Week 2 has been really insightful and we have already learnt so much. Once we had gotten used to the cold temperature we were able to make observations on the infrastructure and physical environment of the school. A normal day at the school starts at 8.30am till 14.00pm for the senior grades and the end time for foundation phase learners is 13:15.
The learners and staff members have to take off their shoes and outside clothes and store them before school and after breaks. This process usually takes a long time which then takes away from the teacher’s teaching time.
Every Monday morning the teacher gives the learners their week plan and the learners prepare themselves for the work they have to do in that week . The grade 7 learners have ‘reading time’ every morning, and they write the activities for the day on the board to remind them what they are doing when. The grade 1 learners do their ‘morning ring’ just like we do in South Africa. Their morning ring includes the greeting, song of the week, the weather, the date, and questions based on the previous day or questions about their personal experiences. Break time or lunch time is usually at 10.30 till 11.30. Before going outside to play for break, the learners are allowed to eat inside for 15 minutes (IP) or 30 minutes (FP) and then go outside to play. After a weekend the FP phase gets split into groups and get their homework checked, they also receive their new homework for the week according to their group level of performance in the specific subject they have for homework. On Monday IP learners get 15 minutes to write about their weekend and they can share their experiences with their classmates.
Every grade has 2 classrooms allocated to them even though there is only one class of students. The classrooms are smaller than our classrooms in South Africa but they compensate by having more than one classroom as 2 activities can take okay at the same time with the same class especially in the grade 1 class. The environment is very learner friendly and the classrooms are technologically advanced. Every room has a heater, a sink and every corridor has a bathroom for the learners and teachers. Every teacher has a working office where they can keep their files and do their planning. There is a staffroom separate from the office, with a full kitchen and a boardroom where meetings can take place. For the learners, there is a library and a hall for gym and physical education classes to take place in. There is a play area for the learners outside or the school and it consists of a few sports areas such as a basketball court, football field and a play area with swings and slides. There are separate classrooms for an after-school program that the grade 1-grade 4 learners take part in. The teachers have multiple locker rooms for their shoes and coats. There are also multiple unisex bathrooms for the teachers. The building is not very big, and the school is an older school (second oldest in Tromso) therefore there are many stairs (four floors) that learners and teachers need to climb to get to and from each of their classrooms. Each learner has an iPad or laptop to work on when research projects are being conducted or when, in grade 1, tests of progression are conducted through an app on the iPads. All the stationery is given by the school meaning that all learners have access to stationary as it is shared among them. There is a smartboard in every class which allows the teacher to have access to the internet while teaching and to demonstrate hard concepts using an app or YouTube on the smart board. The entrances of the school are all secured by a code and not anyone can come in. This enforces safety for the school and resources of the school. The outside play area has tar on the ground for the learners to be able to write on the ground with chalk and make interesting games from their chalk drawings. The school also gives learners and staff the option to use a bicycle when coming to school as learners can park their bicycles outside of the school safely.
We have witnessed and observed a lot of tools and strategies that we can use in our schools back at home and have also observed the things that we, South Africa, have in common with the schools here in Tromsø. We cannot wait to bring these strategies back home with us!
– Nicole, Samkelisiwe, Rorisang and Dineo.
 |
 |