Today we visited de Catamaran, a community school in an urban area of Rotterdam. This school had recently just moved into a brand new facility. The space was beautiful and had everything you could imagine in a school. The kindergarteners had castle play-scapes in their classrooms. Every floor had two community computer centers at each end of the hallways. There were colorful and hands on activity in every classroom. Every class from 2nd to 8th grade had a smartboard. It was pretty unbelievable for a primary school. We met with the principal and had a really amazing chat about the community school atmosphere and system. The highlight of the visit was when we were joined by 6 students from Group 8. They had a conversation with us in English about what we liked to do, what they did in their free time, and what their plans were for the future. They asked us questions about college and the United States. It was so exciting to finally get a chance to speak with students about their school and education.
A few things I have noticed so far. (1) I blend in much better here than I did in Turkey, which is both cool and strange. I like not feeling like such a tourist and it is encouraging that I can fit in with life here more easily. The bad part is is that I can only imagine how confused I look when people try to speak Dutch to me. No one really even attempted that in Turkey. (2) The Dutch are very straightforward. We were running late to our school visit this morning because Rene was lost (yet again). When we walked in and introduced ourselves the first thing the Principal said to us was, "Well, you are not early." (3) I love the way the Dutch say Michigan - it sounds a lot like "Mitch - again" with a heavy T in the middle.
No comments:
Post a Comment