40th WeeK

Tim Gully was the guest teacher. He is from England and he came with two English students. I have to say that this day was really stressful for me because I expected a lot about this class but the level of English language was really really high! I couldn’t understand everything and it was a little bit frustrating for me…in any case I liked a lot that class, it was so interesting and the teacher was very good! The topic was “Angels and demonds” and he was speaking about what is the way to work with the youth criminals. Which is the best age to punish the children? In every county is different.

Before the classes we had to read something about “James Bulger murder and his killers Thompson and Venables”, this text was really surprising for me because they only were ten years old, and I never heard anything about it, and it was not too many years ago.

This class made me reflects a lot about that issue. How we had to act against two murderers only ten years old? It’s the best way to put them in a centre until they come of age?  Exist any way that these children learn what is right and what is not…and the main question: WHY two ten years old children decided to kill a kid who only is two years old? Why in this way?

Well the rest of the week was dedicated to the group work. This week we started to write the project, the comparative study between the three countries: Denmark, France and Spain. 

39th WeEk

In this week we had classes only two days because of the group work. Marcus Breuer was the guest teacher who came on Monday and Tuesday. He was talking about Roma, a different culture and lifestyle. In the beginning I didn’t know the meaning of Roma, because I used to use another word to mention that kind of people, gypsies.

We were talking about the immigrant families in the schools in the different countries. The different measures enhancing between schools and immigrant families, in general education. It was surprising for me that Spain has the three measures as possible, because I don’t think that it is real, maybe exists the law but in the practice sometimes is not possible to apply it.

In these classes we also made a little project. We had to think and write some aims and activities about the Community Gardens and intercultural dialogue. With my group work we did a project, where the main aim was the cooperation between Roma children and “normal” children in the school trough take care for a garden. Our project was called “Multicolour garden”.

So as a conclusion I think that the inclusion of Roma children in the schools is something that all the countries have to improve a lot. That children need to feel that there are part of the school. In my point of view the most important thing to work is the relationship between the Roma families and the school, because I think that is too important that the parents understand the sense of going to school for their children.

About the rest of the week we were working in the project group. In my group we decided to spend these days to looking of information in our topic: teenage mothers.

38th WeeK

We started the project in groups! I’m going to work with Alexia, Dani, Mia and Bente.  At the beginning I was really interested to know something more about the young criminals and the way of working that field in other countries…but finally in my group we decided to do the project about the teenage mothers. I think is an interesting issue, the truth is that I didn’t think about that topic before, but when my group mates proposed that issue I agreed with them. I don’t know anything about teenage mothers so I think I gonna learn too much in that project! At least I hope so.

I think that the most difficult to do a group project is the beginning. It’s difficult to find a unique way to work, because everyone has their own way of working. The first days of meeting with the group work we were discussing about the “index” of the project, and our first aim was to search some information about our own countries. So at the moment I think we are in a good way…

Richard Lee Stevens came to the class to give us a lecture about the  social policy and social work practice in Europe.

As a social worker (social educator) when you are working with young people, the most important thing, for me, is that you should have to be real, because you are a professional with a knowledge to help the other, but also you are a person with your own problems. So for me the methods you use are not enough, the most important thing is to be real.

Another issue we were talking and I would like to say is that we’re going to work between two different worlds: on one hand the subjective world, as an informal way; and on the other hand the objective world, as a formal way. One of the basis of the social work is to communicate this two “worlds”. For example to work with young people is too important to consider the interests of young people, so this is part of the subjective world, but you as a social worker are in an objective “world”. For me these are the most relevant ideas I learned in that lectures.

37th WeeK in Kovenhavn

In this week we did a “student forum”, it means that we were in three small groups to work and discuss about two different texts. I think it’s a very good idea to be in a small groups because I think that it’s an opportunity for everybody, to participate in the discussions, and say whatever he/she want. I’m a shy person and it’s too difficult for me to talk or to participate in a big class, but in a small groups it’s very different, and for me it’s like a “free space” because I can say everything I want.

Well we was discussing a little bit in a groups of three about the first text related to the Social Work in Europe and then we were discussing about “the influence of national cultural traditions on pedagogy: classroom practice in England, France and Germany”. The first text make me think about the difficulties to find a unique way of understanding the social work, because there’re many different countries and each one have its own culture, traditions…and also each country have different needs, different problems to solve, so it’s difficult to find only one way of work.

On Friday morning came to the class the first guest teacher, Anne Mette Danielsen, who spoke about the rights of the children. I think that it’s very important for me, as a social educator to have a minimum idea of the rights that the children have, because I would like to work with that collective, so I think it was helpful for my education. 

36th WeeK in Kovenhavn

In that week the first day we were talking a little bit about the history of Denmark. It was an interesting class for me because I like to know something more about the country where I’m studying. I was really surprised when the teacher told us that Denmark is a “new” country, because “only” 20000 years ago it was only ice (the last iceberg).

In the same week we had the opportunity to visit two different Danish institutions. It was really good because I could see the way of working in a Nursery and in a Children’s Home.

Last year, during my practical placement in the University, I was working in a Children’s Home and it was a really good experience for me, both personal and professionally. So it was very nice to see, as I mentioned before, the way of working in a Danish Children’s Home, and I could compared it with my previous experienced in the same field.

The most surprising for me was the geographic situation of the house, because it was a very rich zone of Kovenhavn and that is not usual in my country. Moreover, the way of working of the pedagogues in the house is very similar than the work of the social educators in Catalunya.

My first week in Copenhagen!

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The first week in Copenhagen is passed and it was quite intense!

The first days were too difficult for me since I didn’t understand what the teachers and my classmates said... and it was a bit frustrating for me! Probably I’ll improve it time by time.

The first days of classes we were working about the educational system established in our own countries, and I realized that all are very different.

We also spoke about the prejudices, prejudgements and preunderstandings. Everyone have prejudices but we should be able to minimize them, because we can’t put everyone into the same box. For example, not all the Japanese people have to know everything about the computers!!!

“Intercultural meeting”

This concept was the protagonist in our multicultural class. I personally think that there are many ways of understanding this concept and everyone is respectable. In my point of view the “intercultural meeting” means that in some place, different cultures are interrelated with each other, it could be through the food, through the language… For example, the camp where we went last week was an intercultural meeting because we were living together for three days, and we are from different countries

My expectations of the international course

In that course I would like to know different methodologies of work in the different countries that are represented in the class. I think it’s really interesting to be in a multicultural classroom, and a good opportunity to learn about other cultures and lifestyles.