A Day in Stockholm

We managed to meet up minutes before our train left for Stockholm and 40 minutes later, there we were.  In Stockholm.  We went first to an English tour of the city hall.  In many European cities, the city hall is a beautiful building because it shows the strength and beauty of the city.  Stockholm’s is no exception.  We hadn’t visited it when we were there as a family, but it was great.  It was built in the 1920s to resemble an old building.  One hallway, in fact, has old wooden floors that were meant to be creaky.  The architect went and looked at the remains of the old 15^th century castle (it had burnt down) and pictures of it and built the city hall to resemble it, so that there would be two castles, one on each side of the water (though the new castle does not look like a castle).  The first room we went into is the Blue Hall.  It is the hall that they use for the Nobel Prize dinner for 1300 guests.  It was made with specially-made bricks, each brick weighing 7 kilos (over 15 pounds) and they had to be carried up the hill from the boat that brought them.  The floor is blue to resemble the water and it was supposed to be an open-ceilinged courtyard, but that is not practical in Sweden, so they had to put a ceiling in.   Then into many rooms including a small round one designed for a French tapestry with multiple panels.  Then the city council meeting chambers.  The desks are arranged in three rows in a semicircle.  The left-wing members are on the left side from the “people’s point of view” (instead of from the chairman’s point of view) and the right wing on the right side with the moderates in the middle.  The candidates of each that received the most votes are seated at the front.  The chairman originally had been situated on the floor in the center (symbolically not raised above everyone else), but no one could hear or see him, so they put a ledge above him to bounce his voice and put him on a raised platform so that they could see him (the council seats are all flat on the floor, not in raised steps).  There are galleries for both public and special guests.  The meetings are always open.  Many times the council members will bring their children because they all have other jobs and in between work and a city council meeting is the only time they get to see them.  The city council room has a vaulted ceiling that was originally meant to be flat, but the architect liked the look of the celing beams so they painted them.  He also thought that they looked like the bottom of a ship and back in Viking times, at night, the smaller ships might be brought on land and turned over for the leaders to meet underneath them (like the city council).  Then, reminiscent of the old Viking meeting halls where there were holes in the ceiling for the smoke to go out, they painted the flat parts of the ceiling between the beams with dark blue paint and stars to look like the night sky. One hall, designed for one long table the length of the hall (thus cutting off the need for a head table), had windows on one side that led out to the balcony above the Blue Hall).  The other side only looked onto another building so they decided to paint a mural on the wall of the wall view.  Prince Erik had volunteered his services to paint, so he got the job.  The Gold Hall was all done in mosaic, mostly gold (22 carat) tiles.  The craftsman told the architect it would take about 10 years and the architect said that it needed to be completed in one year for the grand opening.  So the architect went to the factory in Europe that was making the tiles and laid them out, then glued them in one meter sections, then rolled up each section.  He brought them back, then had a huge team put them all up, even eating and sleeping there to get it done.  One small problem was when the artist had forgotten about the marble benches on one end of the hall which caused the tiles to go up too high and cut off the head of the king.  Oooops.  (As a side note, that king was beheaded at a later date).  When they were making the stairs of the blue room, they were worried about women walking down them in high heels and people being nervous being watched as they walked down the stairs, so one of the team was a woman and put on high heels to walk down sample stairs of different dimensions to see which worked better.  And they put a star on the wall opposite the stairs for the people to look at so that they wouldn’t get nervous seeing people staring at them, but still allowing them to be seen and televised.  Great building!

Then, after fika, we split up into groups for walking and shopping in the Old Town (Gamla Stan) and in Stockholm before meeting at the performance hall by the Haymarket to go to lunch.  After lunch, we split up again to go to different museums.  I went to the Prince Eugene museum (yes, the same one that painted the mural).  After walking back to the tram, Karin (a Swedish host) and Carly (who was staying with Karin in Stockholm) and I got off at at a central tram stop and, after I assured them that I could find the train station all by myself if they would call Gunnar to tell him when to pick me up at the train station in Uppsala, I walked to the train station (only one or two miles away.  I had a ticket for the 4:14 train, but Gunnar had paid extra so that I could change the time because we weren’t sure what time we were heading back.  But (you knew there was a but), I found out at 5:00 when I went to change my ticket (which, by the way, was never asked for) that the time of the ticket needs to be changed prior to the time of the ticket (which the machine did not say).  So I needed to buy a new ticket!  Arrrrrgh. 

This is Lars and I with a tomte.

This is part of our group in the most narrow street in Stockholm. 

Oh, fika needs to be briefly explained.  It is a very important part of Swedish life.  Fika is a time to take a break and share time away from work and responsibilities with friends, family, colleagues, etc.  It is usually strong coffee (or tea) and pastry.  The only reason the Swedish are so fit is because they work all of those calories away by walking and exercising—sometimes multiple times a day.  Articles, books, and you tube videos can be found about fika.  Even children celebrate fika with milk, juice, or hot chocolate.  Fika is usually about every two hours (including after each meal).  

Tomorrow are more school visits and a meal that we Americans put on to thank our Swedish Hosts.  We all make a different dish.  I am bringing a green salad, so I will have time tomorrow to wash and cut the vegetables prior to the party.  Our planned activities will be charades of ABBA songs and Minnesota trivia.  (They weren’t my ideas!)      

       

The Preschool Bus

Today we went to Jällagymnasiet and the Preschool bus.   At Jällagymnasiet, we visited a special education classroom and received a tour of the “school” by a teacher and student (in his last year).  The student kept correcting his teacher’s English—he’s graduating this year.  The school is a running farm, complete with horses and cows.  They also have dogs, snakes, lizards, fish, hamsters, and lab mice as well as growing hay and grains.  They learn to care for animals, ride and care for horses, drive tractors, farm, and work in a laboratory.  The school has about 300 students, about 30 of them having special needs—again fairly high-functioning.  It is a high school with the same setup as I mentioned in a previous post.

In the afternoon we saw the Preschool bus.  They were running out of preschool space because the population is growing quickly and it was less expensive to rent and retrofit a few city buses each year than to build a new building.  The children get on the bus—it is fitted with car seats.  Then they drive less than 30 minutes to a “nature” area—lake, forest, etc.--and play outdoors.  They learn by playing in nature.  Many of them live in apartments (most people here live in apartments) and aren’t able to play outside often.  In the past, I’ve read many studies about the developmental benefits of children playing outside, so it is backed with research.  They also have some organized activities also outside.  They are outside come rain, shine, or snow.  Their warm lunch is packed on the bus before they go.  They have a kitchenette on the bus to prepare snack and lunch.  The bus has tables as well for students to eat at as well as color or do other activites on the way there.  The parents didn’t like it at first and didn’t want their children to go, but after they started, they loved it!  The children ate better, slept better and were happy. 

I am staying with a Swedish couple, Margareta and Gunnar and their dog, Trixie, and cat, Einar.  A few days ago, Gunnar took me to a well-known historical coffee shop and we had Semla.  It is a pastry with whipped cream and almond paste in the middle.  They are a traditional Swedish pastry made only before Easter.  One most often has one on Fat Tuesday (the day before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday). Very yummy, but very filling!  Thank goodness I had the small one:

It rained most of today and we didn’t bring our umbrellas with, so we were wet.  The school we visited this morning gave us a winter cap with the name of their school on it and a camping cup (a rubber cup that folds in half that is very popular here in Sweden) with their school name on it.

After dinner, we went to the city train station and Gunnar bought my train ticket to Stockholm for tomorrow, then we met some of the other people in our program at a local pub near the train station.   It was nice to just sit and talk about things other than education.  The crazy one in the photo is Alissa.  Tomorrow we take the train to Stockholm for a tour of the city.       

 

More on Education in Sweden

Wow-what a busy day!  We went to Johannesbäcksskolan (a school).  It is an elementary school.  We saw a special education classroom and the children all took turns speaking English to us and sang a song in English for us (The Lion Sleeps Tonight).  We learned about how they structure inclusion and it sounds great—I wish we could do that at Dowling.  The students are in grades 4, 5, 6, and paired with a 4^th grade class.  The two classes have a door connecting them and the inclusion times are determined by the two teachers.  They may come together, for example, for a lesson on Swedish history, but after the presentation, they divide back up for the activities or assignment based on that lesson.  They have secret friends with that class where they draw a chip with the other child’s name on it on Friday and are their “secret friend” for the next week.  They have to be extra nice to them, make sure they have someone to play with at recess and sit with at lunch, etc.  What a nice idea!  They also have English together, learning new words and singing English songs.  The inclusion is with one class so it is much more sane and can be carefully planned to be beneficial for both classes.

The students have an after-school program that is optional and the parents pay a small fee.  The students go from after school until their parents pick them up (usually by 5:00).  There is an actual curriculum with activities.  The special needs students have a class after-school as well.    

The younger students, grades 1-3 have a shorter day than the others:  8:15-1:00.  The 4^th and 5^th go until 3:00 and the 6^th graders until 3:30.  What a great idea for those younger kids.  The younger students have shorter specialist times during the day and the teacher has prep time after they leave in the afternoon.  They also have cooking (with a full home ec type of kitchen) and handicrafts.  We saw a 5^th grade class finishing making hot cross buns for the entire 5^th grade (for Easter) and a class making spiders out of angora wool balls.  We saw students in a wood shop cutting and sanding wood to make cars.  Two boys there gave us a tour.  We saw several younger classes working on math.  And Cynthia and I saw a great mobile made of shapes hung from a bicycle wheel on strings with the student’s name attached.  The shapes were made from papier mache and had clips attatched to the ends of the strings.  The wheel was hung from the ceiling in the classroom with  lightweight chains.  A newsletter or other paper to go home can be hung from it and it was very colorful, lighting up the hallway.  We had lunch there then fika in the teacher’s lounge and then Gunnar and I walked around Uppsala.  Most of us went shopping.

In the evening we had a presentation and dinner from the Education Office.  They explained the structure of Swedish governmental offices, the school entrepreneurship program, the school sustainability program, and the preschool bus.  I will wait until tomorrow to explain the preschool bus because we will be going on it.  Also observation at Gunnar’s school and another school nearby.  One of the Swedes, Peter, is planning a social outing tomorrow night for all of us—possibly bowling.   We didn’t even see Gunnar’s wife,  Margareta, today.   She left earlier and was in bed when we got home.  Have to wait until tomorrow night to get a picture of them to post.  Good night!

      

Happy Waffle Day!

Sunday was Waffle Day.  It is actually a day celebrating the conception of Christ, but the Swedish for the day sounded a lot like “waffle” so a lot of Swedish Americans celebrate it.  When Americans are visiting, the Swedes make an effort to have waffles on that day.  We had waffles with raspberry jam and whipped cream, which is the traditional topping.  It was good and the whipped cream made it taste very sweet.  Sunday was also the day we arrived with not having slept on the plane.  I went to my host’s house from the airport and slept for an hour and a half, then got up for a walking tour of Uppsala history followed by a potluck smorgasbörd.  The potluck was at the house of one of the teachers.  The people currently involved in the exchange were there as well as those from the past delegation this fall and some that are thinking of going next year.  It was great food and they sang to us after dinner.  It was fun seeing some of the teachers again that I met last fall and meeting new ones.  

Today (Monday) I went to Gunnar’s school in the morning and met the teachers at their staff meeting, then was introduced to the students (high school) at their morning meeting.  They had very few questions for me in front of the whole group, but a lot of them came up to me after the meeting to introduce themselves and tell me how much they love America (and Prince!)  and to ask me questions. Some of them were very funny and some were very sweet.  I got a chance to talk to several of them more than just introductions.  They were excited to try out their English.  They special needs students at this school are very high-functioning; some even take some regular education classes at the main high school without support.  In special education, the child is assessed one time in four areas and if their IQ is less than 70 they are place in special education.  They are not reassessed unless a teacher requests it.   That is supposed to be changing in the coming year.  The teacher meets with the parents three times per year and writes an educational plan—one page, very brief , with no timelines.    

After that, we went to another high school (the big school) that Gunnar’s school is a campus of and they talked about how educational decisions are made at the parliamentary level and explained their new national high school plan.  It is quite complex and they weren’t able to answer all of our questions about it.  Childen choose a career track when they enter the high school at 16. Some of the choices are college preparatory and the rest are vocational such as auto mechanics, carpentering/house building, and truck driving.  In the college prep there are even specialties such as dance, visual arts, performing arts, science, math, sports, etc.  They need a certain number of credits in  various areas to graduate and have until they are 21 to complete it, though it is considered to be a three-year program.  And the math class taken by an art student is different from that taken by an auto mechanics teacher.  It seems odd to be tracking children when they are 16 years old.  Those are the years in which they determine what they are interested in and discover who they are.  They are allowed to switch and many do.  The three-year high school program is not compulsory, but 98% of children start it because they do not have many choices otherwise for employment.

After lunch at the school, we returned to Gunnar’s school where we visitied some classes.  In music, Victor, a blind autistic boy, sang “Africa” by Toto and a song by Prince into the microphone while the teacher played electric guitar and another student played drums.  He was awesome! Many of these students were asked to be the house band for the bigger school production of “Footloose.” 

Tonight we went to a professional floorball game.  It is a lot like hockey, but no ice, different sticks, and the puck is similar to a wiffle ball.  There are 5 players on each team plus one goalie.  The goalie is padded and wears a helmet to protect them from the ball (and probably from stray sticks).  They are on their knees when they are defending their goal from an imminent attack.  The sticks are similar to a hockey stick, but the blade is perforated plastic with a slight curve to it.  The ball, though similar to a wiffle ball, is much thicker.  They get a two-minute removal from the game if they check someone with their stick and aren’t allowed to maul each other like in hockey.  The local team, Storvreta, won 4-1!  

More school visits tomorrow!    

         

Off to Sweden

Three weeks from tomorrow I fly to Sweden!  I've had two Swedish classes and have two left.  I can't speak Swedish, but will hopefully be able to say a sentence or two when we're done.  I am part of a teacher exchange between teachers in Minneapolis and Uppsala, Sweden.  We don't trade places like a traditional exchange.  This fall I hosted a teacher from Sweden.  He is also a special education teacher, though his students are older than mine and higher functioning.  He stayed with us for a week and visited various schools in Minneapolis.  I felt badly that we are a very boring family with busy children and didn't really take him out much.  One day I took him to the sculpture garden and another day we took him as a family to the Mill City Museum.  He went to the Science Museum with some other teachers from Sweden.  There were several of them staying with various teachers, principals, and school nurses.  We also scheduled a few evening meals for the delegation.  I will stay with Gunnar and his wife when I am there.  We will leave Saturday night, arriving middle of the day Sunday in Stockholm, then we take a train to Uppsala where our delegation will be met.  Our group contains our leader, a principal, two general ed teachers, me, our environmental ed teacher, an art teacher, and two community/adult ed teachers.  We will spend the week viewing schools and learn how they do it there, hopefully learning things that we can bring back to our own classrooms, or at least bring back a greater understanding and connections with other teachers.  It will be interesting to see how they structure special education there.   If they have classroom teachers, like me, or if they are primarily resource teachers.  So much to do before we go.  Additionally, we have a Swedish class tomorrow and next Wednesday and a fundraiser for the foundation that we need to be at on Monday.  Shelby also has a concert at the Cedar Cultural Center on Wednesday that I will go to after my class and Annie has district history day competition on the Saturday that I leave, so I'll miss the very end of that.