After school Max met my fellow teachers and I at Stora Torget for Fika to celebrate Simon's birthday! We had a wonderful discussion about the differences between our education systems.
After Fika Max and I caught the bus back to Folkungaskolan for the talent show. Many of my fourth and fifth grade students sang, danced, and played instruments. It was not like any Elementary School talent show. These students are extremely gifted in music. It was really fun to get a chance to show my students off to Max. They are so talented! We video taped all of the acts performed by my kids. This talent show was a very big deal for all of them but for one student in particular. She is one of the students I ride the bus with. This morning we had a long talk about how this talent show would be her first time singing a solo. She was so nervous! She wouldn't tell me the song because she wanted it to be a surprise. When she got on that stage she sang like an angel. As a matter of fact, she won 2nd place!!! I was so proud! From the time Max and I arrived to the time we left we were surrounded by a crowd of my students. They were so excited to finally meet Max and talk to us together!
After the talent show there was a disco for the kids! They begged Max and I to come so we decided to stay. This was by far the most fun I've ever had at a school dance! The kids were so excited to teach us all their dances. We all had a blast. One little girl who has been very shy in class stuck with us the whole time and talked our ears off in English! This was so wonderful! Many of these children are used to learning English the way we learn Spanish in Elementary School. They learn from a Swedish teacher and if they don't understand they can ask in Swedish. So many of them are nervous to speak to me (someone who speaks only English) because they don't even realize how fluent they are. But when I get these opportunities to spend time with them outside of class and ask them to teach me to dance or other fun things, they are able to realize just how easy and fun it is to speak English with me! After they realize this, they are so excited to talk to me about anything and everything! Very few teachers were at the dance (Sweden is much more laid back about chaperoning). This turned out to be a great thing because instead of talking to the teachers all night, we spent the whole time dancing and having fun with the kids. In my education courses we studied different ways to create authentic real world situations for students to apply the skills they learn. I think having fun with your English teacher and using English to teach her to dance is as real world as it gets! This is so much better than just reading out of a textbook because they are applying English the way they would in real life: to have conversations, not staged conversations, real conversations about how "dreamy" Justin Beiber is, how weird Lady Ga Ga's clothes are, and everything else kids love to talk about at a school disco. Had I not been there, they would've had a great time speaking Swedish with their friends, but instead they got to have just as much fun with each other and with me in English!
It was a fantastic way to end the week!
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