Week 7 in Copenhagen

Personal Development

I honestly can’t believe that it is time for another entry in the blog, the weeks here are going so fast, it is difficult to believe. The weather has definitely changed and Spring is fast approaching, for the first time in Denmark I left the house without being armed with hats, gloves, scarves and managed not to freeze. The snow was great while it was here, however it is great to feel the heat of the sun- it has been so amazing going out for walks while the sun is out and enjoying exploring a little more of Copenhagen each day. I really want to get a bike soon- everyone here travels by bike, so I am going to investigate renting a bike over the Easter break.

The weather must be affecting the transport system because on a number of occasions this week, I have experienced delays with the metro and trains. On Tuesday, I got stuck inside the metro at the one stop for about twenty minutes, there were so many people inside and it is not an experience I would like to happen again. It has been so surprising as normally the transport is so efficient here. It is funny how impatient you can become when transport is so efficient normally, sometimes I get generally annoyed if I miss the metro and have to wait three minutes for the next one, ridiculous really when you consider Northern Ireland, where you have to wait an hour for the next train!

It has also been great getting to know people in our class a lot better, and I can definitely say that we have all become rather friendly over the period of our stay. On Thursday afternoon I was invited, with Katie to our Austrian friends’ flat to work on our project presentation for Multi-cultural classroom, they prepared a lovely lunch for us and it was great to get to know them a little better – and get some work completed too! I also had a fantastic meal with Claire, Karim and Katie on Thursday evening, we had a great conversation exchanging French and Northern Irish music. It was also excellent for picking up some French cuisine recipes from Claire!


Cultural Development



On Wednesday, I was off class and I decided to investigate Malmö in Sweden. I took the bus along with some of the other Erasmus students from the town hall in Copenhagen and we arrived in Sweden in less than an hour. It was amazing passing over the bridge, which I had been told so much about. We spent the afternoon exploring the town as much as we could, as the last bus home returned at 6 o’clock. While we were in the town we were stopped by a photographer who asked us if we minded being in a couple of photos for a Swedish soap powder add. Random I know! We agreed, and spent about thirty minutes posing for endless photographs. The photographer has told us that the add campaign will include our photo and be on the bus stops over Sweden, six hours in Sweden and I was already famous! I really enjoyed my time in Malmö, we enjoyed a great lunch and some coffee, it was really relaxing to get out of the busyness of Copenhagen and experience a new country for the day. The town had so much character and there were so many shops and restaurants to explore- my favourite was Malmö’s Chocolate shop, which had a huge variety of quality chocolate! I am now however, left with a variation of Swedish and Danish Kroner in my wallet – I think it may take me the majority of the weekend to figure out which is which! I found the atmosphere and culture in Sweden to be very similar to that of Denmark and would love to explore a little more of Sweden during the Easter break.








The major cultural activity of the week included a classical and Cuban concert at Copenhagen’s new concert house- ‘K3NC2RT HUS4T’. The concert included the DR UngdomsEnsemblet (a string orchestra) and guest orchestra- Cubita (a lively Cuban orchestra). We went to the event with a number of our class and it was an excellent evening. It was very relaxing and the musicians were so talented. The building was so impressive and included a number of studios – the particular studio that our concert was in had a number of famous musicians drawn on the walls- one included a little of Northern Ireland, with a print of Van Morrison.






The building itself was so modern and the design was fascinating, definitely recommend a visit. I hope to attend another concert during April to add to my musical cultural experiences! It is obviously a very Danish evening event to attend these small concerts – as the people looked so relaxed and comfortable in this settling. It was surprising to me how the concert was laid out, there were tables in the concert hall all lit up with candles and food and drinks were available at the back of the studio- very different to the lay out in Belfast.






Professional Development.

This week at University there has been a lot of private study and group work activity. This had been in order to prepare for presentations for a number of modules during next week. We also found out about our practice schools for after Easter, so we will be contacting the schools at the beginning of the week to find out about our classes etc. I am really looking forward to getting into the classroom and getting to start teaching.

On Monday, we prepared for our Multi-Cultural Classroom assessment presentation. We have been asked to work on a tender for a multi-cultural school. We have had to make decisions on the policies and ethos of the school, as well as the core teaching principles. We have also included a design for a classroom and an advertisement for proposed staff. Our group made a number of references to the theory behind the multi-cultural classroom which we have discussed during the course such as the Banks Model. The idea behind this approach of assessment has been taken from the idea of Storyline Method. This is often used within classrooms to involve pupils in the learning process through visualization. There is a strong focus on key questioning through different scenarios.

The rest of the week, I spent time on the write up for the Wiki page from the information that we learnt at the Karen Blixen museum. We also had to spend some time recording the podcast for the Wiki page. We used the space on the podcast to create a dialogue between an interviewer and Karen Blixen. We arranged the podcast as if it were a class of pupils who had been asked to complete this task. Really hoping that both of these presentations go well- they are on Monday and Tuesday, so will let you know how they go!

On Tuesday, I went again to the course at University of Copenhagen for Comparative Education. This week we considered the American Education system. We looked specifically at the States’ Campaigns to reduce the amount of High school ‘drop outs’. It was interesting to note that the Danish people in the class found it difficult to comprehend the high cost of education – in comparison to the free higher education in Denmark and also the considerable monthly payment.

Finally, for this week we had another Comparative Education class at Blaagaard- we spent the time planning for our project assignment and had an available slot to discuss our ideas with our tutor. We then had time discussing what is expected of us during our School Based Work period.

Well I think that is about all for this week. It is raining today, luckily I am going to be inside to watch the Six Nations- Come on Ireland!

Speak soon!

Hope everyone is well. G.

Week Six in Copenhagen

Personal Development.

Week six, hard to believe! I am finding it very strange that I only have two weeks left of class before Easter and following the weeks’ holiday I am straight into teaching practice (needless to say- I still have a month of research in May, but some of the Erasmus students are leaving after only 3 months, so will we probably not see much of them over teaching practice). I am still really enjoying my time here, the city is not ceasing to amaze me and I love exploring all the little streets and cafes, as I am writing this I am sitting in a little café in the central Copenhagen, which is underground – there is a huge fire blazing and the tables are all lit up by tealights. It is amazing listening to the wide variety of accents – Copenhagen is a very cosmopolitan city and you meet a lot of interesting people and the coffee is amazing (and cheaper here too!). I also love the city because there is a wide variety of live music in the city centre, one of my favourites is a band which plays almost everyday in the centre of town. It is amazing to see the signs of Spring arising, the city looks so great when all the white melts and reveals it’s hidden character. Last Sunday evening, we took a walk down to the harbour by the canal, It was so great to see the water as it has been frozen for so long!

I found Monday a difficult day this week, it was a fully intense day of class after class- all of which were very interesting, however it was a long day! I wanted to get some of my portfolio finished this week too, so I decided to stay late at the library- It wasn’t until I got home, that I realized that I had been at uni from 8.45am until 7.00pm that evening- it was a great feeling to get the work completed early in the week though. I really like the format of portfolio assessment, I think that it should be used more often, it allows you to formalise your thoughts from the weeks’ classes and to present it in a clear and coherent manner.

The cooking has also been going well, one of this weeks’ delights included baby boiled potatoes with Danish meatballs- Frikadeller (they are fast becoming my favourite Danish dish) accompanied by a mixed salad and sweet chilli dressing- impressed or what!? This comes from the guy who would rather order from the take away than cook! I even managed to make a chocolate brownie cake too- I reckon I will make someone a great husband one day, even if I do say so myself!

It has also been very nice having the feeling of being part of the community, especially in the little district where we live. The people in the local shops are starting to recognise us and chat to us more now- which is great, especially when we are practicing our Danish. It is funny how quickly people recognise that you have come to their shop or café on more than one occasion- the people here are so friendly and I feel very settled living here.

After last weeks’ class at the Copenhagen University, our lecturer asked if I wanted to join the module at that course also, just as a matter of interest and not as part of assessment and as I am off on Tuesday’s I decided to take the class. The class focuses on a variety of comparative education situations – in a wide variety of countries. The module has had two benefits, Firstly, I am learning more on top of my course and secondly, it has been great to meet other people from a different university, especially as the class is mostly made up of Danish students unlike the teacher’s college, where the class is all international students.

Cultural development



In terms of Cultural experiences this was the excursion I was most excited about. On Thursday morning, I took the train out of the city, to Rungsted- the home of the famous Danish writer and artist, Karen Blixen.

I am very much a fan of her writing and the incredible story of her life. Karen was born into a wealthy Danish family and was educated in Copenhagen- she later married and moved out to run a coffee farm in Kenya, Africa. This was no easy task and she faced many unstable times, as well as divorce and ill-health. Whilst in Africa, and later on her return to Denmark she wrote many books - most notably ‘Out of Africa’ – which has also been made into a famous movie.

‘ I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.’
Blixen, K. (1939,p.13)



I am most interested in the life of the writer, because I have spent some time in the region in Kenya where she lived, and have visited the town – ‘Karen’ which is named after her. It is amazing to note the connection between a place in Africa that I love and Denmark, the place I am studying at the minute.

The reason for the visit was to gather material and non-material culture for another project that we have to complete in relation to our visual culture module. I am very much looking forward to gathering and presenting the information with our group to compete the Wiki space later in the week.

This week I also visited Christiana- the free state in Copenhagen. It is an area of the city which is not part of the EU. The community is made up of ‘hippies’ who live independently of the rest of Copenhagen – they have their own shops, bars, cafes and produce a range of specialist trades/products, including wood burning stoves, the famous Christiana bicycle and a huge selection of crafts. Unfortunately, it is not permitted to take photographs in the area- so you will have to visit for yourself to understand the unfamiliar set-up. I found it interesting to note, and slightly comical that on leaving the area, there is a huge sign stating- ‘Welcome to the EU’!


Professional Development

As I stated earlier, this week at university was incredibly busy. On Monday, we started off the morning session with Multi- Cultural Classroom – our task for this lesson was to produce a format for accessing a Multi- Cultural classroom – we then had to put this into practice whilst watching a video resource of a specific class. We had to take note of such provisions as additional language classes, visual displays, community involvement, staff support among other essentials for a successful multi-cultural classroom.

Later that afternoon, we looked at the set-up of the Danish – Folkeskole – we observed such elements as the origins of basic schools and we looked closely at the concept of project examinations which are used within Grade 9 and 10 for assessment purposes.

On Tuesday, I had the additional module at Copenhagen University. The class considered the positive and negative traits of the relationship between education and a countries’ development. We had to work in groups and feedback through a debate. We also started to look at the United States education system, which I am very much looking forward to studying in depth during next weeks’ class.

On Tuesday evening we were asked to attend one of the college’s English classes- the class had been studying the Northern Irish film, “Mickeybo and Me’. The film considers the struggle between childhood innocence and the cultural and religious segregation of The Troubles. We presented a short presentation in relation to the context of Northern Ireland and then watched the film together- afterwards the other students asked us our view of the film and then asked questions about our own experiences of The Troubles. It was really interesting to note some of the comments and questions – the international class also attended the class, so there was a diverse range of viewpoints present. It is obviously a very difficult topic to discuss, however it was great that the four of us were present as we were able to add and comment on our own experiences.

At the start of the session I asked the students to discuss in pairs and write on a post-it-note the first thing that comes to mind when hearing about Northern Ireland. We then took time to discuss the results and place them in positive or negative categories or images. I was very sure that the majority would be negative images, however a number of results focused on the positive.

Some of the comments included;

‘the forgotten part of Britain’ ‘beautiful landscapes’

‘green’ ‘Protestants/Catholics’ ‘music’ ‘polite people’

‘friendly’ ‘history conflicts’ ‘Bloody Sunday’


We took their findings and then discussed some of the key words in relation to the situation in Northern Ireland, we looked at some of the consequences of The Troubles and then considered peace and reconciliation work in the community and in education.

Danish Class this week included some more conversation techniques, and even included some Danish music, which we had to sing in our mother tongue and then in Danish- this was really enjoyable and amusing. We also took time to look at some of the classes’ observations in the Danish language- every week we have to observe language and remember a key phrase or saying which we hear in the city and bring it back to class. I think the idea behind this technique is to make our language study relevant to everyday use- it is amazing how much we have learnt in such a short period of time.

Globalisation and Professional Change was extremely relevant to me personally as it focused on International exchange and teaching-, which I am very keen to take part in, in the future. The speaker gave us some excellent resources in relation to ‘How to go global in schools and learning environments for children and young people today.’ We looked specifically about how to allow pupils to create contacts through email exchanges with partner school across Europe and Asia. The programmes we were shown looked very effective, and I would most certainly consider using them in the future. Pupils can learn so much by exchanging culture with pupils of similar age, and in the globalised world which we live, this is so accessible to organise.



Well think that is about it for this week, hope everyone is well, speak soon! G.

Week 5 in Copenhagen

You could say this week has passed like a blink of the eye… I cannot believe that another week has gone by and I am now into my second month in Copenhagen. There have been so many days full of activity that one day leads to another before you can even get a chance to fully rest! This weekend, I had a really enjoyable day exploring a little more of Copenhagen. On Saturday, I went to a flea market on the outskirts of the city. The market was filled to the rims with many items ranging from ‘retro’ clothing items to antiques and alternative art. It was very interesting to explore and made me feel slightly cultured. That afternoon, Katie and I went into town and there were flocks of people walking down the road with ice cream, we couldn’t understand why, as the temperature of the city was freezing- even colder than a winters’ day on Whiterocks beach in December! However, as we walked a little further we saw a new ice cream parlour, which made their own waffle cones and unbelievably good ice cream, so we could not resist and got one too-something for free in Copenhagen is an opportunity not to be passed by! It was very relaxing walking through the small streets and getting to see the smaller businesses in the town and little cafes and bars, all very quaint and cosmopolitan. Later, we met with the others and watched the Six Nations and had something to eat in the Dubliner-Ireland won which was a great way to end another good day in Copenhagen.

I have also felt a lot happier exploring the city myself, I feel really comfortable moving around the city and everyday you discover something new. On Sunday, I had a great afternoon to myself in Frederiksberg (my favourite place!). I couldn’t wait to go for a walk in the park but unfortunately because the snow is melting fast it wasn’t a pleasant experience, due to the copious amounts of slush. I went to the vineyard in the afternoon and was able to chat with some Danish people who made me feel very welcome. I have also been practicing my Danish in town, although I had a bit of an incident in one coffee shop, I asked for ‘en lille kop’, the waitress arrived with a small empty glass, and I was wondering where my coffee was! I should have asked for ‘ en lille kop kaffe’, then she spoke to me in English and I felt very embarrassed, ah well, at least I am trying!

On Tuesday, I went to a class at the main university Campus in Copenhagen as they were discussing the set up of the British Education System and The Education Reform Act 1988. We were asked to share a little about the situation in Northern Ireland. It went well, however I was slightly nervous about speaking in front of such a large group of people. The class however, invited us out for lunch after to an amazing Turkish- all you can eat buffet. The class was attended mostly by Danish students, it was great to get to know a few more local students. It was so kind of them to take the time to get to know us, this is a general representation of how friendly the Danish people are- everyone is so kind, welcoming and helpful.

On Friday, after being in the library, I had a great afternoon enjoying the atmosphere in the city centre. There was a very talented, live acoustic band playing at the fountain in the middle of the city and they were excellent! They sang covers including Jason Mraz, Bob Marley among other favourites. The weather was so nice and the sun was shining and the smell of the roasted almonds, from the street markets was blazing through the air- all very relaxing! I am definitely starting to feel at home here and I think that the experience of Erasmus has already helped me to become a lot more independent and mature. It is amazing how quickly you can adapt to another culture and I am loving living in the beautiful city. The experience of studying with other International students has helped me to gain insights into a wide range of cultures and I am learning so much from my peers within my class. I think you can tell from this I am most certainly having a great time here. It has been great to keep in contact with people at home as I am missing my friends and family a lot… please keep emailing and texting!

Cultural development.

On Thursday of this week, I had a very enjoyable tour of a number of cultural areas within Copenhagen with my Religion Class. The tour was designed to give us a flavour of the events and topics we had been discussing within our previous classes, especially in relation to Christianity within Denmark and two key figures, Grundtvig and Kierkegaard. We firstly met with our tutor at the National Museum where we looked at the Bronze Age exhibition and the Viking exhibition followed by the area which explained about Christianity in Denmark and the Reformation, it brought many of the things we had been learning in class alive. We also went to the Grundtvig and Kierkegaard research centre in the heart of the city. In the afternoon, we visited a number of Lutheran Churches which were unbelievably beautiful and peaceful places. It was so interesting to compare Danishes church buildings to those of the churches at home. We also spent some time at the Danish Jewish Museum. The afternoon was concluded by a trip to the Black Diamond. The Black Diamond is the city’s library where both old and new architecture are combined to make the most breathtakingly beautiful building. We were so privileged to get a tour of the library and were taken to the top of the building to take in the view. The tour of the city helped me to get my bearings of the central area of Copenhagen, and it is an amazing feeling to suddenly realize that a city that you thought was enormous when first arriving, is starting to feel slightly smaller! It is very hard to sum up the beauty of this place so I think that giving you a taster of my large photograph selection will give you an idea of the cultural places I visited this week.

A selection of the religious furniture from the National Museum






Statues of Grundtvig and Kierkegaard




Underwater statue of the mermen in central Copenhagen



Lutheran Churches in the city centre – note the huge organ in Vor Frelsers Kirke- the picture doesn’t give justice to its size.








Inside the Black Diamond






General Central Copenhagen







Professional Development.

This week was again another extremely busy week at university. On Monday, we continued with our Multicultural Classroom looking specifically at the idea of cultural identity and the importance of the family. We considered the Rights of the Child and what a successful family looks like. Tuesday, as I mentioned we spent some time discussing The Education Reform Act 1988 in the University of Copenhagen specifically discussing our experience of the Eleven Plus process in Northern Ireland. I couldn’t get over the quality of the facilities at the university – have a look at the amazing classroom environment these students get to study in, I actually couldn’t believe this was a classroom.







Wednesday was a very full day, but really enjoyable, it is good to be in the college for a whole day as you really get to chat with the others and spend time with them. We had Danish early in the afternoon and we got to practice some of our language skills during a conversation task with Danish students, thankfully they understood what I was saying which was definitely a bonus! In the evening class of Globalization and Professional Change we were considering the topic of ‘Learning from each other in Education’ and also ‘How to Deal with Differences in Culture’. One of the highlights of this lesson was definitely an active learning activity to show how difficult it can be for others to join cultures and the affect of those already in the culture. We had to gather in a circle and we were given three foam balls. We had to throw the balls and establish a routine without communicating. Once the routine was established (which took a very long time) someone from another circle entered and they had to try fit in with the routine- a very difficult task, however most people established the routine after while. We then had to reflect on how the task made us feel and the difficulty posed for others entering the routine of another culture. I am also working on my portfolio for this module as every week we have to write an answer to each of the challenges, I am finding this task very beneficial and interesting.


Hope that everyone is doing well and has had a great week also, please keep sending me the emails and texts and thanks to those who have sent me treats, I love getting parcels in the post!

Take care, G.