Gelukkig Saint Patrick's Day iedereen!
This
week involved the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day which was an eventful
weekend to say the least. As the saying goes, ‘There are only two kinds of
people in the world, The Irish and those who wish they were.’ This was definitely
the case in Belgium this weekend! Out of 80 students from all different
nationalities, we were the only Irish, but that didn’t stop everyone painting their
faces and joining in on the celebrations. Dressed in our green Adam, Stewart and
I attended a party in Venlo, Holland on Saturday night with the Rugby team
which was an experience – they had dyed the beer green! Then also we celebrated
with our Erasmus students in Belgium on Sunday night even though we had an exam
the day after St. Patrick’s Day at 8.30am.
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| Claudia, Holly and I. |
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| Me and the Spanish Girls. |
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| Celebrating with the Greek, Spanish, Turkish, German and Malaysian. |
Thankfully
following our exam the rest of this week we can take it easy. We were finishing up some of our modules for university, which was sad as our ‘Technieks’ module was coming to an end. We followed
this module for 6 weeks where we manufactured practical and theoretical pieces
of work. Within this module the students are given a broad range of topics to
do for their project, such as: sewing, home-economics, ICT, recycling and
biochemistry.
Adam,
Stewart and I worked in a group together where we chose to do a renewable
materials project on the corporation ‘Apple’. This was a very different project
than we do in Stranmillis which we thoroughly enjoyed. We researched iPod
docking systems and explored the innovative ways of manufacturing speakers
using recycled materials. For our practical piece we manufactured a steady hand
game using old materials we had found: off
cuttings of wood, yogurt pots, a newspaper (The Irish Sun) and old insulated copper
wire.
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| Our Materials we used. |
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| Our Steady Hand Game made from recyled materials. |
This
assignment is economically friendly which can be used within schools for the
pupils to make. CNW Group Ltd (2009), "Recycling one aluminium can saves
enough energy to run your TV for three hours."
If
recycling is highlighted as part of the schools ethos it would help students
develop a more positive and responsible behaviour pattern towards the environment,
which is vital in our every growing society. Our project would do exactly this
which our lecturer Ann noticed, she was very enthusiastic and took a
copy our work to teach to other students.
The
rest of the week for us was free of classes so we have a chance to work on our
individual assignments for our modules and prepare for our school based work.
While
preparing for my school placement personally it shocked me at how the Belgium
education system does not have a particular curriculum for every school to
follow and this is decided by the school and the individual teachers. Being given
a broad topic in Belgium and told to teach the pupils about this it is so much
different to teaching in a school in Northern Ireland. As teachers in Northern
Ireland, all schools follow a National Curriculum meaning that everyone is singing from the one song sheet.
Department
for Education (2011), ‘Education both influences and reflects the values of our
society, and the kind of society we want to be. It is therefore important to
recognise a set of common aims, values and purposes that underpin the
curriculum and the work of schools.’
The
Department for Education highlight here that pupils’ have to be taught
particular values, aims and acts of society which can be portrayed in a set
curriculum taught to all. Personally I favour our structured education as it
ensures all pupils’ are being taught the same topics regardless of what the
individual teacher or school favours. This results in our pupils’ having a broad
and balanced education experience.
Reference list
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