Danielle's May Sem Blog: Danielson Videregående Skole Visit (Day 7)

Today was another good day. I started the day out bright and early with some frøkost (breakfast), with my smørbrød (open-faced sandwich and coffee!) To get our day started we took a nice ten minute walk to the school we were going to be visiting. (The one thing, I enjoy most so far about Iceland and Norway, is that everything is so close to everybody, that you can walk from one end of the town to the other and have everything you need in a walking distance.) The school that we visited today was called Danielson Videregående Skole, which is a private Christian high-school for grades 8-13. Funny
coincidence was this school we were scheduled to visit, was actually my cousin Nil's school. He is currently the vice president, but has also been the president of the school. When our group ate with my
cousin's Nils explained alot about Danielson, and how not everybody at the school is of a Christian faith or religion. Danielson welcomes anybody who is willing to want to learn and enjoys learning. He mentioned that because it is a private school it does mean some tution, however because every child in Norway recieves free education the government will pay up to 85% of their tution, equaling out to around 1,000 a year. Which I thought was amazing! I was trying to compare Concordia to Danielson and they have a lot of similarities. Such as the classes that they have to take like religion and the atmosphere that Danielson has. When we visited Danielson, it was a suprise to where the location was, because it did not look like a school at all from the outside, it actually was in the middle of the downtown. When we walked in I was
astonished by the schools setting. The school had five floors, but the floor plan allowed the middle of the school to be open and in the middle a spiral staircase. Each floor was super open and had railings around the floors almost like a porch for each floor. It was so cool. When we entered the classroom of grade 1
(grade 8 in highschool), the classroom looked very similar to an American school, with desks and chairs
and a white board. We immediately were interacting with the classroom, and you could see how
multicultual Danielson was, almost as equvalient to Concordia. The students were learning about the
British government, and the classroom was run almost like an American school. Until the bell rang at 9:00, at this time the room fell completely quiet. This was because in highschool the students are required to take national tests, one in English, one in math, one in another language other than Norwegian and English, and one in Norwegian. Throughout their years the students can be assigned to a random test, and this day was math. So a little after 9:00, the kids were all on their laptops (something that was different than an American Highschool- they all had laptops rented for their highschool years) eager to find out who was going to take it. In the class we were in, 3 out of 20 were assigned to take it, they were pulling their hair from their heads, while the others were cheering that they didn't have to take the exam today. One student who had to take it told me how he was kind of glad he took it that day because he could get it out of the way. After we were in the classroom, we then were treated with a lunch in the staff lounge, however before we got there we were interupted by russ. Who are graduating students who were red overalls for 17 days before 17. may. During this period they pull pranks on everyone, they party, and celebrate that they are almost done with school. We came across Russ dumping water on their peers, and also tying a teacher to a pole with ducktape. When we finally got into the staff room, we were treated with Rømmegrøt, which is pourage, and it was delicious! Afterwords we went into an English classroom, and we were assigned to help the students with their assignments. I got to work with a young man and girl. The young man was paying attention very well, which was nice to see because half of the class was on facebook, which was frusterating to see. The atmosphere of the school, gave me some nerves because it made me fell at home, which led me to question teaching in the highschool. So maybe oneday? who knows. Overall the school visit was my favorite so far, because it was such a homey environment much like Concordia.
After we went on the school visit we went to the art museum which was interesting, and then we did some more shopping, and I found a nice present for my mom at the market!
Then for dinner, we ate some nummy fish and chips alongside the Bryggen. (Also anytime we ordered anything I used my Norwegian!)
Snipp Snapp Snute!