps the museum needs to be called the Swedish Museum, rather than the Nordic Museum?) 

Upon leaving the museum, Julia and I serendipitously came across the royal marching band.  We followed the parade back to the palace before finding our way back to central station.  All in all, it was a really lovely weekend and I appreciated having the opportunity to familiarize myself with Swedish culture a little more.  The weekend also provided a welcomed break from schoolwork. 

The sun is now shining here in Borås.  As this is becoming a rare occurrence here, I will end this post now so I can go out to soak up some rays.  Hope you all are enjoying your autumn weekends! 

lessons in language

This weekend, I am writing to you from a hostel in Stockholm.  My friend, Julia, and I decided to go on a quick trip out to the capital city to take in some Swedish culture and get a break from school.  Because of our limited time in Stockholm, I will refrain from describing our adventures in much detail now.  You will have to stay tuned for stories and pictures until next weekend.  

Gamla Stan in Stockholm.

To compensate for such a short post, here is one cute story from this past week at school…

It was Thursday and I was teaching one of my sixth grade science classes.  About five minutes into class, I saw one student stealthily pass a note to another student.  Reflecting back on the lessons I learned during my teaching program at university, I thought it best to deal with the situation promptly.  I walked to the back of the room, and took the note from the student who was now vigorously erasing some text from the backside of the paper.  As I returned to the front of the room, I glanced down at the paper to see a word written in large capital letters which, I thought, was absolutely not appropriate for school.  I told the students I would talk after class with them, and continued with the lesson. 

This was the note that I intercepted between two students.

Fifty five minutes passed until the end of class came.  The note was written in Swedish, so I was at a slight disadvantage when it came to any disciplinary measures.  I decided it best to talk with each student individually before getting the note translated by another Swedish-speaking teacher.  When I talked with the students, they nervously explained that it was a story they wrote for Swedish class.  I asked about the note they had been erasing on the back, and they shifted from one foot to the other before deciding they did not know how best to translate the sentence into English.  I told each student I would talk to another teacher to translate the page before following up with them.

Anyways, long story short, when I asked another teacher to translate, she keeled over in laughter as she explained to me that “SLUT!” means “THE END!” in Swedish.  The text on the front was indeed a story the student had written for Swedish.  And the half-erased note on the back was a question about when we would start the sex ed unit in science.  Oh, dear.

the chemistry of purple glue

Purple glue?!  Purple glue?!  Ms. Marshall, why is the glue purple?!!

Oh, don’t worry, it will dry clear. 

What, the glue will dry clear?! It changes color?

This was a conversation my students and I had this past week.  As I passed out the glue sticks, exclamations of amazement filled the room as students one by one removed the caps from their glue sticks.

Purple glue! The glue is purple!  Why is it purple?!

At first, I was having trouble understanding why these glue sticks were creating such a commotion.  After all, they were just ordinary glue sticks—lovingly sent to me by my parents.  Several minutes passed before I realized why my students were so enthralled with the glue.  Sweden does not have Elmer’s glue.  These students have never seen purple glue before.  And they certainly have never seen purple glue that dries clear.  I share this story simply because it makes me smile.  It was hilarious to watch students get so excited about something which is so normal to me.  In many ways, this story epitomizes my experiences in Sweden so far.  Slowly, Sweden and I have been adjusting to each other’s normal.  Sometimes, I find myself overreacting to Sweden’s normal, and other times, Sweden is overreacting to my normal.  It is this adjustment which has made life interesting. 

Purple glue.  Pretty remarkable stuff.

While we are on the subject of interesting, I should probably let you know that we have indeed started the chemistry unit in science!  Let’s be real.  The human body unit was fun.  But, chemistry is SO MUCH BETTER.  Yes, I am a little biased because I was a chemistry major at university.  It also helps that I taught a very similar unit during my practicum back at home.  However, one of the main reasons I am enjoying these lessons is simply because the students are so unfamiliar with the content.  To start off the unit, I had students rotate between several stations which each had a small chemistry experiment—mixing Alka Seltzer with water, dripping iodine on starch, examining the curious properties of oobleck, etc.  When I asked how many students had ever used an eye dropper before, only a few raised their hands.  We then moved into discussions about matter, atoms and elements, and I asked students how many elements they thought existed.  They guessed 4, then 6, then 10, then 1000.  Afterwards, I showed them the periodic table and asked if students had ever seen it before.  Only three of my ninety students had.  So, needless to say, this unit has been pretty special because I am having the first opportunity to introduce students to these basic chemistry ideas.  What a privilege, huh?

Here is one of the stations students did--dripping
iodine on starch and baking soda.

While I could go on and on about chemistry, I should probably give you a quick update on math.  Students had their first math test this week.  One of my favorite quotes of the week came after the test.  While students waited for their peers to finish the test, I gave them a small packet that showed them how they could make curves by only drawing straight lines with a ruler.  At the end of class, one student came up to show me her packet.  She dryly remarked, “My mind is blown.  Just blown.”  She smiled and proceeded to walk out of the classroom.  I think that’s what math should be about.  I would love to make it a goal of mine to daily blow students’ minds.  That should be what math is about—exploring the perplexing world around us using the tools math provides. 

Drawing curves with straight lines.

To finish off the week, Julia (another science teacher) and I went out to explore Borås.  As the shops closed up, we wandered around town enjoying the dying bustle of the streets.   Below are a few photos from our night out.

There is artwork all over Borås.
Julia found these Scandinavian horses.

Here is the river that cuts through Borås.

There are several foot bridges to cross the river.

The bus station.

take out your gaffel or kniv

It is Sunday morning.  The skies are blue and temperatures are hovering around 7⁰C (45⁰F) outside.   As I sit here enjoying my cup of tea reflecting back on the week, I think the word that comes to mind first is calm.  This past week was one of the calmest I have had since moving to Sweden.  Life is starting to settle down.  It is not settling down in a boring way, but settling down in a manageable way.  I can now tell you which classes I am teaching on any given day without looking at my schedule.  I am now able to post homework assignments on the school website without much hassle.  I now know which route I should take if I need to get to the bus station.  And, I can now easily find milk, bread and chocolate at most grocery stores.  Life is settling down in a good way. 

My morning cup of a tea in none other than a Moomin mug.
It doesn't get much better.  Yup, I still miss Finland

Even while things become more routine, my Swedish experiences continue to be varied and pleasant.  Tuesday evening is a great example.  On Tuesday after school, a family who I met at church invited me over for dinner.  They live about 10 minutes away in a nice residential part of town.  As I biked up to their house, the mother opened the door and called out, “Jenny, we live over here!  Come on in.”  One of their daughters gave me a tour of their home, and then the whole family sat down for dinner in the back porch.  They are a family of five: mom, dad, two girls and one boy.  We enjoyed some delicious carrot pie for dinner, with ice cream and fruit for dessert.  After dinner, they showed me a photo book of their most recent trip to Africa and we sat around chatting.  All in all, it was a really lovely evening.  So nice to be able to spend time with a family.   

Life at school is continuing to go well.  My sixth graders had their first science test this week.  The students were giddy with nerves, and showered me with questions before the test.  Ms. Marshall, is it hard?  Ms. Marshall, what if I can’t spell a word?  Ms. Marshall, my dad is a doctor so he taught me extra organs—can I write about those on the test?  Ms. Marshall, I just lost a tooth—can I go to the nurse?  It was obvious that students wanted to impress me on this test as most papers I received where covered front and back with all the bits of information that students studied.  Some students even went out of their way to color-code the organs on the test with their markers. 

This is the work of a sixth grader who speaks English as a
second or third language.  Even more impressive is the fact
that most students' papers had this level of detail.   Wow.

Shortly after giving the test, the realization that I must now grade all the papers quickly set in.  While grading in general takes a lot of time, I am finding that grading when you are not accustomed to the grading system is even more of a challenge.  After an hour-long meeting with the academic coordinator on Friday afternoon, I think I am finally grasping the Swedish grading system.  On a test, students do not earn points; instead, their work is assessed with a rubric.  On each section of the test, students can earn an A, C, E, or F.  The final grade for the test is not an average of all the grades that students got on the test, but rather there are benchmarks at A, C and E.  Basically, students must get all E’s or above to get an E, all C’s or above to get a C, or all A’s to get an A.  So, for example, if a student gets A’s on four sections of the test and an E on one section, then they get a D overall.  Or, if a student gets A’s on four sections of the test and a C on one section, then they get a B overall.  Or, if a student gets A’s on four sections of the test and an F on one section, then they get an F overall.  I still have not heard the rationale behind such a system, but would be very curious to know why the Swedes developed this grading scheme. 

Here is a diagram explaining the Swedish grading system.

Students will be taking a test next week in math, so we spent some time reviewing for the test this past week.  While reviewing, the students took it upon themselves to teach me a bit more Swedish.  While most of the words they have taught me are correct, on Friday (under the direction of another teacher) the students decided to have a bit of fun.  They taught me that a “gaffel” is a pen, a “kniv” is a pencil, and a “hjälm” is a piece of paper.  As I used these words during class, students smiled and giggled so I suspected that either my pronunciation was way off or something else was up.  Later, the teacher who put the class up to these shenanigans informed me that gaffel is a fork, kniv is a knife and hjälm is a helmet.  On Monday, I am planning to teach a lovely lesson with a fork, knife and helmet.  Stay tuned.

sprinkled with flavor

This past week was a week of pleasant surprises.  As I stepped outside at the start of the week, the air was crisp and cool.  While these temperatures do hint at the impending winter, I must admit I am quite a fan.  There is just something nice about bundling up in mittens and hat before going out to meet Lena on my way to school.

     

Upon arriving at school on Monday morning, I was again met with a pleasant surprise.  One of the other teachers had baked cupcakes to celebrate the PE teacher’s birthday.  While the cupcakes were delicious, it was what was on top of them which made them even more delightful.  As I took my first bite, I noticed that the sprinkles on top had a bit of flavor.  A little bit of strawberry.  Strawberry flavored sprinkles on chocolate cupcakes.  Yum.  Later in the day, I learned that most Swedish sprinkles have flavor.  Peppermint, caramel, chocolate, and other fruity delights.  I can’t say I have ever had flavored sprinkles before.  Brilliant.

Pleasant surprises continued throughout the week.  In science, we are wrapping up our first unit about organs, tissues and cells.  On Wednesday, one of my sixth graders raised his hand and made the observation that the word “intestines” has two of every letter.  Two i’s, two n’s, two t’s, two e’s, and two s’s.  I can’t say I have ever noticed that before.  Clever, huh?

In math, I am continuing to experiment with different ways of engaging students and assessing their learning.  This week, I introduced some fake whiteboards.  Every student got a white sheet of paper covered by a sheet protector.  Using the whiteboard markers that my parents shipped from the US, students were able to solve problems on the sheet protectors, show me their responses, and erase.  The students applauded at this idea, and in return, have started to teach me a few words in Swedish.  No, you may not use a miniräknare (calculator) for this problem.

My week finished off with a lovely dinner at a fellow math teacher’s house. She and her family live in a small, cream-colored house that is perched on a hill overlooking a lake just outside of town.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we enjoyed parmesan chicken and noodles outside on her deck.   As if on cue, the sun started to set when dessert was brought out.  Bright pinks and oranges lit up the sky as the raspberry chocolate cream cake disappeared from my plate.  The evening culminated with the arrival of the second full moon of the month.  Honestly, I can’t really imagine a better end to the week.  It surely was a week of pleasant surprises.

Julia, one of the other science teachers,
and I enjoyed the views from the deck.

I felt like I was on vacation.

I love sunsets.